Jon Green Quits as Coach of Mary Cain's "Atalanta" Running Club

I wonder if anyone knows the definitive (if there is one) answer to this question:

How do pro coaches get paid?

I ask because- 20 or so years ago a well known, pro/college coach told me that pro coaches get:

A percentage of their athlete's earnings- no earnings no coach pay.

Maybe a shoe/apparel contract of their own

Maybe a club of some kind gives them a salary PLUS the aforementioned percentage.

Is this true today?

I get it. The backstory is great, it has running, it has a powerful woman. But... the name just doesn't work.

I'm sure they thought that Nike was able to get people to say "Nyke" instead of Nike (like "bike") but it really didn't matter what those shoes were called as long as people were buying them. Also there wasn't an established shoe with a similar name.

This is a club people are looking to search for or find an it is always going to be confused wth Atlanta and autocorrected to Atlanta.

It would get an F in a basic marketing class.

I think the general set up for a coach not already affiliated with a shoe company or shoe company group (e.g. Nike and Bowerman or OTC) is that the athletes they coach pay them some monthly/annual fee for their coaching. Maybe some get a % of prize/shoe contract money but I always felt like that was more of an agent's way of getting commission than a coach's generally. if they set up their track club as a company they could also try attracting investors or donors.

The Atalanta website indicates that Julia Lucas is the new coach and Karisa Nelson just joined the team which presumably means that she was dropped by Brooks Beasts.

That name gives me the absolute rage.

You certainly are persistent in your ignorance.

I think Mary Cain needs to just stop being involved with the running world

I'll bite. I don't think there are a lot of secrets anymore about what type of workouts, training schedule can lead to success. So, modern coaching skills are may more weighted to handling the mental side of the support, and adapting training plans based off what is happening with the athlete. Jon seems to have a good skillset to be a coach in 2022, not 1992.

Joe Bosshard comes to mind first, then Ali Cragg. Pro level coaching is more of a collaboration than mentor-student. Athletes at that level shouldn't need a lot of what people traditionally think of as coaching, if anything the group coaches are more coordinators than motivators/trainers. Those who need more than that aren't going far for long, anyway.

As for Jon Green, he's got as solid of a background in understanding from his previous coaches as anyone else. Ultimately, it's better to be lucky than good.

Having listened to interviews with both of them, it seems more like they just gel together. She said the most important thing for her is that he listens to what she thinks is good for her, so he's not trying to make her fit into a prescribed system like (e.g.) Jerry Schumacher would. There's no secret to training distance runners anymore, all workouts are pretty standard so coaches matter only as much as the athletes believe in them. If other athletes believe in Green's approach as much as Seidel does, then he can find more success.

Clearly a smart move.

Start a training group in Flagstaff with Molly Seidel and Emily Infield, do online coaching

- Two Olympians, one is the brightest star in US marathoning,

- Pretty standard model of a training pros in person with amateurs on the side.

- Flagstaff is the preeminent distance running location in the country,

vs Continue with the Atalanta thing

- completely unproven training model (launching a training group and nonprofit at the same time, neither with any proven record), athletes as employees.

- Literally every athlete appears to be on the downside of their career

- CEO, founder, star athlete, is the same person, hasn't PR'd in 6 years, makes big announcement about pursuing triathlon now.

- An extremely expensive city, with numerous infastructure impediments to training, at sea level

- Team name will be inevitably confused with: Atlanta Track Club, Atalanta Italian soccer team

You should probably learn what dubious means.

Also, after quickly looking at a few IG things about this, apparently Julia Lucas is taking over as coach at Atalanta, which is an interesting move.

Your running is dubious.

I, too, took a look at the "Atalanta" social media and website. Mary Cain and company don't even say anything about Jon Green leaving on the latest "Atalanta" IG post or team profile on the website announcing Julia Lucas as the new coach. Looks very cold and unfriendly from Mary Cain and company to not even acknowledge Jon Green leaving. I don't think this was a friendly split.

Honestly, at lot of coaching positions are to some degree "luck". Doesn't mean that's necessarily a bad thing. Having good connections helps, and forming those connections can be combination of skill and luck.

As other posters have mentioned, coaching is more about the soft skills; communicating, organizing, supporting, etc.

Running training is pretty straightforward.

It's easy to look at someone like Jon Green and think "wow that'd be nice to be in that position" but it's silly to dislike him or try to diminish his work for it

I love how people dismiss the importance of a coach. If having a coach didn't matter then more athletes would have no coach and be winning championships and medals on their own. The Coach is just as important as the athlete. We all know this. I would've never ran what I did without my coach. It's a relationship that needs the athlete and coach equal.

He hasn't been coaching them for awhile or at they've been looking for a replacement for awhile. My friend was offered this coaching position 6 months ago, and she turned it down. She coaches a college team.

*or at least they've been

I agree. What I am saying is he has to do it a few more times before you can dismiss luck entirely.