What are some pure indications of a coach, who’s at the division one level, that shouldn’t be coaching at this level. What qualities do they possess on a day to day level? How do they carry themselves at practices? How is his recruiting? How involved are they? Do they lie to their athletes?
there are a lot of bad coaches but the biggest issue is bad athletes. I'm sick of these threads where failing college athletes come in to whine, but at the same time they are:
-drunk and stoned 50% of the time they aren't at practice
-eating unhealthy foods
-not sleeping
-complaining about the training no matter what, thinking they know everything at 18-22
-blaming the coach for their own poor performances when in reality they quit in the middle of the race
-thinking they are way faster and more valuable than they really are
What are some pure indications of a coach, who’s at the division one level, that shouldn’t be coaching at this level. What qualities do they possess on a day to day level? How do they carry themselves at practices? How is his recruiting? How involved are they? Do they lie to their athletes?
there are a lot of bad coaches but the biggest issue is bad athletes. I'm sick of these threads where failing college athletes come in to whine, but at the same time they are:
-drunk and stoned 50% of the time they aren't at practice
-eating unhealthy foods
-not sleeping
-complaining about the training no matter what, thinking they know everything at 18-22
-blaming the coach for their own poor performances when in reality they quit in the middle of the race
-thinking they are way faster and more valuable than they really are
+1000
I can add in:
-never stretching, ice bathing or doing recovery work
-never lifting during the offseason
-running too fast on easy days
-running threshold work like it's a race
no coach is perfect but most times the athletes are 10x more to blame for their performance than the coach. you can still run fast with a mean coach if you put in the work
The primary issue is taking freshmen and running them into the ground by making them jump up from 50-60 mpw to 90-120 mpw with killer sessions and easy runs that are way too fast for 18 and 19 year olds adjusting to college life with no parental supervision, and hence, drinking and not getting enough sleep. You injure promising kids every single year instead of bringing them along gradually, keeping them healthy, and being patient about the returns on investment.
Is this directed at Vin Lanana? If so, I didn't realize he had this reputation, but it does seem like he at least has allowed it to happen.
"What are some qualities of a bad division 1 xc coach?"
Losing. Losing is the ultimate quality in a bad Division 1 coach.
Division 1 coaches are hired to win. A coach who doesn't do that is a bad one.
What about the coaches hired to field a team so the Univ. can meet the minimum amount of teams necessary to keep eligibility for whole athletic program? Like a team that fields a XC team but no track team.
D1 specifically? I would say not knowing how the recruitment/transfer system works or knowing how it works but misleading recruits. Criticisms about the actual sport can be given at any level of competition.
What are some pure indications of a coach, who’s at the division one level, that shouldn’t be coaching at this level. What qualities do they possess on a day to day level? How do they carry themselves at practices? How is his recruiting? How involved are they? Do they lie to their athletes?
there are a lot of bad coaches but the biggest issue is bad athletes. I'm sick of these threads where failing college athletes come in to whine, but at the same time they are:
-drunk and stoned 50% of the time they aren't at practice
-eating unhealthy foods
-not sleeping
-complaining about the training no matter what, thinking they know everything at 18-22
-blaming the coach for their own poor performances when in reality they quit in the middle of the race
-thinking they are way faster and more valuable than they really are
Straw man runners have now made an appearance in this thread.
- no rhyme or reason to his training. New ideas introduced and abandoned on a whim. Not nearly enough mileage, girls doing lots of speed work in September. Strength building workouts are just speed workouts with more reps. The girls peak in the first or second week of October almost every year.
- Lots of money thrown at girls from big HS programs in the region who promptly come in and never match their high school times. The runners who actually get better are usually the ones recruited by the head of the program.
- constant undermining of the head of the program
- constantly interfering in personal lives of people on the team (e.g. spreading gossip in relationships and starting drama)
- takes credit for everything that goes well and blames everybody else when things go wrong
- rushed at least one girl back from a major injury because he needed her to score at a conference meet, leading to the injury never fully healing, that girl transferring to a low level D3 school, and never being the same again as a runner.
What are some pure indications of a coach, who’s at the division one level, that shouldn’t be coaching at this level. What qualities do they possess on a day to day level? How do they carry themselves at practices? How is his recruiting? How involved are they? Do they lie to their athletes?
there are a lot of bad coaches but the biggest issue is bad athletes. I'm sick of these threads where failing college athletes come in to whine, but at the same time they are:
-drunk and stoned 50% of the time they aren't at practice
-eating unhealthy foods
-not sleeping
-complaining about the training no matter what, thinking they know everything at 18-22
-blaming the coach for their own poor performances when in reality they quit in the middle of the race
-thinking they are way faster and more valuable than they really are
I’ve noticed this site is full of people who are really bitter about their running careers. It’s too bad. It’s not always someone else’s fault.
I will list some attributes of my bad division 1 xc coach:
- Inflexible. Still doing the same kind of workouts they did in the 90s and unwilling to adapt
- Claims to be a "Lidyard disciple" but can't elaborate further
- Encouraging eating disorders
- Mind games / manipulative behavior to get athletes to do what he wanted
- Flying off the handle at seemingly normal questions. Generally prone to fits of rage.
- Forwarding confidential emails from an athlete (without their permission) to the entire team for the purpose of shaming said athlete
- Being weird when interacting with black people
- Carried himself with spiritual guru vibee
- Lacking people skills and awareness of said lack of people skills.
- Telling people on the team to spy and snitch on their teammates for things like eating a candy bar
Wow. I looked up your IP. Aren't you at a powerhouse and yet you say you are losing more than you are winning?
As for what makes for a bad coaching. Pragmatically speaking it's one who doesn't recruit.
But we're talking about maximizing the talent they do have.
So here's a sign of a bad coach. I saw a coach on the forum last week bragging about how "He or she laughs when they see some complaing the training doesn't work but they have several athletes on the podium." This coach clearly doesn't get it.
If a coach is recruiting well enough, they 'll have a few studs that will be good despite the training. The coach may not care about the worst runner on the team but they should. I get you don't want to have 40 training plans but you need to a) never give up on an athlete and b) try to remember it's very important to all of them no matter how good they are.
I really think interpersonal skills and charisma are the biggest thing most bad coaches are lacking. Sure, some of the blame goes on the athletes, but when the majority of your athletes aren’t motivated, aren’t doing the right things outside of practice, and don’t respect you, there’s probably something else going on. A coach needs to be a leader first and foremost, and some coaches frankly don’t have the skill set for that. If an athlete isn’t doing well, maybe they’re a bad athlete. But if a program isn’t doing well, the odds are that it isn’t full of bad athletes.
Another telltale sign is when a coach doesn’t take responsibility for their athletes’ bad performances. Even if it is the athlete’s fault, part of the coach’s job is to take responsibility for it. No coach will avoid responsibility for their athletes’ successes, so why do some shy away from doing the same for their failures?
Then of course there are training issues, but once again interpersonal skills play a huge role. Respecting your athletes, understanding them, and being willing to learn (from your athletes and other coaches) are all crucial components of developing a training system. Every training failure can be traced back to a failure in respect and communication.
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