Franz Stampfl
Encyclopedia
Franz F. L. Stampfl MBE
(born Vienna
18 November 1913 - died 19 March 1995 Melbourne
) was one of the world's leading athletics coaches in the twentieth century. He pioneered a scientific system of Interval Training
which became very popular with sprint and middle distance
athletes.
. He was the son of an Austrian general. He studied writing and painting in school. After high school he attended the Vienna Academy of Art and had some success as a skier
and javelin throw
er. He represented his country at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles in the Javelin.
In 1937 sensing the rise of Adolf Hitler, he left Austria for England to study at the Chelsea School of Art. When Hitler marched into Austria in 1938, the British government demanded that he leave the country unless he showed a unique and necessary skill. Having taught skiing back in his homeland, Stampl pitched AAA officials to coach their athletes, earning him a job in Northern Ireland. This was in part due to assistance by Olympic legend Harold Abrahams
.
Stampfl taught physical education at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Barnet (then holders of the Public Schools Challenge Cup for athletics) from February to July 1940, when he was suddenly interned as an enemy alien. He was transported to Canada and then Australia. He went on hunger strike to protest at his confinement.
Early one June morning in 1940, he was shipped to Australia on the liner ship Arandora Star with a host of other prisoners of war. In the middle of the North Sea, a German U-boat torpedoed the ship; and within thirty minutes amid screams of fear, the ship was flooded with water and sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic. To survive, Stampfl forced a steel plate aside to get to the surface and then jumped into the freezing cold, oil-slicked sea. For eight hours he swam, wading off shock from the cold and struggling to keep his head above the water, before a rescue boat sighted him.
Jenkins observed that, under the relevant order, even friendly Germans and Austrians were arrested. He gave the date of Stampfl's detention as 2 July 1940, but, as this was the day that the Arandora Star (see below) was attacked, it was probably slightly earlier. The decision to arrest aliens was taken on 18 June 1940 He was one of 868 survivors when the liner SS Arandora Star, carrying 1,190 deportees, was torpedoed en route to Canada. Among those who lost their lives were the former Italian head chefs of London's Savoy
and Ritz Hotel
s.
Hundreds died in the disaster, but those who survived were shipped back to Britain, interned and shipped once again to Australia
. There, Stampfl was sent to an internment camp in Hay, and to ease the desperation plaguing the prisoners he organised athletics, boxing, wrestling and football matches. ‘It was not just a job for me,’ he said. ‘It was an inner desire to survive and remain sane for myself and my friends in camp.’ When the war ended, Stampfl married an Australian woman he’d met in Melbourne and moved back to London. Although he suffered terribly over the previous years and had trouble sleeping under linen or far from an open window because of his long confinement, he still admired the English for their love of amateur sport, and felt their athletes could use his help. He returned to Britain in 1946 to continue athletics coaching. He reconnected with amateur officials and arranged for a number of coaching posts, including part-time ones at Cambridge and Oxford Universities. Still he was not asked to aid the British Olympic team in 1952 – evidence that amateur officials never brought him fully into their fold because he was an outsider.
to the world's first sub four-minute mile
at Oxford
on 6 May 1954. Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher
, who played key roles in pacing Bannister to the record, were also coached by Stampfl and his methods were adopted by, among others, the tennis player Ashley Cooper and the boxer Don Cockell
who took Rocky Marciano
to nine rounds in their heavyweight
title fight in 1955. A humble man, the Austrian coach had ignored the hype after Bannister’s Iffley Road triumph, preferring to slip away quitetly and get back to London to train other athletes. He didn’t need to stand around and have his picture taken by Bannister’s side nor claim that the four-minute mile had been achieved through strict adherence to his coaching. The only satisfaction Stampl got from the publicity was the knowledge that it would encourage more athletes to train with him.
Stampfl's book, Franz Stampfl on Running, first published in 1955, was a great success and rated by The Times
as an "admirable and enthralling text-book on training and tactics".
until his death.
At the 1956 Olympic Games
in Melbourne, Stampfl coached 11 of the athletes in the Australian team.
He trained many successful Australian athletes during his lifetime; most notably:
Other Stampfl athletes included Olympic finalists Tony Sneazwell, Alan Crawley and Merv Lincoln, in addition to Commonwealth
champions Peter Bourke, Sue Howland and Judy Peckham.
Stampfl had a great rivalry with Percy Cerutty
who coached the legendary middle-distance champion Herb Elliott
. Stampfl's coaching was regarded as 'scientific' whereas Cerutty's techniques were considered more 'natural', based on 'Stotan' (a mixture of Stoic
and Sparta
n) philosophies. As such, they - and their athletes - were seen as obvious rivals.
In 1981 he was awarded an MBE
for services to athletics.
MBE
MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...
(born Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
18 November 1913 - died 19 March 1995 Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
) was one of the world's leading athletics coaches in the twentieth century. He pioneered a scientific system of Interval Training
Interval training
Interval training is a type of physical training that involves bursts of high-intensity work interspersed with periods of low-intensity work...
which became very popular with sprint and middle distance
Middle distance track event
Middle distance running events are track races longer than sprints, up to 3000 metres. The standard middle distances are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres may also be classified as a middle distance event. The 880 yard run, or half mile, was the forebear to the...
athletes.
Early life
Stampfl was born in the capital of then Austro-Hungarian EmpireAustria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. He was the son of an Austrian general. He studied writing and painting in school. After high school he attended the Vienna Academy of Art and had some success as a skier
Skiing
Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....
and javelin throw
Javelin throw
The javelin throw is a track and field athletics throwing event where the object to be thrown is the javelin, a spear approximately 2.5 metres in length. Javelin is an event of both the men's decathlon and the women's heptathlon...
er. He represented his country at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles in the Javelin.
In 1937 sensing the rise of Adolf Hitler, he left Austria for England to study at the Chelsea School of Art. When Hitler marched into Austria in 1938, the British government demanded that he leave the country unless he showed a unique and necessary skill. Having taught skiing back in his homeland, Stampl pitched AAA officials to coach their athletes, earning him a job in Northern Ireland. This was in part due to assistance by Olympic legend Harold Abrahams
Harold Abrahams
Harold Maurice Abrahams, CBE, was a British athlete of Jewish origin. He was Olympic champion in 1924 in the 100 metres sprint, a feat depicted in the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire.-Early life:...
.
Second World War
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Stampfl taught physical education at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Barnet (then holders of the Public Schools Challenge Cup for athletics) from February to July 1940, when he was suddenly interned as an enemy alien. He was transported to Canada and then Australia. He went on hunger strike to protest at his confinement.
Early one June morning in 1940, he was shipped to Australia on the liner ship Arandora Star with a host of other prisoners of war. In the middle of the North Sea, a German U-boat torpedoed the ship; and within thirty minutes amid screams of fear, the ship was flooded with water and sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic. To survive, Stampfl forced a steel plate aside to get to the surface and then jumped into the freezing cold, oil-slicked sea. For eight hours he swam, wading off shock from the cold and struggling to keep his head above the water, before a rescue boat sighted him.
Jenkins observed that, under the relevant order, even friendly Germans and Austrians were arrested. He gave the date of Stampfl's detention as 2 July 1940, but, as this was the day that the Arandora Star (see below) was attacked, it was probably slightly earlier. The decision to arrest aliens was taken on 18 June 1940 He was one of 868 survivors when the liner SS Arandora Star, carrying 1,190 deportees, was torpedoed en route to Canada. Among those who lost their lives were the former Italian head chefs of London's Savoy
Savoy Hotel
The Savoy Hotel is a hotel located on the Strand, in the City of Westminster in central London. Built by impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the hotel opened on 6 August 1889. It was the first in the Savoy group of hotels and restaurants owned by...
and Ritz Hotel
Ritz Hotel
The Ritz London is a luxury 5-star hotel located in Piccadilly and overlooking Green Park in London.- History :Swiss hotelier César Ritz, former manager of the Savoy Hotel, opened the hotel on 24 May 1906...
s.
Hundreds died in the disaster, but those who survived were shipped back to Britain, interned and shipped once again to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. There, Stampfl was sent to an internment camp in Hay, and to ease the desperation plaguing the prisoners he organised athletics, boxing, wrestling and football matches. ‘It was not just a job for me,’ he said. ‘It was an inner desire to survive and remain sane for myself and my friends in camp.’ When the war ended, Stampfl married an Australian woman he’d met in Melbourne and moved back to London. Although he suffered terribly over the previous years and had trouble sleeping under linen or far from an open window because of his long confinement, he still admired the English for their love of amateur sport, and felt their athletes could use his help. He returned to Britain in 1946 to continue athletics coaching. He reconnected with amateur officials and arranged for a number of coaching posts, including part-time ones at Cambridge and Oxford Universities. Still he was not asked to aid the British Olympic team in 1952 – evidence that amateur officials never brought him fully into their fold because he was an outsider.
The Four-Minute Mile
Stampfl's coaching assisted Roger BannisterRoger Bannister
Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister, CBE is an English former athlete best known for running the first recorded mile in less than 4 minutes...
to the world's first sub four-minute mile
Four-minute mile
In the sport of athletics, the four-minute mile is the act of completing the mile run in less than four minutes. It was first achieved in 1954 by Roger Bannister in 3:59.4. The 'four minute barrier' has since been broken by many male athletes, and is now the standard of all male professional...
at Oxford
Roger Bannister running track
The Roger Bannister running track, also known as the Oxford University track, is a 400-metres athletics running track and stadium in Oxford, England. It was where Sir Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile on 6 May 1954, when it was known as the Iffley Road track...
on 6 May 1954. Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher
Chris Brasher
Christopher William "Chris" Brasher CBE was a British athlete, sports journalist and co-founder of the London Marathon.-History:...
, who played key roles in pacing Bannister to the record, were also coached by Stampfl and his methods were adopted by, among others, the tennis player Ashley Cooper and the boxer Don Cockell
Don Cockell
Donald John Cockell was an English boxer. He fought for most of his career as a light-heavyweight and became the British and European champion at that weight. Later in his career he moved up to heavyweight and held the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles...
who took Rocky Marciano
Rocky Marciano
Rocky Marciano , born Rocco Francis Marchegiano, was an American boxer and the heavyweight champion of the world from September 23, 1952, to April 27, 1956. Marciano is the only champion to hold the heavyweight title and go undefeated throughout his career. Marciano defended his title six times...
to nine rounds in their heavyweight
Heavyweight
Heavyweight is a division, or weight class, in boxing. Fighters who weigh over 200 pounds are considered heavyweights by the major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the World Boxing Association, the World Boxing Council, and the World Boxing...
title fight in 1955. A humble man, the Austrian coach had ignored the hype after Bannister’s Iffley Road triumph, preferring to slip away quitetly and get back to London to train other athletes. He didn’t need to stand around and have his picture taken by Bannister’s side nor claim that the four-minute mile had been achieved through strict adherence to his coaching. The only satisfaction Stampl got from the publicity was the knowledge that it would encourage more athletes to train with him.
Stampfl's book, Franz Stampfl on Running, first published in 1955, was a great success and rated by The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
as an "admirable and enthralling text-book on training and tactics".
Australian Successes
In 1955, Stampfl was invited to Australia to become Director of Athletics at Melbourne University and he settled in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
until his death.
At the 1956 Olympic Games
1956 Summer Olympics
The 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, which could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations...
in Melbourne, Stampfl coached 11 of the athletes in the Australian team.
He trained many successful Australian athletes during his lifetime; most notably:
- Ralph DoubellRalph DoubellRalph Douglas Doubell AM is an Australian former athlete, and gold medallist at the 1968 Summer Olympics.-Biography:...
- 1968 Olympic1968 Summer OlympicsThe 1968 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Mexico City, Mexico in October 1968. The 1968 Games were the first Olympic Games hosted by a developing country, and the first Games hosted by a Spanish-speaking country...
Gold Medal 800 metres800 metresThe 800 meter race is a common track running event. It is the shortest common middle distance track event. The 800 meter is run over two laps of the track and has always been an Olympic event. During indoor track season the event is usually run on a 200 meter track, therefore requiring four laps...
- World Record - Gael MartinGael MartinGael Patricia Mulhall-Martin is a former Australian athlete, daughter of footballer Ken Mulhall, an Australian rules footballer with the St Kilda Football Club.She competed in the shot put and in the discus throw....
- 1984 Olympic Bronze Medal shot putShot putThe shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" a heavy metal ball—the shot—as far as possible. It is common to use the term "shot put" to refer to both the shot itself and to the putting action....
Other Stampfl athletes included Olympic finalists Tony Sneazwell, Alan Crawley and Merv Lincoln, in addition to Commonwealth
Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 and takes place every four years....
champions Peter Bourke, Sue Howland and Judy Peckham.
Interval Training
Stampfl was a great proponent of the interval style of training where athletes run high-intensity distance trials followed by short recovery periods. An example could be 12 repetitions of 400 metres with a 200 metre jog between each.Stampfl had a great rivalry with Percy Cerutty
Percy Cerutty
Percy Wells Cerutty was one of the world's leading athletics coaches in the 1950s and 1960s....
who coached the legendary middle-distance champion Herb Elliott
Herb Elliott
Herbert James "Herb" Elliott AC MBE is a former Australian athlete, one of the world's greatest middle distance runners...
. Stampfl's coaching was regarded as 'scientific' whereas Cerutty's techniques were considered more 'natural', based on 'Stotan' (a mixture of Stoic
Stoicism
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early . The Stoics taught that destructive emotions resulted from errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not suffer such emotions.Stoics were concerned...
and Sparta
Sparta
Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...
n) philosophies. As such, they - and their athletes - were seen as obvious rivals.
Quadriplegia
Stampfl was involved in a car accident in 1980, his vehicle being hit while stationary at a traffic light, and was left a quadriplegic. Despite this, he continued to coach.In 1981 he was awarded an MBE
MBE
MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...
for services to athletics.