The two other brothers gave up sports entirely. They do not play other sports. Their father speaks of them disparingly ("he likes his food, the sofa. . .") So I don't think these kids were really offered other options, other than to train for track at a very intense level.
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@Charlie That quote doesn't actually appear in this article. Where does that information about the two other brothers and the father's quote come from?
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Wow. 10,000km would be about a quarter of the way around the globe! Gotta up my training intervals.
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In every article by this author, she will begin a paragraph with the phrase "of course" and then explain why it's impossible to reach any valid conclusions from the study she is describing.
Generally, I try not to judge people by their idiosyncrasies. Having a love for small sample sizes doesn't hurt anyone, I guess. Having a tendency for bad journalism is a little more problematic.
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10,000 kilometers is a very long race
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There are many ways to train for world class performances.....all the way from Nurmi to Zatopek. They are nicely described in Noakes' LORE OF RUNNING ...arguably the bible of running/training/physiology and methods.....despite the fact that the latest edition is a few years old. Nurmi and Kohlemainen, both world class, would start their training season with long walks and intersperse them with their running. There are many ways to do it......if your genes will cooperate.
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My grandmother was a cousin of Jim Thorpe.
My oldest brother could run at 6 months.
He held the U.S. record in the 100 yard Freestyle
for an afternoon.
He never developed the discipline to go further and farther.
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I'm not sure the author has a full grasp of typical training programs for teenage runners. 50 miles per week for a middle-distance specialist at age 15 is certainly not "relatively light" training volume, and the same would apply for to a program of 100 miles per week at age 18. And the suggestion that "intense" training would occur at 10,000-KILOMETER race pace is laughable.
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There is no 10,000-kilometer race, the distance of NY to SF twice while taking several wrong turns. How about 10,000 meters?
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Personal impressions aside,Mr. Williams took two sisters and coached them to become champion tennis players, and the younger, Serena, might be the best ever. And while people may laugh, the Polgar sisters, all three, became champions at chess, coached by their father. Granted these are outliers, just as these three running brothers are. History is written by the winners. We seldom read about all the other running and athletic siblings coached together that don't achieve greatness.
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I've been fascinated watching the Ingebritsens. My 16 YO son showed promise as a runner (and a soccer player, which he only recently gave up) from a young age, but I always told him that running is about fitness, not technique, so unless swimmers, he didn't have to start young. The key was to be good at 18 or older, not 12. He only began to compete shortly after turning 15, and in a year became a state champion. Even so, I don't think he runs more than 50 miles/week and trains intervals only at the important part of the season.
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@MV So much of running is technique. That's what makes a runner efficient and tactical. I have no idea, however, at what age improving technique on top of talent and fitness matters. But I wouldn't dismiss it either.
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I love the Ingebrigtsen brothers and what they’ve done for track and field. I’m very excited to see how far Jacob’s talent will take him.
I would like to make one correction to this article. The Debaba sisters are the most accomplished sibling athletes in Track&Field. Multiple gold medals from the olympics and world championships in addition to two world records. The Debaba sisters are world class athletes starting at the 1500 up to the marathon.
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"Athletic talent and how best to cultivate it are hot-button topics today, inspiring arguments, books, conferences, parental anxieties and reams of research. "
Really?
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This may also say something about the bonds of brotherhood. Things I do with my brother have always brought out the best in each of us. It may be some combination of competitiveness and yet a desire to see the other succeed.
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@Tim S...It may also say something about genetics.
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The information in this article seems to point at genes on the one hand and some form of ill defined training program on the other. Since interval training has been around since Zatopek in the 50s, we are back to genes. But there is no evidence of this being the case among siblings anywhere else; this would also be challenged by evidence from Kenya and Ethiopia. But what is not mentioned is the development of micro dosing EPO and other substances that Norway's cross country ski team in particular has been very successful at over the past 15-20 years. They have been caught a few times but in general it has produce the substantial majority of medals in the winter Olympics. It is fairly common knowledge that doping exists in most top level sports events.Having three brothers, all competing at the top level at the same distances, raises questions because interval training is not the magic bullet, and neither is genes as far as science goes.
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Malcolm Gladwell would probably disagree with your last sentence.
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@bip425 This is just fake news. Norway's cross country team has never ever been in focus for micro dosing EPO (or regular dosing for that matter) and no skiers has ever been caught for this. Norway's success in skiing boils down to tradition and a dedication not match din any other country.
The new thing now is the existence of 3 brothers doing well in a different, more widespread sport. important to notice that their training regime is very different compared to the endurance training typically done in Norway - and most other places. Which is why this is an interesting case study.
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@bip425
Genes have NOTHING to do with success in running events.
It’s purely by chance that all 72 finalists in the Olympic 100 meter dash from 1984 onward have been at least half black.
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In the annals of unconventional training methods and participation in more than one sport as a youth, the U.S. has its own shining example - the alpine skier, Bode Miller. He reportedly faced a decision as to whether to pursue skiing or tennis as a professional sports career. One wonders what would have been the result had he chosen tennis and pursued it not only with the passion with which he distinguished himself as a skier, but using the self-directed training routines he developed in his family's barn in NH.
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“at about the pace at which the young men would run a 10,000-kilometer race”
Wow, that would be a really long race.
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@Marcia Peterson
Yes, those 6,000+ mile races are tough but you will recognize that the article thankfully allows that the speed is "somewhat slower" than intervals for 3,000 or 1,500 meter races.
1
There are no full knives in Vermont!
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@Marcia Peterson
Good catch!
1
This family is the subject of a reality tv show in Norway. It is clear that the father is a demanding, controlling man. He is seen berating his 20-something son for having a girlfriend (since that will detract from his workouts). Your article does not describe their reality at all. These kids are talented, but they haven't been raised in a healthy manner. Their father acts like a tyrant and tries to control them well into adulthood.
39
yeah, that never happens elsewhere in the sports world...
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Reality television isn’t real. What we see is often scripted to generate an emotional response from us.
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@Jimmy L. Brown This particular show is more like a documentary. It is very different from American reality TV shows, which definitely do seem scripted.
4
As has been reported in the track & field media, it is evident the Ingebrigtsens possess the genetic makeup for that unique blend of speed and endurance that produces world class middle distance runners. Family support, camaraderie among the brothers, under-emphasized mental toughness and the father’s coaching are factors too. Jakob has immense innate ability and became the youngest ever sub four minute miler at the age of 16.
Will he have a long and decorated career? Managed properly and not bogged down by too many injuries it is possible.
7
Tell me more about the mother. Where is she.
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@Marjan The mother tries to support her sons, but generally gets overruled or ignored by the father. (For example, she tells her husband that their adult sons are "too old for you to control") These young men do not seem close to the father at all. It is hardly a goal to aspire to, no matter how many medals they win.
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@Marjan
7 siblings. 3 distance runners 'of note.' 2 'young-uns' "just starting to train as runners" -- and ???
(Maybe two of the few obese Norwegians, shunned by all other Ingebrigtsens -- both doing competitive- eating training in effort, at once, to embarrass their brothers and sister -- and Mom and Dad, defeat Joey Chestnut at Nathan's on the 4th of July, and get some 'pub' for themselves.)
1
This is a sample size of one (Family). It doesn’t tell anybody much of anything. As the writer mentions, it is anecdotal evidence. Using induction on such flimsy evidence is foolish. Read David Hume.
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@Maurie Beck The Norwegian model for sports development has many of these elements. It's not just this family and track and field. How does such a small country dominate the winter Olympics and produce so many champions in other sports? I think you need to do a bit more background research before you jump to conclusions.
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@Chris In running, the East Africans (Kenyans, Ethiopians) also follow a similar method as the Norwegians. Their teenage years are mostly focused on slowly developing aerobic fitness with long, continuous, easy runs. As they mature, more intense intervals are added gradually to sharpen fitness for racing. But the overall focus is on easy running to build massive aerobic fitness.
In the US, all too often high school and even college coaches neglect their runner's long-term development by introducing all out, gut-wrenching interval workouts way too early and in too much quantity to young runners. It's the get rich quick scheme of the running world. But the result in many cases is burnout, fatigue, and injury.
At the elite level, this is one of the many reasons why races are filled with East Africans, who typically dominate, compared to a only a handful of elite Americans being in the field.
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It is always inconsequential to take how the most talented runners train and extrapolate it for the general population. There is an endurance gene embedded in this family. As a longtime track coach, the key is to not mess up the talented runners with poor workouts, rather than to make them great with special workouts. I don’t think they are doing anything special.
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Very interesting! Also, I believe the writer means 10,000 meter race pace for their intervals, rather than kilometers.
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Thank you for this major correction. I am very surprised that the mistake has not (yet) been updated.
5
This feels like an introduction, rather than a complete story.
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@Steve I think the story here seems to be Charlie's comment above.... overbearing and controlling parents who push their children too much. I would've loved to see some quotes from both the parents and the brothers and if possible, a video of one of their training session to truly grasp their dynamic.
10
You can watch "Team Ingebrigtsen", a documentary series over two seasons (2 more seasons planned) about the family's daily life and training. It's on YouTube, with subtitles.
My pace for a "10,000-kilometer race" would be... very slow...
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@Ed Rosenberg LOL...I actually recently calculated the distance I've walked my dog over 4 years. In geographic terms, NY to Fl and back. Very slow pace- perhaps 1 MPH. She sniffs everything.
22
But it’s only a “minutes-long speed burst” at this pace, so perhaps only the distance from couch to fridge?
9
@Phil, is she a Beagle? :)
1