Coach of High Performance West writes the following:
http://www.hmmrmedia.com/2016/02/remedies-for-collegiate-burnout/
Coach of High Performance West writes the following:
http://www.hmmrmedia.com/2016/02/remedies-for-collegiate-burnout/
What does he mean when he says he's retiring in 5 years? Can't read the article since I'm not a member.
salty wrote:
What does he mean when he says he's retiring in 5 years? Can't read the article since I'm not a member.
I read it, and I'm not a member either. It was linked to the Track and Field News main page.
I meant to read the article he hyperlinks about retiring in 5 years.
I like the red shirting idea
Every college distance runner should run cross country in the fall, and track in the spring. And that is it!
No more of this indoor track nonsense. Indoor track has done more to kill American distance running than anything else in the last 20 years. How in the world can you expect collegiate distance runners to compete in cross country from the end of August to middle of November. Then, you give the guy a two week break. And then you move to indoor track mode from mid December to mid March. After the indoor track season, the kid gets a week off before he has to run the outdoor season from the end of march until early June. This is the definition of insanity, folks! Why do we do this to our distance runners in this country? Makes no sense at all!
Agreed - really hard for distance runners to put 3 great seasons in a row together without undue wear-and-tear. Maybe just keep the indoor season to races 800m and shorter, and keep it for the field events. It could serve as a pre-season for the sprinters, jumpers, and throwers.
It's fairly inaccurate and pretentious of Coach Marcus to give the impression that it was his choice to no longer be in the NCAA. The opening of this article paints him in a glowing light, one that proclaims that he stepped away for the betterment of the athlete and the sport. It's an attractive story, sure, but the truth lies somewhere in between "vote of no-confidence" and "non-renewed contract."
Division 2 dog wrote:
I like the red shirting idea
I think redshirt in is one of the dumbest things to ever happen to college athletics. It use to be that if you didn't graduate with your class you were an idiot. Then it became acceptable to delay graduation so you could get one more season out of it. After that it became desirable to take redshirt seasons to extend your college career. Finally, the absurdity was raised to a new level, where "student"-athletes began transferring to other school to get that fifth year of extended adolescence.
Really, the best thing the NCAA could do is to completely eliminate the redshirt and make students graduate in four years, and move on into adulthood.
Malmo resurfaces!
I don't know if it's the year round schedule that burns people out or the year round, trying to be in top form that does it, my hunch is that it's the later.
CoachB wrote:
Malmo resurfaces!
I don't know if it's the year round schedule that burns people out or the year round, trying to be in top form that does it, my hunch is that it's the later.
It must be the coaching.
I ran three seasons a year for four years straight, at a high level, and probably more races per year than the coach being cited, yet managed not to burn out. Nor did my teammates. Nor did my competitive peers. I came from a top ten program of National recordholders, National champions and All Americas. Yet we are supposed to accept the meandering musings of a small college coach of modest credentials as being representative of the College athletic experience? Excuse me Doc, I'd prefer a second opinion.
I think that what is being observed here is the logical fallacy of the false presumption, ergo faulty conclusion.
Just wondering how exactly coach Marcus knows about "burning" athletes out.. to be honest I barely knew Portland State had a Division 1 program. I think it all depends on how you set up your seasons and where you place your focus. There are many Division 1 programs that do very well in all 3 seasons. Granted each program must place an emphasis on what season they want to "peak" the most for. Look at Oregon for example, they run very well in all three seasons but place less of an emphasis on cross country and still do very well but do exceptional in indoor and outdoor. Colorado on the other hand places an enormous amount of focus into succeeding in cross country obviously and then they may place less emphasis on indoor track. I think you see with these programs they demonstrate that they aren't afraid to give their runners a rest when they need it so it prevents them from getting burned out towards the end of outdoor track. Just my two cents.
Except for the top ten program with national champions and All Americans part, the same was true for me and really for all of us in those days. We raced 25-30 times a year and because it mostly happened in dual and tri meets where you needed to place the races were usually all out. I really cannot understand how a cross country season where you race seriously 2-3 times and two track seasons where you do the same are going to burn you out.
"Burn out" is a concept we mostly accept but never really define. Lots of college runners tire of the sport and quit running before graduating. That's not necessarily because of burn out. It's normal for college kids to lose interest in things they were into before college and to find other things to replace those things. I don't know if that phenomenon is more common among elite college runners or average ones. Some average ones will decide they really aren't going to be great and will decide it's better to spend their time on something else. But for elite ones, where college running is a job, quitting may not be an option so they hang in there doing something they'd rather not for the money. Yeah, that can fry a person but that's true of any job.
And I'm on board with the redshirt business too. If someone gets to redshirt at all I'd restrict it to medical redshirts or maybe to grad students.
great post.
still college kills a lot of guys.
Malmo, I am violently opposed to 6th year medical redshirt. How say u?
i dont know wrote:
Just wondering how exactly coach Marcus knows about "burning" athletes out.. to be honest I barely knew Portland State had a Division 1 program.
This is not intended as criticism of Marcus, but is there a chance he was trying to train his athletes at a level they weren't at?
malmo wrote:
It must be the coaching.
I ran three seasons a year for four years straight, at a high level, and probably more races per year than the coach being cited, yet managed not to burn out. Nor did my teammates. Nor did my competitive peers. I came from a top ten program of National recordholders, National champions and All Americas. Yet we are supposed to accept the meandering musings of a small college coach of modest credentials as being representative of the College athletic experience? Excuse me Doc, I'd prefer a second opinion.
I think that what is being observed here is the logical fallacy of the false presumption, ergo faulty conclusion.
College athletics is at a whole other level now than when you were in college.
I would be burnt out too if I had to train year round and only got to race 10 or 12 times over those 3 seasons. The sport should be about competing instead of training.
Every other sport would consider that ludicrous. How many basketball players would get burnt out if they practiced 4 months but only played one game a month until the tourney?
Yes, the problem is the coaching, not the three seasons. Too much emphasis on training, too much intensity, not enough racing.
Race a little more, run a little more, run less intensity, enjoy it a little more. Stop measuring every run and placing a time and pace on every run, running can be enjoyable and if done enough and done right it can make you faster.
Marcus ran the crap out of his athletes at Portland State.
Why are Jonathan Marcus and Steve Magness considered "experts"?
Let me know when one of them accomplishes something to note. I don't believe either of them have even coached an All-American, is that correct?
Marcus is no longer in the NCAA, so guess he'll have to measure his crappy coaching another way.