Championship Track & Field Coaches Clinic Speakers

Dr. Jack Daniels
Center for High Altitude Training
Dr. Daniels serves as the Head Distance Coach at the Center for High Altitude Training, which is a U.S. Olympic Training Site. Daniels is the former head track and cross-country coach at the State University of New York at Cortland, where his athletes won eight NCAA Division III National Championships, 31 individual national titles and 130 All-America awards. That led to Runner’s Magazine naming him the “World’s Best Coach.” He has trained or advised a variety of America’s finest runners, including Jim Ryun, a three-time Olympian and world record holder, Joan Benoit Samuelson, winner of the first women’s Olympic Marathon, and Ken Martin and Jerry Lawson, both sub-2:10 marathoners. He is the author of Daniels’ Running Formula, a 1998 book detailing his unique training philosophies.

Dr. Daniels’ topics will be:

Distance Coaching: The Foundations for Success
Middle Distance/Distance Aerobic Profiles, Types of Training and Seasonal Planning

Return to the 2007 Championship Track & Field Coaches Clinic

Dan Pfaff
Former University of Florida Assistant Coach
A respected authority on field event coaching around the world, Pfaff has tutored 29 NCAA individual national champions, as well as athletes who have combined to earn 154 NCAA All- America honors. In addition, he has guided 33 Olympians who went on to earn seven medals – including 1996 Olympic gold medalist and 100m world record holder Donovan Bailey. He has served as a coach on teams that have won 17 NCAA titles (15 women, two men) and has coached on three Olympic team staffs and seven World Championships staffs.

Coach Pfaff’s topics are:

Technical & Training Aspects of Sprinting with Power
More Makes and Fewer Misses: Perfecting High Jump Technique
200 and Up Sprinting: Training to Go Faster Longer

Return to the 2007 Championship Track & Field Coaches Clinic

Norbert Elliott
University of Tennessee Assistant Coach
Norbert Elliott enters his fourth season as assistant coach at Tennessee, heading the sprint, hurdles and horizontal jumps. His athletes have earned 19 All-America certificates, broken three school records, claimed seven SEC individual championships and won two NCAA individual titles. In 2006, Elliott coached Aries Merritt to one of the best seasons in Tennessee history. Merritt went undefeated in every 55, 60 and 110 hurdles race he finished - 18-0. Along the way he broke NCAA meet records in the 60 and 110 hurdles. A native of the Bahamas, Elliott served as coach of the Bahamas National Team at the 2001 world championships and 1996 Olympics. He has coached Olympic gold and silver medalists in the 4x100-meter relay.

Coach Elliott’s topics are:

Training and Techniques for the 300/400 Hurdles
Nuts and Bolts of Mastering the Low Hurdles
Drill Sequences for Teaching and Training the Long and Triple Jump

Return to the 2007 Championship Track & Field Coaches Clinic

Harlis Meaders
Florida St. University Associate Head Coach
Harlis Meaders enters his 13th season on the Florida State coaching staff and third as Associate Head Coach. At Florida State, Meaders has developed a nationally respected throws program. All-American Garrett Johnson anchored the throwing corps for FSU, setting FSU, ACC, and NCAA East Regional records in the shot put. Johnson finished his senior campaign by claiming NCAA championships in both the indoor and outdoor shot put.

Coach Meaders’s topics are:

Shot Put Technique: Seminole Style
Discus Technique: Seminole Style

Return to the 2007 Championship Track & Field Coaches Clinic

Dr. Jerry Lynch
Sports Psychologist, founder of Way of Champions
Dr. Lynch has been a sports psychology consultant to over 24 international and national championship teams at the professional and NCAA collegiate levels. He served as the Sports Psychologist for the men's and women's Basketball, Lacrosse and Soccer teams at the universities of Duke, Maryland and Stanford. He has been involved with junior athletes at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado, helping them to overcome fears, blocks and slumps, and to perform up to their potential. Several of his clients have participated in various summer and winter Olympic games.

Dr. Lynch’s topics are:

Leading with Heart, Coaching with Soul: Creative Strategies for Guiding Today’s Athletes
Overcoming Mental Hurdles: Q & A with Jerry Lynch
The Heart-Mind of a Champion: Living Daily as a Winner in Sports and Life

Return to the 2007 Championship Track & Field Coaches Clinic

John Dagata
Iowa State University Assistant Coach (Throws)
John Dagata joins Iowa State after coming off a successful 2007 track season at Cal-Santa Barbara. Dagata protégés Amy Happanen and Eugene Bradley both earned All-America honors for the Gauchos in the hammer throw last season. In total, Dagata’s athletes earned eight Big West Conference championships, set seven school records and a pair of Big West Conference marks. UCSB athletes under Dagata have qualified nine different times for the NCAA Championships and qualified for NCAA regional competition 46 times. His coaching efforts contributed to Cal-Santa Barbara winning its first ever Big West Conference team title in 2005.

Coach Dagata’s topic is:

How to Balance Speed, Power and Endurance Training for Track and Field Athlete

Return to the 2007 Championship Track & Field Coaches Clinic

Eric Pingel
Central College Assistant Coach (Pole Vault)
Eric Pingel is in his eighth season at Central. He works with the sprint, hurdle and jumping events. Pingel was a two-time NCAA Div. III all-American for the Dutch in the decathlon, placing second nationally in 1992. He placed in seven events in the Iowa Conference and was also a NAIA all-American for Northwestern in 1993. Pingel, a certified strength and conditioning specialist, also serves as assistant cross country coach at Pella High School.

Coach Pingel’s topic is: