Building Culture/Lifestyle on HS team - Critique my idea

these are all good points, I think you could even argue that the outside of practice stuff is even more important, because without building a solid foundation of eating, sleeping, healthy life habits, you ruin your practices and racing. I wouldn't be too overly in the face of high schoolers about this though because they might not like it/quit/take it even less seriously or even burn out by living such a regimented lifestyle early in their running careers.

Scrap it.

I can't really critique this, because if I were to try to improve upon the conceit you put out there, I would not keep any of what you stated. I cannot overstate how terrible and, to be blunt, lazy this idea is.

lower tier d1 walk-on wrote:

these are all good points, I think you could even argue that the outside of practice stuff is even more important, because without building a solid foundation of eating, sleeping, healthy life habits, you ruin your practices and racing.

Thanks! I was considering adjusting the percentage points to represent that, but wasn't sure...

lower tier d1 walk-on wrote:

I wouldn't be too overly in the face of high schoolers about this though because they might not like it/quit/take it even less seriously or even burn out by living such a regimented lifestyle early in their running careers.

Totally true - however - the situation calls for it. I'll be the girls distance coach at a same school that has one of the best boys distance programs in the state. After meeting with the 'senior leaders' on the team, I got the feeling that they want their program to be similar to the boys; one that is extremely based on lifestyle.

Honestest guy on here wrote:

Scrap it. I would not keep any of what you stated.

Interesting idea - I'll pass, but it's interesting...

I'd be intrigued to hear how you would help your HS team understand that success in running, and life, is about the lifestyle choices you make.

macdaddy wrote:

I'll be the girls distance coach at a same school that has one of the best boys distance programs in the state. After meeting with the 'senior leaders' on the team, I got the feeling that they want their program to be similar to the boys; one that is extremely based on lifestyle.

Are your "senior leaders" also your best runners? You really need buy-in from your best runners. As they do the outside practice things, if they aren't already doing them, they will improve even more. If they are already doing them, great! You can then use them as examples when girls come to you and want to know how to improve and be like your best runners. This is how it started on my team without me ever doing a thing. My best runners were doing those things outside practice and extolling the virtues of them during and outside of practice. If you wanted to run like them, you started to emulate them. Thus the ball began rolling and hasn't stopped yet. I occasionally will get the "how do I get as good as them" question from younger runners or newbies, and I simply say, "Go talk to them." This is how culture is built.

I cannot suggest this podcast enough.

It was suggested to me a while back and I did not begin to listen to it until recently. Its nice on the drive to and from work. Really good coaches talking about just the things you need.

https://soundcloud.com/user-270286681

Good Luck. -if you want to talk more i have a ton of stuff i have been sharing, but don't want to post here because trolls. -

manbearcoach@gmail.com