Fit =/= weight or eating wrote:
"Fit" does not necessarily have to refer solely to issues of weight and eating habits. He more likely meant it as a descriptor for how well-trained they are at this point in the season. Sounds like an overreaction
I would say it almost never has to do with issues of weight when it comes to XC. Every day we're trying to gain fitness. That doesn't mean we're trying to lose weight.
XCMomma wrote:
After my daughter's most recent XC Meet, her coach sent out a mass text to all runners and their parents (he was very upset with our team's performance). His text read, "Times 30 seconds slower, moreso for those less-fit".
I would greatly appreciate your thoughts, comments, and how you would have replied to the coach. Thank you, in advance!
How fast was that course compared to last week's course? Did everyone from all teams run slower?
Did the team dinner on Friday night go way later than normal and the team got less sleep?
Every pound of weight is about 1 second per mile. If you are carrying a bunch of extra weight, on a running team, and want to be successful, you should lose the extra weight. If instead you want to be comfortable, leave on the curves, and run for exercise and fun, have at it, but not on a team.
So much trolling in this thread.
Agreed . I'm amazed anyone bit "XCMomma"
His remarks are very appropriate. There are obviously runners on that team that are "less fit" than others ie slower, not in shape, getting their ass kicked. This is a high school team, not PAL. A coach expects his team to perform. Those that are treating it as just a notch for their HS resume maybe should find something else to do if they don't want to train hard and perform well for the team. I have heard so much worse - you need to get a grip. And I am sure he wasn't singling out your daughter. Happy to hear he sent the article to parents. They are not part of the team
Yes you are overreacting;
you really need to understand that in running lexicon "less fit" would be used to describe athletes who did not run over the summer and came in without a base (he ay or may not have even been referring toy our daughter), and not used to harasses runners about their body.
Coaches really should be hands off on diet with successful athletes, as those tend to be the ones that may had disordered eating. If they are involved, their purpose should be ensuring their is no calorie deficit (this does not apply to heavier young girls who may be using XC as a weight loss oppertunity, and go about it in a healthy way).
you need to chill.
first of all, it is high school.. chill.
second, if your child or athlete doesn't care, then just quit. no need to pontificate
third, if there is a cancer on the team, then out that person.
fourth, the result is likely a failure of the coach, so talk to them
Viking21 wrote:
I would hesitate to second guess the coach without more context. Overbearing parents are one of the worst things that can happen to a high school team. Fortunately, 99% of sports parents are supportive and understanding.
No responsible parent would put up with a coach abusing their child.
I can understand why that would bother some coaches.
Understand that most of the replies you're going to get from this site are middle aged males who have never gone through female body transformations and are going to deny any chance there is at undertones regarding the subject.
You shouldn't respond to the coach about eating disorders at all. You should just tell him to do his job better. That's what he's getting paid to do.
Getting away from the ignorant coach will help her to run faster.
Another questionable poster wrote:
Viking21 wrote:
I would hesitate to second guess the coach without more context. Overbearing parents are one of the worst things that can happen to a high school team. Fortunately, 99% of sports parents are supportive and understanding.
No responsible parent would put up with a coach abusing their child.
I can understand why that would bother some coaches.
Do you see any credible evidence of child abuse here? No responsible human being would be so quick to make unwarranted accusations without some semblance of justification. I can understand why that would bother some internet social justice warriors.
ncrecuvuer wrote:
Understand that most of the replies you're going to get from this site are middle aged males who have never gone through female body transformations and are going to deny any chance there is at undertones regarding the subject.
You shouldn't respond to the coach about eating disorders at all. You should just tell him to do his job better. That's what he's getting paid to do.
Neither of you would know doing a good job from your asses. So please don't tell people how to do their jobs, especially if you don't know what you're talking about.
1) The coach said nothing about anyone's weight. You seem to use this as an excuse to lay into him about this. Maybe schedule a time to talk to him about how you think there could be a better focus on the team meals. But I think you are either projecting or just using this as an excuse to blast him on a separate issue.
2) Something I did not see here is that I do not think a group text blasting the team is something a coach should be doing. My guess is he was frustrated so he lashed out and group texting allows that to happen without thinking.
As for a snowplow parent is one who does his/her best to remove obstacles from your child's path so they never have to deal with adversity and thus never learn how to deal with adversity. To me you sound more like a helicopter parent: one who swoops in to rescue her child when adversity does strike. Both can have long-term detrimental effects on their children.
As others have said, "less fit" has to do with VO2max, miles run over the summer, and percentage of miles/effort levels assigned in practice that the athlete actually complied with.
If you cannot talk about fitness in sport, then why train?
I think you just misinterpreted what the coach meant.
ncrecuvuer wrote:
Understand that most of the replies you're going to get from this site are middle aged males who have never gone through female body transformations and are going to deny any chance there is at undertones regarding the subject.
You shouldn't respond to the coach about eating disorders at all. You should just tell him to do his job better. That's what he's getting paid to do.
"Times 30 seconds slower, moreso for those less-fit" This has something to do with female body transformations? This has something to do with eating disorders? Did he say anything about weight? I think there are a lot of assumptions being made here. Maybe he's a great coach and he's disappointed they didn't better and is referring to their lack of summer running? Could be so many things.
Weight and fitness are not the same thing. Knowing nothing about you or her I can still predict that i probably outweigh your daughter by at least 40 lbs and would beat her by at least 5 minutes in a 5k. This is what fitness means, I am more fit than her despite weighing considerably more.
This coach doesn't seem to take responsibility for the performances of the team, its a team and it directly reflects on him how well they are prepared. My coach would always, say run as hard as you can but your fitness is what it is, you did the training. If you put an honest push the entire race we know where we are and where we need to go. The coach is literally accusing the entire team of not racing hard enough, which is hard to imagine, the other reason would be poor training, which is his job. He should have already addressed summer training, it is what it is...it sounds like he is comparing week to week. Well any moron could figure out courses are different and days are different, we are seeing swings in 20-30 degrees from day to day which can drastically affect performance. So this guy lacks perspective and clearly is blaming the runners when he needs to be looking at the big picture and I guarantee that this text will do nothing to inspire the runners to race harder or want to come to their next practice. I'd be very surprised if this coach is developing a successful program with this attitude.
But the OP, don't worry about the Pizza, and as others have said "fitness" doesn't mean what you think, but he is still picking on the runners who are underdeveloped which is the wrong approach. These are the very runners that need positive inspiration to run hard and get better, he should be pointing out positive things, even if the times where not where he hoped. it is what it is, such as I was happy to see the team warm-up together, or I was happy to see the boys team cheering for the girls team, etc. Talk about the performance in person ask the runners what went well and what didn't...don't put negative thoughts in their head it is not inspiring its demotivating...
You took a lot out of half a sentence from the coach. Much like the OP did.
ncrecuvuer wrote:
Understand that most of the replies you're going to get from this site are middle aged males who have never gone through female body transformations and are going to deny any chance there is at undertones regarding the subject.
You shouldn't respond to the coach about eating disorders at all. You should just tell him to do his job better. That's what he's getting paid to do.
20 something female here.
When a coach, male or female, told me I needed to get more fit… I knew what that meant. I knew it meant that I needed to put in extra time and effort etc. If anybody, male or female, misconstrues that- that is on them. Not on the coach.