Coaching middle and HS runners

my select team growing up had multiple age group teams. one thing our coach would do is sometimes have talented players from one age go "practice up" with a higher age group for the day. so the junior high kid who blows away everyone suddenly has to handle playing 18 year olds. and suddenly your speed and skills are average, and you have to play faster and smarter. very educational and motivational. also can be used for disciplinary purposes.

you could also, with that wide a range of ages, "pod" the kids by times, same effect, but longer term. the 2:30 800 people train together. the 2:15. the 2 flat. regardless of age. then meet day you go with your particular grade. if a kid improves or people quit, shuffle around the pods.

to me this works for everything but relays in TF where you need the relay pool together practicing handoffs regardless if half the team is at another level than the rest.

More important than X's and O's is the ability to motivate kids.

Clinics, basic books on coaching or YouTube videos or notes from USTFCCCA's lectures are enough- choose the ones you need.

Communication, organization, and motivation might not be what you were expecting to read but these are the most important attributes of a good coach.

Agree 100%.

At that level talent will be obvious and you won't be coaching any future D1 athletes most likely. And if you are, again, it will be obvious. Worry about that later if it happens. Also, you need to not just motivate but celebrate the performance and particularly improvement of all the kids. Its a positive feedback loop.

There are many ways to motivate. I prefer the 'horse whisper' way but that's just my style. Other styles work too, even yelly, crazy guy can work. But as with any such endeavor, I do believe honey catches more flies than vinegar usually.

Its very rewarding and definitely exciting to have skilled athletes but many of my favorite memories are from coaching the average kids.

i disagree. i might agree vaguely that the future lies in a "pool" of the "better" kids. but my junior high vs. HS experience was that it was unpredictable within the "pool." our junior high won the area and was well coached that level. at sprints we had me and this other guy who went back and forth open races and relay leg preference. i was probably slightly faster at the races he ran then. he goes to our competing HS and gets converted to 800m. i was an above average HS sprinter. he goes to state. likewise, guy who was marginal 3rd/4th miler goes to same competing HS. our distance guys plateau. he keeps improving. he is first of the 4 to finish at XC/TF varsity meets at the end. last, guy who didn't make the 110H team most junior high meets wins area and goes to regionals as a senior HS. the key thing was he never quit showing up for practice, and when he got to HS, there's a frosh team, a JV, and a varsity, and he finally got meets -- even if it was frosh stuff -- and started progressing. i think the first two surprises were semi-predictable within the known "talent pool." i think no one saw the hurdler coming at all -- he was pulled out of a PE class to run track in HS based on 50 yard dash times, and he was well down the pecking order when that started.

what i will say is everyone who made those moves were hard workers with natural gifts. the hurdler was a tall kid who kind of grew into a frame at the end and got more athletic.

sorry but to me the moral is widely invest and see what happens. learn to coach all the events -- or delegate to others who do -- where you're like our competing HS coach where your charges improve more than mine do. i see coaching as something that matters at the margins but if we're talking 20 seconds on a 5k or 10 seconds on a mile, that can help decide who wins races and who gets recruited harder.

personally my favorite coaches knew every kid's name, knew the parents, and whether they are the future of american TF or not, could diagnose their good work and what needed help. effort, technique, etc. lousy coaches, to me, identify the supposed obvious ones, "saddle them up," and almost disdain the rest. and they might get some success out of those couple kids, and take credit for talent, but they won't win the championship meet because they aren't that interested in the small points, the kid taking 7th in triple jump, the 2nd leg on the relay, the pole vaulter, etc. you win as a team IMO when every last oar is pulling as hard as it can in its race, 5 points here, 10 there, 15 because a few kids score.

any idiot can saddle up the kid running 11s 100ms in junior high. this is not making anyone else better.

Having less kids can be better than having tons of kids coming out because you can build repour with the few that do come out. If you have a lousy team you have no where to go but up. Use that to your advantage.

I made the mistake of wanting tons of kids to come out. Instead enjoy the ones who do show up. Get the most out of them and make sure they have a good experience. The fastest kids will be your best recruiters.

Some things that have worked for me. Middle school takes a little more finesse because of the wide ranges of physical and emotional maturity.

Boys and girls run together. Group by ability and encourage faster girls to run with faster boys. This is more important and more applicable for younger (MS) runners.

Get some assistants. The more people you have coaching, the better experience for the athletes because you can break out into smaller groups and tailor pace/volume to each group. You may need different break-outs depending on the workout of the day - some will have no endurance but lots of speed, so they will struggle on a distance run, but fly on a track workout. So don't pigeon-hole someone into the same "slow" or "fast" group all the time.

You are coaching people, so you need to connect with them and figure out what motivates them and what kinds of messages they respond to. How to communicate effectively with them is tougher than devising training plans and workouts.

The slower kids and newbies need more coaching than the self-motivated over achievers. Don't play favorites with the best athletes.

Your job is to make the athletes successful, not the other way around.

Hello Cfhosford. You have a lot to look forward to with coaching. It's very enjoyable and rewarding. I've been involved in U13/U15/U17s track and XC for around five years now. It's a blast.

There are plenty of books out there on coaching, but I wouldn't worry too much. You don't need to read anything. It's mainly fluff anyway. Lessons learned so far:

- As suggested above, the main thing is to communicate clearly, let them know about races coming up, give the kids a clear idea of what they are going to do on race day.

- Listen to them. They will give you a clear idea of what they feel comfortable with and where they struggle. You can't just say 'go out hard' to every XC runner.

- Pay attention to the kids at the bottom of the age group. Youth athletics is clearly stacked in favour of the kids at the top of the year. Encourage everyone, but be aware of the fact that the 16 year old star who's born at the top of the year will get caught.

- Be prepared to help the 16 year old star when he does get caught. It's difficult for kids who have associated running with winning when their natural advantages reduce.

- Keep the parents involved. Let them know what the kids are working on.

- Don't shout too much on the sidelines.

- Don't overtrain them.

- No supershoes in training.

- Run hills.

- Encourage the kids to run different distances as much as possible. Under no circumstances should an 12 year old claim to be a 5k runner.

You didnt say XC or track. I will asume you are coaching middle distance.

You probably already know this but you can have every ability and age do the same conceptual workouts but clearly different speeds and volume (and sometimes rest)

So, on threshold day, don't do a distance, do time. So, say 5 x 5 min? Blow whistle at 5 min, they all finish at same time and walk back, go again. Older kids will finish workout , younger may not.

Doing intervals? Two groups, some groups will stop at 4 or 5 reps some will finish all 8 or 10. If younger group can't go on the next rep, have them take it off rather than running 10 min pace the whole way. Keep the point of the workout consistent.

I coach 5-18 year olds and this works. If you send the younger inexperienced kids to "have fun" and jog for a year before doing a workout, you will lose them. Doing speed, easy runs, tempo, hills...it is one of the few things that makes this repetitive sport somewhat engaging. Practice open hand offs? Do oregon circuit? Anything to keep it engaging.

I have not found that completely separating ability groups from training together makes any sense. Different groups within a workout ..yes. But dont send "slow" people to jog somewhere else with other slow people. They will mess around, be bored and run 12 min mile. Except maybe on long run. Bonus, young MS kids get a lesson in listening and discipline and hard work from the older kids that are more elite. Kids feed off each other, esp if you have an elite runner that can show them what a workout looks like! That, I have found is more fun for them.

Don't get too caught up in all the training minutia. If you keep it very very simple with the standard workouts that we all do (12x4,6x8, hill reps, 200s, blah blah blah..) they will do fine. They are starting at 0 so any stimulus will move them forward. Until your HS kids start really competing at a high level I'd keep the workout routine pretty standard issue.

Make sure you sure you show up every day with a plan and a purpose and be SURE your practices are organized. Just like teaching, you can't just show up and be very blase about practice. Kids come out for track expecting it to be treated like a "real" sport, don't make it the jogging club.

Also, don't act like you are coaching Olympic level athletes or that you are the guru of all things running and especially do not be a drill sergeant type yealling and acting like an @ss.

For Middle schoolers keep it fun, dont run too many miles, lots of intervals done as relays, stuff like that.

This is a good point. We never separate our runners (within reason, considering genuine beginners).

With slower runners, for certain drills you can have them start further ahead of the quicker kids, with the faster ones trying to chase them down. You can adjust to make this task neigh on impossible and share around the accomplishment. It's good fun and gets them laughing.

Yes x100! Especially during track. I say race all the distances and you will be a better overall runner and racer.

Also if it was unclear when I mentioned groups - everyone does the same stuff together, only volume and pace differ.