Pat Henry (Texas A&M),Erik Houle(Southern Utah University)among others proposed that the mile be included as an official event in the NCAA's. 218 (out of 265) coaches voted against the proposal!
What do college runners think about this? Should the mile replace the 1500m in college track & field?
As long as the 1500 is run at the Olympics and World Championships it should be run at the NCAA championships. End of story.
haha YO wrote:
As long as the 1500 is run at the Olympics and World Championships it should be run at the NCAA championships. End of story.
What your small little brain fails to ecompass is that there is more excitement in a mile than 1500m. Its thrill of having somebody go under four. The NCAA is not bound the IAAF they should realize there is more interest in the mile than the 1500m. Nobody in America cares about 1500m. I think the USATF should also switch to the mile. Just have the trials for the 1500m be a mile race.
haha YO wrote:
As long as the 1500 is run at the Olympics and World Championships it should be run at the NCAA championships. End of story.
Why?
we are inconsistent. we run the mile indoors but 1500 outdoors, why? in eurpoe, they run the 1500 indoors and out.
the mile is "understood" but so too should be the 100 yard dash, right? Because we didn't run the 110 yd dash and then just convert it to the 100m, we actually ran the 100 yd dash, but also ran the 220yd and 440yd and 880yd and even the 1660. So how come people "understand" the 100m, but not the 1500m? Maybe because of the 10 second barrier. Well, then the 1500 should be magic for women, because the quest to break 4 minutes could be understood.
Where did the 1600 in high school come from? Most people think that is the mile, and that 3200 is the 2 mile, but they are not.
It would probably be more supported to change the mile indoors to the 1500, than changing the 1500 to the mile outdoors. But I do think we need consistency.
Change takes time. Shoot I've been coaching for a generation, and only now am I can i speak in metrics about the high jump, long jump and triple jump. The athletes in the events learn to do that too.
Track isn't football or basketball anymore. It isn't popular, and we should stop worrying about what a group of older or uncaring people will understand. It didn't become unpopular because of the metric system or the 1500.
You can't get a qualifying time from a mile if you are an international athlete competing in the ncaa.
Maybe 2 day, 20+ hour track meets are the problem. Maybe teams going to 3 different meets on the same weekend are the problem. Maybe head coaches who want to put resources in only one event group is the problem.
I like the mile too. I don't understand why we do one indoor and a different event outdoor. Either we are American track and field and use the mile, or we are an international sport and use the 1500.
Why do you hate the 1500?
stuck with match.com wrote:
What your small little brain fails to ecompass is that there is more excitement in a mile than 1500m. Its thrill of having somebody go under four. The NCAA is not bound the IAAF they should realize there is more interest in the mile than the 1500m. Nobody in America cares about 1500m. I think the USATF should also switch to the mile. Just have the trials for the 1500m be a mile race.
I think the 4 minute mile loses something on a 400m (as opposed to 440 yd) track. 4 laps, 4 minutes. A nice symmetry. 4.023 laps (or whatever) is just a little weird.
There is no real concern about qualifying or even competing at World Indoors -- it is a minor league meet compared to WCs/OGs. The times in 1500 are the only ones you can use to qualify for the 1500; they do not use adjusted mile times. This is not a BIG factor, but it is not unimportant. Also, college track coaches are focus on college competition and they all know what the distance is. It is not their job to develop the overall sport of track and field or the US national team. It is not that some do not care but that it is not particularly important.
Also, another minor factor may be that the two are similar but not exactly the same and many coaches might not want to give that little extra break to the relatively small set of strong distance teams that are also deep enough to field strong teams in all of the distance events.
well well well wrote:
haha YO wrote:As long as the 1500 is run at the Olympics and World Championships it should be run at the NCAA championships. End of story.
Why?
Because those are the premier meets that our college guys need to be preparing to compete in. College is about development, makes no sense to run a non-standard distance at championships to get some ratings or add excitement. IMO, no excitement is added by running the mile. Just think of NCAA 1500 finals. Slow for a while with a huge kick. You would go from having winning times around 3:45 to having winning times of 4:02-4:03. Whoopdie doo.
You want to watch the mile watch it indoors in meets that don't matter at all.
.............................. wrote:
Where did the 1600 in high school come from?
Maybe I'm missing something because I'm fairly new to the sport, but where did the idea of 1500 come from? Why not do an even four laps?
forgive my ignorance wrote:
Maybe I'm missing something because I'm fairly new to the sport, but where did the idea of 1500 come from? Why not do an even four laps?
3 laps of 500m in the old days, if i recall correctly
I'm confused about coaches' arguments over the inability to qualify for USA's. There is, in fact, a system of earning qualification to USA's with a 1 mile time. Nine individuals did it in 2011.
It seems all events 800m and under easily divide a 400m track.
All events 1000m and longer are multiples of 500 and would work nicely on a 500m track.
The 1500, 3000, 5000 and 10000
3 laps, 6 laps, 10 laps, 20 laps
It is as if there were two sports - sprints and distances - and they held their events on seperate tracks.
400m tracks are easier to contain in a stadium so when the sports consolidated, they used 400m tracks. (I am making this up but it may be true)
The English ran their events in yards and fractions of a mile so a quarter mile track worked well to run the 100, 220, 440, 880, mile, 2 mile, 3 mile, 6 mile.
The metric system won out as a universal standard.
The 1600m somehow evolved when 400m tracks were laid down and they didn't want to make an extra line for the mile.
The mile really doesn't make sense when you are doing all other events in metric measurements. It's just a throwback for sentimental reasons. Like the 100 yards, which you never see run any more.
I like the mile myself. Good for invitaionals and special events.
It's just not a championship event.
No need to switch to it.
I don't think you do recall correctly... 1500m is just 1.5km, a nice round number for the metric folk.
tony reali wrote:
forgive my ignorance wrote:Maybe I'm missing something because I'm fairly new to the sport, but where did the idea of 1500 come from? Why not do an even four laps?
3 laps of 500m in the old days, if i recall correctly
Because those are the premier meets that our college guys need to be preparing to compete in. College is about development, makes no sense to run a non-standard distance at championships to get some ratings or add excitement.[/quote]
Yea training for the mile and 1500 are so completely different you could never train for a mile and then compete in the 15 that's just crazy talk...
Did I say anything about training? No. Racing a mile vs 1500 is different, race the one that the important meets do.
The thing I don't get is the "americans only understand the mile". This means that these people are simply ignorant! There is NO defending that.
My old grandpa doesn't understand computers or cell phones, I guess we should get rid of them as well?!
We younger folk - no one should care about what people over 50 think- have been raised on metric, so we do "understand". Just because a bunch of old geriatrics (like the Brojo's it seems)don't understand metric and want to remain in a previous era (nostalgia)is no reason to become even more anachronistic (like Pat Henry is - people that old shouldn't be allowed to coach anyway, like that Joe Paterno guy) as a country. No wonder the rest of the world looks at us as if we're the wierd ones.
Secondly, the average american doesn't care about track anyway, so what difference does it make if we run the 1500m or mile? If it is to pander to so-called journalists (mostly complete idiots anyway), then you might as well pander to TMZ types as well. Make runners compete in "Victoria secret" lingerie, or thongs - that would get the attention of the general public if that is what this is about.
"According to Wikipedia, the 1500 m came about as a result of running three laps of a 500 m track, which was commonplace in continental Europe in the 20th century."
Surely the contributor means the 19th Century, as the 1,500m has been contested in every modern Olympic Games.
in this line of thinking we should switch to the 40yd dash indoors right? a 60m time is much more irrelevant than a 1500 time and your average joe will be more in tune with the sport
how fast do you drive? - miles per hour
what do you run in gym class? - the mile
how far is point A away from point B? - x miles
this country will never understand the 1500, but it does understand the mile. everyone knows what a mile is and how far is is. they understand it and can put it into context. nobody knows what 3:41 for 1500 means but they do know what 3:59 for a mile means.