Remote Distance Coach wrote:
This might not be the right place to ask this, however, my frustration has just boiled over.
I started working remotely with middle distance runners over COVID outside of my in-person training and consulting. I realize that may dox myself to some users here, that's okay. It has been very fruitful in a profitable sense and a times dropping sense. My current split of athletes is roughly 50/50 USA/World. I predominantly work with 800 and 1500m (1600m or mile) runners, with the occasional 3000/3200/steeple. My clients have to perform and receive testing for me to begin working for them, and if they don't have a coach, I write their workouts, and if they do, I work within the spine of the workouts their coach has given them to find areas we can address without adding risk. If there are chronically poor workouts given, I will ask to speak to the coach and if the coach doesn't relent, I refund the athlete.
In the spring of this year, I began working with my first two Wisconsin clients. One of the clients is very self-driven (and exceptionally good, especially for his age group and your state), and the other is, while still driven, much more "well, my parents want me to do it" and considerably more talented than driven. What I was completely blown away by was how their respective high school coaches were offended "their" athletes were seeking consultation from an outside source, with one going so far as to hold one of the athletes out of a spring track meet as punishment. Third time is the charm, and I recently added my third Wisconsin client whose parents told me they won't tell her school coaches about this because they do not allow their athletes to get outside help, and that most schools have a similar policy.
What is going on in your state? Your university D3 schools place reasonably high at your D3 Nationals, which is commendable, but why do high school coaches in your state behave this way? Is the rest of the world woefully ignorant of the training happening in Wisconsin? What is the "Wisconsin method" Jakob should be doing? Should we all endeavor to move to Wisconsin to learn from diamond in the rough coaches who simultaneously know everything but yet are so threatened they will punitively damage athletes and socially bully them because they are trying to get better? I've told every client I've ever worked with if they think they have found something better, they can show it to me and we will talk about it, but the arrogance of the coaches here is confounding. You will demand to be their only resource for their sport but not even know something as simple as their VO2 max or cadence, or care to find out?
Whelp, came on here after sectionals finished and saw this.
A few others have written already. I concur, generally, with them at (1) I think many coaches across the country would react this way, and (2) Wisconsin is especially unique because of the coach/athlete contact limits imposed by WIAA. Add on to that in-season non-school performance limits, and this can create a mess—especially in running.
I grew up in Georgia. I've lived in Alabama and North Carolina and seen how their schools did it, plus had family in Florida and South Carolina engaged in sports and heard anecdotally how their states did HS sports.
Since moving to Wisconsin, where my kids are in sports here, the HS sports culture is very different than anywhere else I've lived. Not saying it's bad-different, or good-different, just different. (There is a *lot* I like, in fact.)
But, yeah, I am not surprised you had this experience. Heck, I know in Georgia, for example, all the elite Basketball, Soccer, and Tennis players did out-of-school sports competitions and many of the WIAA regulations would prevent that. Many of the top schools when I was growing up wouldn't have had teams to field! I'm not surprised running has some of the same.
That being said, yeah, it's scary for athletes if you have a coach who will treat you poorly. On the plus side, with running, at least there are non-school events one can participate in. It can be a pain to find them, and you lose a lot of team camaraderie and socialization, but it's doable (as compared to, say, basketball where you need a team of 5).
I know with my kid who is an avid runner, when they were dealing with potential coach issues, the solution we worked up in the background "just in case" the coach went the jackass route was to find those non-WIAA opportunities. (Thankfully, I think that will not be an issue, but you never know; coaches in HS hold a lot of power!)
Also, I don't know if you can direct message on these boards, but I'd be interested in learning about the monthly costs—if you can, feel free to message me. Been looking for something for my avid running kid—they've reached the top of my abilities to coach them, I fear, and while their coach does seem to be okay despite some initial fears, the bottom line is an XC and Track coach has a group of athletes and there is a very real limit on their ability to provide individualistic training to specific athletes.
But, yeah, as a Georgia boy who ran club track and cross, and ran against kids in club track and cross in HS, and played soccer against club soccer players in HS, Wisconsin is weird! Ha. Not all bad—less ground-down kids burning out early, it seems—but, different!