Should I hire a coach for my son? Input please

I hate the idea of a high schooler getting an outside coach. The ones I knew from high school in my state all ended up running terribly in college too. It's like they get brainwashed into thinking there's only one way to get fast, and when they go to college their coach doesn't do what their 'special' coach did when they were in high school. This is coming from me, who was a state champion and eventual D1 all-american at a P5 school. Just let your kid do the normal school practice. As long as he keeps increasing his mileage steadily, getting in some workouts, and throw in a little weights/core workouts and he'll keep getting better. At 15-20 miles per week those times are very impressive. Increasing 10 miles per week per year to me seems like a good progression. 25-30 as a freshman, 35-40 as a sophomore, 45-50 as a junior, and 55-60 miles per week as a senior. With long runs starting at 8-10 miles as a freshman/sophomore and 10-12 miles as a junior/senior. In high school track they race quite often compared to college, so running all of the meets is essentially the speed work, and then it's on your kid to make sure he gets enough mileage outside of those races. Getting that Sunday long run in, getting some easy miles on Saturday, and on a couple week days when the coach just sends them out for an easy run, he needs to make sure he gets in the mileage to hit his weekly goal. People over complicate training, you basically just need some decent mileage, a couple workouts per week where you run fast, and that's about it. If he adapts and actually gets fast, then a college coach will be ready to take him to the next level beyond high school.

Having a private coach will likely ostracize him from his team, so keep that in mind. I do think it is a plus that his h.s. coach acknowledges her limitations, that is rare.

My daughter’s team has a brother / sister who have a private coach. This started this summer. They still attend some practices but it definitely rubs their teammates the wrong way. Both are average (mid 20 5k for girl and mid 17 for boy).

I would say see how his freshman year goes, then re-evaluate.

Research these people:

Matt Centro Sr

Peter Coe

Gjert Ingebritsen

Tin Mom

Michael Granville’s father

See if you can get in touch with these guys via social media: Scott Razko, Al Sal, and Tinman.

Short answer: No--just keep an eye on him yourself to make sure he is not overtraining.

Longer answer: I was a bit of a junior high prodigy myself, in 8th grade I ran 2.09, 4.39, 10.04. I ended up running D1 and being decent but not great, sort of on the bubble for All-conference at a major conference. As a former junior high prodigy, I tend to keep tabs on others with similar times, and some are total busts, running only slighlty faster ever ,and some become D1 All Americans multiple times over. It is way to early to tell, but your son's short size show that there may be significant room for improvement so that is encouraging.

However, coaching is way overrated for running. It is not like football where you need to study tape and learn plays and how to recognize the other side's formations and schemes etc. There are not a lot of skills to practice other than pacing. Therefore, the only thing a coach really has to do is not screw up. It is discouraging that so many coaches can't seem to do that right, but honestly the only thing that have to do is not over-train or injure the kid. Make sure his recovery days are slow. Make sure he is only doing 2 "workout" (i.e., intervals or tempo) days tops in-season (and 1 or none off season) and that he is running controlled paces (not all out efforts) except on race days. As his dad, you can probably just keep an eye on him to make sure he does that, and also that he gets a full night's sleep and also that he doesn't get any dumb injuries from doing stupid things horsing around with friends. Do that and he will improve and be good no matter what.

Key question: how motivated is your son now? If he's super motivated and gladly runs/workouts on his own, the private route will work. If he's so-so or less and just exhibits talent, it could be a push in the wrong direction as he tries and sorts everything out in HS.

Beyond that, a private coach will lift all boats - assuming his workouts will be incorporated (at least in part) during team workouts. Others will reap the benefits and great that the HS coach is supportive and open to this.

Also, if he's yet to hit puberty, an experienced private coach more than likely will help him navigate the bumps along the way w/ growth spurts, workout modifications, lifting/drills, recovery needed, etc.

I was a D1 college scholarship mid distance runner without knowledgeable parents and HS coaches, My trajectory went through community college for a year to fill development gaps and coaching experience. I'd figure some experienced coaching could have gotten me there as a freshman.

Best of luck.

I am not even going to bother reading the other responses here, because they either have it right or they don't.

1) Do NOT get a private coach for your 14-year-old son. Your kid is good for 8th grade, but holy SH!T, brother, he is not so good he needs a private coach. Quite frankly, NO high school kid needs a private coach. I know a kid who ran 4:42 for 1600 in the 8th grade, and everyone thought he was the next coming. He got down to only 4:24 in HS.

2) What if your kid fails to get better? Or what if he just gets to 4:24 like the kid I know of? That's not D1 material. You've just put a spotlight on his failure.

3) Sometimes there is a HUGE difference between what an 8th grade kid and a 9th grade kid will do, and that often has to do with just physical maturity. If your kid is a little older than most 8th graders or just matured a bit earlier, that's the difference right there. A 9th grade kid running 4:43 is nothing special. It's GOOD, but nothing special, so he will have to improve a lot to keep being special in 9th grade.

You will be a loser parent if you get this kid a private coach. Anyone telling you that TODAY your kid is D1 material has no freakin' idea what they are saying.

Since the high school coach basically is saying that she knows nothing, you should have your kid do some research on his own. Find out what other good high school kids in the area are doing. Pretty easy to do with social media. There's usually a good high school kid in any given area who is willing to talk training with a newbie.

You type like your senior year 5k PR was 20:58, or sub-20 minutes as you probably call it.

This kid's balls haven't even dropped and he's already crushing it. He's not gonna get slower as his body fills with testosterone and flies by your kid who will then go see a sports psychologist to cope.

Helpful Tipster wrote:

Research these people:

Matt Centro Sr

Peter Coe

Gjert Ingebritsen

Tin Mom

Michael Granville’s father

See if you can get in touch with these guys via social media: Scott Razko, Al Sal, and Tinman.

If Pops had the chops to cut it as a coach, he wouldn't ask about hiring one.

FWIW, this is still worth a read. Coe Sr. was a "coach's coach"

Don't get him a private coach. Let him run with the team and enjoy being a kid, doesn't last forever.

The people in your town saying he can "go Div. 1" based off of his times in 8th grade are idiots.

Stay out of it Dad and let him run on his own. The cream rises to the top.

BTW, what kind of athletic ability do you or Mom have? Might give you a little insight into the future.

Of course coaching makes a difference.

The typical 9' 3200 kid goes about 4:30 1500 in 8th grade.

And yeah there's the bio-banding aspect at that age as well.

So 4:43 isn't shabby, especially if the volume was in the 20mi /week range.

And your kid will improve quickly with a growth spurt, but only if uninjured and inspired.

Basically the kid in question here will double or triple his mileage in HS and need to work

the speed side as well -- D1 distance recruits can bust out a 53-55 400 at the minimum.

Balancing and individualizing the progression is trickier than it looks. Cookie- cutter programs get

cookie-cutter results.

I disagree with the premise that standing out is somehow ill advised.

The whole point of this sport is to stand out, to see what you can do...that requires intelligent work.

Get your kid a better coach.

Chances are you can work out a better arrangement, it's not necessarily a this or that choice.

HS races are just steppingstones, but sometimes HS coaches will need to call in a favor or two.

These sorts of outside arrangements work best if the communication is cordial and there is a bit f give and take.

Who is this kid????

My kid just turned 14 and has gone 2:11 800m/4:19 1500m/9:18 3000m.

I usually know who the top kids in the country are but I can't seem to find anyone on milesplit with his combo of times.

He doesn't exist, just a troll attempt. Happens once a month.

I think it is some private coach checking to see what people think of his profession. Trying to justify taking advantage of stupid parents.

Iron Bars wrote:

No need for a private coach just yet. Have him increase his mileage a bit, say to 30-35mi for now. Better yet, point him towards a second sport soccer, basketball or swimming. Revisit this question in a couple of years.

Lol This is kind of weird advice. I say just stick it out and give him time to develop. It may take a while but it sounds like he's on the right track.

Agree with most of the other posters.

Private coach is too much. The best thing for him is to enjoy the sport.

If you want to add extra development do summer track.

Maybe you can find a way to help the high school coach learn more. I don’t know how to do that politely, like many on this forum, social skills are a weakness.

What area of the US are you in? Maybe I can steer you in the right direction.

To the person that touted the level 1 certification. It’s a good overview but only a few hours of instruction of the endurance events. Level 2 a little better as it is specialized. Level 3 is great not only because of the instructors but also the top level students.

Dude, you haven't been around enough middle school kids (girls AND boys) who were studs who then were duds in high school. He likely will not get slower (though I have seen that too with boys who were good in middle school who got slower in high school), but he very well could progress not much.

Tons of things can happen to a boy in high school that makes him not that great.

1) Decently mature already in middle school.

2) Injuries or illness.

3) Can't handle high school level training.

4) Races all workouts and then runs sub-par in races.

5) Adds another sport like soccer to the list.

6) Gets too muscular.

7) Gets too tall.

8) Is behind with regard to physical maturity.

9) Doesn't like running. No passion makes it tough to do well.

10) More interested in girls/dating/whatever.

11) The list could go on and on.

Not sure what my answer has to do with my HS 5000 PR, but I ran 15:48 in HS. I only had two years to get used to that distance, because my state changed it from 2.5 miles to 5000 meters my junior year.

My kid did pretty well in high school, so ANY HS kid has a tall order to fill to be better.

You made a post based on a lot of not knowing much.

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There is no typical middle school times when it comes to looking at a 9:00 3200 kid. 9:00 guys come from all over the place.

Also, a growth spurt might not actually help. A 95 pound kid who is 5'4" in 8th grade could EASILY shoot up to 6'4" or taller. That's not necessarily a good thing for a distance runner.

It's not standing out that's the problem. It's the helicopter parent, the freshman kid who will think he's all that when he has accomplished nothing yet, the other kids on the team who might think he thinks he's better than them (and he might not be).

Stand out by running faster than everyone else, not by having some private coach who may or may not know anything anyway.

The high school coach seems to agree she doesn't know much.

I'll provide better info than she can, and I'll do it for free right now.

1) His mileage was low in middle school (but actually more than some middle school programs I know of). I don't know if the dad mentioned what he's running now mid-summer, but for a kid who WANTS to be good, he should be running 45 MPW by end of summer freshman year and then 40 in season. Build up to 50 in the winter and down to 45 for spring track season. Then get up to 60 before sophomore season. 70 before junior season, and then anything over 70 before senior season is based on lots of things...how injury prone is he...how much is he willing to do...how good is he at that point.

2) Dad should stay out of it other than to be supportive.

3) Kid should get new training shoes every 500 miles MAX...sooner if there are little injuries.

4) In season CC, during a week with a meet on Saturday, there should be one mid-week workout. The rest of the week should be straight distance runs.

5) He should do a long run on Sunday. 8-10 miles as a freshman, and up from there.

6) He should cool down with at least a 3 mile run after the race on meet day.

7) He should eat healthy meals and get 8-10 hours of sleep a night.

8) He should drink a lot of water. There is really no reason to drink anything but water.

9) NO scheduled days off until the season is over. Fridays before a meet should be a light day...consider that the day off.

10) When the season is over, take 3 days off MAX before starting up again preparing for spring track. None of this 2 weeks off stuff that some kids do. Even better, do a run, day off, run, day off, run, day off thing after the season and then start running again every day.

11) Even though both of my kids had practice twice a day on some days in high school, and they both did well, I am not a fan of that for the most part. If the school does that, then the kid should do it, but if not, I'm not into introducing doubles until a runner is over 70 MPW. High school IS more than just running after all. Over 70 MPW, it would be time to introduce a couple of doubles per week.

There.

Even better- avoid doing most of this crap advice. 70 + mpw in HS haha dumb.