Tragically bad advice. The 'experiment' (lack of NCAA participation) works. It works consistently and repeatedly. The results are often referred to as the record book. Show me a WR longer than 400m currently held by someone who has ever even watched an NCAA race.
For his book Sub-4, Chris Lear interviews El G's coach, who calls the NCAA 'a waste of time' for a mile or 1500 specialist. He admits it is OK for sprinters.
The evidence - one could use the term 'race results' - would suggest the NCAA has a derogatory effect. Some of you may state that Rupp in his prime or Fisher now are behind precious few runners at important finish lines. However, most who are in front of 'First American' stars either conciously shunned the NCAA or were blissfully unaware of it.
If you are not willing to state your argument to Haile G if you meet him in person, please do not use this nonsense here.
I don’t see either one as being a bad choice. The training will be similar in either scenario. Mary was attending school at Portland State so her schedule was no different than for a collegiate runner.
On paper it may look similar, but when you're a part of a college team it feels different than driving to Nike campus as a part of a pro group. Mary actually spoke about this and how she didn't feel like she was ultimately a part of either group.
Do they just have contracts to run out? They’ll never win anything. I guess this applies to anyone really who, after college, it becomes clear they’re not gonna make it.
Do they just have contracts to run out? They’ll never win anything. I guess this applies to anyone really who, after college, it becomes clear they’re not gonna make it.
Why are you still running
The whole point of the thread is why are they still getting paid to run and be on teams if they’re not performing well anymore and their times are pedestrian. You think that’s what happens in the NFL? Nope
The whole point of the thread is why are they still getting paid to run and be on teams if they’re not performing well anymore and their times are pedestrian. You think that’s what happens in the NFL? Nope
But it is what happens in Major League Baseball. You're paid until your contract is up regardless of how you play, or if you're Bobby Bonilla, for decades after you're done playing.
I don’t see either one as being a bad choice. The training will be similar in either scenario. Mary was attending school at Portland State so her schedule was no different than for a collegiate runner.
On paper it may look similar, but when you're a part of a college team it feels different than driving to Nike campus as a part of a pro group. Mary actually spoke about this and how she didn't feel like she was ultimately a part of either group.
Caveat to all this: of the top 3 girls high school runners from 2014, one went pro (Efraimson) and two ran NCAA. Of the other two, one is an Olympian and the other basically disappeared from the running world after racing only a handful of times in college. There’s no one size fits all; for some people a pro training environment works. For some people NCAA works. I think that there’s almost always merit to going the NCAA route for distance runners, but if Nike wants to throw money at you based on potential rather than times you’ve actually run…well, it’s not an easy call to turn it down.
I hope that world class runners don't stop. Why woukd you want that? Do you want Ingebrightsen and Hasan to enter the NCAA?
Good questions!
It's telling that every time we discuss this topic, we ignore the fact that few non-American athletes follow the same path as Americans. As you point out, very few Europeans run for a college. You'd think their experience would be relevant to these discussion, but evidently, you'd be wrong.
They run on clubs and mature through that process. NCAA route is more demanding and school costs can be offset with scholarship.