Maybe the coach said he doesn’t want to burn them out at Invitationals but the real reason is he doesn’t want to work Saturdays. Especially if his stipend doesn’t change no matter what he does. If this is the situation, you could approach the coach and offer to ride the bus to an Invitational.
The school would never allow that unless the OP was an official coach.
unfortunately the invitationals we were interested in don’t accept unattached, the only option left is some community races, I was not aware that he can participate in open college races. as for the coach, there is no law that prevents him from working with the team over the summer. He has the right not to do it, it is not right that he comes in September and gets to make all the decisions. Coaching is a moral obligation, that you do what’s best for your athletes, not what fulfills your ego.
Okay I’ll say it again and probably get downvoted again, but you don’t understand the position or role of high school coach. It’s entirely possible that if this guy didn’t do it, the school might say, No team this year. Or, the role is assigned to the newest guy, who knows even less, and hates the job but has to do it to keep his teaching role. Or, maybe, there’s a young teacher waiting eagerly to take over who’s going to be awesome. Talk to the coach. Tell him your kid thrives on more miles. Ask if there’s an accreditation process that would allow you to be assistant coach. Volunteer to drive kids to weekend invitationals. Stop complaining about one person and do something constructive to improve the situation like step up and volunteer yourself.
I agree with this. Allowing him to do at least some level of extra mileage and making a convincing argument about it is a compromise most people would take.
If the coach is lazy, you can probably offer to do more for him.
He’s doing extra work on his own. as I said in my original post, time is limited, he’s got tons a lot of school work, and with 2 hours he spends with the coach practice, even though most of it gets wasted on talking and stretching, he had only weekends and a small window to do extra running and lifting.
Two hours at practice and only running 25 miles per week? I assume just Mon-Fri, so 5 miles per day. Even an easy pace this should only take about 40 minutes or less. What does the coach do with the other hour and 20 minutes? You can't warmup and stretch for that long.
Give us the breakdown of a typical two-hour practice.
Thanks for sharing this. We are definitely going to start doubling, we have been adding long runs during the weekend but that’s not enough, so doubling would be the best way to go.
they leave school at 2:30. They are supposed to meet at 3, but most of the time people come later than that. Then a talk for 15 minutes. warm up for 15-20 minutes. start running around 3:30, finish by 4:15. Talk and stretch for 15 minutes.
Other than one parent who requested to have his kid to be registered, the rest don’t care, or their kids are not ready for these invitationals.
i didn’t speak to the coach personally, in the past he lied to me that the reason he doesn’t go to invitationals is that because they don’t have JV races, and he wouldn’t go to any unless they do. I found out that all the invitationals he refused to go to in fact they do have JV races. So I lost trust in anything he says.
What bothers me is the fact that he doesn’t do anything the entire summer, when we have a basketball team that their season starts in January, yet the coach works the entire summer with the team. How come that I work with my kid for 2 months, make sure he does his training, yet when the school starts, I have no say, because someone who doesn’t even know what Milesplit is (I swear it’s true) gets to decide how he trains or where he should race!
Maybe the coach said he doesn’t want to burn them out at Invitationals but the real reason is he doesn’t want to work Saturdays. Especially if his stipend doesn’t change no matter what he does. If this is the situation, you could approach the coach and offer to ride the bus to an Invitational.
There are a number of "coaches" that do the bare minimum in order to meet the basic requirements needed to earn the small XC stipend. That means, practice 3-4 practices a week, minimum number of meets (including conference/sectional/regional meets.)
So 3 hrs a week of practice, and maybe 5 meets total.
He’s paid for a season, and for me the season starts at the end of outdoors track. He can’t sit home all summer, and then comes to dictate what has to be done when school starts.
Who told you I didn’t talk to the coach? I did everything I could to change the situation, not just for my kid, but for anyone else who wants to improve. Nothing worked.
I have a high school junior who trained alone all summer long, he reached 60 miles per week, and was hoping to keep building up once the school year started. Unfortunately the coach, who by the way doesn’t work with the athletes over the summer because he wants to get paid by them, this coach, once the school started, imposes his will and drops the mileage to 25mpw, most of it low intensity. he refused to register the athletes in any invitationals except for one mediocre one. He is a dual meet warrior, and he thinks adding invitationals will cause burnout! As you know, running unattached is not an option for XC, so we are stuck, trying to figure out how to rescue the season, and do the best we can. We are adding extra workouts and long runs just to keep up the mileage, but it’s hard with the school year in full swing and days getting shorter. It is also hard to train all summer long alone, have dreams and goals, just to be crushed by someone who just care about winning some stupid dual meets and ending the season mid October. Talking to the athletic director and the principal won’t change anything, because he’s been there for 25 years.
let me know how to approach this situation? How can we rescue this season?
Hmm now that I think about it, if you have a coach that doesn't know what they are doing, the best situation is what you have! Because 25m of low intensity won't hurt anyone and you are completely free to just tack on your own quality sessions. Add mileage as well on your own. One sneaky thing he can do is if they are running an easy 3 or 4, turn that into a threshold session (and sneak a few strides)--there's one workout. But you would still have to find some time in the evening or morning to get in speed/intervals/race specific work on other quality day. I mean you just need at least 2 quality days +/- a race, everything else mileage? Sprinkle in mileage and you are there. if you don't know jack about running just take a couple workouts each week from Jack Daniel's book. That's easy enough and down the middle advice. One of the few books that gives you the workouts.
He’s paid for a season, and for me the season starts at the end of outdoors track. He can’t sit home all summer, and then comes to dictate what has to be done when school starts.
You don't seem to understand that when the season starts is not up to you and that he absolutely can sit home all summer and dictate what has to be done when school starts. You don't like that. I get it. But it's how it works at every high school in the country.
Maybe the coach said he doesn’t want to burn them out at Invitationals but the real reason is he doesn’t want to work Saturdays. Especially if his stipend doesn’t change no matter what he does. If this is the situation, you could approach the coach and offer to ride the bus to an Invitational.
scheduling is team specific. southlake carroll fighting for state maybe needs competitive stimulation every week or the kids get bored or sloppy. hurst bell finishing last in that same district with 1 kid under 18, would just be humiliated by a harsh schedule.
i am a big US soccer fan. the team is currently struggling. however it has scheduled for years like a world power. the net effect is right now they are racking up losses, and IMO the harsh scheduling makes it hard for the team to tinker with personnel or tactics to fix anything. to me they need to mess around under the hood and while doing so don't need to schedule a team harder than the School for the Blind down the road.
also, OP is not thinking outside of the box. you sign your kid up for a postseason XC meet or two. the regular season becomes like summer work. your area meet, while important, becomes the prep work for any state you advance, plus your postseason. postseason becomes your peak. and you completely control the training for the postseason.
Who told you I didn’t talk to the coach? I did everything I could to change the situation, not just for my kid, but for anyone else who wants to improve. Nothing worked.
YOU did! Here's a quote from one of your earlier posts. "i didn’t speak to the coach personally, in the past he lied to me..." You also said you didn't talk to the AD or principal because it wouldn't do any good. You're not willing to talk to the coach or anyone else in the chain of command so what do you hope to accomplish here?
He’s paid for a season, and for me the season starts at the end of outdoors track. He can’t sit home all summer, and then comes to dictate what has to be done when school starts.
You don't seem to understand that when the season starts is not up to you and that he absolutely can sit home all summer and dictate what has to be done when school starts. You don't like that. I get it. But it's how it works at every high school in the country.
That's not how it works at 9/10 HSs by me? Coach or proxy should be running base program over summer/ I mean what program doesn't do that?
Who told you I didn’t talk to the coach? I did everything I could to change the situation, not just for my kid, but for anyone else who wants to improve. Nothing worked.
YOU did! Here's a quote from one of your earlier posts. "i didn’t speak to the coach personally, in the past he lied to me..." You also said you didn't talk to the AD or principal because it wouldn't do any good. You're not willing to talk to the coach or anyone else in the chain of command so what do you hope to accomplish here?
Well now we know where these nutty coaches come from. Thanks Boss.
YOU did! Here's a quote from one of your earlier posts. "i didn’t speak to the coach personally, in the past he lied to me..." You also said you didn't talk to the AD or principal because it wouldn't do any good. You're not willing to talk to the coach or anyone else in the chain of command so what do you hope to accomplish here?
Well now we know where these nutty coaches come from. Thanks Boss.
They often come from made up or distorted stories by disgruntled parents. This dude isn't willing to talk to any of the folks who can actually make a change but he wants to get advice here for some purpose. What's that purpose if he's not willing to talk to the coach or anyone else who matters?
Apparently you're a little triggered about the boss thing. If the head coach isn't the boss, who is? Head coach makes the decisions, it's part of being the boss. Should a coach listen to athletes and parents as part of the decision making process? Sure but this parent admitted he never talked to the coach. If you were the coach wouldn't you rather have the parent talk TO you rather than ABOUT you?
Well now we know where these nutty coaches come from. Thanks Boss.
They often come from made up or distorted stories by disgruntled parents. This dude isn't willing to talk to any of the folks who can actually make a change but he wants to get advice here for some purpose. What's that purpose if he's not willing to talk to the coach or anyone else who matters?
Apparently you're a little triggered about the boss thing. If the head coach isn't the boss, who is? Head coach makes the decisions, it's part of being the boss. Should a coach listen to athletes and parents as part of the decision making process? Sure but this parent admitted he never talked to the coach. If you were the coach wouldn't you rather have the parent talk TO you rather than ABOUT you?
Yes and no. I have seen too many XC coaches who have close to zero knowledge somehow get a coaching job? I just get triggered by this "well they are in charge lets assume they are right about everything" attitude. We are in this culture right now where every parent is a crazed hockey parent if they so much as question the "coach". This coach is lost, a gym teacher at best, lets not defend him or her. We have elite (and non elite) runners who have no choice but to run for themselves and try to get into meets unattached only to have the actually crazy parents and crazy coaches keep these kids out. I have nothing but disdain for adults who are afraid to race good runners. My club team of kids who have these bad program or no program issues can't race in most meets because....the parents are afraid. I would bet 100$ if you left it up to the kids they would race all comers. Bad coaches + cowardly rules = kids get punished.
I have a high school junior who trained alone all summer long, he reached 60 miles per week, and was hoping to keep building up once the school year started. Unfortunately the coach, who by the way doesn’t work with the athletes over the summer because he wants to get paid by them, this coach, once the school started, imposes his will and drops the mileage to 25mpw, most of it low intensity. he refused to register the athletes in any invitationals except for one mediocre one. He is a dual meet warrior, and he thinks adding invitationals will cause burnout! As you know, running unattached is not an option for XC, so we are stuck, trying to figure out how to rescue the season, and do the best we can. We are adding extra workouts and long runs just to keep up the mileage, but it’s hard with the school year in full swing and days getting shorter. It is also hard to train all summer long alone, have dreams and goals, just to be crushed by someone who just care about winning some stupid dual meets and ending the season mid October. Talking to the athletic director and the principal won’t change anything, because he’s been there for 25 years.
let me know how to approach this situation? How can we rescue this season?
Im in HS and cant compete either so Im running college invitationals unattached where possible good luck!