What group would you say is A.) The most dedicated group in HS track. And B.) Most competitive/hard to be the best

Distance is the most dedicated in my opinion- look at all the people who are still at the track after practice is over, most of them are distance.

Sprinters are the most competitive because the primary factor is talent and natural ability, whereas in the other events you can overcome a lack of talent with hard work and become OK.

a. distance (they run a LOT of mileage, at least the committed ones)

b. sprinters, a bunch of adrenaline, and psyching out. toughest part is relying on a lean at the finish line to practically determine a race

On my team, barely anyone is dedicated to the team and really improving at all. But those who are, are on Distance. Sprinters are mostly football players who are fast from football and this is just another off-season or are people who want to or are pushed to get out and do a spring sport but really don't want to put in the effort. Throwers spend a lot of time practicing form but I can't really talk for them, it just seems that they don't do as much that would be painful. Distance runners have to run more of course, the workouts are the most painful for the longest time, the events are more painful than the others. There's a big difference between the doomish feeling of the two-mile and having to keep up those 5-7 splits without slowing down and just finishing strong in the 200m. The only grey area is the 400m since it's a sprint but is pretty difficult to finish strong in for any person running, elite or not.

On a competitive note, and this is completely relative for my team specifically, I have a pretty slow time but I would've been 3rd last year with my time from this year and I'm 5th (We got two african kids who are really fast) this year and I run a 4:56. But to get to leagues, districts, state is a lot more difficult. We are in the most competitive district in the state of Washington with many of the XC winners/podium finishers in our district. This might seem like it's relatively slow because my team is slow but not one of the kids who ran at district ran over 10 at leagues in the two-mile. No one on our team was within 25 seconds of a district time for the two-mile this year, or last year, or going back to our school record setter.

Pole vaulters, in a place like Manhattan where there's like ONE indoor pole vault pit (at the armory) and they have 20 kids in a line every day waiting their turn to take a vault. Has to be the most tedious training imaginable. Plus it's super specialized, you basically have to have a dedicated pole-vault coach watching the kid all the time when you go to the track. What school has the time and money for that? Maybe it makes sense to have a dedicated coach if you've got ten kids pole vaulting, but that would make the line ten times longer!

As a coach, I have to weigh what we mean by "dedicated" first of all. Someone else already noted how pole vault is unique and highly specialized. So those kids have to be very dedicated: it's a special event and requires at optimum specialized coaching and certainly specialized facilities. Technically, it is considered within the scope of jumps, but even then it's totally its own thing. There is a longstanding dedication involved in going out for PV.

The distance guys certainly put in the time and miles. So if you're talking time spent on your event in practice, I guess we can give it to them. You'd be surprised how much time throwers put in however as well.

All races are highly competitive. It's most evident with sprinters, sure, but distance runners looking to shave off a couple seconds can also be brutally competitive.

There is an interesting and possibly impeding deficit in competition in relays I'm finding, in that once unifying as a team for the relay no longer are athletes so competitive against each other. I'm not sure that plays into problems with getting the best results on relays at the national level but would be interesting for a sports psychologist to examine. I find raw competition is at its best when you can focus your own performance in direct comparison with an opponent or opponents.

dsfsadfs wrote:

Pole vaulters, in a place like Manhattan where there's like ONE indoor pole vault pit (at the armory) and they have 20 kids in a line every day waiting their turn to take a vault. Has to be the most tedious training imaginable. Plus it's super specialized, you basically have to have a dedicated pole-vault coach watching the kid all the time when you go to the track. What school has the time and money for that? Maybe it makes sense to have a dedicated coach if you've got ten kids pole vaulting, but that would make the line ten times longer!

I was hired as a vault coach. What that means is that 2 to 3 days a week I am coaching only vault. Another 2 or 3 days a week I ask the other coaches what they need help with and I do that. That means that some days I am coaching handoffs or blocks, other days I'm timing distance kids, etc.

But on topic: my vault kids start their sprint workout (we vault first, run second) after the distance kids have gone home.

I think the best in any group work as hard as will make them better. They would all do more if their bodies could handle it.