Why are so many coaches idiots?

You must be one of those teachers who altruistically became the track and field coach because no one else was interested. What you posted was a nice narrative, and it's sometimes true, but often times it goes like this: AD needs a track and field coach, and they give priority to the teachers at the school (this is FACT). Some teacher/hobby jogger decides to become the coach and take the easy $6-8 grand per season. This teacher sucks at his/her job, but is stubborn enough to believe they are doing the kids, the parents and the school a great service. Now along comes someone who actually knows what they are doing, and can effectively change the program and get some of these kids into college with scholarships. This TRUE coach is passed up by the AD simply because they have some idiot already filling the position who doesn't rock the boat. The fact of the matter is that most high school coaches are baby-sitters, and sadly our schools and parents, who usually don't know any better, are ok with it.

The vast majority of high school track and field coaches make nowhere near $6-8K. Most are probably lucky to get $2K and a lot of teams rely on volunteers. I agree it's more of a supply and demand issue with little supply. Who wants to work a full time job and then spends hours after that at practices and meets and dealing with helicopter parents and all the logistics. And non-teachers that work full time usually don't have as much flexibility with the schedule in terms of before or after school practices not to mention all the days off during the year. So the answer is there aren't a lot of "great" coaches because the people who would be great at it are doing other things.

Also sounds like Serious Response got passed up for some coaching gig somewhere and is bitter about it.

Not all HS coaches are baby sitters, far from it. Not saying they are all great and qualified coaches, but there are plenty of HS coaches who are educated and experienced.

Unfortunately there are an equal amount of college coaches who are inept. They graduate and volunteer for their previous coach and then get hired without having ever written a workout, just know the right people.

Then you have the college coach who gets lucky one season and keeps the stud healthy and he does something big and the coach is set for life even though he is terrible. Plenty of those guys out there, pretty sad.

Not all athletic directors know the running game. This is not true for all of them as some are very astute. However, some are easily duped by coaches who talk a big game but know nothing about exercise science and training. In some cases they get the job over the genius because the AD can't discern the difference.

In the NorthEast, that kind of money is pretty typical. I should know, because I was a head coach of a high school track team back in the day. But if I sound bitter, it's because I had to leave coaching for a job. The guy who took over is incompetent, a teacher, and I'm seeing the kids I used to coach starting to stagnate and struggle. I'm not trying to be mean, or offend other high school coaches visiting these boards, but I want to emphasize the responsibility they have. These coaches are in a position to open amazing doors to kids on their team. I experienced firsthand how incredible it was to run in college and after. My high school team and coaches sucked, but another high school coach, from a nearby school, saw my desire to run and allowed me to train with his team instead. After one year with a real coach, I ran a time that got me recruited. After one year in college with a great coach, I was national caliber. So I guess what bothers me is that there are all these kids out there that could be running on college teams and beyond, building confidence in themselves and becoming life-long runners, but are shortchanged by "coaches" that are incompetent. Sure, coaching's fun, but if you don't know what you are doing, you owe it to the kids to find someone who does and offer them your job. That's my opinion.

where in the northeast is this??? I'm in that area and don't come close to that with both seasons xc and track.

I made the mistake of breaking my salary down to what I was getting paid hourly and it was less than a 25 cents an hour for the season.

It is tough to find people who are motivated and competent in some areas while other areas are saturated with them and they can't get a volunteer gig. I'm in a county where we have plenty of knowledgeable people in the area but the county limits you to X number of paid positions and X number of volunteers because it would be unfair to the teams that didn't have as many volunteers. Sometimes it isn't the coaches fault but they are just stuck in the system that they work for and as teachers can't afford to rock the boat.

The reason most coaches are idiots is because most of the running community has a fundamentally superstitious, unscientific mentality. Virtually none of popular training methodology is scientifically vindicated. Most runners and coaches develop their views by believing what others tell them, equating the validity of an idea with its popularity, and imitating elites under the assumption that fast runners cannot be wrong. Not one person in 100 on this forum understands the significance of genetics. Most runners do not want to approach their discipline logically or scientifically, even in the sense of simply appreciating that the body and its performance are governed by hard laws of chemistry, biology, and physics--they want it to be either all about emotions or some kind of mystic aerobics quest like an RPG video game for Super Nintendo where the player always gets stronger every time he accumulates so many experience points or gold pieces. They want to believe doing all kinds of idiotic training rituals will magically sculpt their bodies into whatever they want them to become. Anyway. peace f*ckers.

"Many school districts see a sport like XC/Track as a 'participation' sport, so they don't give the faintest interest in actual performance and development, and are happy if the coach gets numbers to join"

^What this dude said, pretty much.

Just look at the want ads on my state's state association's website: those for track just basically say "head track coach needed" and that's about it, they'll ask for a BA or BS and some experience plus say if they have teaching positions open or not, that's all. For a head football coach position? You have a post as long as War and Peace. I mean, it gets serious and it gets specific.

Not every school is an East Kentwood or Great Oaks: many schools, especially in the South, promote football first, then basketball and baseball, then all else. As others have noted, too many track/XC coaches at smaller schools are whatever teacher goes running and wanted to do it. Or, what if you make the track coach also coach XC but he's a throws coach and really has little interest? Everyone assumes a track coach is a runner: some of the best are into jumps and throws. Boo Schexnayder, who was head coach at LSU in example is a jumps coach (though certainly knows the whole sport backwards and forwards).

Anyone care to share why there's all the hate for Daniels and why he supposedly destroyed American XC?

Boo was head coach at LSU?

No

answersplz wrote:

Real talk here. Why are so many coaches idiots? Never experienced this myself, but I keep hearing stories of people with coaches that don't understand the sport. Anyone wanna chime in on this?

Because they get paid dog$hit so sport doesn't generally attract bright and motivated people.

You'd be Lucky wrote:

Serious Response wrote:

I would say that if a coach even knows about Jack Daniels then that's a win! Far more coaches know less about running than that! Low mileage. Tons of speedwork...all the time. Awful stuff, simply awful.

I remember reading an article with German Fernandez's coach saying he used Daniels' book to train Fernandez.

I do like what you said about mileage though.

Sorry, I have to disagree. I think Daniels training has been a huge reason why US high school coaches are stuck in the dark ages. His ideas are useful, but they should never form the foundation for a coaching philosophy. Similar to Frued, fun to read, occasionally insightful, but you'd fail psyche if his teachings formed your bedrock.

No offense taken. What I was trying to say that A LOT of coaches don't even know about Daniels! Yes, they are that terrible. I took over a program that ran 13 miles a WEEK...and no summer running![/quote]

This was my highschool experience. We did 15-20 miles of easy running a week and that's it. I feel like im a fairly naturally talented runner and i finished my highschool career with a pr of 18:10 We had about 15 boys on the team and I think we had 4 runners under 20 minutes and 2 under 19. We were the worst team in the district and I always wondered how the other teams were loaded with such talent. I've done a fair amount of reading about training recently and Ive picked up running again this summer, at 32, and ive spent several months fighting injury and in (less than) 6 months, I'm close to beating my highschool pr.

From my experience, I think coaches are idiots because they don't seem to care about the team and they care about themselves.

I had a coach in my first 2 years in HS that cared about his son. His son was fast, but he was trying to get his son a running scholarship to Stanford. When I look back into this, I realize that not only he wants his son to get that scholarship, he wants to make sure he and his son are not forgotten. I ran in college and boy that guy is hella salty. That guy is so selfish that people who loved him got hella selfish or had selfish moments.

My junior year XC season, I had a coach who's also selfish. He was in it because he just wanted to brag to the whole world that he's coaching (Most HS coaches do that). He overtrained us and made tons of selfish decisions. Example: He wanted to run a steep hill route the day after a race because he wanted to. At the end of the season, I had a fallout with him. The team also got him fired. Pretty sure he's salty about me running in college.

In college, I had a coach who was in it to say "Oh I get to coach at my alma mater". However, I got lucky and was able to improve by a lot. He ended up getting fired, but I still respect the guy.

My other point is there coaches out there who have anti athletic views. They are against having their athletes and even their kids run in college because they think these athletes can use that time for their academics. Why discourage the kid from accomplishing their dreams? Also, I can't be studying all the time.

Junior year track season, I had a coach like that. My dad was telling him about how he disapproves me running in college and the coach was agreeing with him. Btw, my dad gave into me running in college.

No matter what level, a good team must have a good top. So in HS and college, a GOOD AD.

So again, coaches are idiots because there are coaches who are selfish and there are coaches who have anti-athlete views.

So much bitterness and self centeredness in this thread. Instead of complaining go coach. Report back when you knock FM off the podium.

answersplz wrote:

Real talk here. Why are so many coaches idiots? Never experienced this myself, but I keep hearing stories of people with coaches that don't understand the sport. Anyone wanna chime in on this?

Two-fold issue here.

(1) Yes there are inept coaches out there partly due or the same as any other low paying profession.

(2) The Trophy Kid society we live in now creates all sorts of issues with the entitled generation that's for sure! Are they really idiots???

Why do you say Daniels is the cause of low mileage? 40 mpw is like the minimum he recommends. His ideas and plans work much better on more mileage.

In my experience most coaches are ego driven and suffer from narcissistic personality disorder.

I developed a one question test when interviewing coaches which was:

"Which coach's philosophy do you most closely emulate? Coe, Lydiard or Daniels and why?"

There's no correct answer however it does tell me if they have taken the time to read a few books and understand them.

answersplz wrote:

Real talk here. Why are so many coaches idiots? Never experienced this myself, but I keep hearing stories of people with coaches that don't understand the sport. Anyone wanna chime in on this?

Here's an example............When I left CA to go back east with my wife we settled for a time in Burlington VT. While looking for work I decided to take a job as an assistant track coach at a HS in the area. My responsibility was the middle distance and distance runners. The head coach had never run track, however had been coaching it for the past 5 years. He never went to college, never ran, not sure why he was hired to begin with. His regular job was a pizza delivery man thats all he had done for the past 10+ years. The beginning routine was 30 min of calisthenics in the gym followed by a "warm up" of wind sprints on one of the steep hills in the area. He always wondered why his runners were injured. Knew nothing about interval training or track work, the concept of hard/easy days. So there you go. he wasn't an "idiot" per se but clearly was not a competent track coach.