Can a highschool coach really “burn out” their athletes to the point where they are worse in collegr

5 weeks is probably too much. Just start up nice and easy like I said. I'm not a coach but I have read and studied enough to be a pretty good one. How were you doing 9-10 mile runs and just 25 mpw...? The 10% plan is building your mileage each week by 5-10% ever week and then every 3-4 weeks (depending on how you react) jump down 30% from your high week. IE 40, 44, 48.4, 30, 53, 58.3, 64, 36 and so on. Best advice though anyone can give you, is listen to your body. If it hurts, run real slow that day, and if you don't even think you can run, don't. Best of Luck dude...

College success depends on the college coach too

hard to burn out if you never caught fire.

- someone once said

I ran that much and more by the time I was a senior in high school and had an active social life. I don’t think asking 2 hours a day for six days a week is asking a lot of someone who cares about being good at something.

Please forgive me for asking you about your price preferences, but I feel I have to interject.
You can get a pretty decent nordic-track treadmill for under $$$$ smackerels. It will, I'm sure, last quite a long time....unless you're planning to do something else with it besides run on it!
Is there a particular reason you need the expensive ones?
If there isn't much of a reason to "buy high", don't waste your hard earned cash.
I know alot of good distance runners that have been using their same seven or eight year old fold-away treadmills. They're used three times a week or more...probably much more in the winter. The friends I have don't have any complaints.
Just a thought.

I think its honestly pretty simple....some kids just reach their potential in High School when they are in a high mileage/college type system. its not any more complicated then that. Sure, there will be some improvement in the college ranks but its very possible its just as good as they could be.

Just like at any other significant life changing time (going to college), priorities change. you're 20 and you might meet your future wife, you become far more focused on your career path, etc. Some just really like partying more then running at that point, you just dont know. There are far too many variables to narrow it down to 1 thing.

Again uneducated answers like this is why we get poor results. No smart coach is defending him or herself or posting on here. I have not coached in 12 years and completely laugh at these responses. My lord help these high school kids and their coaches.

Yes, a high school coach can push athletes too hard, both physically and mentally, to the point where they peak too early or develop injuries, burnout, or a lack of passion for their sport. This can affect their performance in college, where the demands are even higher. Good coaching balances development, rest, and motivation to ensure long-term success.

physically, maybe but I was for sure not in any circles where that was even a possibility. Mentally, absolutely

I wish I had the chance to burn out in hs though. My training partner and I asked our coach after sophomore year if we could up the training from 25mpw as 2mi/5k guys and they said no they didn't want us burning out

If you don't improve in college that is your college coaches fault.
There are a ton of crappy college coaches.
Here in Utah we have had a ton of terrible college coaches. They would get an American fork runner and bring them down from 60-70mpw to a 40mpw and stop doing threshold runs. Then they would get worse and blame the high school coach for burning them out.
A good coach can build off any crazy thing a high schooler could be doing.
If you mentally burnout that could be a super insane coach pushing you too much, or you pushing yourself too much or a parent This is an entirely different beast and probably not very common and certainly not something that would be happening in the best programs in the nation.

Maybe this is a controversial take, but I see a lot of people talking about talent vs. need for higher mileage, and I honestly think that you need talent to be able to run higher mileage (say 80 miles a week), just not in the way that will necessarily win you races. You may not be the fastest in a 5k, but you have a special kind of endurance, and your body has a durability that is definitely above average. Not every good runner can handle that load. At least to me its impressive, although I recognize that it sounds lame in comparison to getting on a podium.

Workouts, training, motivation... Ultimately it's on the ATHLETE to make the most of their abilities.

The athletes who succeed are the ones putting in mileage, workouts, strength training, and risking it on race day.

Especially with a sport like ours, if you're fast enough on race day you'll succeed. Elites aren't hopping off the couch and winning with natural ability.

It is possible to overcook the meal. Rest, recovery are important parts of training.

Are we talking guys or girls? Seriously, who in Utah is having guys run 40mpw at the collegiate level? I have my doubts about that.

If girls, I guess I could see a coach bringing in all the Freshmen girls and telling them they are all training as a team and since some were under 40mpw in HS, that’s where they are all starting. Doesn’t make great sense for the more talented girls individually, but I could see it as a team strategy if you aren’t expecting great things from your freshmen.

Roster caps at 17 may force an end to that strategy.

Because the coach is a sexist? Why would this be appropriate behavior for men vs. women? Freshmen women in college training for a 6K? Come on.

I’m not a coach, but my observation from talking to HS kids is that almost all HS boys who can go D1 (aside from a few 800 first guys) are running 50-70 mpw. With rare exceptions, a Utah coach isn’t bringing in guys with great XC results who weren’t running 40mpw.

OTOH, I’ve spoken to several d1 girls who report never having run 40mpw before college.

I’m not sure where claiming a coach might be sexist comes into this.

Again, I don’t know which coach(s) allegedly have girls drop 20mpw when they go to college, and it doesn’t sound like a winning strategy unless they are injury plagued.

Making all the girls train together because they are low mileage as opposed to the low mileage boys doing something different (not having to train together) is a sexist strategy in my opinion. The training shouldn't be THAT much different between the two.

I think the biggest factor is the level of competition. A 9:00 guy will go from winning races in high school to going against runners that can hold his 2-mile pace for 10K. After a year or 2, he’ll realize he’s never going to close the gap, and possibly drop out as a result.