Brad Hudson: I’d have to think about that. There’s no animosity towards him or anything like that. I always try to keep an open mind and deal with every situation for what it is, but I honestly haven’t given it much thought, beyond this question. [He laughs.] But I’m always open. The one thing I’ve learned is to stay open minded in this sport. Things change and that’s just how it goes.
RML: Salazar was spending all this time and effort tweaking Ritz’s form. How important do you think form is in order to take an athlete to that next level of performance?
Hudson: I’m not big on changing form for elite athletes. I especially think that Dathan Ritzenhein did not need to change his form. He is one of the slowest athletes ever to break 13 minutes, and his form was not different in that race, the 5,000. If you watch it, it looks like he was sprinting at 61s, so with that said, I have never spoken to Alberto [Salazar] on this. I’m pretty open to talking with people. I like to hear their ideas. I know other coaches like Alberto are interested in form. I don’t want to say the door is shut on looking at that. But I don’t think it’s for everybody, and I don’t believe theirs only one way to run. I know Alberto talked about [Kenenisa] Bekele having the ultimate form, but the problem is that people don’t know that Bekele runs two different ways. He’s one of the few athletes who can run on his forefoot on the track, and he can run on his heels in the mud. So, I’m not huge on changing elite athletes‘ form, especially Dathan. I think Dathan is a great cross-country runner, a great strength runner. You don’t want to take that away. But with that said, I always keep my mind open. I would like to see the research on it. What looks good in a lab doesn’t always play out well in the marathon.
RML: Ryan Hall recently left his long-time coach Terrence Mahon and is now going to coach himself. If he approached you to coach him, would you be interested?
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