Should I get a private coach?

EJS 5 wrote:

I am a high school senior this year and want to run the fastest possible. I predominantly run the 400 and 800 with an occasional 1600. I like my coach but he doesn't take the time to somewhat individualize our training for us. For example, last year we did one peaking type workout which was 3x700 with 4 minutes rest. We were supposed to do this at faster than mile pace. However, I feel that I should be some more 800 specific things. Also, some of the workouts are just really easy and don't challenge me. I normally do 45 mpw in the offseason and am in fairly good shape, but when I start training with the team I have to drop to 30 mpw and within a month I feel pretty flat. Does anyone know any good private coaches that have good experience with mid-distance runners. For example how is runccg?

You should contact The Wizard JS.He has some stalkers here trying to blacken his excellent coaching.He has coached the South African champ at 1500m ,Folavio Sehohole, to a bronze at SA champs 1500m and a solo win 3:42 1500 up at high altitude.You can try contact J.S at email

to get more info. A great coach and low fee .

No one needs to "blacken" your coaching, JS (yes OP, that is JS writing under a different handle because that is the only way he gets praise for his horrible coaching).

Your athletes getting slower year after year and all the lies you tell are enough for anyone to see you couldn't coach Kipchoge to a sub 2:10 marathon.

JS, you are such a narcissist you only think of yourself. You can't even spell the names of your athletes correctly. Go away and stay away.

Of course this is me,the coach JS himself haha )) I pretend to be other people to promote my services , but the truth it`s my athletes always get slower with my magic system ))

No, you should not get a private coach. Some schools will not allow that, and if I were your coach or athletic director, I would not allow it either.

Talk to your coach. See if he would be ok with you running more than 30 MPW. If so, great...make a plan. If not, do it anyway. You can easily up your mileage from 30 to 45 with weekend running and maybe one morning run during the week.

I'm confused how the school won't allow it. Becuase isn't it my choice to be on the team so can't it be my choice to have a different coach? I'm just curious.

I think what the galaxy-brained Flagpole is trying to say is that you may not be able to participate as a member of your HS team if you don't receive coaching from your school's coach. You're absolutely allowed to drop your HS team and train with a private coach, you just  may not have the support of the school though, e.g. meet entry, transportation, uniform, etc... I can't guarantee that that's the situation, but it's probably likely so. There's a lot of grey area. Do y'all train on the weekends? You could likely work with a private coach on the weekends just fine.

You don't need a private coach. If your coach isn't training you enough just do more on your own. There are plenty of available resources out there for those with a little motivation to look around.

EJS 5 wrote:

I'm confused how the school won't allow it. Becuase isn't it my choice to be on the team so can't it be my choice to have a different coach? I'm just curious.

They can't prevent you from working with a private coach, but they can prevent you from competing with the team if that's the case.

I'd suggest asking your team coach. Approach him/her in a respectful manner and see what they think about it.

Unless you are trying to polish your times to get into college, I'd advise you to just talk to your coach and see what you can modify about your training. If you're not going to college for this stuff, I would wholeheartedly advise you to train with your team and accept potentially being a bit slower. It isn't worth it to train in a silo when you could be making fun memories.

How is this coach thing any different from similar common situations like band/choir students who get private lessons, baseball players going to the batting cage on their own time, ect...?

Presumably, with a private coach OP would no longer be training with the team. We don't know if that's the case or not. If the private coach works with OP on the weekends, or once or twice a week, or maybe does some supplementary strength/speed/lifting/technique/drill work before/after school, it's more likely to be cool. He'll have to talk to his coach and sort it out. 

UPDATE: I did decide to get a private coach and this is my third week working with him so far. My mileage has stayed fairly consistent at 45 or so and he has built me up to a 12 mile long run on Sundays after Saturday races. The workouts are also really good. Right now he has me doing some more mile paced stuff to build endurance and will progress me to the 800 ones.

Before I started working with the coach I ran 4:39 1600 and 2:03 800. I'm excited to see what this season will bring

Also I can still run for my team and my high school coach is ok with me doing this training because I still warm up with the team and run with them when I can

Share your training with your coach, so he can have the entire team do your workouts with you. The entire team improves, and the coach learns better training.