Does being a good collegiate runner help you become a college coach?

Being a good athlete has no impact on coaching ability. Absolutely none.

Coaching good athletes has a huge impact on coaching ability.

Mediocr3Runner wrote:

I'm asking about how being a good athlete helps guys to become coaches.

It doesn't. At all. Completely different skill set. Being a good runner is primarily determined by winning the genetic lottery. If anything, it hinders your ability to coach because you can't relate to athletes who didn't win the genetic lottery.

I understand that, I thought I clarified that. I was asking how do these athletes get into coaching, and if it might help them get their foot in the door more than other applicants who were not as successful. Especially in cases of strong progression in college where non-super talented athletes become great runners. Is it just the same process of going for volunteer assistant positions and then going for #2man kind of assistant jobs? When do you actually have the autonomy as a coach to actually coach successful athletes?

NO!

I would always say 85% of my teams success on race day comes down to 3 things:

1. Recruiting

2. Motivation (most of that is self motivation by the athlete but a coach needs to know how to motivate his/her athletes)

3. Luck - is your team mostly injury free etc.

While I understand that there are several cases where great athletes are not great coaches, I think in only cases of highly gifted athletes, and even not really then, as many guys learn a great deal about the magic behind their success and growth, I think there's too much of a thought process that good athletes don't make for good coaches. In literally any other field, I want to be instructed or managed by people who are credible and have had success. The best athletes have a clear progression, even if there starting point far exceeded many others. Now, I know that coaching successful athletes is the best form of credibility, but how do coaches really even get that chance? Especially when there are so few head coaching jobs that open up?

FormerXCcoach wrote:

NO!

I would always say 85% of my teams success on race day comes down to 3 things:

1. Recruiting

2. Motivation (most of that is self motivation by the athlete but a coach needs to know how to motivate his/her athletes)

3. Luck - is your team mostly injury free etc.

I may have not illustrated what I as trying to ask initially. I was asking about how these athletes become coaches, and if their success helped that process? Guys like Kevin Sullivan, or the Ohio State mid d coach (I forget his name but he's a 1:43 guy), were their rise to coaching positions helped by their success? My guess is yes but I don't know how these guys got their jobs so I don't know.

Mediocr3Runner wrote:

FormerXCcoach wrote:

NO!

I would always say 85% of my teams success on race day comes down to 3 things:

1. Recruiting

2. Motivation (most of that is self motivation by the athlete but a coach needs to know how to motivate his/her athletes)

3. Luck - is your team mostly injury free etc.

I may have not illustrated what I as trying to ask initially. I was asking about how these athletes become coaches, and if their success helped that process? Guys like Kevin Sullivan, or the Ohio State mid d coach (I forget his name but he's a 1:43 guy), were their rise to coaching positions helped by their success? My guess is yes but I don't know how these guys got their jobs so I don't know.

I think it depends on their level of mediocrity. Mediocre high school guys ought to just study hard and pick a career outside of sport. Mediocre college guys can probably parlay coaching ability and a network into some kind of gig. I will say that fast guys tend to have more street cred with normies and aspiring runners.

Mediocr3Runner wrote:

FormerXCcoach wrote:

NO!

I would always say 85% of my teams success on race day comes down to 3 things:

1. Recruiting

2. Motivation (most of that is self motivation by the athlete but a coach needs to know how to motivate his/her athletes)

3. Luck - is your team mostly injury free etc.

I may have not illustrated what I as trying to ask initially. I was asking about how these athletes become coaches, and if their success helped that process? Guys like Kevin Sullivan, or the Ohio State mid d coach (I forget his name but he's a 1:43 guy), were their rise to coaching positions helped by their success? My guess is yes but I don't know how these guys got their jobs so I don't know.

Then yes, having their athletic credentials put them ahead of others. generally an administration with no knowledge of a sport like running will hire a name as opposed to someone who can actually coach.

Oh, and having a team that is injury free is not luck. just don't be an idiot and let your ego get in the way.

Athletes who are successful are self motivated, if you as a coach has to motivate someone then they don't have it. A coach is a guide.

Yes it is usually the same process, more of less. The main difference is that many elite college runners have a much bigger network of people to help them get their first coaching job/first real coaching job. If you were an elite college runner chances are you were an elite hs runner so by the time you graduate you have 8-10 years of being around other elites who will end up coaching as well, during the recruiting process you talked with and made relationships with many other coaches and then you were at all the same races and championships throughout college. And high school kids like to go to programs where elite athletes are coaching so having an ex-elite ncaa runner on your staff can help with recruiting other elite hs kids... being a “good coach” in college is not just about coaching.

That said you can definitely get a job or be well connected without being an ex-elite runner.

Mediocr3Runner wrote:

I was asking how do these athletes get into coaching, and if it might help them get their foot in the door more than other applicants who were not as successful. Especially in cases of strong progression in college where non-super talented athletes become great runners. Is it just the same process of going for volunteer assistant positions and then going for #2man kind of assistant jobs?

Okay, I understood what you were asking! It's not guaranteed, but yes, on average a top college athlete has a better chance of getting a look when s/he applies for coaching positions.

True, many still have gone through the graduate assistant or volunteer assistant => part-timer => assistant-coach progression, but with that route *in general* having been a good college athlete wil give one a somewhat better chance of successfully obtaining each one of those positions.

And of course there are still *some* situations where a top athlete simply walks into a top position. One extreme example: As I understand it, David Hemery became head coach at BU without any previous formal coaching positions, though I believe he was officially the manager of a leisure center in London for a couple of years and may have done some coaching in that position. OTOH he did have rawther an impressive athletic resume...

tortoise wrote:

[quote]Mediocr3Runner wrote:

generally an administration with no knowledge of a sport like running will hire a name as opposed to someone who can actually coach.

This is correct. Hiring a name athlete--provided s/he is otherwise fully quotafied for the job--is the "safe" approach for an athletic adminstrator, and generally faster than trying to sort out coaching experience/credentials. And, realistically, what AD at a football- or basketball-centric university wants to spend much time on hiring t&f/xc staff?

Was div 3AA much better coach than runner did coach myself after college and ran pretty well. In last 2 years have coached female to top 50 at WXC and 1:11 half. A 3:43 1500m runner, a 1:49 and 1:50 from two other male runners. Also just helped 50 year old male run 1:14 for half. Coached over 100 people but started small. Developed good rapport with athletes when they run well message is spread. Coach in person and online but is only side hustle to my teaching profession. Thankfully I coach in the beautiful country of Oz.

Hopefully you will get a chance to coach one day. It's a lot of fun but much work.

I’d say there are 2 main aspects that carry over :

First, the personality that a top runner usually has: A lot of the things that make a good runner will carry over to coaching : dedication, hard work, long term mentality, attention to details, passion for the sport etc.. so that will definitely help.

Second, the reputation and experience that a top runner has will definitely help in recruiting, getting jobs etc... I don’t think that it’s warranted, but that’s the way things work, and an ex-top runner would be a fool not to take advantage of their reputation.

For the rest, such as communication , compassion, leadership, scientific literacy ... I’d say there’s no correlation.