Coach poaching and undermining

Of course it does--But that never stopped anyone.

Pretty simple formula here.

"poach coaches" tend to be quite narcissistic. They believe that almost every other coach out there is incompetent. Once that belief has solidified, it then allows the poach coach to believe he is actually the good guy here - just saving an athlete from terrible coaching, that's all!

One coach at a time. You want to work with another coach, then get off the team with the current coach. Only exception is if the coaches are together on this process.

This exact same thing has happened to me. Where I coached a kid for multiple years and brought them to an elite/ national ranking only to have them influenced by their Summer Camp Coach to walk away from their High School Team, Team mates and Coaches. Parents always think that a coach that has several (poached) athletes names on a resume will do better.. In the end the athlete loses..They can never get that fellowship and camaraderie back that they walked away from in High School.

Club coaches have always done that very thing.

Any chance this is in Southeastern Pennsylvania?

Sounds like it is in a lot of places.

It is problematic for a runner to have more than one coach at once. Even a two sport athlete like someone playing football and running track can run into problems with ideas from the off season coach about training that is antithetical to the goals of the athlete and on season coach. Two coaches actively coaching at the same time can not work, unless they are working together (ie the head coach and distance coach or head coach and assistant coach, etc.)

one thing to remember is not all high school coaches are experts in the sport they coach. schools do the best they can with the budgets they have. our high school baseball coach was also our basketball and golf coach.

if there are standouts in a sport it's perfectly acceptable if they seek help elsewhere, even if it means taking advice from a rival schools coach.

This is a highly capable coach with team and individual state champions.

I'm more concerned about the team aspect. The runners are upset that they have to change their meet lineup to accommodate that one runner who doesn't even train with them.

The younger kids don't have that runner to look up to, to learn how to train, to say that the team's star is their friend. It's just someone who shows up at meets and they don't see much of them until the next meet.

One of the main roles of the top runners should be to work with teammates so that everyone improves. That is much more fulfilling than going off on their own.

School coaches need to put their foot down and not allow outside coaches during the season. If you lose athletes so be it. Everyone will be happier in the long run.

That’s not that runner’s responsibility. It’s an individual sport and they are trying to become the best runner they can be. That’s it. And the kids can still learn from them at school or by following in their footsteps.

To expound upon this, when you become a runner you sign up to try to become good at that discipline. If a runner wants to be a runner, they want to be a runner not a mentor. People who care about their discipline will seek out the best resources to become the best runners they can be. That’s the way it should be.

That's all well & good as long as it doesn't have a negative affect on others. But if your individual pursuit is taking opportunities from others without giving back or contributing to the team, it's selfish. Go run unattached or wait for club season.

If said runner wants to get good enough to run on a college team some day, then good luck with that mindset.

They will get the boot very fast or just be straight up unsuccessful in their endeavors at the next level.

As a runner pointed out, why not just go unattached then? Just go solo? Why not lace it up against college runners at Bryan Clay or whatever.

The lessons you learn in a sport transcend on to your later life. But that’s a lesson that people will learn some day at their own expense.

It is so different in running than the swimming world. Age group swimming teams are year around and seem to take the lead. For those that want to do High School, they usually do the team afternoon practices and the HS Coach takes the lead for what events. The swimmer may swim with age group team in mornings and even do some age group meets during the HS season. There is very little conflict. The HS coach accepts the swimmers year around priority is through the age group team and the Age Group coach respects the swimmer will be lead by HS coach during that short season.

Running is different because there aren't the strong year around teams like swimming has and most top HS program run year around formally or informally. It doesn't seem to meld well, either give your HS team and coach 100% or quit and just run for an outside coach and team.

Good HS coaches have no worry of outside coaches and visa versa. Obviously with so much on the line no wonder athletes go looking for better coaching help.

More typical scenario though is terrible or mediocre HS coach looking to overdo the racing and micromanage for ultimately self-serving meaningless points. The better the HS program the less likely anyone will be fixating on dual meet or league level competition.

Ok Brosnan

The runner looked up to older runners and learned from them, that is how they got good enough for the outside coach to come poach them. They are now breaking that chain of reciprocity, of helping the team who helped you get to where you are.

As I mentioned before, this coach makes sure not to overtrain athletes so they can have a longer career past high school. I don't know the specifics, but the poaching coach wants more miles and harder workouts, which may mean better times in high school and they may get into a higher level college, but it also could mean they will burn out and high school would be the pinnacle of their career.

I know there isn't a magic metric that says a runner will surely burn out, some runners thrive on higher miles, etc. If the runner and their parents know that burning out is a possibility, then they can make that decision. But I'm pretty sure the poaching coach isn't telling them that, he is just saying he is better without the warning label.