"Opposing" can just mean opposite. It doesn't have to mean "in conflict with."
If I ask "should I hang this poster on this wall or the opposing wall?" I'm not implying that the walls are fighting with each other. The quadriceps and the hamstrings have opposing actions. Again, your muscles aren't enemies.
Dude is just making a distinction between coaches on his team and coaches on other teams using a word that everyone other than you considers innocuous.
Agreed. I can see that I took his post the wrong way. Carry on, sailor.
As a successful retired HS coach that coached for 4 decades, I used to go to meets and just answer questions from opposing coaches and athletes. I realized this season that people no longer even remember who I was and that I’m just an old man watching track. A rough time mentally dealing with being a has been.
😂
Now this is interesting!
I ran for 45 years and coached for 30 years. Running was my life!!
And now, I can go and watch a race, and recognize hardly anyone, and hardly anyone recognizes me.
And you know what? That's ok!! In fact, it's fun and refreshing.
Clerk some meets bro. The kids change every 4 years, sometimes the coaches change faster. If they haven't met you in your capacity as a TF authority they won't know you as such.
As a successful retired HS coach that coached for 4 decades, I used to go to meets and just answer questions from opposing coaches and athletes. I realized this season that people no longer even remember who I was and that I’m just an old man watching track. A rough time mentally dealing with being a has been.
Youth is wasted on the young. That is still true and always will be. "Sometimes the younger must teach the older." I imagine that you ran into that often in your coaching years. None of that has changed or ever will. Just go to meets and look for opportunities to share the wonderful sport of Athletics. And remember they already have a Savior.
It may be corny but, Abraham Lincoln said, “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”
You have given so much and have those memories. All that experience. You have passed on more than you can see. As parents our children hardly know us as young people when we were so confident and bright. As a teacher or coach, it’s similar. I’ve had feelings like what you shared. I tried to take the stance of quiet satisfaction in my past. Sometimes it even works :)
As a successful retired HS coach that coached for 4 decades, I used to go to meets and just answer questions from opposing coaches and athletes. I realized this season that people no longer even remember who I was and that I’m just an old man watching track. A rough time mentally dealing with being a has been.
Welcome to the club Sir. Same w every profession. :(
As a successful retired HS coach that coached for 4 decades, I used to go to meets and just answer questions from opposing coaches and athletes. I realized this season that people no longer even remember who I was and that I’m just an old man watching track. A rough time mentally dealing with being a has been.
don't worry about it. at all.
understand the phenomena.
you probably know Rod Dixon, Dick Quax and of course John Walker
New Zealanders I found, under 40 don't know who they are, nearly nada. and the rich tradition of running, from masters to lydiard, to Snell etc. no clue what so ever. meanwhile the running revolution of the time, the fitness, mountain park training, was supplanted by mass ignorance, society of anti-fitness and obesity.
Younger people don't understand how people could survive before the internet. no clues, no comprehende. these people can't do anything, and "comprehend" from there. sure, that lost generation can tap a phone, tap this and that, and get some digital dollars, and that would be all she wrote.
its a degeneration of tradition, of knowledge of anything of one's own culture, relationships, who were your grandparents? uncles? generally they give nofuks, though there may be a recent trend, and maybe a revolution to seek out some meaning, some salt of the earth reality, as the hollowness and thinness of virtual life of the internet iphone fails to deliver the real juice of life, which something like running trials and tribulations delivers in spades, which is what attracted me to it, I though a man needs to be tough, discipline, and tough training was a way to develop. and I was right. except the diversion into a sport becomes an obsession that is weird and works backwards in developing a person.
Percy Cerutti of fame, Australia, he's unknown outside the smallest of cliques.
Anyway, the point it is a Rodney Dangerfield world, no respect, people aren't being remembered right now, nothing personal.,
Of course I take it too far here, but not by much.
my coach is in the local hall of fame, set canadian records, knew the who's who worldwide, coached track and field.
he passed recently.
nobody has a clue locally about the guy, who is also a major contributor, mover, in building the community and province at a business level.
the peoples only ten years dethatched from today. have absolutely zero clue on any of this history. nor do they givafuk. and that extends to everybody.
so the people don't consider there is any value in their own history and people, which is an unnatural degeneration of the moments group.
these dysfunctional groups go down.
the bond between people is civilization, and that's where the juice is.
the good news is that it only gets so bad, to the point of non survival, and the ones that survive, kind of reset and natural bonds and common sense thinking is all that's left.
As a successful retired HS coach that coached for 4 decades, I used to go to meets and just answer questions from opposing coaches and athletes. I realized this season that people no longer even remember who I was and that I’m just an old man watching track. A rough time mentally dealing with being a has been.
Welcome to the club Sir. Same w every profession. :(
Yeah, I deal with this at work. Work on a project I started 25 years ago (I've come and gone from the project multiple times in my career). All the young guys working on it think they know everything (they know a lot but not as much as they think). Couldn't influence them if I tried. I don't even bother. To them I'm just a tired old man (I'm not tired and not that old, but definitely not going to waste my time in conflict with people that act like they're my 14 year old daughter). I just watch and when they blow up I step in and clean up the mess.
Regarding track, I have just gotten re-involved with it as my daughter is doing HS XC/track. I coach her in the off-season and advise her during the season (e.g. help her determine pacing, stuff like that). The coach is pretty good but doesn't cover the things I advise my daughter on, so I help her out there and don't step on his toes otherwise. I focus on delivering her to the track/xc season ready to go and let the coach take over. She's having huge success but it will be weird in 2.5 years when she goes on to college because I'll have to go back to being uninvolved. My daughter is having a blast and improving dramatically, the easiest person in the world to coach. So we're both enjoying it to the fullest, and aware that this is going to be a limited period in time, after which we will have moved on to other things. I will never completely leave track as I'm an autistic track nerd, but will go back to reading about it on letsrun and hoping things like Grand Slam Track make it a more prominent sport that I can see on TV more often.
I was just talking to somebody today about how all those guys I looked to when I was coming in are starting to disappear, and I miss them badly. Many are starting to look at me as that guy, and while that's nice, I dearly miss the father figures from my early years. I still stay in contact with them and look to them for advice, but I wish they were around more.
For people in OPs position, I guess it can be a hard balance to strike between not being involved at all and being involved more than you want or are wanted.
As a successful retired HS coach that coached for 4 decades, I used to go to meets and just answer questions from opposing coaches and athletes. I realized this season that people no longer even remember who I was and that I’m just an old man watching track. A rough time mentally dealing with being a has been.
One thing I've heard repeatedly from people that have retired, is that the subsequent loss of identity can be a struggle. We spend decades identifying as a certain thing: "Coach" "teacher" "accountant," "welder," "provider for family," or whatever. And that gives us a sense of purpose and identity. Then when the day comes and we give it up to enjoy not being that thing, the loss of identity and purpose can hit unexpectedly and hard.
For that reason, so I've been told, it's important to plan to be doing something something you feel is important, once retired. It could be volunteering one day a week, joining a club, spending time with friends doing a hobby, taking up art, learning an instrument to play in a band or at a worship service; anything that you feel contributes something important and is interesting to you, no matter how big or small.
What that will be for you, I don't know. You don't have to deal mentally with being a "has been," as you say. Just get a new thing you "will be." Use your imagination. Reinvent yourself, in whatever way you think makes sense. Try something, five things, or ten things, until you find your new chapter and purpose.
Please define "successful high school coach". There's a lot of successful high school coaches out there, and how they determine success may not be what you thought it would be. Where did you coach? Were you a big fish in a small pond? Any national ranked athletes who went on to compete in college? Did you compete at any level? If yes, what were your credentials? The one thing about coaching is that it's somewhat a thankless job, and if you truly are coaching to make athletes better it doesn't matter what people think, or if they know you. It seems as though you need to find something to fill the void coaching has left.
One thing I've heard repeatedly from people that have retired, is that the subsequent loss of identity can be a struggle. We spend decades identifying as a certain thing: "Coach" "teacher" "accountant," "welder," "provider for family," or whatever. And that gives us a sense of purpose and identity. Then when the day comes and we give it up to enjoy not being that thing, the loss of identity and purpose can hit unexpectedly and hard.
For that reason, so I've been told, it's important to plan to be doing something something you feel is important, once retired. It could be volunteering one day a week, joining a club, spending time with friends doing a hobby, taking up art, learning an instrument to play in a band or at a worship service; anything that you feel contributes something important and is interesting to you, no matter how big or small.
What that will be for you, I don't know. You don't have to deal mentally with being a "has been," as you say. Just get a new thing you "will be." Use your imagination. Reinvent yourself, in whatever way you think makes sense. Try something, five things, or ten things, until you find your new chapter and purpose.
I hope OP can find something better than "trolling on LRC message board."
There are some old men who spend endless hours here and repeat the same points over and over...
I ran for 45 years and coached for 30 years. Running was my life!!
And now, I can go and watch a race, and recognize hardly anyone, and hardly anyone recognizes me.
And you know what? That's ok!! In fact, it's fun and refreshing.
Great post.
People who are deep in running, ask yourself this: If you are on vacation far from home and come across a meet, will you sit and enjoy it even if nobody knows or cares who you are?
If yes, congratulations, you have attained true love for the sport.