The Imperative Voice Real10 wrote:
to me the negative "tell" is he's asking about elite rewards and not what the training is to make something of myself to get anywhere near the goal. there was a kid on here who went from JV scrub to UT to the olympics but his question was give me the tools, not tell my 5 minute mile kid what the rewards are if he gets to 405. thing is the rewards are the same for everyone, but the guy 410-415 is the one with actual hope of getting near them. everyone can have this dream.
it's a poseur conversation, he's nowhere near the goal, and he has to run past everyone varsity and JV to get anywhere near there. and when he starts he'll either be mediocre JV or off the back varsity.
my personal concern is such convos, while presented as a carrot, are often demotivating. a 5 flat kid doesn't need to hear he has 430 potential much less 405, because it can make them act entitled like they are already there. when the only way 405 happens is genetic freakishness meets a lot of hard work. and most kids won't even have the freak genes to get close.
last, to me these insane large growth goals can turn solid gains into misery. every year you will have some mid-HS 455-5 min kid on here like can i drop 25-30s in one season and run d1. the kid could end up short of d1 recruiting but deserve to be proud of dropping the 15s he managed. but instead be pouting they couldn't go from JV time to D1 in a junior season.
it's a happier process if you focus on PRs, some moderate 10s type goal (which you can repeat), and enjoy the ride.
and a lot of this discussion is kids running d3 times not willing to adjust d1 dreams. this kid needs to do the work to be competitive on JV or varsity, then get down to 430 and baseline back end d1 interest, before he worries about taking over the world.
My kid has no clue about any of this, haha. I mentioned it in an earlier post, but he's the one who said to me that he thinks he can drop :15 per year to run a 4:00 as a senior. And I told him that that's not how it works. Progression is erratic and you plateau sometimes and certainly not very many people have the talent to run anywhere in the ballpark of 4:00.
At the same time, I don't want to stamp out his enthusiasm for improvement. Right now he wants to put in work to become as good as he can be. As long as he's enjoying himself and not doing unsustainable training (which he's not even close to), I'm going to encourage him.
My eyes just popped a little bit with his improvement on limited training and I know he's got the kind of mindset where he will grind to achieve a goal. And I was curious about how things break down in the scholarship world these days...hence the thread.
As for the tools to get there? He has a good coach and is doing what I consider to be age-appropriate and sustainable training, so I defer to the plans that his coach is giving him. We'll see how things go in track season and next summer and if there's any indication that he's going to go to a more serious level - I think the coach will be able to continue to guide him well.