In CROSS COUNTRY how do you get kids to attend practice?

This is exactly why team and individual goal setting is important. Every season for me starts with a 2 mile time trial and then a goal setting session where we come up with team and individual goals for the season.

Then when you discuss the training plan, you are coming at it from the perspective of "your goal is X, and Y is the plan we need to follow to achieve X." "You want to beat your cross town rivals, so you need to be at practice M-F" or "You want to win a state championship, so hopefully you've already put in the base training over the summer and now you need to show up M-F for practice, and run on most non-meet weekend days" lands better than "show up every day because that's the rule." Essentially your framing it that showing up and working hard was their idea, not yours.

On an individual level, runners might have goals that are less ambitious. That's fine. Those goals can still be used to tailor a training plan and motivate the runner to follow it. And usually these kids will start to develop some more ambitious goals as they start to have some success.

I've heard of points systems (for attendance or other positive contributions to the team) that other teams use as a benefit system for special things like overnight trips. Although my team doesn't do an overnight trip, I've thought about it for next season and would LOVE to hear some ideas on these points systems. I like the idea of rewarding those runners who show the commitment to the team, not just focusing solely on the fastest runners who may not have the best work ethic.

I understand why people do these things, I just don't love getting wrapped up in doing everything based on attendance. I like to coach, not to score points for attendance. I take attendance every day and keep track of it. If someone has to miss then they have to communicate and it's unexcused. Being dismissed from the team takes a lot of misses for me, I don't get hardcore about it. I'm busy planning the training and the practices and talking about the meets. I know who has perfect attendance and we talk about it, I would rather focus most of the rewards on those who are improving rather than just those that show up. Just my 2 cents.

Hire a more dynamic coach.

That's where I've been as well - we do a lot of things that take up a fair amount of time, and adding some admin type of task would be a bit of a pain.

We tend to get good attendance when we're giving good feedback on how the girls are doing throughout the season. If they see progress, it gives them a bit more motivation to show up & work hard. I'm sure others do this as well but we take video at mile 1 & 2 (makes getting splits for a big team MUCH easier) to get splits and position for each runner for every race. If they improve position from 1 to the finish or from 2 to the finish, they get a little Skull bead they can put on their trainers. Kind of a nice motivator, and having the data to show them how much they slow down for each mile (or speed up), or how many people they passed, has really helped us teach them how to pace a little better. That does take a fair amount of time though, poring through videos after the race and putting all that into a spreadsheet (most races only have mats at the end). But - we can compare a runner's performance year over year and show them just how much progress they've made. Otherwise, I think a lot of them just lace them up, run and not put much thought into what they're doing, and MAYBE they get marginally better.

Forget the noncomitted. Better to have a team with 7 committed runners than a team with 20 casuals.

That's great and a fun idea. I have some weekly reward things that I do for those that are showing up every day and working hard and improving or racing well or doing something for the team. But it's just one award per week. We use Strava and most of them do it in the races as well. So that gives me their splits for the most part. Allows me to check on those that look like they may have made some big pacing errors on race day.

What do you mean by that?

I just took over a program that was left bare. I know how you feel.

Servant coaches end up with greater attendance, because the athletes are drawn to that sore of coach. The sport is not about the coach, or the parents. It is about the kids. Serve them, and you will get better results than in you make it about you.

I disagree with this, and there is no need to overstate something to try to make a point. Unless you have a great feeder program you do need to have numbers. Sure there have been teams with only 7-10 runners that went on to do GREAT things, but those are the exception, not the rule.

You need numbers so you can sift through and cull off that top percentage. Think of this like a sales job, if you need 10 calls to make 1 sale, then 100 calls equal 10 sales. You need X number of participants to equal Y number of Varsity Level Athlete. Sure you CAN have only 5 guys come out and they are all 15 min 5k guys, but that would not be the norm.

Don't make WINNING #1

I could tell in the first five minutes talking to the guys at the first summer work out who was buying in. Just the way they locked in when I looked around at them. Those are the kids I concentrated on no matter their times.

I bought a finish line clock and attended every middle school track and XC meet. I stood in third lane and I made sure each kid could see his time and I looked at the faces. Not place, not ability

My best find was a little kid who kept finishing last in his 800, he had hair down to his waist and he looked like Dave Wottle finishing last in a lean with a determined look on his face. I recruited him heavy. 5 or 6 years later, he was a low 16 HS runner who got a full ride to a Div 2 school. Sometimes, kids just don’t like you. I recruited a kid in middle school, sent him newsletters, got him to switch from swimming to XC. He later became a doctor and researcher. He was sub 16 but didn’t take much to my motivational attitude ha

Had it not been for the long haired kid and my best recruit who became a Div 2 All-American, he woulda quit. They talked him into staying with it.

We sure had no feeder system. It was hustling to get to middle school meets carrying a finish line clock, talking to all the teams and parents and successfully recruiting 4 or 5 year

I figured 1 out of 10, you’d get that “ locked in” look from when you had them in that circle talking to them.

So, obviously in my area you alwys had to hustle. They haven’t done that since I left. I pay attention.

I don't think recruiting middle schoolers is the way to do it. Talking to young kids at their meets and trying to get them to come to your school is pretty creepy. As a parent this would be a huge turnoff.

The word "creepy" is way over used these days, and who are you to judge. Kids do have the option of going to another school without parents trailing along. Not many kids run from 7th graded to their senior year. But some do and can be incredibly successful. It is not quick way to win.

However, life is short why not let your kid get outside and enjoy the great outdoors?

I recruited heavily when I coached. But now I think I would have the kids do it as much as possible. I like the sound of your methods but doubt that anyone "can tell' the first day who is going to be good or not. Some kids need a few weeks to at least try it out and some need a few years be for they will get dedicated or quit. Give them that before you decide as a coach and you might find a stud or two more than you are now.

That is not what I said or what I meant. Why did you think that, I wish people were not so quick to judge people on a sentence or two. I admit when I started out in my 20s I was much more gung-ho than I am now in retirement. But I NEVER said winning was #1 and I wish you would tell me what you saw in my first two sentences that indicated that. Or maybe you are one of those people who would rather sitback and give a quick judgement?

Yep, that is exactly what I did one summer as I sat on my couch and called over 1000 kids, and probably made even more than thousands of total phone calls. The fact is if you think it cannot be done, you are right and you lack faith in your own ability. Write back but I see a lot in you that was also my philosophy and NO ONE could talk me out of it. Too bad for you.

Do not get me wrong I appreciate EVERY single response and feel like I am learning.

What I meant by "Winning is #1 Of Course" is that if you have a winning program that will get more wins for you the quickest. In a lot of ways winning is also the easiest. That is what I meant but I am and you should also be looking for other ways.