Why won’t my coach let me run what I want?

Runners on here sure are a selfish bunch. No one thinks about what is best for the team on here I see.

In high school, I raced 2 mile & 3200m more than I raced 880yd & 800m. I was asked to by coaches. It was best for the team or that was what coaches believed.

Some of the responses on here are pathetic. A poster said race slowly, not try. Pathetic.

This ain't it. If the coach doesn't care to listen to you then you shouldn't care to listen to your coach. You may have been more of a "follow orders blindly for the company" type but clearly this girl isn't. If the coach shares their vision with her with some sort of structure at all then maybe the athletes could get behind it.

Sorry to hear you're dealing with this OP. I really can't stand coaches who act like this. Not sure if I have any great advice here, but most kids I know would rather sprint than try distance, so props to you for wanting to take on the challenge.

22 minutes in XC without much training really isn't bad at all. It certainly indicates more upside than a 1:10 400 does. Your best move might be to put in a lot of miles this summer when you're away from the team and see how much time you can drop next fall. If you can get down to 20 minutes or so, maybe your coach will stop being stubborn.

Good luck!

It’s high school track. She elected to do it for enjoyment and to reach goals; if she’s not enjoying it and is denied a shot at her goals, then it’s not working. At the collegiate level I understand that it’s pretty cut and dry—you do what gets the team the most points—but in high school you basically have to put the athletes first. Yes, there must be some compromise like there always is in life, but it sounds like the coach here is unwilling to compromise.

Make it clear to the coach (respectfully) how strongly you feel about this. If she’d rather you weren’t on the team than run your preferred events, out of pure stubbornness, then she’s a crappy high school coach and you should consider just up and quitting. Maybe a compromise could be reached in which you forget the hurdles, do a couple distance days and run 200/400/800…if you relatively excel in the 800, then you have new leverage to argue for training as an 800-and-up runner.

When I was in high school I lived in a cold place and ran by myself all winter. In track in the spring I can tell you for sure I never cared how anybody but me did in a race. It's not that kind of sport.

Having coached 20+ state team championships I'd have to credit the culture of working together and letting the kids own their experiences of which they are very grateful to just have been a part of. The most rewarding experience as a coach isnt the winning. Its watching kids grow in many ways most people dont even think is possible. Coach centered coaches are egomaniacs that cant see past themselves and take credit for all the positives and blame everyone else, including the kids for the negatives.

I know a thing or two about how to develop a culture of track and field being a TEAM sport. One that sustains itself with great student leadership and self placed expectations. I learned early on in my experience to not downplay what a kid thought they were capable of. One showed me he could be a multiple times state champion and an OT qualifier as an average performer mid season. I was shocked and never doubted a kid again. Given the proper support, guidance, opportunities, a bond of trust and ownership, kids can do awesome things. I had some very outstanding teams, some more memorable than others. But it was the team(s) that hsd the weight of tradition but half as much talent that were most memorable because they believed in themselves more than anyone would give them credit for. Some call them over achievers but Ibsaw what was in their hearts every day at practice. It wasnt about winning. It was about being put in a position to just have a chance.

Pathetic is when a coach cant recognize that ultimately it is the effort of the athlete in daily practice and in meets, not the coaches will power overlording a kid. Meet them in the middle and both get what they want most of the time.

I would be adamant, and that's how I was in high school.

There's plenty of room for discussing things and doing what's best, but a coach trying to order around students that s/he's supposed to be helping is wrong, and I would not stand for that.

In your case I would tell the coach what events you want to do, and they simply stick with your decision, regardless what s/he says. Thus when you go out to the track, stick with your friend who you ran with in cross country, and don't let the coach try to order you what to do. Make her chase you around the track if there's no other alternative.

I wouldn't do the hurdles, ever, especially since you could get injured and that's not even your event, and I wouldn't do the sprints either. In high school I mostly ran the 880 (1960's) and mile. When I did the 880, then I ran the 220 at the end of the meet just for the heck of it but I wasn't a sprinter and that was only in 10th grade.

Okay so if the coach makes you do the sprints, and you feel that you HAVE to, then just jog them and finish last way behind the others. If she makes you do the hurdles, run up to the hurdle and stop, push the hurdle over, step over it and run to the next one etc.

The point is, run the events that you want to run, and if the coach doesn't support you, then be even more adamant that you're going to run the events that you want and that's it, period.

No! Quit the team if you are bothered by not getting into the events you want to be in. Or just refuse to run the ones she's putting you in and let the chips fall. But if you line up for a race run it as well as you can. You owe that to the sport, to your teammates, but most of all to your own personal integrity.

If you don't have the integrity to stand up for yourself like, then go out for football and bust your head on a wall, if that's what you think integrity is. Then you can have plenty of people to order you around and tell you what to do.

But we're not talking about football. We're talking about track.

And besides that we're talking about practice. I mean how silly is that. We're talking about practice, not competing.

You decide what events you want to compete in, which in this case are the mile and cross country, then you practice and compete. That's it. Pure and simple. And that's how you have your integrity.

WOW, We have the opposite problem. No girls who want to run over 800m. Is your team large? That's unfortunate and not okay. This is high school sports after all not some D1 college team. I agree with the other commentator. Say I'd like to run the 1600m at the next track meet. Get your parents involved...coaches don't like dealing with parents. If she doesn't agree then maybe it's time to go to the Athletic Director. I've got kids that should be doing sprints but want to do distance...we let them and vice versa. They don't always get the invitational spots unless top 3 but yes I make it work for them to try at all comers meets where you have no entrie limits.

This may be an Oscar winning troll job

1- just doesn't make sense as every distance runner's dream is to run 200 and 400.

2- in first post you say you suck at 200/400, but then later you say you placed at state meet

3- what state is this Mars, outer Mongolia? No state is this bad.

4- coach wants sprints, you want distance, but now you train hurdles and jumps. I guess pole vault, throws and pentathlon are next week.

If this is all remotely true, don't quit the team, keep telling coach you want to run 1600. Run 2 miles at end of every practice/sundays, you won't lose Nordic skiing/ distance fitness this way. Train over summer. Kick butt in xc. Have the fight w/ track coach at start of next yr armed w/ xc results.

Good luck w/ pole vault and javelin.

4th in the regionals final for the 200m, with a time of 30.00. I race in the small school division. Qualified for state and ran a 29.69, got 12th overall out of 16 and did not advance into the finals.

I'm doing a 3200 time trial tomorrow. Last year, there was one girl in my division who ran the 3200 at regionals, and she did it in 14:09. I feel like I can beat that and I will. I just have to convince my coach by the results of my time trial.

Good luck and report back!

Sounds like you enjoy running but do not enjoy being on a sports team. Usually people who just want to do what they want don’t join a team with a coach. Think of it like school. Do you tell you teacher what you will study or does the teacher have the authority over the class?

Actually quite the contrary. I played soccer for years before I joined track, even when I had hard coaches, who put me in positions I didn’t necessarily want to play, my concerns were not disregarded. I was played where I could succeed, both mentally and physically.

For example, coaches never tried to put me in defense, my size (or lack thereof) and speed made me a good candidate for midfield. Although, every now and then a coach would try to switch the field, and put me in a position I didn’t know how to play or couldn’t physically. No matter how hard I tried my body just wasn’t quite able too.

This isn’t a matter of my feelings alone, it’s a matter of my training and how I can succeed as an athlete. Sprinting won’t keep me fit for roller skiing this summer, nor will it help me in cross country running or skiing season. I’m looking ahead at my future and making an executive decision. I don’t think it’s selfish to plan ahead, and take the routes that lead me less injury prone.

Go for it!!! LoL, you did manage to add 1 new sport, roller skiing.

I'm with you here. We still have no idea of what her coach's reasoning is. No matter, I hope her 3200 goes well and helps her cause.