she ran 800 halves of 3:07 and 3:08 on a chilly night. She was not wearing spikes, regular trainers. She had sub 14 second 100 meter speed and fantastic endurance from playing soccer. How good is this performance and realistically how much faster could she expect to run on a warmer night in spikes ?
That is a decent time for her age and conditions. It would be similar to a JV high school time. "Good" varsity runners break 5:30. Getting under 5:10 is really good.
I have seen many soccer girls with these kind of times (sub 14 100m and low 6 minute mile). She has potential if she takes training seriously. If she goes back and forth between soccer and track, never really committing to track, she most likely will never get the consistent training to be great. She'll do well enough with natural talent though. Keep in mind, this is just based on my experience coaching in a soccer-crazy area.
h.s. girls coach wrote:
That is a decent time for her age and conditions. It would be similar to a JV high school time. "Good" varsity runners break 5:30. Getting under 5:10 is really good.
I have seen many soccer girls with these kind of times (sub 14 100m and low 6 minute mile). She has potential if she takes training seriously. If she goes back and forth between soccer and track, never really committing to track, she most likely will never get the consistent training to be great. She'll do well enough with natural talent though. Keep in mind, this is just based on my experience coaching in a soccer-crazy area.
Totally agree with this but with the stipulation that there's no need to commit until high school. In junior high, it's great to explore all forms of athleticism. Contrary to urban legend, many of the best runners, especially girls, are the best overall athletes. With proper coaching, there's no reason this girl couldn't break 5 by the end of high school. Her speed is great for a distance runner. I've coached about 5 sub 5 females and I don't think any could break 14 for the 100.
this is a smallish town is Idaho. I think that the high school record is 5:28 here and it's stood since like 1978. She's free in the summer, si I'm going to try to get her involved in summer track, maybe have her play with some different events like the 400, 800, and 3K.
She's what, 11 or 12 years old, and you want to start seriously training her for track?
Are you nuts?
She's 13 years old, clown shoes. I never said anything about training her seriously for anything. I was more inquiring as to her potential.
She does soccer, AAU basketball and dance classes too, so she pretty much has a full plate as it is. I think that she should just continue what she's doing until maybe her freshman year and then see if she wants to get serious about it. The last thing that I want to do is burn a kid out on running.
MAYEROFF wrote:
She's what, 11 or 12 years old, and you want to start seriously training her for track?
Are you nuts?
No one has problems with young girls training ridiculous hours in a swimming pool, or iceskating, gymnastics, soccer. But when someone mentions training for track, they get all up and arms. And the person wasn't talking about abusive training like most young elite athletes of the sports i mentioned above get involved in. Get a clue. Just because it's running in circles doesn't mean it's a bad idea.
Mrr82 wrote:
No one has problems with young girls training ridiculous hours in a swimming pool, or ice skating, gymnastics, soccer.
Wrong. Many people think it is a bad idea for young girls (or boys) to spend a "ridiculous" amount of time training for an athletic event instead of becoming well-rounded people.
Of course, running can be even worse than other sports because the pounding can effect a young person negatively.
I think it's a very good time
yosoy wrote:
Wrong. Many people think it is a bad idea for young girls (or boys) to spend a "ridiculous" amount of time training for an athletic event instead of becoming well-rounded people.
You mean all the millions of people who rave over the little girls who ruin their bodies to compete in the olympics in gymnastics and iceskating? They should eliminate amateurism commpletely from the olympics, and "almost" jail all the parents of the athletes in it.
This guy on this thread was talking about getting her involved in a track club. That's not a big deal, especially compared to what other parents have their kids do for these other sports.
Definitely good. I ran 6:02 in the mile in the 7th grade and always wore trainers (no idea on mileage, but probably < 10 mpw). Just let running be fun and if she has a love for it, recommend cross country?
My friends daughter ran 5:4xs in 7th and 8th grade city meets; she is pretty good , but just 'ordinary good', not a star. She is not even running in HS, as she is a starter on a pretty good HS soccer team.
But it is good enough to be best in a pretty good-sized school, depending on who is there. I am looking forward to seeing what the 7th grade boy does for a winning time this year - the last name is Hacker.
Is that Tim Hacker's kid ?
In one of your later posts you say she's 13. At 13 some girls are quite mature physically.
I think the time is very good, not great. Who can tell where it will lead to? The sub 14 100m strikes me as actually being a better indicator of potential.
I think you are doing the right thing by getting her interested in summer track. That is NOT overkill at all.
not bad wrote:
The sub 14 100m strikes me as actually being a better indicator of potential.
Just to clarify what I just wrote: I mean, that I have known several girls with sub 6 mile ability as freshman in HS but few had sub 14 speed. The ones that did have that speed showed more improvement by the end of HS. Your girl's basic speed along with a pretty decent 1600 shows tremendous upside potential. But, like I said, it's too early to tell.
6:15 in 7th grade is pretty good, but as the other posters have said, it is WAY too early to tell. if she hasn't hit puberty yet, that can throw a wrench in things. if she doesn't have the drive to put in the training that running really fast will require, that will cut her career short. if she can't handle much training because of injury, she might not reach her potential, etc. etc. etc.
just to give you an example, i ran 5:44 in the 7th grade (i am female). i finished third in my school district. the girl who won ran about 5:35, ran very well her freshman and sophomore year in high school and then had quit altogether by her senior year. the girl who finished 2nd ran low 5:40s, had a decent high school career but nothing special, and ended up deciding to play DI soccer (her true passion). i broke 5 in high school (the only one of the three of us to do so), but never got faster than about 4:45 in college.
meanwhile, i had a high school teammate who took up running in high school and only started training seriously around her junior year when she had to quit soccer because of an injury. she never won a state title in high school, but she now runs professionally and has run in the 15:30s for 5k.
hard to tell where any 7th grade girl will end up in this sport. whatever you do to encourage her, make sure you keep the sport fun at this point. she'll stick with it if she enjoys it... and if she sticks with it, who knows what might happen?