middle school drama wrote:
I'm coaching a middle school track team in a wealthy area of Silicon Valley and one of the mom's keeps emailing me and the athletic director about me not teaching proper "breathing technique" to the distance runners. I was a high jumper/hurlder in college so I thought I had adequate knowledge to coach a middle school team. What the heck is she talking about? My old coach says she must be an avid runners world reader and laughed and said good luck.
I'd say you "are unaware of any best practices regarding breathing technique for distance runners, other than those espoused by Lydiard." (reference earlier post, but don't spell it out so as not to unnecessarily offend).
Then say you are always open to consider good ideas, so if she has any detailed information, or studies, or articles, outlining her ideas you'd be happy to take a look at them. At least she might feel listened to, and stop hounding you.
She'll either not follow through, send you something unintentionally humorous (post this back here!), or send you something interesting that you can further research and possibly learn from.
Not much downside to this approach. At least you avoid making an enemy.