Talented but troubled teammate

Worry about yourself.

Not trolling, I went through this. The BEST thing you can do is beat him in a race and hope that motivates him. The desire to train correctly has to come from within.

Just keep improving and listening to your coach, then go kick his ass in the first few races. If he sees you do things the right way and win, it should start to sink in.

Kids like your teammate can really piss other people off, so just try to set a good example and encourage him to do the same. If he doesn't listen there's not really a lot you can do. At some point he'll see that he can't win without working for it and hopefully it will wake him up. If not, then he never deserved to be great.

Beat him at the County Championships.

Get over yourself dude, It sounds to me you think you're the coach. Coaches may indeed help, but in the end it's up to the runner to decide what's good for him. Perhaps your coach has your team doing very high milage, and this runner, though a talented sophomore, simply cannot handle the workload yet. In order to stay healthy, he may need to take it easier even when the coach wants him to push harder. You're not him. and the last time I checked cross country captain isnt a "job"

and you'll get the scholarship to stanford

This isn't football, your primary job as captain is making sure people pick up all their nutra-grain wrappers and empty gatorade bottles before getting back on the bus.

All kidding aside I agree with everyone who has been saying lead by example. He isn't going to listen to you unless you can kick his ass black and blue.

P.Whelan wrote:

This isn't football, your primary job as captain is making sure people pick up all their nutra-grain wrappers and empty gatorade bottles before getting back on the bus.

HAHAHA. Sorry this just brought back some childhood memories. So true about picking up gatorade and nutragrain wrappers, how lame and insignificant in retrospect.

At the high school level, even when talking state championship in the mile, it's not uncommon to have a sophomore come in without any prior formal team traning and do well. That sh-- just isn't going to cut it in a career. He has to figure that out for himself, though.

I agree that you should lead by example. Even if he does end up beating you and thinking he knows it all, somebody else will come along to beat him. Maybe it takes him 2 months to realize he's wrong or maybe it takes 5 years. That's on him, not you.

I think the hardest part in this situation is that you and your coach may not be on the same page out whether to discipline him or how to discipline him. That's a tough road to hoe.

This is obviously a problem, if there is one, for the coach. As team captain you need to butt out - it can only appear you are jealous if you try to insert yourself. Well, maybe you are jealous, at least somewhat. Back off, waaaay off.

Team Captain wrote:

I also need to put him in his place

Absolutely not. I've been there, I know how frustrating a hotshot underclassman with no respect can be, but you have to get over it. Yeah this kid would benefit from listening to the coach, but trying to enforce the pecking order is more about your needs than his.

A couple of points are in order here:

1) The soph sensation's attitude is deplorable. It is in his and the team's interest to transform his self-centered points of view.

2) This is likely to primarily fall under the jurisdiction of the coach. You need to share your feedback on the soph. with your coach to ensure a) you and the coach are on the same page; b) you can determine, with the guidance of the coach, as to how you will fit into the plan to improve the soph's attitude.

3) This type of attitude problem is definitely "fixable," but it requires one-on-one feedback from coach, and perhaps you as captain, depending on how the captain's role is defined on your team, to a) explain which behaviors of the soph do not conform to acceptable behavior; b) what behaviors are expected; and c) what the plan is to get the soph in the right place.

4) Do not ignore these behaviors, as far too many posters have recommended. This is by far the worst thing you can do. Between you and the coach, with the emphasis clearly being on the coach, it is crucial to manage the soph's behaviors such that they are in his and the team's best interest.

5) If any team member does not want to get with the program, this soph, or otherwise, ultimately they should find another activity to keep themselves busy. Period. Insubordination is no way to go through life. Lessons need to be learned now, while the mold is still being set.

Thoughts,

A CEO

You sound jealous and petty.

This is how you take care of it:

pt. 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajBBp8rQwsA

pt. 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCNqKrX1sx8&feature=related

Pretty sound advice, here. It's a really tough management problem you've got, and it shouldn't be up to someone who is essentially a peer to work it out. Sure, you're going to end up talking stuff like this out on runs. Give your side, but try to stay away from imposing yourself on him. It doesn't work. It definitely sounds like you're taking too much of the issue on yourself, and not exactly in the best of ways.I think you could do things like mentioning wildly successful coaches who have not been distance runners, without harm. Good luck, do your thing, run fast, be helpful when it's asked of you, but don't go looking for ways to assert yourself.

One day when he's stretching, stomp on his nuts.

It's only running