Arthur Lydiard: The Most Influential Coach You’ve (potentially) Never Heard Of

Arthur Lydiard was as blue-collar as they came: born in 1917 in New Zealand, he dropped out of high school during the Great Depression to work in a shoe factory. In his spare time, he played rugby, smoked, and drank – a lot.

However, during his 20s, an unassuming doctor’s book about fitness changed the course of his life. Inspired by what he read, Lydiard decided to go for a run; on his return, he urinated blood and could barely breathe. It was this dramatic outing that kickstarted the chain of events that led to him being later crowned “The Father of Jogging.”

Lydiard quickly became obsessed with improving his own fitness and used himself as a human guinea pig to unearth what would become the best training plan in the world. His sequential development model guided him to a national marathon title, which caught the attention of many aspiring runners. Soon, “Arthur’s Boys”, as they came to be known, were training every day under Lydiard’s tutelage, and the group quickly secured national titles on the track, road, and cross country.

Arthur Lydiard (M) and five of his athletes

Murray Halberg – Lydiard’s first protégé – announced himself to the world at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games by winning gold in the three-mile race. At the 1960 Rome Olympics, “Arthur’s Boys” claimed New Zealand’s only medals in any sport, with Peter Snell winning the 800m, Murray Halberg the 5000m, and Bryan Magee picking up bronze in the marathon.

Lydiard was not just focused on the elites and toured the country in an attempt to bring running to the masses. Following a lecture at the Tamaki Lions Club in Auckland, where he explained the positive impact that running can have on your heart, a group of overweight, middle-aged men went for a jog. The year was 1961, and the day marked the birth of the world’s first social running club. A local newspaper suggested it “be called that Auckland Joggers’ Club” and, in doing so, recorded the first use of the noun “jogger”. The following year, Bill Bowerman, a US sprint coach and later the co-founder of Nike, travelled to New Zealand and ran with these men. When Bowerman was later awarded the Kennedy Medal of Honour for his contribution to the health and fitness of the United States through jogging, he insisted: “I am but the disciple. Arthur Lydiard from New Zealand is the prophet.”

Arthur Lydiard and the world’s first jogging club

Despite his success and impact, Lydiard was treated as an outsider by the New Zealand Amateur Athletics Association (NZAAA – the sport’s national governing body). He was not accepted into the coaching staff for the 1960 Olympics (despite coaching the only medal winners), and when he failed to leverage the success of his men in Rome to start a national athletics program, he decided to use his cult-like notoriety to organise his own world-class races in New Zealand. This drove further division between himself and the NZAAA, who asked, “Who’s running athletics in this country – us or Lydiard?”

Having little patience for politics, Lydiard decided to take his talents overseas. Perhaps most notably, he coached the Finnish Olympic team at the 1976 Games to unprecedented success and was honoured with the Order of the White Rose as a show of gratitude – Finland’s highest civil honour. USA Track and Field named him coach of the world, and Runner’s World declared him the greatest coach of the 20th century. In 1962, he was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to sport, and in 1990, was belatedly appointed to the Order of New Zealand. In 2003, after almost half a century of enmity, a rebranded Athletics New Zealand made him a lifetime member. In 2019, he was posthumously awarded a World Athletics Heritage Plaque in the Legend Category. According to former 10,000m world record holder, Dave Bedford, “No distance runner since the 1960s could not have felt his influence. He was a legend.”

Lydiard died while on lecture tour in the USA in 2004, aged 87.

Murray Halberg, Lydiard’s first athlete to find international success, en route to winning the 5000m at the 1960 Olympics

To read about Lydiard’s revolutionary coaching philosophies, click here.