This is gold, it's from Stu McMillan at http://www.mcmillanspeed.com/2013/08/getting-called-up-to-majors.html?showComment=1376871491391#c3967362121043875113

The more talented (i.e. ‘competitive’) the athlete, the less he or she needs to do to succeed...the less that athlete’s coach needs to do for the athlete to succeed...the less important nutrition, supplementation, sports medicine is for the athlete to succeed.  And without this necessity, there is no impetus for the athlete, and the coach, and the support team, to do anything different.  There is no motivation to drive forward - to seek out more information - to search for optimization of the nutritional plan - to devise the perfect regeneration strategy - to reach out to the best therapists...

The best track and field athletes in the world were generally the best athletes at every age-group they ever competed at.  Used to being the best, there has been no reason for their coaches to expand their current knowledge base.  ‘I’m already coaching the city’s/region’s/state’s/country’s/world’s best - I obviously already know what I’m doing - so why should I change?’  And this is a self-sustaining system - the more success that athlete has, the more athletes that coach can recruit, then the more different managers/agents and shoe companies come knocking - further feeding their confidence in their own abilities.