Problem at my school with the phy-ed instructor

Hmmmm. Does one your students post on Letsrun under the name of “Sham 69” by any chance?

School teacher wrote:

I teach at a small school where the students aren't particularly athletic.

I was talking to our physical-education teacher in the lunch room

the other day and heard something unbelievable. He wants the students to run

3 laps instead of 4 and still wants to call it a mile. I couldn't believe it and asked why.

He said during their time trials the best runner went 6:05 for the mile and most of the kids

were well over 7 with the majority not breaking 8:30. He said none had any idea what entailed a good

mile time but if he tricked them into running 3 laps instead of four, the 6:05 guy might run around 4:30 and that was a good mile time.

So now our phys-ed teacher is confusing these slow pokes about the mile distance. I don't stand for this.

Advice?

Common tactic to start building confidence among less athletic less successful programs , although a full lap is a little drastic. As a coach, you time trial the kids, train them for a little while, and then have them do another time trial but shorten the course. Compare times and show them how much they improved. This gets them a little confidence and promotes buy-in. So your 40, may only be 35 yards. The mental game is just as important if not more than the physical. Of course if you have a top program or are dealing with elites you don’t have to do this.

School teacher wrote:

I teach at a small school where the students aren't particularly athletic.

I was talking to our physical-education teacher in the lunch room

the other day and heard something unbelievable. He wants the students to run

3 laps instead of 4 and still wants to call it a mile. I couldn't believe it and asked why.

He said during their time trials the best runner went 6:05 for the mile and most of the kids

were well over 7 with the majority not breaking 8:30. He said none had any idea what entailed a good

mile time but if he tricked them into running 3 laps instead of four, the 6:05 guy might run around 4:30 and that was a good mile time.

So now our phys-ed teacher is confusing these slow pokes about the mile distance. I don't stand for this.

Advice?

This is ridiculous. That teacher is deliberately giving them incorrect information about how far a mile is. Call 1600 meters a mile maybe, but not 1200.

That PE teacher either needs to have them run 4 laps or have them run 3 and call it 3/4 of a mile.

If not, on some future game show, one of those kids is going for a million dollars, and the question is, "Approximately how many laps of a standard outdoor track makes a mile?"

With confidence the former student yells, "Three!"

A 6 minute miler knows what a mile is. The kid's Dad knows what a mile is. He knows that 3 laps is not a mile. My kids knew this in 1st grade.

There are numerous distances called a mile. The kids can run a Roman Mile, which is 4,852 feet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile

I ran into the physical -education teacher last week. He told me about an end of year time trial.

The best runner did a 1200 in 4:19 and fully believes it was a mile.

He was even bragging to other students about being the best miler the school had ever had.

The official school record is 4:22 and this student actually believes he's going to break the record when he runs the time in a real race.

What will happen to this young mans confidence when he runs a full mile?

I can’t believe a teacher could care this much student mile times.