Why are americans so afraid to train hard as teenagers?

I'll assume that you are correct about European 15-18-year-olds consistently outperforming American high schoolers because I don't actually know whether that's true or not.

I do know that American adults consistently outperform European adults. So if European kids are better than American kids, but Americans are beating Europeans at the professional level, that really provides evidence that we are superior at long-term development, no?

you think american adults are consistently outperforming european adults? I am talking about distance running... 1500 to marathon. You cant possibly think that's true over the last decade or so

i would say it's mostly confirmation bias from cherry picking outrageously talented kids like heckin' hobbs kesslerino, pointing to the fact that they report running [insert mileage <50 here], then extrapolating from there. also people love the inverse of identifying the 8th grade girls who do marathons with their moms, run a 5:00 mile, then stop running by the end of high school. the truth is that there are a ton of HS kids that would benefit from a little more volume. there are a ton of programs where most of the kids just don't run in the offseason, and in season they try to cut their runs short. laziness and poor offseason training is a much larger issue holding back american HS runners that overtraining and burnout.

Plenty of EU and African runners burn out early. Kenya and Ethiopia are so deep in talent that the coaches can train the U20s like pros and not worry about destroying top talent. In the EU, the club system does a much better job of getting top talent training with the best coaches. In the US, there are a few marquee HS distance programs, but by and large HS standouts just come from big high schools with competitive programs. The coaching at those schools is usually just good enough to turn out state level athletes, but not anywhere near the kind of coaching needed to turn out an international level athlete. So, the risk of HS kids in the US burning out due to bad coaching is very real.

Burning out is all physical. If you burn out mentally it is because you have a soft mind and need to man up. It's easy to overtrain but as long as you're working hard and running fast, you're right.

Sometimes people are too weak minded. Running is about pushing yourself to the limits. If you never try every once in a while, then how do you know that you're as good as you can be?

#AlphaMentality

#StrongerMindThanBody

#ChristianityRocks

Americans don't usually train properly at the pro level.

A la Tinman Wartz

It's not that they're afraid, Americans are lazy fat slobs and their kids are learning to be that.

So Europe has more than double the population of United States. Looking at the marathon, Europe kicks U.S. butt even when you account for how they should have twice the number of fast people. For example in 2019 (last full year with no Covid issues to get in races) Europe had 5 sub 2:07 marathoners and 15 sub 2:10 marathoners. U.S. has 0 and 1... But for 10,000 meters on the track, Europe only had 7 sub 28:00 guys and U.S. with smaller population had 8. And then for 5,000 meters Europe had 0 sub 13 guys and 3 sub 13:10 guys, while U.S. had 1 sub 13 and 5 sub 13:10 with the smaller population. And then 1500 meters Europe had 12 sub 3:35.00 and U.S. only had 2.

So Europe kicks U.S. butt in marathon and 1500 meters, but U.S. is better at 5k and 10k. I think the marathon reasoning is that our top American runners who continue fully training mostly stick to the track, but the depth of American running is starting to make the marathon become way better. More Americans who have run 13:30's for 5k and are more strength based are starting to move up to the marathon, while 20 years ago if you could run 13:30 you were reasonably able to hope to make a U.S. team by improving just a little bit to 13:20... But today because you have to be a 13:10 guy to do much of anything on the national level, more guys who are running 13:30's and 28:XX for 10k just move up to the marathon. And in the rare occasion that a 13:0X/27:20 guy bumps up to the marathon, that's when they are running 2:07 or better.

For the most part, people work really hard at sports when they don't have other options. In the third world countries of Africa and the socialist nations of Europe, many people are in a situation where sports are the only means to a good life. It makes sense for these people to grind out 80+ mile weeks as teenagers.

In the US, if you work reasonably hard in school and you aren't a moron, you can make a great life for yourself. Why grind out 80+ mile weeks in high school if you can put half as much effort into excelling academically and set yourself up for better income than most pro runners are earning?

Along the same line of thinking, why are Americans u see the age of 30 afraid to work?

Americans are smarter than Europeans in that we train for long term development. Americans are better at steeple, 5k, and 10k.

1500/5Kfan wrote:

you think american adults are consistently outperforming european adults? I am talking about distance running... 1500 to marathon. You cant possibly think that's true over the last decade or so

True

A greater question is where does distance running rank as far as overall sports popularity in the different countries. In the US it is down there. Kids grow up playing football, baseball, soccer, basketball, and heck in some parts throw in lacrosse.

Some numbers

2019 worlds medalists:

1500 - Men: 1 European, 0 Americans / Women: 1 European, 0 americans

3000SC - M: 0 EU, 0 US / W: 1 EU, 1 US

5000 - M: 0 EU, 0 US / W: 1 EU, 0 US

10000 - M: 0 EU, 0 US / W: 1 EU, 0 US

Marathon - M: 0 EU, 0 US / W: 0 EU, 0 US

2019 total - 1 US, 5 EU

2017 worlds medalists:

1500 - M: 1 EU, 0 US / W: 0 EU, 1 US

5000 - M: 1 EU, 1 US / W: 1 EU, 0 US

10000 - M: 1 EU, 0 US / W: 0 EU, 0 US

Marathon - M: 0 EU, 0 US / W: 0 EU, 1 US

3000SC - M: 0 EU, 1 US / W: 0 EU, 2 US

2017 total - 4 EU, 6 US

2016 Olympic medalists:

1500 - M: 0 EU, 1 US / W: 0 EU, 1 US

5000 - M: 1 EU, 1 US / W: 0 EU, 0 US

10000 - M: 1 EU, 1 US / W: 0 EU, 0 US

Marathon - M: 0 EU, 1 US / W: 0 EU, 0 US

3000SC - M: 1 EU, 1 US / W: 0 EU, 1 US

2016 total - 3 EU, 7 US

Post Olympics-Present depth:

1500 // M-EU / M-US // W-EU / W-US

#1 // 3:28.68 / 3:31.77 // 3:51.95 / 3:54.99

#5 // 3:31.46 / 3:34.36 // 4:00.09 / 4:00.02

#10 // 3:33.11 / 3:35.25 // 4:01.31 / 4:02.62

#15 // 3:33.72 / 3:35.85 // 4:02.98 / 4:03.72

#20 // 3:34.23 / 3:36.33 // 4:03.73 / 4:04.56

#25 // 3:34.98 / 3:36.53 // 4:04.80 / 4:05.18

5000

#1 // 13:00.70 / 12:57.55 // 14:22.12 / 14:23.92

#5 // 13:05.13 / 13:02.53 // 14:46.17 / 14:50.06

#10 // 13:11.75 / 13:09.81 // 14:59.02 / 14:57.54

#15 // 13:13.84 / 13:16.97 // 15:07.52 / 15:04.95

#20 // 13:17.95 / 13:19.98 // 15:14.17 / 15:10.01

#25 // 13:19.20 / 13:22.28 // 15:16.13 / 15:12.91

10000

#1 // 26:49.51 / 27:04.72 // 29:06.82 / 30:47.42

#5 // 27:22.70 / 27:14.95 // 31:01.71 / 31:05.71

#10 // 27:41.20 / 27:32.49 // 31:15.78 / 31:15.65

#15 // 27:50.56 / 27:41.16 // 31:33.77 / 31:24.47

#20 // 27:53.39 / 27:47.27 // 31:56.52 / 31:35.88

#25 // 28:01.93 / 27:56.11 // 32:07.62 / 31:53.89

Marathon

#1 // 2:04:16 / 2:06:07 // 2:17:45 / 2:20:32

#5 // 2:06:17 / 2:09:38 // 2:25:24 / 2:23:08

#10 // 2:07:20 / 2:10:02 // 2:25:42 / 2:25:38

#15 // 2:07:45 / 2:10:53 // 2:26:31 / 2:26:53

#20 // 2:08:22 / 2:11:18 // 2:26:47 / 2:28:43

#25 // 2:09:17 / 2:11:44 // 2:27:08 / 2:29:59

3000SC

#1 // 8:05.23 / 8:01.02 // 9:03.30 / 9:00.85

#5 // 8:15.60 / 8:17.74 // 9:16.82 / 9:25.53

#10 // 8:20.12 / 8:21.25 // 9:26.09 / 9:31.37

#15 // 8:20.61 / 8:26.75 // 9:27.53 / 9:38.62

#20 // 8:22.00 / 8:29.11 // 9:31.84 / 9:40.65

#25 // 8:24.31 / 8:30.33 // 9:34.87 / 9:42.54

Is it logistically & physically possible for U.S. to produce sub-44 & sub-1:42.5 and sub-49.5 & sub-1:55 men & women by their 18th birthday? Yes, it could be done. Go back to Presidential Fitness Test in elementary school. Instead of starting in 4th grade as it was done previously, start Presidential at age 4. By age 7, train U.S. youth from age 7 the way U.S. trains female gymnasts. Won't happen though. Think about all the teenage girls who get messed up for life who never make Olympic team as gymnasts. A poster said there is no such thing as psychological burnout. Poster needs to talk to a female gymnast. Female ballerinas who start at age 2 or 3 is an example of being able to produce peak success by age 17 or 18.

Why is it a country vs continents? Can we at least get North America?

There used to be some kind of mentality that an undertrained kid will blossom at the next level he or she gets to.

If, and only if, that kid becomes an Olympic gold medalist, was his or her career a true success.

BUT then we had Matt Centrowitz, who won an Olympic gold medal, and is still criticized to no end.

Unless you win MULTIPLE GOLD MEDALS and hold A WORLD RECORD, your career is considered a failure and this will almost always be linked back to training too hard before getting to the NCAA system.