Better Track Head Coach- Distance or Sprints

Sprint coach. All day everyday. You have a lot more events that are speed oriented. Sprint events plus the hurdles and relays. The sprint coach is in touch with more athletes than a distance or throws coach.

Another level wrote:

Being a good head track coach has very little to do with actual coaching unfortunately, at any level.

This is probably the right answer… just be a good coach… a good coach hires people that do a good job in the things that need to be done and then let’s them do it.

A well organized ex tennis coach who can hire the right people to coach the specifics of the sport is better than an elite sprinter or distance runner who isn’t a good leader or is a micro manager of their staff.

word homies wrote:

Another level wrote:

Being a good head track coach has very little to do with actual coaching unfortunately, at any level.

This is probably the right answer… just be a good coach… a good coach hires people that do a good job in the things that need to be done and then let’s them do it.

A well organized ex tennis coach who can hire the right people to coach the specifics of the sport is better than an elite sprinter or distance runner who isn’t a good leader or is a micro manager of their staff.

I’ve been a head coach and assistant at several levels. Unfortunately when you become head coach there are a lot of other things to do like: scheduling, hosting, recruiting, paperwork, travel plans, managing other coaches, dealing with parents, etc. Assistant for track is my preference because I want to coach.

Better off having a sprint oriented coach as HC be cause distance training is much simpler to learn.

As a head coach I got a good piece of advice: For your assistant, hire the best coach available. Have her or him coach the events that s/he's best at. You coach the rest.

I stayed with that pretty consistently. Worked out well.

Neither. A jumps coach. Won't require as much scholarship to fill their events with studs and they'd have more money to spread around. Plus a lot of them know sprints decently and possibly could coach that too.

kibitzer wrote:

As a head coach I got a good piece of advice: For your assistant, hire the best coach available. Have her or him coach the events that s/he's best at. You coach the rest.

I stayed with that pretty consistently. Worked out well.

Pass on that. When I was head coach I pick the events I want to coach and hire coaches for the rest. There is no money in coaching so do what you enjoy.

Actually, neither. Mid distance coach would be best. The reason is obvious

Mid distance runner coach

Ran 400 - 10000m at some point

Bring on someone who knows sprints very well and have success

Listen, this makes sense and I'd agree with you under one circumstance: the SPORT of xc doesn't exist. Every example you just cited was about who would be the best track coach. You're using examples of event selection in TRACK. What I'm saying is to have a thrower in charge of making cross country decisions is absurd. You should NEVER have a coach of one sport making decisions for a coach of AN ENTIRELY SEPARATE SPORT.

TNFXPRT wrote:

Distance.

A distance oriented coach will be more open to having promising speedsters explore longer events before permanently staying sprinters.

A sprint coach might keep the fast kids and let distance have the leftovers.

D - (800, 1600, 3200, 4x8, few 4x4 legs) - 4.5 events

S&J - (100, 200, 400, 4x1, 4x4, HJ, LJ, TJ, HH, IH, few throws)- 10+ events

PV - unicorn event

Throws - Sometimes top sprinters can score being fast in the circle, never a distance runner

A good head coach can come from any background, but someone on the staff must be good in the sprints/ jumps/ hurdles to win championships.

SprintDude wrote:

A good head coach can come from any background, but someone on the staff must be good in the sprints/ jumps/ hurdles to win championships.

high school xc coach wrote:

in high school, a distance coach is best. im not sure that's true in levels beyond.

distance coaches get a ton out of events from 400/4x400 through 3200.

And I don't believe sprints guys are going to be typically any better in hurdles, unless they are hurdles guys. Sprints coaches are probably also more likely to do better with jumps.

The thing is, in high school, the truly talented sprints/jumps guys are just going to win, whether they coached are not. Sprinters are born. In distance, a kid who might be an 11:00+ nobody on a team without a coach, can be a sub 10:00 point scorer with somebody who develops distance runners.

OMG, distance all the way. If you dont know a good amount about distance coaching, you are toast, and yes a lot of events, its complicated, and every athlete is different by a lot. Have you ever seen sprint work outs? They are not rocket science.

Have you ever looked into what goes into starts and form for sprints? It may as well be rocket science compared to distance training. That's from the mouth of a mid-distance runner. It's two different worlds.

Well, all else being equal in terms of recruiting, motivating, managing, administrating, politicking etc., one would expect that a Decathlete would have the knowledge advantage over everyone else.

I have been fortunate to have coached under 3 multi-Hall of Fame coaches (1 college, 2 High School) as well as two outstanding club coaches. The most successful of them all had been a decathlete. He was also professionally the easiest to work with, precisely because of his broad knowledge.