About Tony

Tony Ball is a Captain and Check Pilot for Alaska Airlines and a retired Washington Air National Guard Lieutenant Colonel where he flew KC-135s. His 29-year military career took him on countless trips and deployments all over the world in support of both peacetime and contingency operations. A devoted husband and father of two boys, Tony began coaching when his first-grade son inspired him to save a cross-country team facing cancellation without a coach. With 30 years of professional flying and more than 19,000 flying hours, Tony applies his extensive experience and analytical skills to the sport of running. Driven by obsessive attention to detail, a career rooted in energy management, a math and physics education, and the Air Force core value of “Excellence in All We Do,” he brings unmatched precision to his coaching philosophy. In Run Smart, Coach Smarter, Tony explains in granular yet applicable detail how to achieve perfect running form based on the physics of motion. He provides the blueprint for a lifetime of injury-free running, with not just the how but the why behind proper form. It’s sure to maximize every runner’s individual potential while revealing how running fuels success in life.