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| Goodwin coaches the athletes at Eastside High School. |
scrunners: When did you start to compete in running?
goodwin: The summer after fifth grade I began to run with the Wade Hampton Cross Country team as a way to get in shape for basketball. I was a bit chunky then, and my older brother and sister ran for Zeller. Of course, I could not compete as a sixth grader, but was allowed to tag along none-the-less.
scrunners: What gave you the idea to lead the Greenville Track Club Youth Team?
goodwin: Mickey McCauley (GTC President) approached me about the idea, and I took it. It combines two of my foremost interests- children and children's athletics, and running. There are many misconceptions about what it takes to be a successful runner down the road, and many parents do not realize that while allowing their children to be trained extensively in an anaerobic fashion, they are shortchanging their chances of success in the sport. Parents should read the research (Noakes is a good start) on children's running and athletics, and then look for programs where their children can do short, alactic sprint-type running, and long, slow aerobic jogging, avoiding the in-between, hard anaerobic intervals lasting 2-6 minutes. Lydiard anecdotally and empirically came across these concepts years ago, but now we have the evidence and research to back it up.
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scrunners: How many members are in the youth team and how many are going to the JO's?
goodwin: 19 are on the team and 10 are running at JO's.
scrunners: What events are your athletes running?
goodwin: Everything from the 1500m race walk to the long jump to the 100m to the 3000m.
scrunners: Do you have any plans for your running in the near or further future?
goodwin: Because if my abdominal/back injury, I am on hiatus from participating until I can run pain free again. I have recently turned to lifting weights to occupy my aggression.
scrunners: How many individual and team state championships did you win while at Wade Hampton?
goodwin: I led the last Wade Hampton team to not win a state title. We lost our number two/three guy with a few weeks to go (Travis Vaughn) to injury, and despite his running at state after several weeks of sitting and a pulled hip flexor, and finishing in 17th as our fifth guy (I believe), we tied Daniel with around 50 points and lost on a tie-breaker. It was and IS the worst day of my life. That was a phenomenal team in every aspect; heart, desire, passion, hard work. All I wanted and we wanted was to win that dang thing. Individually, I was runner-up three times (3200 meters junior year, cross country senior year, 1600 meters senior year) until I won the 3200 as a senior in my last race.
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goodwin: Obviously the coaching of Coach (Rick) Zeller influenced me in a big way. I used to challenge him as the hot-headed adolescent I was, and I think we both learned from that in the long run. Today we are very close and I have the utmost respect for him not only as a coach, but as a person. My dad was the biggest influence on me, though, as he really dug into the sport and helped me plan where I was going. He was a constant source of comfort when I didn't win (which happened quite a bit), and I began to learn from every loss. I think other parents could learn from his example as he was very involved and active, yet always in a supportive way. I honestly felt like my mother and he were as excited to watch me run as a seventh grader when I couldn't break 19:40 as they were when I ran 15:49 as a senior. Other influences of course include my older brother and sister, Arthur Lydiard, Jack Daniels, Peter Coe, and Tim Noakes. I am sure I left some out, but those are a few.
scrunners: What gave you the idea to run at Furman?
goodwin: I actually went to run for Coach Dave Rinker at Brevard College my freshman year. After some coaching changes (due to Rinker's departure for James Madison University), I decided I wanted to transfer, and Furman was a great fit. Coach Mullin and I had talked when I was in high school as it was one of my top three choices, and I really liked the atmosphere amongst the team members- very Wade Hampton-esque. I did what I had to do, prayed over my decision, and became a Paladin, one of the most rewarding decisions of my life.
scrunners: With your brother just graduating from Wade Hampton, how did you help him on his college search and do you two train together?
goodwin: Surprisingly, FJ and I do not train together. Like I said, I have spent the last year and a half injured, and he has spent the last year and a half getting faster and faster. We do have a "Goodwin Challenge" every once in awhile that burgeoned out of my telling him he would never beat me. Well, he never has beat me, but that's only because we haven't raced in a year and a half. He would destroy me in anything above a mile right now. Many people don't know that my older brother was a state champion in cross country, so I think it is gratifying for both of us to see our little brother to not only run as fast as us, but also to see him garner what neither of us could get: a team state championship. I'm FJ's biggest fan. I get all nauseous and dizzy when he gets to the line, then I realize that he's the one that has to feel like crap for 5k, not me, and I start feeling better. Seriously though, I just try and support and encourage his decisions and endeavors in life. Many people don't know that he's taken something ridiculous like 12 AP courses in high school- just because he's interested in stuff. I didn't acquire that zeal and level of mentality until I arrived at Furman, so he's light years ahead of me. He's just an impressive young guy, and it's exciting to just sit back and watch him achieve what he has with such calm, calculated precision. I am very excited about his choosing Furman, because of the caliber of professors and students he has chosen to surround himself with.
scrunners: What kind of workouts have you been doing with the youth team? How many days per week do you practice?
goodwin: We practice two days a week. As I mentioned, the literature is very clear on the fact that children pre-puberty lack the appropriate anaerobic enzymes for hard, anaerobic interval type training. While this type of intensive training can lead to the quickest adjustment in racing in many children, their highly sensitive nervous systems are fragile and cannot carry the load for very long. With that knowledge in hand, coaches and parents must take the attitude of long term development for their children. Too often you see in a high school program how a coach always has a promising young team that never amounts to what it should. Many times there are good reasons for this. But the sad state of running today is that the coaches are not mature enough to call the mistakes their own; instead it is always, 'so and so just won't run any faster, etc.' It's pitiful to see grown men have to protect their egos by pinning the blame on 15, 16 and 17 year olds. One of the most important things I learned from Zeller was his willingness to take the blame for our failures, even when we wanted to take it. He always felt he could have prepared us better. Even the other day as he accepted another coach of the year award, I heard him saying how next year we'll really get to see if he's any good, cause he's losing the guys that scored all the points for him this year. I think part of what sets him apart is that attitude; the willingness to give his athletes the glory, and take the blame himself. Back to my practice format; I teach form through drills and accelerations, then have a running workout that is either short and sprint type, or long and jogging. But never will you catch me putting a kid through an interval (2-6 minute-ish), yelling at him, or making him keep going when he wants to stop. Each practice closes with a game such as sharks and minnows or ultimate. With the age I am working with, it is imperative that the attitudes the children form about the sport are positive. Even with exercise in general we must create positive experiences for children- the reason for the Obesity Epidemic is NOT McDonalds or fast food- it's because we sit on our butts all day. Caloric intake has actually decreased over the last decade, yet 'fatness' has increased. The difference is exercise. Of course, now we've developed our newest fad diet to lose 'weight' without exercising- Atkins low carb. That's a whole other thing we could get into. But, in a nutshell, you create an environment in which muscle is burned off with fat, and weight will be lost from both. This system is silly if one has a working understanding of the role of carbohydrates in energy metabolism. In order for fat to burn, carbohydrates should be adequate. Low levels of carbohydrate being broken down means lower levels of pyruvate, which brings about lower levels of citric acid cycle intermediates malate and oxaloacetate, which in turn slows down the cycle, creating less fat catabolism. As confusing as that seems, it is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what a low carb diet entails. The real answer to our fatness lies in physical activity. When we begin to understand this (along with the fact that Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer in America and that health care cost because of this cost us billions as tax payers), we will begin to appreciate coaches who create a positive atmosphere for our children to have meaningfully positive experiences in.
scrunners: What did you study at Furman? When will you finish up school?
goodwin: As an undergraduate, I earned my degree in Exercise Science, within which I got involved heavily with the department to the degree of researching our own runners extensively in the lab. I got very interested in the role of blood lactate as it pertains to high level runners. So, I was running treadmill tests, taking blood, measuring VO2 Max, and all that other fun stuff you can do with runners that I find incredibly fascinating. It is amazing how by just measuring gas, you can ball park when a runner will 'give out' and have to stop. I graduated last spring and will complete my masters degree this summer (I stayed around to coach cross country at Furman with Coach Mullin and run my final year of track). In August, I will be reporting to Auburn University, where I have an assistantship to begin work on my PhD in Exercise Physiology. So in three to four years, I look to be teaching and coaching at the university level, and continuing to share what I know about the human body and it's response to exercise. I feel fortunate to be involved in exercise physiology and in the process of becoming an expert in the field as we move more and more into the age of exercise prescription to counteract our health problems.
goodwin: Thanks John for the interview, and for all you do to promote the sport, and I would be more than happy to field questions at coachgoodwin@hotmail.com if anyone would like me to clarify anything.