CSU basketball coach says XC practices are easy

What does it mean to "do their practices". I'm an old man and could "do their practices", but not at the pace and intensity they do it. I'd be their an hour longer.

What makes track or cross country practices so tough, is the pace and intensity they do it at. We will never know if a basketball player could do it because they would be miles behind.

After years of running distance and then coaching distance runners, I can tell you that what is impressive is the continuous pain and intensity that can often last for over an hour.

Again:

I would would love to see a basketball team after 2 weeks of 100 mile weeks.

I would love to see a XC team after 2 weeks of basketball practice.

It is not about the one day. Who do you think would adapt the best?

This is all comparing apples to oranges. A basketball player would not be able to have 2 weeks of productive practice with the XC team and an XC runner would not have 2 weeks of productive practice with the basketball team.

The basketball player who made the original comment is wrong about XC practice, he obviously has no idea how hard it is. Likewise, if an XC runner makes the same statement about basketball they would be wrong also.

For everyone saying that xc runners couldn't make it through bball practice, you're missing the point.

The article quoted a bball guy saying his team could run with the xc/track team and that they run just as much. It wasn't about an xc guy saying he could hang with the bball team.

Most xc guys couldn't do basketball practice, but the important detail is that no one said we could..this guy actually went as far as to say his team could run with the xc team.

Neither is true. Each sport is difficult in its own way.

My experience in sports has been as follows in terms of difficulty:

1) Wrestling (4 years, 3rd place AAU states)

2) Ice Hockey (6 years, all star teams)

3) XC

4) Football (7 years playing junior all stars ball, never played HS, started both ways every season)

5) Cycling (the training hours are insane)

And to the guy that measured the difficulty of sports by saying that there are more concussions in one bball practice than the history of xc, I don't think that brain damage is a viable method of measuring difficulty. I had 7 concussions from football, but found xc much more difficult.

Colorado State in 2012-3 was #1 in rebounding differential and #332 in steals. Sounds like they should compare themselves to a football team rather than a cross country team.

I played college basketball at the Division 1 level and I have been a head cross country coach for 13 years. I will tell you the facts. There are some basketball players that would be able to run very well with some xc teams. However, that number is extremely low and that is associated with high school. At the college level, there is no way that any and I emphasize ANY college basketball player could hang with the xc team. This is assuming that those on the hoops squad have no xc background and vise versa. Could the basketball player run one 5 or 7 mile run, you bet. Just like a xc runner could go shoot free throws, take jumpers, or run the three man weave at a hoops practice. However, practice, I mean practice, we talkin bout practice, consists of multiple variances. Therefore, there is no way either could compete at all in opposite sports unless they were previously involved at a very high level at the high school level.

I played college basketball at the Division 1 level and I have been a head cross country coach for 13 years. I will tell you the facts. There are some basketball players that would be able to run very well with some xc teams. However, that number is extremely low and that is associated with high school. At the college level, there is no way that any and I emphasize ANY college basketball player could hang with the xc team. This is assuming that those on the hoops squad have no xc background and vise versa. Could the basketball player run one 5 or 7 mile run, you bet. Just like a xc runner could go shoot free throws, take jumpers, or run the three man weave at a hoops practice. However, practice, I mean practice, we talkin bout practice, consists of multiple variances. Therefore, there is no way either could compete at all in opposite sports unless they were previously involved at a very high level at the high school level.

College Kid has this pretty much right. Look, here is what basketball, and I'm sure football coaches for that matter, don't understand: just running, as in running slow, is easy. Running hard is -- pay attention now-- hard. In several different places, I've seen a college basketball team out on a track before the season starts and it's not a pretty sight. Many years ago, I lived in Portland, and the Trailblazers did a two mile timed training run at the beginning of training camp. I wish I could recall the times; they were pathetic.

I suspect your average college coach would look at a 20 X 400 interval session and think: Easy. You run a lap. You rest. Repeat 20 times. What they have no concept of is running the 400s hard, and how that will bring an athlete to his knees.

In a way, this reminds me of an anecdote I read in the Boston Globeone year when I went up to run the marathon. During a rain delay on Patriot's Day, there was a discussion in the Red Sox clubhouse over whether the marathon was a "real sport." Mind you, these were baseball players. I said to a friend of mine that they could have the 25 member Red Sox team line up and run the course as a relay at just over one mile apiece, and they couldn't even beat me, and I probably didn't finish the marathon in the top 1,000.

I think the coach is a moron. I will leave it at that.

I played high school basketball seriously. OK, we did not have a great team, but I played and scored 8-10 points a game at a high school of 3,000. Our hoops practices were serious, and at times strenuous. Running helped because of the fitness. In the games where we met teams from the city with lots of quality height, we played zone (out of necessity), and I finished games feeling hardly fatigued. (Man to man against a great city guard left me very tired, though).

I also ran seriously in high school, running a 4:08 mile my senior year.

There was no comparison really, between the stress of basketball practice and the stress of xc and track practice. XC and track practice just took a lot more out of me. Basketball practice was intense, but there were breaks, and running sprints, defensive drills was more or less about brute force effort. It was far harder to learn how to relax and concentrate with the intensity levels required of running.

Division 1 XC and track were much, much more difficult than my high school basketball work-outs. I never could compare them personally to Division 1 basketball workouts, because, well, my school is a consistent Div. 1 powerhouse, and I couldn't dream of playing hoops there. My basketball player friends did indicate an intensity level greater than high school practice (these days, the proliferation of AAU ball means very few learn how to really put the effort in on defense at the high school level), but I nevertheless intuit that XC and track workouts are, like my high school experience, more stressful than in basketball.

Another set of anecdotes, and it likely varies by individual: Basketball, like track, made me often very sore and tired. I recovered more quickly from a tough basketball practice than a tough track practice, though, and this was likely due to the breaks which occur with even the toughest practices. The sorest I remember being, though, was after a workout or tough race (or races) on indoor board tracks. I suspect I did not work hard enough on running light on my feet, but board tracks just beat the heck out of me and made me very sore, worse than anything in basketball.

I think this CSU basketball coach should not be taken seriously, as he likely has little experience with both sports. It does make his guys feel "tougher" though, and given mindset of a typical college basketball player, it soothes some egos.

My father was a state champion high school coach in both track and XC in a big state, and was an excellent basketball coach, having played Division 1 basketball. He thought track practices were more stressful (kids did not really learn from basketball practices longer than 90 minutes, at least he thought), although the level of talent he had for track likely surpassed his basketball team talent, and he may have had more flexibility to work the runners harder.

+1

Setting aside the athletic ability discussion, the only people who can hold a candle to a college cc runners are mid d and distance track runners, wrestlers, swimmers and perhaps water polo players.

Football - no way. Hard for sure, but timeouts, huddles and a staff that tends to every hangnail on the sideline. Undereducated and over-glorified athletes mostly.

Basketball - great athletes no doubt, but c'mon. I sure wish I could've had someone sub in for me during the last 2k of NCAAs in cross. Or taken a 20 minute break @ 5k to think about how I was gonna run the next 5k.

Baseball - really?

The big 3 American mainstream sports; pretty lame when it comes to toughness and physical exertion.

Generally, the top level, fastest, most fit college basketball can just dip under 5:00 in the mile.

Maybe 2:30 for a half, but no way can your average B-baller keep it going for a 5-minute mile. This makes me think of all the kids I've seen at the state XC meet, staggering wobbly-legged, sometimes wretching, sometimes passing-out, after an all-out finish to improve their team's place. I don't see that kind of sustained pain tolerance in basketball.

Ca$hclay wrote:

Setting aside the athletic ability discussion, the only people who can hold a candle to a college cc runners are mid d and distance track runners, wrestlers, swimmers and perhaps water polo players.

Football - no way. Hard for sure, but timeouts, huddles and a staff that tends to every hangnail on the sideline. Undereducated and over-glorified athletes mostly.

Basketball - great athletes no doubt, but c'mon. I sure wish I could've had someone sub in for me during the last 2k of NCAAs in cross. Or taken a 20 minute break @ 5k to think about how I was gonna run the next 5k.

Baseball - really?

The big 3 American mainstream sports; pretty lame when it comes to toughness and physical exertion.

The Big three

Football - advertising breaks that don't interefere with action every 5 minutes

Basketball - advertising breaks that don't interfere with action every 5 minutes

Baseball - advertising breaks between innings, no interference with action here

Now with 2 sports that matter worldwide:

Track - can't get away with advertising without interfering the action

Soccer - ZERO advertising for 45 minutes at a time

See a trend here?

Lol...I played basketball in High School and I didn't even puff.

And I ran up and down the court ALL day since I was the only decent runner on my team-and this still didn't make me tired.

I was never subbed off either, I played full games every week.

You get so many damn breaks in basketball, and the court is only 40m long or something.

The only other sports I respect are cycling, swimming, XC skiing, and triathlon. They are the only other sports are there that are tough.

Comparing basketball to cross country is an absolute joke, and it is making me laugh just thinking of it.

PS. Shooting a 3 pointer is just soooooooo physically demanding, and lifting weights is so physically demanding...NOT

You can't compare the two. Completely two different sports. Grow up. I like to see you do a 20 mile run at 6:30 a mile pace.

Ca$hclay wrote:

Setting aside the athletic ability discussion, the only people who can hold a candle to a college cc runners are mid d and distance track runners, wrestlers, swimmers and perhaps water polo players.

Football - no way. Hard for sure, but timeouts, huddles and a staff that tends to every hangnail on the sideline. Undereducated and over-glorified athletes mostly.

Basketball - great athletes no doubt, but c'mon. I sure wish I could've had someone sub in for me during the last 2k of NCAAs in cross. Or taken a 20 minute break @ 5k to think about how I was gonna run the next 5k.

Baseball - really?

The big 3 American mainstream sports; pretty lame when it comes to toughness and physical exertion.

+1

I have always said that I have a lot of respect for wrestlers and swimmers for being tough conditioned athletes. I haven't had any experience with water polo but I would lump that in with swimming.

Also, baseball is a joke.

please define how physical of a specimen you really are.. I'd like to know because I played basketball and ran track in high school. while basketball is not easy, nothing on the court compares to a hard track workout or tempo run or any tough workout really. they are completely different sports. I was no slouch in running either with prs in high school of under 910, 415, and 153, but still probably not the "specimen" you are :)