Recalling the Amazing Coach John Tansley

 "Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

During the “Running Summit - East” a few months ago in Morristown, New Jersey, I had the great opportunity of listening to and meeting legendary persons such as; Coach Dr. Joe Vigil and world-renowned Coach Vern Gambetta. During one of the Summit interactions with various highly esteemed coaches, in conversation regarding running form, mechanics and plyometrics, the name of Coach John Tansley came up.

Source: www.glendale.edu

Coach John Tansley was the Head Coach of cross-country and track & field at Glendale Community College (GCC), California State University at Long Beach (CSULB) and California State University at Los Angeles (CSULA). He was later inducted into the CSULA Athletic Hall of Fame. Coach Tansley was famously known and renowned for his most innovative training techniques and work ethic.

I was very fortunate and lucky to have had a chance to be trained under Coach Tansley for a very brief time period.

In my senior year at Herbert Hoover High School in Glendale, California, I had received a California state scholarship to major in chemical engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). I had lot of “butterflies in my stomach” and joined some of my Hoover High classmates and attended my freshman year at GCC and then fully transfer in my sophomore year to USC.

While at Hoover High, I was a “very average” athlete, qualifying and making the cross-country and track & field teams under Head Coach Dave Herman and middle-distance Coach Charles Rankin.

Source: www.glendale.edu

Upon joining GCC, I met Coach Tansley and tried-out for the cross-country team and somehow qualified and made it. That year GCC won the California State Championships in cross-country. Later, Coach Tansley gave me another chance to try-out for the GCC track & field team which had very good local area athletes such as Jay Rubino (from Crescenta Valley High School), brothers George and Mike Ragan, and Mike Vaccaro (from Burbank High School), as well as many more.

Often, Coach Tansley, as a coach, mentor and friend, would take personal time out of his hectic schedule and pay very close attention and evaluate each and every athlete on their own innate abilities, aptitudes, and skills and then develop a unique training program with a solid foundation based on a sound work ethic. His goal was always to focus on developing and maintaining a positive attitude and to cultivate overall team camaraderie while bringing out the best in each person as a whole.

On a personal-level, during various speed, interval and distance workouts, there were repetitive signs of deep exhaustion, nausea, stress, strain and fatigue. I was basically battling early signs of diabetes, nephrotic syndrome and other health issues (all diagnosed in later years including various forms of fatigue; metabolic, neuro-muscular and central nervous system etc.). I was not at-par with any of the many championship-level and elite athletes on Coach Tansley's team.

When it came to fundamentals, Coach Tansley always instilled emphasis on strength, stability, agility and mobility while leveraging advanced and innovative training techniques, methods, skills and drills. Basic day-to-day workouts consisted of; Strength-Posture & Stability-Foot Landing-Agility & Quickness-Foot Stride & Length. He often ingrained in us that speed is directly related to both foot-stride frequency and foot-stride length. Key was relaxation, posture, force application and minimal ground contact time. It was actually the first time I had ever heard of plyometrics skills and drills. Moreover, each time, Coach Tansley’s words of encouragement and kindness motivated each and every athlete to try and do our best. An amazing event for all of his athletes was hanging onto and running behind Coach Tansely's "Chevy Luv" red colored pick-up truck over 100-200 yards. We could just feel our legs flying down the back stretch of the GCC track. It definitely made all of us much faster.

Source: www.glendale.edu

In my sophomore year upon joining USC, I approached Coach Ken Matsuda, assistant to Head Coach Vern Wolfe, to find out how to join the USC track & field team as a “walk-on” since I was on an academic scholarship. I was asked by Coach Matsuda who my most recent coach was and I stated Coach John Tansley of GCC. Coach Matsuda stated that I must qualify via a time-trial in a 220 yards at Cromwell Field along with Lloyd Johnson (reigning NCAA 800 meter champion) and James Walters (former high school national 880 yards champion). Based on Coach Tansley's training, I was able to keep-up behind Lloyd Johnson and James Walters and finished accordingly. Subsequently, I got approval to join the USC track & field team as a “walk-on” in the 880 yards/800 meters even though I was a “very average” and marginal athlete not at-par with any of the many championship-level and elite athletes on the USC team.

Looking back and recalling, Coach John Tansley represents a very unique brand of coaching and humankind. He always treated each and every athlete as a special person. He made us always feel good about ourselves no matter how we did in training or in an event or our specific level of athletic skills and aptitude or lack thereof. His workouts were not dogmatic, but, always allowed athletes to provide constant inputs and train based on how we actually felt inside on any given particular day. He really cared about each athlete’s life goals, aspirations and inner-most feelings as human beings. He always taught his athletes to never give up, quit, or stop trying no matter the odds nor the uphill struggle. He believed in building self-esteem, work ethic, continually encouraging and cheering fellow team members, and truly made us better persons than what we were before we met him. Moreover, he set an example for everyone while helping us to look within, believing in our inner-strength and to focus on a vision, mission and purpose. Coach John Tansley is truly amazing!

References:

1.      http://www.csulb.edu/alumni/goldengrads/profiles/john_tansley.htm

2.      http://www.glendale.edu/index.aspx?page=615

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