SO WHAT! Colleges are dropping these sports. The scholarships suck. The commitment to run distracts from studying.
Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate all of it. I really like the sport! It’s important on so many levels. How can we make it work for lots of kids, encouraging it to be a lifestyle.
I have not. Maybe that makes me sound a bit like an armchair warrior, but I have no connection to any of the school, don't have time for that, and also would feel like I am impeding on the coach if I tried to get involved.
That's the tough part is most people that know what they are doing don't have the time or desire to take on a High School coaching position. It takes a special person to put in the kind of time that it takes to be a good High School coach. Not many people are available right after school and do this type of coaching just for fun and not much money.
I do agree there are some awful coaches out there but until their is a solution I don't see what the point of continuing to put them down is.
The only people that can reasonably be expected to coach as a nonfaculty coach are retired people, recent college grads, current college students, someone with a VERY flexible work schedule. There are just not many options.
Yeah thought I'd write a small update from original post. Last week they did an 800m time trial on monday and then a 600m time trial straight after, raced tuesday. wednesday easy, thursday was 400m repeats and 200m repeats, friday was a 20 minute tempo.
These kids could be the most talented in the world and probably would never get better than 18 mins on this sort of stuff, no such thing as an aerobic base, no adequate recovery, nothing. Kids think they are injury prone too or just not good, but they are made to train like this by people who they are supposed to trust. Kinda infuriating.
OK, you said it. This is precisely why I whine about it. The KIDS think they are not getting better and they get injured, but it's the schedule and training.
I started my career as assistant to a head coach who had runners train 5 days per week, never running more than 3 miles per day. He instructed them to sprint all out for every rep of a speed session, but the sessions weren't structured like sprint sessions. For example, 8 x 200 uphill w/ the walk back as recovery. He said his kids couldn't run more mileage because they were already getting hurt on under 15 mpw. I suggested it might be an intensity problem, but he wasn't having it.
How many threads on LetsRun through they years on this topic? Sheesh. Most public school systems don't really care who coaches the 'non-revenue' generating sports. (Even if your school charges for fans/parents when hosting a meet, it's pittance compared to one home basketball game or home football game revenue). That's it in a nutshell - money. The local high school near where I live is great example. The athletic directors there over the last 15-20 years would hire the school janitor near retirement to coach a running or track team over anyone in the community who might have experience or offer help. Just the way the system is set up - hire in house first. Public school teachers are basically on a government jobs welfare type project. I know.
That being said, I have never met one running coach in the 19 years I trained, at either high school or college level, WHO ACTUALLY HAD ANY BACKGROUND IN ANATOMY/PHYSIOLOGY, KINESIOLOGY, BIOMECHANICS, PHYSICAL THERAPY, etc. I'm sure some do, maybe a B.S in sports medicine/management, or a M.A. in something, but not many out there. I mean some of them don't even have a class or course or basic armchair knowledge because they watched some YouTube videos. I trained under a hall of fame coach my first two years in college who was also an Olympic alternate coach and the 'head' coach of the USATF Jr Cross team one time. (More of a formal title I recognize, but he was tabbed for that temporary position that year.) He didn't know that much either! Knew how to plan workouts and training, and help you with the psychological approach ('believe' in yourself, which is important) but not as much as you'd think if you asked a few basic questions into the science of it all.
You think high school teachers tabbed to coach your beloved 'non-revenue' sport are going to know what sarcomeres are? The difference between anaerobic and anorexic? Or what sarcolactic acid is? Or LTVO2 training? Or plyometrics and how to incorporate them? Or PNF training? Or how to periodize? Or even PRICE injury rehab? Most are required to watch a concussion training video, maybe get First Aid certified (like it takes "x" hours or so depending on state you're in), and that's about it. The guy coaching the track teams at the local high school doesn't know anything. Literally, he doesn't know anything! Even the beloved, now revered and worshipped 'strength coaches' who got a 100-300hr 'certification' somewhere, don't really know much! Most of them have no running background either if they end up the 'coach'.
Point being, not to insult those people honestly trying or knowing enough to help kids: realize the public high/middle school coaching/sports world is not there for your kid to become some future great -
First, you need an editor.. learn to get to the point. Second, this is HS track.. while I agree that it is nice to have knowledge of all that, it's not necessary. If you started spouting all that stuff I would dismiss you as full of $hit... someone trying to baffle me with BS.
What you do want is someone that keeps it simple, someone with proven results, someone with some history with the sport.
maybe think about how awful our education system is and i think it's safe to assume same goes for coaching. How many coaches can afford to truly focus on training high schoolers? quality of athlete and actual commitment is impossible to standardize + the pay for teachers is awful & they get stipends of they coach as well in most cases. That is already enough to turn most respectable coaches far away from high school coaching.