What do you do if your HS coach talks for an hour every day before practice?

Quit bitchin. What other practice on campus ends before 5? Count yourself lucky that it's not any later than that.

You are done with practice around 5 and don't have to be at school until 8:45? That's not even that early to wake up. You have nothing to complain about.

if you don't mind a few white lies...

tell your coach you recently got a job and that in order to get to work on time you have to leave by (insert approx. time you would like to be home).

if he gives you the BS priorities lecture...immediately break down in tears and explain to him how ever since your mom had your baby brother, there haven't been enough food stamps to go around and you have to get a job to help support the family.

the point is he talks for an HOUR. do you not hate things that waste your time? Some people have things to do, places to go. If you have ever thought something was a waste of time, then you are with me. You might say against it on these forums, but I am 100% sure that you have been somewhere thinking "this is a complete waste of time."

You have my sympathies. To tell you the truth, I think that many high school programs waste too much of the kids time. I know some coaches who don't talk for an hour, but they make the kids wait around for them for an hour before showing up for practice.

What he should do is have the practice first, and then start a bull session after practice for those who like such things. A pre-workout meeting should be 5-15 minutes.

i'm not following this. would you be allowed to run during "7th period"? what kind of school allows a sport to practice during the school day?

What does this guy talk about for so long???

When I ran in HS we changed first then while stretching the coach would tell us about the day's workout. We'd run it and go home. Some of us got home even earlier if the run happened to go by his/her house!

Don't really know how to help. Sorry.

My coach would do similar things. It was stupid. Best bet is to stop being afraid and just tell him. Or you could keep coming up with funny ideas, like playing mind games with him. Pay attention when he's sitting down, and goof off when he's standing up. See what happens if you swithc places when he's not looking. Etc.

chuck d wrote:

i'm not following this. would you be allowed to run during "7th period"? what kind of school allows a sport to practice during the school day?

funny that you ask that. Most high schools in Texas gives athletes a class period for their sport year round -- sometimes two periods.

My guess is that that 7th period is part of his teaching load and an easy hour so to speak. So, he has to meet with you guys and doesnt want to teach...since his day was already full of that..so he figures he'll bs with you guys. Dont expect that to change. Is this guy older and closer to retirement? So...you have a dilemma of which you have no power over. So buck up camper...are your workouts solid? Do you guys improve? Do you beat other teams? Sounds like you may not have it so bad.

He talks about random things about running mostly. First hed talk about how no one wants to be great anymore, just average. If you want to be great, just work the hardest. story about Deena Kastor. You have to have a plan. Thats why I gave you those training logs. Turn them into me every week. Talks about people having to actually leave school or go to band or some other practice when school ends. Dedication to cross country. Planning better to allow time for cross country training. (This is the part I hate most, because most of our team has band and other stuff that they are dedicated too and have to do after school so they need to run before school ends. But he doesn't allow that. He has to talk.) Having heart. 3 runners he saw yesterday that really had heart. story about having heart. (guy who went from being the worst on his team to the best on his team in college.) injuries. look at the people who are injured. they still stay for practice even though they are injured. (another one of his rules. some of these people could be biking or swimming or aquajogging to keep in shape but they have to stay with the team.) School practice started 3 weeks ago. some of these guys have been practicing for 3 weeks. (he actually said that) we are working harder than every other school in the state. that means we are the best. (we aren't the best) since we are working so hard you have to watch out for injuries. if you have any problems go to the trainer immediately. small injuries are big concerns that we really need to be concerned about. injuries can get worse. watch out for your ankles when we do intervals. also watch out for cars when we are on are slow to medium continueous runs. let me tell you a story about how i can't run anymore and how i'm giving you the same training that got me this injury. (he had to have knee surgery from to much road running or something, and because of this we alway run on the roads...) I know how you feel, i've been where you are. so watch out for injuries. today we are doing....(explains what we are doing today. if its intervals watch your ankles. if its training runs watch for cars.) the course is.....(something suicidal because school just got out and now there are hundreds of new teen drivers on the road.) go get dressed and ill meet you in 15 minutes in the front.

thats the basics i think. he adds in different things onto that basic construct. its really annoying.

Do some reading.

If he asks you to put down the book, backoff. But do it again the next day.

Meet w/ him later and say, "look I have a lot of work etc. I appreciate what you are saying, but I have heard this speech before. I know others on the team will benefit from what you have to say, so rather than disturb them, I figured reading would be a good way to deal w/ my own anxiety about homework, allow everybody else to focus on you"

See what he says.

This "indirect" approach often works well w/ the "I coulda been a conteder!" types. They do not like to be openly challenged.

Go figure.... wrote:

My guess is that that 7th period is part of his teaching load and an easy hour so to speak. So, he has to meet with you guys and doesnt want to teach...since his day was already full of that..so he figures he'll bs with you guys. Dont expect that to change. Is this guy older and closer to retirement? So...you have a dilemma of which you have no power over. So buck up camper...are your workouts solid? Do you guys improve? Do you beat other teams? Sounds like you may not have it so bad.

actually he isn't certified to teach. he can only coach. hes not too old. he ran in the 80's.

Our workouts arent solid at all. we usually do all our training on roads which is no problem for some but I'm already injured from it. My parents told them that I got injured from constant road running and he said it was better I train with the team or something. turns out he was wrong. On our interval days we have way too much rest. 2:30 seconds for a 500 and 5:00 for 1000. so we do 12 500's in 1:30 or 6 1000's in 3:40. everyone is always completely refreshed after the rest. we do the intervals on a field behind the school that has really bad landscaping. lots of tall grass, mole holes, and everything that jacks up your ankle. 5-6 people have sprained their ankle on this course. On top of that its a square. 4 90 degree turns. we never reverse direction of the intervals so everyone's IT band is jacked up. We haven't improved much, i think its because of the rest. Saterday is the day of the first race. I'm the third man and I'm injured and our 6th and 7th are way behind our 5th man. We are out of luck to win anything this year.

Do calisthenics and run in place while he's yammering away and then tell him the story of Zatopek. Tell him an extra hour of running will beat an hour of talking about it. Switch it up a bit and talk like Lindgren when you speak to him.

Just wanna run wrote:

actually he isn't certified to teach. he can only coach. hes not too old. he ran in the 80's.

Malmo is coaching?!?

We started school at 7:45 and got out at 4. Then practice at 4:15 usually until 6:30 or so. Then we had to walk home in the snow and it was uphill on the way there and on the way back. Life's a bitch. Deal with it.

I really feel for you, kid. This reminds me quite a bit of my first college coach, Duane Vandenbusche (or, as I liked to call him, Duane Vandenblah) of Western State. He would drone on for at least 45 minutes every day at practice about how we had to be the best, and about "rest, vitamins, eat well, stay healthy" and about U.S. History. All to make some retarded inspirational point. It's not like it was nationals or anything, it was just every day at practice. "Only perfect practice makes perfect! Take care of each other out there! Wow, if I was 30 years younger I'd f*** the shit out of you, Naijeebe! I grew up in Michigan, where I attended the school of hard knocks! In 1776, the United States was founded, and those men were tough! I won't coach a mediocre team! Rest, vitamins, eat well, stay healthy! I remember how Cassie Heinkel came here and she was lazy. She got out of shape and got her ass kicked. And then she went home and trained. And she got better. Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah..........................."

Perhaps you can try stretching during this time? Hydrating, pushups, situps, calisthenics, etc? Something useful while you have to listen to him drone on. Hopefully your situation will get better.

first off i think this topic and your (just wanna run's) first two posts are hilarious. my hs coach basically said the same stuff, and he did do it over and over, but he usually had a season's worth of stories before he started repeating them. he wasn't that bad when i was in school, but now he's driving my little bros crazy. i would think that talking to him would be the best solution, it sounds like you're one of the older guys, so maybe he'll listen to what you're saying. it can't hurt.

My coach used to do this, only his "speeches" were filled with condescending gay bashing and profanities. He was a bitter, bitter man.

We just went out the back door and ran before we saw him each day. If we had a workout, we'd just run the warmup before he got there so that he wouldn't give us a speech. It worked out great.