giving splits

track dad wrote:

Next time I will say "2 seconds ahead" and everything will be cool.

Even better would be if next time you volunteered to call out cumulative running time for all athletes. Then you've solved the problem for many parents/coaches and done something nice for the officials.

Not Forgetting wrote:

Which raises another issue. I have a lot more questions about how involved I should get, what if anything can a father do about the fact that the track program at my son's school is utterly lame and nobody seems to have any problem with that.

Don't sit back -- take an active role. Volunteer to help the coaches out with as much as you can. At the same time, make suggestions for what the coaches and/or team should be doing and volunteer to do take charge of those things yourself. My kids are competitive runners and they entered a HS program that was new and with a coach with zero experience.

A couple of other parents and I took this approach and pushed things -- four years later we have one of the best programs in our state -- the XC teams go to state every year. No regrets whatsoever, even though things got tense now and then. Try to be friends with the coach, even if the coach is clueless.

I'm always a bit dumbfounded when people are critical of parents who are involved with their kids' activities, including running.

In my view, giving splits doesn't make the runner dependent on hearing splits -- but the more the runner hears the splits, the better feel he or she will get for the pace.

On your last paragraph, I am amazed that you never heard anyone calling out splits. I ran in jr. high, high school and college, and heard splits at most races. Some people like to hear them and others do not. One of my daughters hated hearing them -- she ran on feel and hearing the numbers just interfered with her focus. My other daughter wants her splits -- she sometimes lags off her pace if she does not hear them, particularly when she is running alone, which is in most races.

Mick Richards wrote:

I'm always a bit dumbfounded when people are critical of parents who are involved with their kids' activities, including ...

You're right, Mick, I should be more involved in my kid's activities. I'll start preparing my list of our high school track coach's deficiencies and fire off an email to straighten him out. With the kind of cash he's bringing in with this coaching gig, we can't allow this sort of shoddy, split-less coaching performance to continue another day...

On a more serious note, I think Flagpole and Track Dad sound like great parents. Their kids are lucky to have them. I also think we're all lucky to have people willing to volunteer to coach at the middle and high school level. It's kind of a thankless job given the amount of work that goes into doing it well. My recommendation is to limit your criticisms of your child's coach or program to serious issues, and work around the little stuff, that's all.

sounds like good advice to me

Don't sit back -- take an active role. Volunteer to help the coaches out with as much as you can. At the same time, make suggestions for what the coaches and/or team should be doing and volunteer to do take charge of those things yourself. My kids are competitive runners and they entered a HS program that was new and with a coach with zero experience.

A couple of other parents and I took this approach and pushed things -- four years later we have one of the best programs in our state -- the XC teams go to state every year. No regrets whatsoever, even though things got tense now and then. Try to be friends with the coach, even if the coach is clueless.

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The only creepy thing about this idea is that parents only want to coach BECAUSE THEIR KID IS ON THE TEAM. What happens when the kid graduates? Do you leave? Or, are you really committed to the team (of just your kid)? Hmmmmm.

I see too many wacky parents wanting to get too involved for the simple sake of their kid. Where were you two or three years ago? Where will you be two or three years from now?

You want to help? Bring some food and/or water for the kids. Root them on. Help fundraise so we can buy team shirts. Let the coaches do what they're paid to do.

Not sure I agree with you. I think most coaches would agree that volunteers are important to the program, even if it is just for a couple of years. More hands can make the workload higher.

However, there is one caveat. I would not want a volunteer that would forget who is in charge and who is responsible for the team.

Devil's Advocate wrote:

The only creepy thing about this idea is that parents only want to coach BECAUSE THEIR KID IS ON THE TEAM. What happens when the kid graduates? Do you leave? Or, are you really committed to the team (of just your kid)? Hmmmmm.

I see too many wacky parents wanting to get too involved for the simple sake of their kid. Where were you two or three years ago? Where will you be two or three years from now?

You want to help? Bring some food and/or water for the kids. Root them on. Help fundraise so we can buy team shirts. Let the coaches do what they're paid to do.

Creepy?

Of course the parent wants to help b/c of their kid, why the hell else would they care?

To answer your question, they leave with their kid and a new crop of volunteers come in and learn the rules. It is no different than the athletes.