Parents are CRAZY now

Well if half the country thinks they know better than doctors and scientists, why wouldn't they think they know much more than coaches too?

There are only two genders according to doctors/scientists. The crime syndicate, (D), disagrees. As for helicopter parents, sounds lame.

I agree with most of this, except - you should absolutely ChatGPT health issues. Some studies already were showing that the previous editions of LLMs were outperforming doctors in diagnosing, and newer models are just better. We caught two drug interactions in my father's med list that the docs didn't notice just in the past couple of months. Trust but verify, the person who cares most about your or your family's care is you.

Doctors (and coaches, PTs, etc), despite what they may think, are just regular humans.

The prospect of a college scholarship or at least some deferential treatment for an athlete is just too much for parents to just sit back and place their trust in whomever their high school has hired to coach their kids. My boss's son was an above average student, but had no chance at getting into any competitive east coast schools. He was a top baseball prospect and ended up going to Boston College. He was done with baseball after one season after having Tommy John surgery. But he stayed and got a finance degree. He ended up at an investment bank in NYC and just had a destination wedding in Italy. Without sports, he would have ended up at a second tier college and making $80k a year working for a regional bank.

My son is a competitive golfer. His friend is nationally ranked and is getting recruited by Wake Forest. Four years at Wake Forest is about $350k. He is home schooled so he can play and practice and play more tournaments. So if you think parents are too into their kids sports, at least in distance running kids need high school competition.

Really? Most parents have jobs and won’t be hanging around practices. What would your typical soccer mom know about distance training? Very few kids have the ability to obtain a scholarship so what would be the motivation of the parents to interfere with training? Are they going to be monitoring their kid’s stride to prevent injuries?

Doesn’t transferring schools result an athlete having to sit out for year?

What were this guy's grades and scores like?

At the turn of the century, it was common to give two children born sequentially the same name, because there was a 50% chance one of them would die. Also, we used to wrap babies in what were then termed "swaddling cloth." It covered them almost completely and allowed them to be hung from hooks, where they were promptly forgotten.

Times have, of course, changed. But I don't think today's parents are crazy, they are just over-involved with their children's lives. Because they see their children as an extension of themselves. That's considered normal nowadays.

Also, don’t the stands block the view from the parking lot?

I hang around practices so I can give the coaches feedback. It is helpful for their development. I also reply back to their emails using AI to fix the grammar and improve the quality. I make sure they get the necessary feedback they want to make sure they are doing their best. I don’t have a kid on the team, but just pretend to be the biological father of one of the kids. I told the coaches he doesn’t know since I haven’t been impressed enough to acknowledge him and his mother is a drunken whore.

The opposite is also true: so many coaches that are using ChatGPT or still on freaking Jack Daniels or ripping workouts off YouTube with no rhyme or reason and so much cookie-cutter coaching out there thinking they know it all and will take zero counsel from more accomplished runners, coaches, programs.

Not just you, but I see it much less w/running than I do in other sports. Club soccer for example: parents would literally sit several rows deep in beach chairs just to watch practices. It got to the point where my daughter's club covered the fences w/dark mesh and would not let parents watch practice b/c they were questioning coaches about how to run them. Some idiot parents would still sit on the top of their cars and watch anyway.

With running, yes - there a few psycho parents, but for the most part, we leave the coaches alone and just support our kid(s). It is a much more healthy environment than the madness I've witnessed in club soccer, baseball, basketball, etc.

I am lucky enough that I haven't had this situation happen... yet. But to play a slight devil's advocate role here, schools will hire virtually anyone that's ever jogged a 5k to be the xc coach. I see why some parents question what is being done (or not done) at practice every day. Until you have some skins on the wall, you leave yourself open to questions. Sadly, that's part of the job.

We do have it better than some. At least running is pretty cut n dry, the fastest kids are on varsity- thats it. The ball sports are always dealing with playing time, and this kid should start over that one.. Im glad I dont have that to deal with.

They used to post children in the post instead of paying a fare for them. There's a reason why young children are allowed to travel free now.

Daniels is still world class. I would happily use it to train any talented runner. You just outed yourself as a dummy.

The only good thing to have come from the global pandemic was that it permanently outed the absolute worst among us. You are one of those worst people.

Please don't ever (1) get a vaccine, (2) wear a mask, (3) consult medical professionals or (4) listen to scientists. Perhaps you'll be a Darwin Award winner in which case the rest of us win!

I coached and I have been a parent. Coaches are not infallible. Parents are not infallible. My approach with my kids has been generally hands off. That being said, the way the past couple seasons ended (with the whole team running slower and most of the runners not progressing year to year), I am rethinking that philosophy. Transferring is not an option outside of moving. What would you recommend doing when the coach is failing?