Parents are CRAZY now

You start a dialogue with the coach and offer some suggestions offline and directly. And then go to the AD if you don't get anywhere.

It absolutely makes sense to read up about health issues (using AI as necessary) and clarify concerns/questions with your physician.

With that said, AI can be very sensitive with interactions, and your physician may be aware of it but not think there is any issue.

Nothing wrong with asking questions and learning, but also important to recognize the layperson may lack context or a deeper understanding of what they are reading.

another fool running loose on LR

This is an extremely important lesson for a young runner to learn. Importantly, it goes both ways. I've seen plenty of runners who think they know better than their coach and end up struggling because of it. I've seen plenty of runners trust a coach who doesn't know what they're doing and either get hurt or underperform.

I think most HS kids would benefit more from having conversations with their parent about their training and navigating any issues themselves, rather than having a parent hovering at practice or talking to the coach directly. If the goal is a college scholarship, the reality of college T&F/XC is that most athletes are not going to get individual attention from their coach and having the confidence to advocate for yourself or modify things on your own is a super valuable skill.

Nicely done!

99.9 of distance runners won't get a scholarship. 99% won't walkon at a D1 school.

Similar experience. My teams have win 4 state titles. Yet, I have parents complaining about their kids not improving enough or getting enough praise. The athletes have gotten more disrespectful recently also.

my son plays baseball, but his teammates were doing track at same time. They tell me that At our middle school track, they would do 4 x 200m intervals. Or had them do 6 x 100m as sprinters. I understand that maybe you don’t want kids specializing too early. But come on.

That kid quit track to just focus on baseball and I would run athleticism days doing plyos, sprint technique drills, work on accelerating from dead stop. Do all out sprints at 20, 30 and 40 yards. I know this isn’t exactly sprinting workouts as it’s for baseball. But my training is better for sprinters than what’s offered at our middle school track.

Agreed—-and those scientists and doctors and mathematicians (I might add) are all a idiots too if they think that proving their science is the same as knowing God and religion.

i totally agree—half the country has lost it because they think the ontological basis for existence isn’t a function. You can only have a hole loop and function—that’s all you need mathmatically for existence and consciousness to be—-a hole, a loop and the gaze that holds them both—that is God.

half the country tries to deny God, morons they can’t even understand how the topology and axioms of a torus—are more than proof of God.

And that’s just “God” once half the country can figure that out—low IQ bums—then we can talk about all the concepts behind God…much more nuanced and interesting and valuable.

Incredible that this is the first post in a running thread

Which God?

Absolutely agree. It’s getting out of hand. Parents are micromanaging every detail instead of trusting the process and the professionals who actually know what they’re doing. It’s heartbreaking to see kids lose their love for the sport because of unrealistic pressure and constant interference. The best athletes are usually the ones whose parents know when to step back and let them grow through the ups and downs.

Thanks for proving it went both ways.

As a former college coach myself, I don't think you even touched on the saddest part of overbearing parents. I saw so many really good athletes prefer NOT to run in college because their parents have driven them to insanity in high school. They see the transition to college as an opportunity to "get out" of that overbearing loop. It is especially bad for girls.

IMO they have always been that way and the internet is just an extra tool to their unruly behavior. That's why I don't coach. Gave coaching one real thought but opted nit too after watching a mom berate the head coach at a soccer game. Went to a few track practices and a woman questioned just Bout every decision that was made. Why is that person running more laos than my son? Why are there paces different? Nowadays I can only imagine how their internet searches have made them "smarter" than the coaches.

Cry more 😁 your fake job should super duper stressful bro

There is a guy I know who is a high school coach...

His favorite line is to ask us if any orphanages are looking for a coach.

Back when today’s parents were in school, the world was a gdamn
mystery. For us, there was no internet at all, or at best just early
internet, which was terrible. We knew almost nothing about training,
but sure it felt like a lot, compared to our parents, who said things
like “what is cross country?” We trusted our coaches and we all
accumulated some successes, along with a collection of regrets. We
didn’t make state. Or we bombed at state. We missed the school
record. Or we didn’t make the cut at college. Or something else.
But fast forward a couple of decades. Holy cow, a second f-ing
chance! We know what the term “cross country” means and we don’t
have to trust the coaches anymore! Why would we, when we can pull out our
phones and know everything about running, everywhere, all at once?
When we’re not fantasizing about how we could have rewritten our
past with a little double T, we make sure our kids sure as hell don’t
repeat our mistakes. What could go wrong?

There is a direct relationship between how successful your program is and parent desire for involvement - good or bad. You have two paths as a coach you can take, make them a part of the program or close yourself off. One of those is better than the other.

Especially as a high school coach, it is important to have conversations with parents at meets, after practice, meetings, etc. where you let them in on the vision and plan you have for the team and their athlete. This solves 99% of problems. Even if the parent disagrees with the approach, if you can articulate

- that you have their kids best interests at heart

- what you are hoping to accomplish

- provide context for those goals (can't control how the other team runs, hoping to get kids used to going out fast in big races, training through meets, whatever),

parents WILL get on board.

A big part of this is also tampering down expectations. I never guarantee a PR, or a win, or anything positive race result wise for that matter. Under promise, over deliver and you will be pleasantly surprised at how supportive parents can be.