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COACH KERSEE GOES FOR 9TH CONSECUTIVE OLYMPIC GAMES

Coach Kersee Goes for Gold in 9th Consecutive Olympic Games

By CEO Robert Forster, PT

Coach Bobby Kersee is the most successful track and field coach in the world. If all goes as expected, the Olympic Games in Rio next month will be the 9th consecutive Games in which he has coached at least one athlete on to the top podium for a gold medal. His athletes have won over 50 Olympic medals, as well as World Championships and they have set many world records.

In 1988 Bobby coached his wife Jackie Joyner Kersee to 6 Olympic Medals (including 3 Gold) and a World Record (7,291 points) in the seven event competition called the Heptathlon.  Her record is unbroken.  Sports Illustrated called her the best female athlete of all time!

How does one coach achieve so much? It’s a blend of knowledge, intensity, and hard work that makes the b est coaches. He is a technical wizard when it comes to sprinting, jumping and hurdling, but it’s his passion that sets him apart. He is dedicated to get the best out of each athlete with an unrelenting drive for their success.

Jackie Joyner Kersee with Bobby Kersee after Olympic Gold in 1988

He is truly concerned that each athlete reaches their greatest genetic potential and doesn’t give up until they have. He sets expectations very high every not only when his athletes step on the track in practice and in competition, but also in life. He believes in their physical potential; and by the end of the training cycle, his athletes do too. Many former athletes have gone on to coach at elite levels, and all have been enriched having competed for him.

Florence “Flo-Jo” Joyner ( Bobby’s Sister-In-Law ) won 3 Golds and a Silver medal and set  
Two World Records in 1988.
I first met Coach Kersee in 1982 when a colleague asked me to join him and Bobby for an injury prevention presentation at a running store in the San Fernando Valley. We drove together from Santa Monica, and by the time we summitted the Sepulveda Pass, he had sold me on his dream to win a bucket full of medals in the upcoming Los Angeles Olympic Games. 
I had no knowledge of track and field; but as a freshly minted Physical Therapist and former Division 1, NCAA competitor myself, I recognized that his passion for peak performance aligned well with my goals and experience. Two years after graduating from PT school; and a chance meeting with Bobby Kersee,  I found myself working with the best athletes in the world. By the Summer of 1984 we put 7 athletes on the US team. When the LA Games came to a conclusion, we had 10 medals, and I was sold on Bobby Kersee.
Over the next 8 games we worked together with a passion for injury free, peak performance. His winning st able of athletes have included Jackie Joyner, Florence “Flo-Jo” Griffith, Valerie Brisco-Hooks, Alice Brown, Al Joyner, Jeanette Bolden, Greg Foster, Gail Devers, Andre Philips, and for the last three Olympics, Dawn Harper and Allyson Felix. 
 
Working with Jackie through four Olympic Heptathlons has provided the foundation of injury prevention and advanced recovery techniques that we use daily at  
FORSTER PHYSICAL THERAPY   
and PHASE IV
Each of these competitors have seen his willingness to do anything it takes to get them to their best performance, and it often comes at the Games. Rio will be no different, he will peak his athletes to be ready to reach their potential and add to his legacy as the best ever! 

PHASE IV: When you want to be better 

 

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