HS / College Coaching

High School:

I feel high shcool coaches have an obligation to develop runners for long term success. There can be a problem with this scenario. Some kids may need scholarships to afford college. Education is the main goal, so why not develop kids into running machines to get the $$$...then again I think XC and Track only get 12.5 scholarships.

College:

Again I feel coaches should have a runners long term success as a goal. Some may say scholarship athletes need to repay the school and their long term success should not be the focus.

In any case, I feel a coach should always focus on the long term.

Baldy

A lot depends on the goals of the athlete. If they wanted to compete past that level, then the coach needs to make sure they have something left in the tank. However, if a kid knows they aren't going to run in college, then the coach can try to max them out for their last year or two. As a general rule of thumb, I think the coaches should plan for the future. If the coaches teach a love of the sport, then the runner will be more inspired to continue running.

The fact that HS/college coaches don't care if their athlete is running years down the road is why so many perspective Olympian/WC potential athletes go no where.

Coaches in the school system want results imediately, so they run their kids into the group with tons of quality work in an attempt to produce immediate success. Most coaches in this country don't care about running a program that will develop their athletes over ten or twenty years because their performances down the road are of no use to that HS coach. That coach wants state championships and titles, no matter the cost. America consistently produces about 10 sub 4:10 HS milers every year. Where do they all go?

I think that you have to look at it a couple of different ways. Many high school and college coaches

are dealing with athletes that will NEVER, EVER continue on beyond their H.S. or college careers

yet have the desire to be the best that they can be while they are with the coach for those three or

four years. I cannot see how a "long term" program is of any use to those athletes that will never

go beyond those levels. In that sense, I actually think that the coach my be doing the athlete a

disservice by gearing him or her toward long term success when it will never end up going that far

anyway. On the other hand, when a coach has athletes with true potential or even the desire to

continue on for many years, then I believe that he or she is obligated to provide a more long term

program that will gear the athlete to reach his or her potential many years down the road.

But ANYONE can go beyond those levels. Just because a high school freshman can't break 5 minutes in the mile doesn't mean that he will never be world class. 99% of coaches think that way and a lot of potential athletes are lost due to that ignorance.

Ron Daws is the ultimate example: a 5:45 miler his senior year in high school, who became a 2:20 marathoner and finished 22nd in the 1968 Olympic Marathon. Why is he never an example to all?

You are assuming that all athletes have the DESIRE to continue on beyond either H.S. or College.

Many athletes want to move on and concentrate on their studies, their careers, raising a family.

Certainly it is different at different programs but most H.S. and College coaches are simply not

dealing with a large number of athletes that WANT TO continue on beyond their school years.

Perhaps the desire is what we are missing these days not the lack of long term coaching.

Maybe it's just me, but I can't imagine throwing away a chance to the best in the world at something. It's like what happened at a clinic w/ Steve Scott a few years back.

He has a bunch of HS/college runners in the room and he asks who in here thinks they can make it to the Olympics. One or two hands go up. Steve then says, now if I was in Kenya, every hand would be up. If I was w/ an innercity youth basketball program and asked how many of you think you can make it into the NBA, every hand would go up.

I just think that so few developmental distance runners in this country think that they can do so well, so they don't look beyond HS or college.

Once I become a high school coach, I am not going to have any freshmen or sophomores do any speed work at all. All those years are going to be about is building up mileage. I could not in good consience work the hell out of a kid in high school only to have him be mediocre later on.

There's a difference between having a freshman or sophomore do speedwork as oppose to working the hell out of him/her later on.

They just need to be taken along, just like anyone new to the sport. Keep the intensity less than 20% of their weekly mileage, and don't that level of intensity go up too much for the younger kids. Steady mileage, a 20% long run, one day of LT work, another of aerobic condition or a race, and they'll run just fine.