It's alot of work. I get no support. Burnt out. I'm sure the kids see it. At least they recognize one person does everything.
I just want to coach distance. If I wanted to do that I would probably have to teach at anther school.
Anyone else in the same boat?
I never learned to coach the technical events. Solved that problem before it happened.
I never learned the technical events, but have been forced in to a situation where I have to coach them all. I'm trying to learn, but find it immensely frustrating that I can't give any of the kids what they deserve, and teach the technical aspects poorly.
I'd really enjoy teaching a single event group, but that's just not a possibility currently, as the only people in our community with technical knowledge don't have work schedules compatible with HS coaching.
Where do you teach/coach?
I know some schools are now doing track as a class during the school schedule. Really hurts your coaching recruitment/retention unless you get lucky with having enough teachers with a track background.
At the school I coach at, track starts at 4. Much easier sell for those of us with 9-5 type of jobs. As a result we have great off campus coaches. How many high schools have a dedicated horizontal jumps coach, dedicated vault coach, and dedicated hj coach? We have four distance/md coaches, a throws coach, a sprints coach, and one parent who fills in as needed.
If you have the ability to make the sort of change, it could solve your problem.
Another way to think outside the box is to bring one event group on occasional days to another school who does have a good coach for those events. Or ask if that coach would help teach you on occasional weekends.
I'm currently helping a rival high school's coach learn to coach the pole vault. I'd much rather support the sport overall than watch his kids hurt themselves.
Any coach worth his salt will learn how to coach virtually every event. I love coaching distance, but there are other kids on the team who need and deserve good coaching. Open a book...go to a clinic. It's not rocket science and can be very rewarding.
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