So I coach a casual track program for 11 year olds. One of my kids is fast and enthusiastic, and she asked me what to do about feeling boxed in on the track when she's running the mile. I explained to her about not passing in the curves, having patience to stay behind people who are going about the pace she wants early in the race, kicking around people on the straightaways, etc.
We only have two meets the whole season - most kids this age aren't thinking about strategy to run a good track mile, and two meets is about what they want. But if she only experiences it in the meet, she's not going to get a good chance to work on strategies. I can think of some ways to practice it, but at this age most of the kids don't push hard enough in practice to produce the frustrating bottlenecks we encounter in races. Any thoughts on how to produce a practice environment for this with kids at this age?