How to get football kids out for spring track

Personally talk to the biggest boss on the football team (the one that will be playing college football). When he joins, the rest will follow.

What kind of crap area do you live in. Guys go out for track to meet the track and cross girls. You must be in the US fatty belt.

Same problem here. Football coach tells the kids not to go out for track. They better be in the weightroom getting ready for the next season. Our football team stinks. It seems speed development would only help our losing program. Plus many of the successful programs in college have speed based teams.

Personally talk to the biggest boss on the football team (the one that will be playing college football). When he joins, the rest will follow.

T&F athletes have to run their heat. Everyone must run. No slackers. No penile lubrication experts. It's not like FB & BB where you sit on the bench the whole game.

Try to work it out with the FB Coach to get kids to run track practice but do Football weights. Contact some college football coaches who has several athletes compete in track, sometimes with the help of the college track coach. See if you can get a few points of emphasis from them. Believe it or not, when Houston Nutt was at Arkansas he sent me a letter back to encourage track and football to work together. It was mostly BS, but it was enough to get the football coach to listen at least.

Besides trying to pump up track as a fun thing to do, I used to talk to the football kids about how track would give them some real-world stats that directly shows their athletic ability. This certainly works for the kids looking to play in college.

A college coach looking at two athletes with similar stats will certainly be more interested in the one that didn't start track till junior year and was high jumping 6-4. That shows talent and athleticism and isn't phony like 40 yard times. At least that's what I'd tell 'em.

On the other hand, we had some all-conference football players quit a few weeks into the season after getting smoked by the girl soccer players in practice.

And track doesn't mean the kids can't lift. Work with the football coach on that, not against him.

football players out for track...hahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahaahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahah

Tell the parents that track is SAFER.

Do whatever you can to get one of the football coaches on your staff. Doesn't matter whether he knows anything about the sport; you'll train him, and you won't put him in situations where he'd be embarrassed, right? (Actually, in my experience football coaches often bring a lot to the table in terms of organizational/motivational expertise and can make a real contribution.)

Y'know what, let's cut to the chase:

Sit down with the head football coach. Let him know that some of his guys "are considering" coming out for track, and ask him (get HIS input on) what kind of conditioning he'd like to see his guys get. Try to make it a partnership.

In other words, spend your time/energy "recruiting" the coach, before you try to recruit his kids. If the coach is really a problem, even when you're trying to be cooperative, then you may have to "recruit" your AD--assuming s/he isn't also on the football staff...

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Easy advice to give, but I know it's not always easy to follow. The early-specialization crap--junior high kids on traveling teams in basketball and soccer, for example--is actually killing kids' long-term development. (By "long-term" I'm only referring to their HS years, not what they'll do in college and beyond--only a tiny fraction do college sports anyway.)

The Soviets, BITD, did some great studies showing that adolescents, esp. the younger ones, benefit more (in their specialty events!) from many-sided development than from early specialization; and the advantage shows up as early as their second year in The Sport.

Sorry, posted before the last paragraph:

But the kids' parents have really bought into the one-sport-year-round nonsense--allegedly to help Jimmy "get a scholarship," even though

a) Jimmy's probably not going to play college ball at all,

b) Jimmy's almost certainly not going to get any scholarship offers, and

c) year-round specialization *reduces* the chances for a) and b).

Show them this:

http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/giants-stadium-countdown-sehorns-interception/

And particularly this part:

"Sehorn had 4.3 speed in the 40, and he was distinctive in the modern game – a white cornerback."

Jason Sehorn went to a university--USC--where football players were encouraged to work out with the track team. And that's why he was the only white starting cornerback in the NFL during his playing days.

Then--white or black--ask them what their 40 is.

Let the other athletes recruit. My first year I recruited like crazy and got a fair number of football players. They ruined the team. They are lazy and basically have bad attitudes. The next year I had the athletes who were really into track and who worked hard and understood the program recruit. We got a great bunch of kids and tripled the number of athletes moving on past the league meet. This year looks even better. If they don't want to do track, then you don't want them.