Sprinter Profiling using wisdom from Avatar the Last Airbender

“It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If you take it from only one place, it become rigid and stale.”

When two completely unrelated worlds collide, I assume chaos and confusion would ensue. Such is the instance when an idiot coach writes an article in which the wisdom found in Nickelodeon’s Avatar the Last Airbender and coaching sprinting meet. I’m unsure if the following article will make any sense. To try make this as cohesive as possible, I’ll split the article into the following subheadings.

1. Understanding the elements.

2. What is Athlete Typing?

3. Sprinter profiling using the elements of Avatar.

4. Learning from all elements.

5. What the hell is the point of this article?

I hope you enjoy the mutilated child of my Avatar the Last AirBender fan-fiction and my love for coaching sprints.

1. Understanding the elements.

If you know me on a personal level, you’d know that many of my favourite TV shows are animations. Bojack Horseman, Rick and Morty, Bobs Burgers, Attack on Titan and of course, The Simpsons and South Park. Above all of these shows, Avatar the Last Airbender remains my most regularly watched show from start to finish. ATLA’s set in a time which resembles ancient China, in which civilians of each of the four nations are granted the ability to ‘bend’ elements. The four nations are the Fire Nation, the Earth Nation, the Water Nation and the Air Nation. The Fire Nation is ‘the Bad Guy’ in this show, as they started a 100 year war aiming to become the one ruling nation. They’ve already eliminated the Air Nomads of the Air Nation. Only one person has the ability to harness the power of all nations and stop the Fire Nation, the Avatar.

There are so many qualities which bring me back to this beautiful children’s show. The creativity of this fantasy universe; the development of all major characters (particularly Zuko); the martial arts combat; the humour (shoutouts to Sokka) and, as with most great pieces of literature and media; the ability to comment and reflect upon the wonderful, the bizarre, the complicated, the deplorable, the desperate and the heroic facets which compose what we understand as the human condition. The vessel for many of these morals and lessons is the character of Iroh, a powerful Firebender whose sage wisdom guides his nephew from a furious, desperate boy into an honourable, compassionate leader. I’ve learned a lot about myself, ethics, my relationships…. about life, watching this show.

I transport you to a scene in Season 2, Episode 9, in which Iroh is teaching Zuko a rare form of Firebending; the ability to redirect lightning. Although to this point in the show, the audience has been exposed to characters of all four nations, it’s within this scene that Iroh succulently outlines the strengths, weaknesses, demeanours and traditions of each Nation and its people. To understand the purpose of this article, the following dialogue is essential.

Iroh: “Fire is the element of power. The people of the Fire Nation have desire and will and the energy and drive to achieve what they want.

Earth is the element of substance. The people of the Earth Kingdom are diverse and strong. They are persistent and enduring.” Air is the element of freedom.

The Air Nomads detached themselves from worldly concerns and found peace and freedom. Also, they apparently had pretty good senses of humour.

Water is the element of change. The people of the Water Tribes are capable of adapting to many things. They have a sense of community and love that holds them together through anything.”

Zuko: Why are you telling me these things?

Iroh: It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If you take it from only one place, it become rigid and stale. Understanding others, the other elements, and the other nations, will help you become whole.

2. What is Athlete Typing?

Okay, it’s at this point I must remind myself that I’m writing in a blog about athletics and sprinting. This can’t just be a subpar fan fiction. I’m here to suggest that you may use the ATLA universe to connect with your athletes.

For a long time, I’ve enjoyed the idea of athlete typing. The first time I was introduced to the idea was listening to Christian Thibaudeau, who created a system called ‘Neurotyping’. It’s essentially a personality test which predicts an athlete’s sensitivities and balance of neurotransmitters (e.g. a Type 1A is low in dopamine and acetylcholine). With Christian’s system, you can use this information to create a training system which better suits you according to your ‘neuroprofile’ (not sure what the exact term is called), which may mean one may require things such as more novelty, more strength, more volume, more density, etc. Months later, I was exposed to Ross Jeff’s approach to classify sprinters as Concentric, Elastic or Metabolic sprinters. Ross’ articles and podcast features have inspired some of my coaching in the past to the point I tried to hunt him to learn from him briefly as he was coaching a squad in the Netherlands, and I was studying in Germany. Sadly, stars didn’t quite align but at some point, hopefully we’ll catch up for a beer and talk athletics as I’m grateful for the information he has put online. A simple run down of his classifications would be:

- Concentric athletes are typically fast accelerators due to their ability to create concentric force (they push well). They typically have poor ankle complexes and struggle once upright sprinting. Christian Coleman would be the closest example of this type of sprinter.

- Elastic athletes are usually beasts at max velocity running. They have stiff ankle complexes and ‘do a lot of the work’ in the air, as opposed to requiring feedback from the ground. Due to this, they’re typically weaker accelerators as they struggle when spending long periods of time on the ground and in low, accelerating postures. Andre De Grasse and Sha’ccari Richardson are good examples of this type of sprinter.

- Metabolic athletes have a running action which would make them seem energy conscious. They’re neither the fastest, nor the greatest accelerators, however; their cyclical type running action will have you finding them finishing races are rapid pace. Compared to other types of sprinters, their momentum is compounding. Allyson Felix and Rhys Prescod would be fantastic examples of this type of sprinter.

Now that the lore of ATLA; and the jargon of athlete typing has been explained, I guess we may begin with the ATLA Sprinter Profiling. I’ll associate Ross’ athlete classification with each ATLA bending style.

3. Sprinter Profiling using the elements of Avatar

Fire Bending

Ross Classification: Concentric

Strengths:

- Fire bending is an expression of pure power.

- Firebenders, unlike water and earth bending, does not need a resource other than oxygen to create something magical. This can be correlated to those who can rapidly explode from the blocks at the start of the race. It is difficult to find good clearance without rapid and substantial concentric outputs.

- Fire bending requires great control of one’s breath, something which I correlate to appropriate intra-abdominal pressure. These athletes are at their best when things are firm and stable.

- Although their power is mighty, it is typically expressed rapidly.

Weaknesses:

- Often, the demise of a fire bender is of their own creation. Instances in ATLA display those with great power, often have little control over it. A great example of this is Admiral Zhao, who features in the first book of ATLA; whose inability to control his fire bending leads to the burning of his own fleet. Similarly, in sprinting, I have observed many with great power have an ability to direct their power or to coordinate their own power. With greater power is a greater demand for coordination, timing and direction.

- When fighting, Firebenders seem to run out of breath, as their bending is violent by nature and requires substantial effort (unless you’re Firebending under Sozan’s comet). Often those with high concentric outputs find themselves floundering in a race when their Firebending strategies (violence and more effort) become detrimental.

Air Bending

Ross Classification: Elastic

Strengths:

- Airbenders are undoubtedly the fastest benders in the land. They are so fast that they can run up the walls of large buildings or on water. Their feet barely touch the ground, and their bending often grants them the ability to defy gravity. Similarly, in sprinting, Elastic athletes ‘switch’ in air at rapid rates and possess stiff ankles, which minimise ground contact times and increase flight times.

- As the Airbending nomads are vegetarian monks and small in stature. They often fast from food and their training consists of agility, hiking and meditation. Their slight frame and fleet-footedness means that they’re extremely evasive in battle. Elastic athletes are almost more tendon than they are muscle, and for the purposes of raw speed, that’s ideal.

Weaknesses:

- Airbenders avoid collision at all costs. Their first instinct is to find the air. The most obvious example of this occurrence in ATLA is when Toph (an Earthbender) is attempting to teach the Avatar (who was born an Airbender) Earthbending by allowing a Sabre-Tooth-Moose-Lion to charge directly at the Avatar, in which the Avatar had to confront the beast in order to protect his friend. This confrontation was the first instance in which the Avatar was able to Earthbend. He had to overcome collision.

- Although fast, there are few instances in which Airbending seems to be a stronger force than either fire or earth bending. Similarly, elastic sprinters will not be your more powerful or forceful sprinters. They will aim to avoid the heavy collisions of acceleration, which will limit them in the early stages of a race.

- Their slight, tendonous frame may be fragile.

Water Bending

Ross Classification: Metabolic

Strengths:

- The fighting style of Waterbending is fluid and graceful. Waterbending is the facilitation of energy. In combat, a Waterbender relies on turning their defense into offense, and turning their opponents force against them. They recycle energy beautifully, much like the final 30m of Allyson Felix’s 200m.

- They are rarely the first to deal the first blow, but Waterbenders in the ATLA universe are adaptable, and open to change, and will be found fighting until the end.

Weaknesses:

- Waterbenders are dependent on an external water source. They cannot create energy out of nothing like the other elements may (other than Earth, but that is typically more accessible). Much like Waterbenders, Metabolic sprinters are not able to create explosive concentric force like the Firebenders (these two types of sprinters are polar opposites). They will start slowly, and require the previous strides taken to build momentum throughout a race.

- They are rarely muscle bound, instead supple (this may also be a strength).

Earth bending:

Ross Classification: Void

Strengths and Weaknesses: Earth is the element of substance. The people of the Earth Nation have erected great cities and walls using their bending powers; and when fighting, they’re at their strongest with their feet firmly rooted into the ground. Examples of this are Toph, an Earthbender, stalling the sinking of a large library into the desert sand using her Earthbending; or King Bumi reclaiming the city of Omashu. Although versatile in nature, the strongest expressions of Earthbending are slow and grinding. Earthbenders are typically muscle bound. The reality of an Earthbending sprint profile is that they’re probably not designed for speed. Earthbenders aren’t built to be sprinters. If an Earthbender were in a team sport context, I’d want the front row of a rugby scrum to all be Earthbenders. Stable, resilient, reliable, hardworking and strong.

4. Learning from all elements

So what do you do if you’re an Earthbender trying to sprint? This is probably the reality I found myself in two or three years ago. During my early 20s, I fell in love with lifting weights. I had injured myself either playing Australian Rules Football or upon returning to sprinting, and weights training was one of the few options I had to continue the training process. All my movement strategies became Earthbending strategies. Tension, bracing, slow and grinding. Upon return to sport, once the injuries had healed, Earthbending became my default movement strategy; but I had neither an Earthbending body (I was lean as a kid), nor did I play an Earthbending sport (I was playing a midfielder in AFL and then a 100m sprinter upon my return to Track and Field). In hindsight, I needed to open myself to more movement strategies. This is where the Wisdom of Uncle Iroh comes into play.

In the final line of the dialogue earlier in the article, Iroh highlights that wisdom should be drawn from many places. At that moment in time, when my ‘athletic’ training primarily compromised weightlifting, I needed to adopt movement strategies from the other elements. For some exercises, I needed to be fluid like Katara, the Waterbender; or rapid like Aang the Airbender; or explosive like Azula the Firebender. Instead, I treated all exercise with the rigidity and tension of an Earthbender. I don’t think it was until I spent a year abroad, studying in Germany, until I found myself becoming fluid once more. More time was spent running sub maximally; more time was spent skipping; more time was spent lfiting or throwing at high velocities; more time was spent playing pick-up basketball and cycling and less time was spent on maximal strength (I really haven’t needed to develop maximal strength in a long time). My athletic profile changed.

One of my favourite sprinters of all time is Ben Johnson. Many would hear or read the stories of Ben squatting 270kg or benching 165kg days before breaking world records; which would have one believe he was a proficient Earthbender. But Ben also ran kilometres in training, which only a light footed Airbender could do; and Ben could also hurdle hop with the smoothness of a Waterbender. Yet, when Ben raced, he was famously explosive from the start like a Firebender shooting flame from out of the soles of his feet. Is Ben the Avatar of sprinting? Perhaps, but my point is that although his natural expression of athleticism may have favoured more towards Firebending, great athletes are able to access different movement qualities appropriate for the task.

If there would be one issue I have with ‘athlete typing’ is that athletes or coaches, try to rigidly fit themselves or their athletes into a single category. “Oh, I’m a POWER sprinter I must only do SPEED!!”. Ok, pal. Instead, I think that the perceptions of ourselves or others fits on a continuum instead of a single category. We should be encouraged to explore and extrapolate the best qualities from the best athletes. At the World Championships at Dota in 2019, the highest quality competition in Track and Field took place. The men’s shot put. One would imagine that Shot Put would be the single most Earthbending discipline in Track and Field; yet these gigantic men spun and glided with grace and at incredible speeds. Earthbending bodies with Water and Firebending movement led to, what many would deem, the greatest competition in Track and Field history.

5. What the hell is the point of this article?

Why would one even bring ATLA into the world of sprinting? To be a fantastic teacher (in my opinion, a coach is a teacher), you may need to speak the language of your students. ATLA has spent the greatest number of consecutive days in Netflix’s top 10 shows (61, beating Ozark which was at 57 days). The show is watched across multiple generations now and as with books such as Harry Potter, or shows such as Pokémon, it is impossible as a viewer to not imagine yourself into these universes. “Which house at Hogwarts would I be in?”, or “Which Pokémon would I choose first?”. Every day I go to teach at school, I bring my ATLA mug into class, which has a series of Uncle Iroh quotes etched into it. Every day, a new student approaches me and asks what I think about the show, what I think about the sequel (The Legend of Korra) or if I can read the class a bit of Iroh gospel. From that moment on, myself and that student have common ground and the relationship being formed now allows him or her to be taught, and for me to teach.

This article was something I wanted to write for a while, but I’ve struggled to do so because I never knew whether a reader could gain any real purpose from reading a combination of fan fiction and coaching philosophy. Perhaps you could take away three things from this article:

1. We all have our own natural strengths and weaknesses. We should put ourselves and our athletes in a position to best utilize their strengths. I would not ask for a Waterbender to hold up a sinking Wan Shi Tong’s Spirit Library; they would surely fail.

2. We should learn from a range of different athletes as different movements require different strategies. Theme movements with different intent and grow the library of movement strategies. Yes, one must be a specialist to dominate in the sport of sprinting; so, I would encourage you to be confident in your identity as an athlete (are you explosive, efficient, fast!?); but use other (Bending) strategies appropriate to the task.

3. Speak the language of the student. If your athletes have watched Avatar the Last Airbender; they’ve probably fallen in love with its universe. Perhaps you should watch it too. I see no harm in cueing or creating narratives using lines such as “Explosive like a Firebender”; “Light like an AirBender” or “Smooth like a Waterbender”; or if you were in the gym with a heavy barbell sitting across your neck, you’d hope you would be as, “Solid as a rock!”. Find connections with your athletes and care about their interests.