How to tell coach his team is slow?

I coached high school for 17 years. I had teams where, on challenging 5K courses you would be 5th man at best.

If your coach thinks the team is fast, the only way for him to learn is to compete and get trounced- especially in an invitational.

I remember one year my friend (very knowledgeable) was an assistant for a coach who had no clue.

They ran a time trial a couple weeks in with results similar to what you report.

The head coach and the kids were talking like they were invincible. They were going to be sectional champs and competitive at the state level.

First meet- small invitational (my team won) they didn't have anyone break into our top 5. My JV team would have beaten them.

The coach and kids were shell shocked and adjusted.

The first larger invitational will be plenty reality check. Just have a good attitude and focus on improving yourself.

a. the season hasn't started yet

b. the coach probably realizes what they have but is trying to be positive

c. it is possible your coach doesn't have a clue. what kind of work is the team doing? how long has coach been running the program?

Wear a 4:20 isnt fast shirt to practice

This will be a helpful discussion as the East Africans have been looking for a way to break it to the Americans as well.

Yes, “raising the standard” will make the team faster. Good idea.

Girls or boys?

Pretty sure those shirts are sold out and are out of production

Here’s the way to delicately broach the subject: “Coach, yo mama so fat she can’t even run a 100 at our workout pace”.

Actually- you don't know. I had coaching colleagues at other schools who were 9:00 per mile 5K runners and 4 hour marathoners and they thought they were "fast".

The standards for their teams were very low. They found out when they got to meets and got trounced.

These are good questions. I once had a parent who was an 18:00 5k guy. Not bad for a 40 year old with a job and family.

He was full of advice. When I told him that by the end of the season my top 7 would all be well under 18:00 for a challenging 5K cross country course (in Upstate NY) he told me I was crazy if I thought my team would be faster than he is.

He actually took the day off to come to our sectional meet and was shocked when most of my guys were under 17:00 and all were well under 18:00.

Some people just don't get it.

i've definitely come across this with road 5k warriors. 19 minute range is very competitive in my area, so these people can hardly believe the times that kids drop. They think all the courses are ridiculously short.

the thing with kids vs. adult runners, is that they have never stopped being active, so even the slow ones are fast for the general population, and almost every single one of them has the perfect size for running. everybody is 7% bodyfat at that age. Even the ones eating doritos, oreos, and drinking mountain dew almost non stop.

Haven't you been a senior for like 6 years now?

The question is, are YOU thrilled with YOUR results? Lead by example. A few might be brave enough to follow, most wont. What is your legacy going to be Senior? A complainer or someone who has the power to bring out the best in those around you? Sometimes, even an inexperienced/low expectations coach can be inspired.

I was the fastest kid on my hs team by 2 minutes and very competitive at the state level. Our team was young and not talented but were positive and willing to work at it. I really would have liked to have had that team experience at state but they werent ready.

The next year, they were much better and finished 6th at state as a team with 9 seconds between their top 5. I was thrilled for them to have that experience together that I didnt get to be a part of.

Meanwhile, my frosh year in college, I was getting my butt handed to me twice a day. I improved a great deal just chasing them every day but was not top 7 until sr year. We qualified for nationals and it was so totally worth it to go through the small fish experience again. Track 800/mile was my better sport but xc was a great avenue for me. Howevwr, My legacy for both experiences was that I remained positive, shared my visions openly and watched how much of a difference it made on others who may not have been as focused or enthusiastic for the long road.

Your legacy could raise the bar for the next generation at your school. Give them a chance to do the same for those that come after them.

Print out results from last year's meets, at least the ones you will be at this year.

It's math, not rocket science.

PowerPoint

Well what kind of training does your team do? How big is your men’s roster? Not only is that bad, it’s genuinely hard to field a team where only one athlete breaks 18 unless there are severe participation issues.

My senior year our boys ran 15:4x 15:5x 16:07 (me) 16:4x 17:0x 17-mid and 17-mid off of trash 25-35 mpw training, and were the definition of mediocre in our region.

Instead of telling the coach to “raise the standard”, show your team what the standard is. I’ve been down this road. Hard headedness and bad coaching go hand in hand. Cross country is a 6-8 month sport. You are in the last 2-3. The team may be able to get better than they are now, but you need to show them through example that the work truly starts during track. Encourage the team to work together during practice and to do doubles. That’s about all you can do at this point.

Just to clarify for some other peoples questions. It is a boys team, and the coach is just doing it for the money. The training load is 10 miles per week with 1 fartlick workout, most runners walk any way during the runs. The team is extremely negative and I have been coaching myself without others knowing on top of the school coaches program. I have not been negative in front of anyone on the team, and when I posted this I am truly saying it how it is. We do not go to any good invitationals until states and such, where the team is already long gone by then. Every other kid who cares about running has transferred already. Any more advice?

Ok, you now get -1000000/10 for the ‘fartlick’ comment. We have few sacred cows here, but speedplay is one of them. Tell your mom to bring some nequick down to the basement so that you can cool off and try harder.