In MN for example, coaches are not allowed to coach their athletes for the 1st 2 weeks of August, from the end of cross country (~ Nov 5) until the start of track (~March 10), and the week of July 4th.
This does not make any sense to me. Running requires year round practice and it seems negligent for athletes to be training for months at a time without guidance from their coach.
Can anyone explain to me what the purpose of these rules are?
1) HS leagues want to feel self-important
2) HS leagues want to promote "amateurism" and "letting kids be kids"
3) Before these rules, football coaches would have year-round mandatory or pseudomandatory training programs that took over kids' lives
pewow wrote:
In MN for example, coaches are not allowed to coach their athletes for the 1st 2 weeks of August, from the end of cross country (~ Nov 5) until the start of track (~March 10), and the week of July 4th.
This does not make any sense to me. Running requires year round practice and it seems negligent for athletes to be training for months at a time without guidance from their coach.
Can anyone explain to me what the purpose of these rules are?
I'm from PA. Never heard of this. Always had our coach's phone # and could always get in touch.
I'm a HS soccer coach and from my understanding it originated with football and the inception of the number of off-season contact/practice days. Football coaches would run camp/practice all summer up until the season start date and athletes were getting injured. I know at my school, parents and athletes enjoy the non contact week so that they can do any last family/vacation since they are booked Monday-Saturday from August - November.
I can see the need for this. Watch Friday Night Lights and tell me that BS is healthy.
HS kids are kids. Let them have the summer off.
I can't figure it out either. Here in NY I can't talk to my athletes, I can't ask them how summer training is going nor can I train them. Unless of course I have a club, open to anyone and everyone. That's how many coaches get around it here in NY. Spring sports start March 1st and the baseball kids are training as a club, no cuts, no competitions as a HS team against other teams. Before Aug 18th volunteer football coaches conduct drills while the head coach stands outside the fence or sometimes just sits in the bleachers pretending to read a newspaper.
coach wrote:
I can't figure it out either. Here in NY I can't talk to my athletes, I can't ask them how summer training is going nor can I train them. Unless of course I have a club, open to anyone and everyone. That's how many coaches get around it here in NY. Spring sports start March 1st and the baseball kids are training as a club, no cuts, no competitions as a HS team against other teams. Before Aug 18th volunteer football coaches conduct drills while the head coach stands outside the fence or sometimes just sits in the bleachers pretending to read a newspaper.
Why are you calling High School kids on the phone? Leave them alone and make some friends your own age.
I don't want my coach calling me.
Board of Control approved summertime contact is as follows:
(a) Unrestricted School Coaching Contact - Coaches in all WIAA recognized sports (baseball, cross country,
football, golf, gymnastics, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, volleyball, soccer, basketball,
hockey and wrestling) have been afforded up to 5 days of unrestricted school coaching contact between the
end of school and July 31, in accordance with the Bylaws and as described in item B of this section. The five
days do not need to be consecutive.
1) There must be a minimum of one calendar week (Sun.-Sat.) of no unrestricted school coaching contact
prior to (i.e. the week immediately preceding) the first allowed practice in a fall sport. This does not
affect unlimited nonschool coaching contact.
2) Football must follow the WIAA Fall Acclimatization policy.
(b) Unlimited Nonschool Coaching Contact – Coaches in the sports of baseball, cross country, golf, gymnastics,
soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field and wrestling, have been afforded unlimited nonschool
coaching contact beyond the five unrestricted days that is permitted to continue throughout the summertime
(when school is not in session from the last day of school to the start of school) in accordance with
the Bylaws and as described in Section 2 – A and C-1) of this section.
The original reason is so that coaches can't have kids practicing all year- it's high school.
NY no longer has it. We have coaches at our school who have "voluntary" practice all school year and into the summer.
There are open gyms for the freaking cheer leaders.
They tell them that's the only way to get a scholarship and literally no one get's scholarships except a couple track/xc kids every year.
How hard would it be to write a summer training plan for any sport and hand it out at the end of the school year?
Why is it so bad to have kids "practice" all year? If you like a certain sport , why not work at getting better at it??
Every rule like this exists for one reason: someone, somewhere, did something stupid.
Some coaches are controlling and will take over kids' lives if you let them. They forget they are kids. This rule exists because a few coaches have ruined kids' health and maybe their lives by working them too hard year-round.
high schooler to be wrote:
How hard would it be to write a summer training plan for any sport and hand it out at the end of the school year?
that's what my coach has to do. I think it would be a lot better if he was allowed to contact us and hold summer practice. A few times during the off season I've found myself either pushing myself too hard or not hard enough. One of the times I pushed myself too hard, I got injured. I doubt that would have happened if my coach was telling me what to do. During the off season my teammates either have to run by themselves or sometimes we have captain's practice.
high schooler to be wrote:
How hard would it be to write a summer training plan for any sport and hand it out at the end of the school year?
Why is it so bad to have kids "practice" all year? If you like a certain sport , why not work at getting better at it??
Read the post below your poorly thought out post.
Writing a training plan and lording over kids are two different things.
Many of these coaches tell the kids that this is the only way they're going to get a scholarship- and they rarely get them anyway.
Many kids are mediocre at the one sport they play because they aren't developing athletic skills playing multiple sports.
runn wrote:
high schooler to be wrote:How hard would it be to write a summer training plan for any sport and hand it out at the end of the school year?
Why is it so bad to have kids "practice" all year? If you like a certain sport , why not work at getting better at it??
Read the post below your poorly thought out post.
Writing a training plan and lording over kids are two different things.
Many of these coaches tell the kids that this is the only way they're going to get a scholarship- and they rarely get them anyway.
Many kids are mediocre at the one sport they play because they aren't developing athletic skills playing multiple sports.
High school runners are going to run year round so doesn't it makes more sense for a coach to be there to hold them back when they want to go to hard.
In MN even writing your runners a training plan in the winter would be against the rules (even though difficult to prove and penalize). I think there would be fewer injuries with coaches supervising training.
Even in sports like basketball and hockey I believe that there would be fewer injuries if coaches were leading drills or a controlled scrimmage instead of simply having a couple of hours of open gym or open ice every day.
runn wrote:
high schooler to be wrote:How hard would it be to write a summer training plan for any sport and hand it out at the end of the school year?
Why is it so bad to have kids "practice" all year? If you like a certain sport , why not work at getting better at it??
Read the post below your poorly thought out post.
Writing a training plan and lording over kids are two different things.
Many of these coaches tell the kids that this is the only way they're going to get a scholarship- and they rarely get them anyway.
Many kids are mediocre at the one sport they play because they aren't developing athletic skills playing multiple sports.
Yeah, I'm sure there are some coaches like that, but I doubt promising scholarships to kids who aren't sure if they want to go out for a sport will win them over. I also doubt a coach like that would be around very long. Many kids are mediocre because they never apply themselves. You don't need a basketball coach to watch you practice free throws or dribble with you weak side to improve.
I've been texting my coach idgaf
Pass Perfect wrote:
I can see the need for this. Watch Friday Night Lights and tell me that BS is healthy.
HS kids are kids. Let them have the summer off.
Yeah let them have the summer off? Great idea see how the guys show up during the season
You don't need coaching the first two weeks of August.
Just get in some running. Or not.
Time off is good.
Star wrote:
You don't need coaching the first two weeks of August.
Just get in some running. Or not.
Time off is good.
Surely you are kidding. Taking two weeks off in August would be terrible for some HS kids cross country season.
Another point for the people who think that coaches not having contact with their athletes is a good thing - How is a 9th grader new to the sport supposed to adequately coach themselves?
hopefully the kids are running easily on their own. But are you technically allowed to give advice on training and injuries? If not then the rule is stupid.
As far as 9th graders getting coaching teams have their own facebook pages with captains giving advice and conducting training.