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Who was Arthur Lydiard?
Arthur Lydiard (1917-2004) was a legendary figure in the sport of running. A native of New Zealand, Lydiard was first a runner and later on a coach. His method of coaching and training helped transform the sport and is still widely used today. One of the great coaches of the world, Lydiard helped popularize running as the commonplace sport it is today.
Today, Lydiard’s legacy lives on through the work of the Lydiard Foundation. Its principal instructors Nobuya “Nobby” Hashizume and Lorraine Moller worked closely with Lydiard himself for many years. In the letter to follow, Arthur Lydiard endorses the expertise of both Hashizume and Moller and his joy at the continuing legacy of his method and passion for the sport of running.
Letter from Arthur Lydiard
Over the last couple of decades, I have been traveling around the world, preaching my training method. I have traveled extensively through Europe, Asia and spent several months touring around the USA every summer in the 70’s and 80’s. Nw as it becomes more and more difficult for me to move about, due to my health condition and artificial knees; there has been a growing need to accumulate and preserve my method in an easy-to-understand manner to a wider range of audience.
I am pleased to see this program taken up by a couple of my dedicated and trusting followers in the USA. Nobuya “Nobby” Hashizume has been studying my training method since 1981 when he first write to me from Washington State where he was going to school. He traveled to New Zealand and spent 12 months with me and my original runners and, upon returning to Japan, saved as a professional running coach for a Japanese corporate team. Nobby has been one of the biggest promoters of my training method. Lorraine Moller is one of the most celebrated female athletes New Zealand has ever produced, winning 16 international marathons during her long and prosperous 28 years of athletic career with the Olympic marathon bronze medal in 1992 at the age of 37. She has employed my basic training principles ever since she was a teenager. Lorraine has also been coaching a group of runners in the highland of Colorado on my training method with success.
I am confident that they could keep the legacy of the Lydiard Method and serve people who are eager to learn my training method for the next generations of great athlete.
All the best.
Arthur L. Lydiard
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Order of British Empire Lorraine, Coach Traci and
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New Zealand Olympic Coach Nobby
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Chief Coach, Finland A. A. Federation
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Danish Olympic Coach
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National Coach, Mexico
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National Coach, Venezuela
Arthur Lydiard invented jogging. The method of building up physical fitness by gradually increasing stamina is a simple one, used by millions of men and women worldwide as part of their everyday health and fitness regime. It was used to train New Zealand’s greatest track athletes, and helped propel New Zealand to the top of world middle-distance running.
He never trained in a formal or organized way,but by the age of 27 his metabolism was naturally slowing and he could feel himself getting fat and lazy. A six-mile run with a friend who was a disciplined athlete
proved to Lydiard that his fitness was on the wane. He described the feeling in the 1983 book Jogging with Lydiard: "My pulse rate rose rapidly. I blew hard and gasped for air. My lungs and throat felt like that had been scorched. My legs were like rubber. My whole body felt the effects of the run and the effort expended to get me to the end of it." He speculated as to how many other first time runners had identified with this feeling. His interest had been ignited. He wanted to know how to improve his fitness. He wanted to be in shape for the rest of his life. In looking for answers Lydiard would change the way the world got fit.
Using Himself as a Test Subject
Lydiard had watched local runners of the day training, but that was discouraging. Their philosophy was ‘no pain no gain’ and they sped around the tracks at top speed until they collapsed. Realizing his own necessity to get fit, he tried this technique a few times but it was too difficult, too disheartening. He decided to experiment.
Lydiard is a thorough and logical man; he didn’t have unrealistic expectations of himself, but he wanted to improve, and through slowly evolving patterns he gradually defined a basic theory: "…that long, even-pace running at a strong speed produced increased strength and endurance – even when it is continued to the point of collapse– and was beneficial, not harmful, to regular competition. This is the essence of ...jogging!
" Like none other, Arthur Lydiard’s philosophy of running touches everyone that pulls on a pair of running shoes. He devised the principles of training employded by leading coaches and athletes all around the world, in track and field and many other sporting spheres; he invented the simple exercise of jogging which has infected millions with its benign bug."
In the Runners' World (magazine) Millennium issue Arthur was named one of the five influential
figures of the century in running. With literally millions of trainers everyday pounding the pavements of the planet, Arthur Lydiard's influence on personal health and fitness reverberates all over the world.
Credits from Arthur Lydiard, Lydiard Foundation. For more information on Authur Lydiard and details on his oympic wins check out to www.lydiardfoundation.org
