TERRE HAUTE — Dave Scott was in the prime of his first-class career as a triathlete during the 1980s, racking up six world championships from 1980 to 1987.
Since fighting through knee surgery, the now 52-year-old Scott is still giving back to the sport that he helped make famous. He and Mark Allen are the only two men to win six world titles since the competition began in 1978.
Scott’s career was strong into his 40s, taking second to Greg Welch as a 40-year-old in 1994 and finishing fifth in the 1996 Ironman at age 42.
“Then I got really old,” Scott joked.
Scott is now one of the most respected coaches in the sport. Simon Lessing, of the United Kingdom, moved to Scott’s hometown of Boulder, Colo., to receive Scott’s guidance. Scott also coaches professional Michael Lovato of Colorado and he trains a “handful” of other triathletes.
“I like helping regular old folk,” Scott said. “A lot of them are my friends so it makes it fun. Most amateurs have a better work ethic. They’re just not as genetically gifted.”
As a precursor to today’s 21st annual Terre Haute Triathlon, Scott delivered a swimming clinic to 39 of today’s participants at Hawthorn Park and a training clinic at Rose-Hulman’s Student Recreation Center. Triathlon director Paul Asay said he has 355 athletes registered for today’s race, which begins at 8 a.m. with the swim at Hawthorn Park.
“It’s the biggest field we’ve had,” Asay said.
Still in good shape, Scott looks forward to today’s race. He hopes the advice he offered Friday can help those have success. Scott said newcomers especially shouldn’t measure success by how they do against their competitors. While Scott said triathlon is a growing sport, “There’s also a lot of people that quit this sport.
“You have to look at what you can control,” Scott said. “If you’re always looking at someone else… what you can control is your mood. You have to keep pushing that positive button.”
While the mental aspect is a big part of a triathlete’s ability to compete, so is the physical. Scott’s students for the day learned new training techniques that can help and prolong their careers as a triathlete. Scott suggests strengthening your core muscles, such as the shoulders, middle of the back and abdomen.
“I like doing a host of injury-preventative exercises,” Scott said. “Triathletes are adverse to doing gym work. If you can get them to do specific exercises that really keep them healthy and make them stronger on the bike, the run and the swim, just by introducing I’ll say non-conventional exercises… balance exercises, stability exercises, muscles that help support the major muscles.”
A couple of the exercises he explained was working the muscles in your rear end before you run or the shoulder muscles before a swim.
“For example, the butt muscle’s a big muscle, but there’s some smaller muscles in and around it that assist in biking and running, so we try to wake those up a little bit,” Scott said.
The group got more than their muscles woken up Friday when they took a dip in the 62-degree water at Hawthorn Park to prepare for the 800-meter swim.
Scott said he hoped he helped them block out the water temperature.
“We just kind of walked in. We started off like a beginning swim class. We swam about 16-20 meters, then stopped and regrouped,” Scott explained.
An Seymour resident with experience in more than 800 triathlons, 73-year-old Charlie Fouts of Avon, said he enjoyed swimming with tennis balls in his hands to keep your arms in good form.
Fouts and Brownsburg resident Terry Schaefer got 39-year-old Srini Sankaran interested in triathlon.
Today will be his first, and Sankaran was a little leary about swimming 800 meters in open water.
“It definitely helped me. I gained a lot of confidence in the swim,” Sankaran said. “[Scott] said a lot of beginners try to swim too fast at the start.”
I guess everyone just has to find their “positive button.”
Craig Pearson can be reached by email at craig.pearson@tribstar.com or by phone after 4 p.m. at (812) 231-4356.
Given to Fly
May 20, 2006
Given to Fly: Six-time world champ offers tips
- Given to Fly
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GIVEN TO FLY: Come to expect new standards of excellence
Records are definitely meant to be broken; athletes today are faster and stronger than those in the past in many endeavors in athletics.
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GIVEN TO FLY: ISU women have solid recruiting class
The caliber of athletes that the Indiana State women’s basketball coaching staff is bringing in is on an upswing.
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GIVEN TO FLY: Major leaguers John, Dorsett meet up at tonight’s game
Terre Haute’s only two big leaguers of the last 50 years — Tommy John and Brian Dorsett — will catch up with one another today.
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FOOT NOTES: Valley natives perform well on national stage
Several Wabash Valley natives continue to shine on the national track and field scene.
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'Til It's Over: Sycamores ‘in a good place,’ but searching for more in MVC
Can Teri Moren lift Indiana State, last year’s seventh-place team in the Missouri Valley Conference, to one of the league’s contenders in her first year on campus?
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'Til It's Over: Two sets of identical twins should keep North Central baseball a contender
The last high school baseball team standing in the Wabash Valley was the North Central, the Thunderbirds falling short 4-3 in the Class A Semistate on Saturday just one game shy of Victory Field.
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'Til It's Over: Jarvis, Anderson confident Olney, hard work leads to Division I dream
Olney, Ill., population 8,000-plus and known for its population of white squirrels, might not be the dream destination for high school basketball players in Indiana.
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'Til It's Over: Robinson 7-footer more focused in postseason; 6-foot Jones keeps producing
Robinson 7-footer Meyers Leonard is not going to be the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA some day, but his odds of reaching the league are pretty solid if his game continues to evolve as it has during high school.
- 'Til It's Over: ‘Stepping stone’ game points Sycamores in right direction Whether the win comes against a top-25 team or a conference pushover, ending a four-game losing streak is always a relief.
- 'Til It's Over: Indianapolis ISU recruit rolling along in senior season As Indiana State recruit Anna Munn approached Christmas with the Decatur Central basketball team, the senior guard didn’t seem to need much of a wishlist.
- 'Til It's Over: Magic’s still there for '79 Sycamores For the former Indiana State players who visited the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in late November, the weekend was a chance to relive memories with teammates and see Larry Bird’s career with the Sycamores celebrated again.
- CRAIG PEARSON: North has strong history in cross country state finals Vigo County is home to just four IHSAA state championships in team sports. Most recently, Terre Haute South won girls titles in basketball (2002) and tennis (2001).
- 'Till It's Over: It’s been rough year but no need to break up Cubs' core Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry is only in the first year of a three-year contract, and aren’t back-to-back division championships enough to keep him around despite this year’s season filled with bad luck?
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'Til It's Over: Hansbrough, Hibbert give Pacers glimpse of future
You might have heard of the Indiana Pacers’ 2009 first-round draft pick. He was on the television once in a while during his four-year career at North Carolina.
- 'Til It's Over: Bertoli, Moore put on show in abundance of events “Anthony and Erica” may not have the marketing capability of “Dan and Dave,” but neither of Indiana State’s outstanding multi-event participants had let-down performances this weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference Championships.
- ‘Walking wounded’: ISU seniors return to provide spark All three ISU seniors will graduate in May, and all three will be in uniform today as Indiana State battles Bradley in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament quarterfinals.
- Given to Fly: Northview standout runner Thacker coming to ISU Doc Brown told an old-timer in a saloon in “Back to the Future III” that despite having automobiles in the future people run for recreation.
- Given to Fly: Schilli’s Rodman-like performance aids ISU With Indiana State’s women’s basketball team ranking eighth in the Missouri Valley Conference in field-goal percentage (36.5), the Sycamores need as many shot attempts as possible to maintain their standing on top of the league.
- Given to Fly: A classic in every sense of the word What tournament director and co-founder Gary Fears had in mind when creating the tournament came to fruition Tuesday. Marshall, with an enrollment of 438 students, became the smallest school to win the Pizza Hut Wabash Valley Classic in the ninth season of the tourney.
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Given to Fly: ISU women should build confidence off strong outing
Indiana State did not pull off the monumental upset Saturday against No. 23 Kansas State, but the Wildcats are —aside from Connecticut in 2005 — the best team the Sycamores have played in the Jim Wiedie era.
- Given to Fly: ISU women's hoops team slides onto commercial radio Coach Jim Wiedie expects the Indiana State women’s basketball team to have a bit of a retro feel this season, meaning the Sycamores have the potential to get back to creating havoc with their full-court press.
- Given to Fly: ISU vets hope to prove pundits wrong Indiana State’s only two seniors were surprised to see they were picked ahead of just three Missouri Valley Conference women’s basketball teams Tuesday morning.
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Footnotes: In first marathon, former Sycamore comes out a winner
Indiana State graduate Dani Prince made her debut in the event with a victory in the Columbus Marathon on Sunday.
Prince’s goal was a time under 2 hours and 50 minutes, and she ran a 2:48.56. -
Given To Fly: ISU volleyball turning things around
It was an extremely busy weekend for Indiana State athletics this weekend.
- Footnotes: Here’s hoping perfect weather is still around for Nationals in November The weather made for a perfect fall afternoon Saturday at LaVern Gibson Championship Course. For what it’s worth, the Farmer’s Almanac calls for more sunny conditions from Nov. 20-24, with the NCAA Championships falling on the 24th this year.
- Terre Haute natives cherish memories of ‘House that Ruth Built’ Yankee Stadium was packed as usual on Easter Sunday in 1979. George Steinbrenner’s Yankees were one loss away from being swept by the Milwaukee Brewers to start the season. That was no way for the two-time defending World Series champions to perform, so the boss had a conversation with his new veteran left-handed starting pitcher prior to the game.
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Footnotes: Oregon men and women have strangehold on preseason NCAA cross countryrankings
The Oregon men and women were almost both unanimous picks as the No. 1 teams in the nation in the preseason cross country national rankings released recently.
- Given to Fly: Bronze medalist has strong ISU ties One of the remarkable American medalists of this 2008 Olympics thus far also provided one of the most sparkling stories in the brief history of the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course here in Terre Haute.
- Former ISU QB gets back to Amarillo This week, Indiana State signed its most highly-touted football prospect in years, and former quarterback Julian Reese is ripping it up for the Amarillo Dusters of Arena2.
- Indiana State track sending strong group to NCAA regional Three sophomore women and three senior men lead a large Indiana State contingent of track and field athletes into the NCAA Mideast Regional this weekend at Fayetteville, Ark.
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