"Most" high schoolers realize that going to school is a slog, and there is nothing at the end of the rainbow for them in college other than work.
"Most" high schoolers pay a good portion, if not all of their college costs.
"Most" high schoolers find the opposite sex, and distant parents more interesting
Coaching has so much to do with high school to college improvement. My story sheds light on this. I came into college with a high school pr of 1:55.3 800 PR (o) (granted, this was a little soft since I ran a 1:52 relay split two weeks after I graduated but never caught one in the open). I improved to 1:52.55 (indoors) and 1:51.42 (outdoors) my freshman college season. Then I suddenly lost my coaches to a different school that summer and acquired a new long distance oriented coach (excellent XC/10K coach). After basically improving my open 800 by 4 seconds from senior year of hs to freshman year of college the first words he said to me in our initial meeting were "I can see you really slipping in the sport." That was like a kick in the balls really to have a coaching change and, then to have such a de-motivating statement said to me. My freshman year I had tremendous confidence in my speed and felt like the workouts were geared toward mid-d. The next three seasons I was doing 10 mile tempo runs. Here is my progression: Freshman year - 1:52/1:51, Sophomore year 1:53 indoors/injured outdoors, Junior year 1:53 indoors/1:51 outdoors, Senior year (1:52.0 indoors/1:52.0 outdoors). Now, maybe I hit my natural limit but I think coaching matters when you go from having someone who believes in you and motivates you and you trust their system, to a coach who inherited you (and while a great guy) sort of threw you into his system without any tailoring and made you feel like a lsd runner.
I have not read through this thread much, but an under-appreciated element is what is called selection bias. The individuals that catch your attention are those that have done quite well in high school. These runners tend to: 1) have been lucky with injuries that last year or two in high school; 2) have made bigger improvements than most; 3) have matured earlier than many; and 4) been more (much more?) motivated than most runners; and 5) had better coaching than most high school runners.
So, we may be seeing more injuries than in the past (especially because the work load generally increases, but also because some injury issues take a long time to develop). Their coaches before were focused most on these select runners, but now that are but one of many runners. Related to this is that the runners are no longer getting quite as much positive feedback (used to be superstars, now that are just one among many, especially in top programs). etc.
KipketerFan39 wrote:
Coaching has so much to do with high school to college improvement. My story sheds light on this. I came into college with a high school pr of 1:55.3 800 PR (o) (granted, this was a little soft since I ran a 1:52 relay split two weeks after I graduated but never caught one in the open). I improved to 1:52.55 (indoors) and 1:51.42 (outdoors) my freshman college season. Then I suddenly lost my coaches to a different school that summer and acquired a new long distance oriented coach (excellent XC/10K coach). After basically improving my open 800 by 4 seconds from senior year of hs to freshman year of college the first words he said to me in our initial meeting were "I can see you really slipping in the sport." That was like a kick in the balls really to have a coaching change and, then to have such a de-motivating statement said to me. My freshman year I had tremendous confidence in my speed and felt like the workouts were geared toward mid-d. The next three seasons I was doing 10 mile tempo runs. Here is my progression: Freshman year - 1:52/1:51, Sophomore year 1:53 indoors/injured outdoors, Junior year 1:53 indoors/1:51 outdoors, Senior year (1:52.0 indoors/1:52.0 outdoors). Now, maybe I hit my natural limit but I think coaching matters when you go from having someone who believes in you and motivates you and you trust their system, to a coach who inherited you (and while a great guy) sort of threw you into his system without any tailoring and made you feel like a lsd runner.
CU, huh?