In high school cross country and track, how common was it for people to quit and why?

david45 wrote:

Viking21 wrote:

As a mathematical concept?

So some kids are destined to never play sports despite wanting to play one?

If I see a positive attitude, I keep kids on my roster who have zero chance of ever placing at a meet or scoring a single point in track. Most of the kids that you refer to cut themselves pretty quickly.

Viking21 wrote:

david45 wrote:

So some kids are destined to never play sports despite wanting to play one?

If I see a positive attitude, I keep kids on my roster who have zero chance of ever placing at a meet or scoring a single point in track. Most of the kids that you refer to cut themselves pretty quickly.

Why do they cut themselves?

david45 wrote:

Viking21 wrote:

If I see a positive attitude, I keep kids on my roster who have zero chance of ever placing at a meet or scoring a single point in track. Most of the kids that you refer to cut themselves pretty quickly.

Why do they cut themselves?

If you are not just trolling, I believe that it is self evident that not everyone has the physical and/or mental make up to tolerate the training regimen that goes along with competing in an endurance sport. I have had more than one kid go out on our little warm up loop the very first day and never return. Some people just don't want the tee shirt that badly.

Viking21 wrote:

david45 wrote:

Why do they cut themselves?

If you are not just trolling, I believe that it is self evident that not everyone has the physical and/or mental make up to tolerate the training regimen that goes along with competing in an endurance sport. I have had more than one kid go out on our little warm up loop the very first day and never return. Some people just don't want the tee shirt that badly.

Do those kids go on to play zero sports?

I coached for nearly a decade at the high school level, and I very rarely had kids quit during season. Less than a handful over the entire decade. It was decently common for kids to quit between the seasons and not come back. All sorts of reasons, ranging anywhere from quitting to focus on other sports or marching band (grrrr), to academic reasons. Generally you lose between 15% and 25% of a class between their freshman year and their senior year. Most common to lose them between their freshman year and sophomore year.

Interesting thread . I coach at a moderately sized city school in NY . Population is 1/3 white , 1/3 African American , 1/6 Hispanic , 1/6 SE Asian . For track each season about 1/3 of girls and 1/5 of guys don’t return. We usually fill those spots with new kids. In season we rarely lose kids but there usually is a spring break mid-season . The kids who totally blow off practice then are a lot slower when school resumes and often quit.

Cross country is a whole different story . Running 3 miles doesn’t appeal to lots of kids , soccer is more popular , practices start before school begins , the practices are harder and not much parental support so even fielding a scoring team takes done doing .

I was a quitter. I quit football and chose running. Set six school records, some of which still stand I think. I think I just liked a sport that required me to really engage my mind for a long period of time, teaching me to focus when I was tired and in pain. I think the idea of the focus, the discipline, the tolerance of pain appealed to me. It seemed to represent life. Life is tiring, painful, requires focus and discipline. That doesn't appeal to a lot of kids in today's culture. They just don't understand or are afraid to face the pain of living, much less embrace it in a sport or activity or relationship. Some kids just aren't wired that way...in fact, watching the news, I'd say most aren't. A lot of teammates quit in the first few weeks usually...after they realized it wasn't going to be easy to impress the girls or get a varsity letter...probably the biggest goal as a coach isn't to worry about producing champions but just people who learn to set goals and stick to them, whether short term (like just for the 3-4month season) or long term (like several years at high school or college level).

It was pretty common.

High school is a great time to try out many different things. Kids are drawn to all kinds of activities regardless of their talent. In fact, the more talented runners often don’t appreciate it as much.

In my case, after a month off due to illness I wanted more time to devote to my studies and friends so running didn’t make the cut.

No regrets at all.

david45 wrote:

Over the course of your time doing those sports, how many people quit and why did they quit?

This IS your life Island? To come here and post garbage, that's what your life meaning is. Do you really care about the answer to the question you posted? What will you gain from such meaningless knowledge and not even know if the answers are right or wrong? I'm glad I don't have your life;)

omlam wrote:

david45 wrote:

Over the course of your time doing those sports, how many people quit and why did they quit?

This IS your life Island? To come here and post garbage, that's what your life meaning is. Do you really care about the answer to the question you posted? What will you gain from such meaningless knowledge and not even know if the answers are right or wrong? I'm glad I don't have your life;)

I still get PTSD from how little fun I had in high school

The only cure is to stop running entirely.

parent of studs wrote:

The only cure is to stop running entirely.

That is not a cure