Someone above said it depends, and they're right b/c the situation is important. My coach ran with us in college on our long runs but when we were doing intervals, he was attached to the stopwatch calling out splits, and giving us feedback. I liked this.
I have an old coach that is still coaching today that I see jumping in races and workouts and trying to place in meets. Good for him that he is still in that type of shape, but I wouldn't want to line up in a corral with my coach against other teams, would look weird and would want my coach out there "coaching" during a meet. However, maybe his team likes it and they feel amped up by its b/c they don't have a chosen leader so he takes that role. Team dynamic matters here.
I would take my athletes to a nearby state forest to run. I always ran with the freshmen and Sophia to make sure they ran and didn’t get lost. Some of you who are non coaches may not realize the liability coaches and athletic departments face
Generally I think the coach should coach and not be part of the work out. Being out there on a long run is different, but I'm a bit squishy about that too. The long run is when the team talks about things and bonds, having the coach there could really put a damper on that.
Kinda like going out to have beers with your parents. Just not the same.
I was at a large and very successful D1 program and I used to get my ass whooped during long runs by my coach. Not weird at all, but annoying at times and it doesn’t let you screw around when your coach is out there with you. Definitely humbling and embarrassing when I got my ass kicked, but 3-4 years later my coach couldn’t keep up…
Learn how to put it out of your head and focus on what you're doing. If you can't put your coach out of your head at practice. My guess is you can't put your opponents out of your head in a race. And you're not at your best when that happens. Your mental strength is important to compete. If you ever watched Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt try and get inside Tyson Gay's head before a race. You would know it's important to focus on what you're capable of . They stared him down laughed and joked directly in front of him to disrupt his mental plan. He ignored them and stayed focused. You need to use that opportunity to practice your mental game and focus. So you can take a strong mental game to your race. If you're focusing on what your coach is doing at practice. Are you too focused on your opponents at a race?
... Not weird at all, but annoying at times and it doesn’t let you screw around when your coach is out there with you...
When I coached, I wanted my runners to bond and act like 16 year olds on their runs off campus. That was what can make joining the team fun for kids who aren't fast yet.
I would remind them each time, "Don't get hit by a car, truck, bus, mortocycle, dog, bike,..."
I don't think it's that weird that your coach runs with your team, but if that's getting in the way of him coaching you and he's entering races a lot trying to beat you guys, then that seems a bit over-stepping and not ideal. Also, him showering with the team is definitely weird and inappropriate, although from what I've heard, this is not entirely uncommon on the men's side of things. For women, I've never heard of a coach doing this, although I'm sure some do. My HS coaches all ran or biked aside the team on any type of road runs we had because it was mostly for supervision reasons. I actually really liked that they ran with us because that's when we could really talk more and get some good coaching. Our college coaches were not fit enough to run with the team so they did not ever run with us which was fine, but I did kinda miss having the coaches run with us at least sometimes. When I've coached, I've occasionally jumped in a tempo run or a repeat or 2 on the track if I thought it would be beneficial to help pace someone that was more novice and would otherwise pace poorly and not push as hard on their own, but usually I'd only do this if we had other coaches who would keep an eye on other groups or in the case of a track workout, it would only be for a few laps. When I was an assistant coach though and still in good shape, I've had head coaches use me as a training partner for some faster runners who had no one to train with and they seemed to appreciate it. The head coaches were still just watching and coaching though in those situations, so it wasn't like the only coach was just running the workouts. The kids seemed to appreciate me sometimes jumping in during situations where it was beneficial. Our college coaches would drive and try to catch part of our tempo runs as we ran by, but honestly there was not a lot of coaching for them to give from just watching us pass by on a tempo run, so I don't think having your coach jump in with another group here and during a tempo is really gonna hinder his coaching for you much. The men's coach at my college was more fit and regularly ran with his team for some easy runs, but I never heard anyone complain about it. If your coach is always running with the same workout group though and not able to answer questions or give feedback during any of your workouts or races though, that is a problem and not normal. Any running he does with the team should be aiding the team more than subtracting from his ability to coach the team.
it is possible it is too much, would have to be there. I typically only go on easy/long runs with my kids, and I don't even do that often. Once in awhile, I will run tempos or reps with a kid who I think needs assistance in keeping an honest pace. MOstly, young, inexperienced runners.
Workouts, I almost always feel like I can give better feedback by sitting with a stopwatch, so that is what I do 98% of the time. I don't think this necessarily has to be the case with all coaches, and college kids certainly have different needs than high school kids.
This sounds about perfect to me, at the high school level anyway.
I absolutely love(d) my high school coach, and this was more or less his M.O., though he may have joined the team more often on easy/long runs than you do. It kept him in great shape into his fifties (in his early-mid 40s he could almost always hang with the top varsity guys no matter how we tried), but most relevant to your question it deepened the bond between athletes and coach. High school runners become more invested, committed, and passionate if they have a coach they look up to who loves running, with whom they have a real rapport.
As an aside, in response to a couple of these comments, any high school coach who showers naked with their athletes should be fired immediately. It’s just not acceptable.
On the showering comment: I think things were different 30 or 40 years ago. The norms around locker room nudity have changed.
Today: Absolutely a no-go.
Back then: Would've been considered immature to talk about.
(Note that I'm not saying one is better than the other.)
I can see what you're saying -- not feeling like he's paying attention to your performance, since he's winded/distracted himself in workouts.
That said, I enjoyed going for runs with my coach in high school. He'd go with different groups on different days, so it wasn't an all-the-time thing. But he was a good conversationalist, told us about lots of running lore, and molded the team culture.
A lot of ppl saying they do workouts with their athletes have hs age athletes. This is a D1 college. Long runs are fine, I don’t think anyone is debating that. But why are you right next to me in my workouts? Like come on man. Coaching isn’t just about holding a stopwatch. Watch how we’re running, landing, arm swing. You can’t do that if you’re with us trying to beat us to the line. It’s not that difficult. We’re also not talking about the occasional workout or rep to show you still have it. That’s fine
Sounds like a great way for a coach who's probably a runner/former runner to get some personal mileage in while a bunch of young kids are confused about what to do for a workout.
If he's not interfering then what's the problem? I've had many coaches over the years jump in for easy runs or workouts and maybe do 150m of a 400m lap or whatever they could to catch up. The best is when they're in shape and can take a lap or two in a 5,000 to help pace.
I agree with the posters saying the long/easy runs are time for the kids to bs with each other and bond. talk about girls, guys, movies, whatever. Stuff that would be inappropriate around coaches/teachers.
I do run with my kids on occasion, but I want them to have this time to themselves for the majority of the time.
I do have most of my best talks with my athletes during these runs too, so they are useful on occasion. It's a good time to have a 20 minute conversation with a kid about where they are now, where they're going, how they rank, how they're competing, why we are doing workouts, etc. When you are talking to 20-60 kids of varying levels, it's tough to get in those meaningful conversations otherwise.
I can see both sides of this. Some might see this as a head game approach to pushing the athlete (Gee, I can let coach be right on my heels this rep. I better pick it up).
On the flip side I think of examples like the Razorback workout videos that came out 2 or 3 years ago or the old CBA workout video. Some were critical of the optics of a a coach with a beer belly and a whistle telling kids to Run Faster. A outsider might look at that and say "Hey buddy, maybe you should do a couple miles yourself".
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