What are the most important factors for 1)long term development of a high school runner and 2)short term development. To me it would seem long term development would be mostly crucial to develop speed and speed reserve for the runner to help him progress in college while short term would be tons of miles to build the aerobic base but it seems college programs will be big on mileage already anyway so is it necessary to double up?
Most important:
Give them a reason to come back tomorrow and to bring their friends.
Don't lie to them. Be honest.
Challenge them daily.
Train by the watch, learn to race in competition.
Don't overtrain, leave something there for after hs.
Make believers out of non-believers.
Take an interest in multiple aspects of their lives.
Win kids with running, not running with kids.
Least important:
The coaches ego.
keep them injury free
develop high school talent?
1. coach needs charisma, and passion for COMPETITIVE running--not just running in general.
2. find a way to make it fun--even the painful part.
25 Years & Counting wrote:
Most important:
Give them a reason to come back tomorrow and to bring their friends.
Don't lie to them. Be honest.
Challenge them daily.
Train by the watch, learn to race in competition.
Don't overtrain, leave something there for after hs.
Make believers out of non-believers.
Take an interest in multiple aspects of their lives.
Win kids with running, not running with kids.
Least important:
The coaches ego.
Serious question here coach. How do you challenge them daily? Don't some days need to be easy days where they just need to get some easy miles in?
While I agree with most of the posts so far, I'd have to say that first you need to develop the neurological aspects of running, form (efficiency) and strength. Start with form drills and hills.
Mileage is not the most important factor for the youngster (pre-high school), form and speed development is. If you can get that ingrained early the rest will come in a well balanced high school program.
Recovery days need to be recovery days. I know some youth coaches that want complete rest, no running on those days (if those kids are multi-sports kids I agree with that). For us those days are your mileage days, and it's never about mileage it's about time spent running. That time spent on a recovery run is based on their age, fitness and talent. It's my experience that Kids have an easier time accepting training when you don't measure mileage in miles. I continue to use time spent running with the HS kids I work with.
Teaching percentage of effort is really important for a young distance runner, most young distance runners are smart kids and understand Math and Science, it's fun for them to understand what they are doing and why.
Ingrain the quick turnover aspect into training, I see way too many kids with a long loping (bounding) stride coming into high school, when those kids finally get the quick turnover aspect into their training their races really start to come together.
My college coach Jim Hunt has done a lot of work developing programs for youngsters, he has a video that is priceless. Others like Coach Jay Johnson have redeveloped Jim's and Vern Gambetta's Ideas to fit the world class runner. The ideas are basically the same: VO2 max work and strength work make a better runner:
http://www.coachjayjohnson.com/2009/03/anatomy-of-a-workout-002/
Jim Hunt's Video:
Serious question here coach. How do you challenge them daily? Don't some days need to be easy days where they just need to get some easy miles in?
Give them target times for easy days based on their ability. They will be very pumped by the fact that you care enough to tell one group to go x:xx per mile and another to go y:yy per mile.
*** Most important- don't take yourself too seriously as a coach. Give them the credit for success.
runn wrote:
Serious question here coach. How do you challenge them daily? Don't some days need to be easy days where they just need to get some easy miles in?
Give them target times for easy days based on their ability. They will be very pumped by the fact that you care enough to tell one group to go x:xx per mile and another to go y:yy per mile.
*** Most important- don't take yourself too seriously as a coach. Give them the credit for success.
Good question & Great responses.
In addition, I make sure the athletes understand the "purpose" of everything we do. This gets easier at around 16-17 years of age for most depending on developmental readiness. Communication is pretty important in getting the young athlete engaged and to start taking control of their own progress. Trust and patience is a huge part of the coach/athlete/peformance equation. Without purpose (including easier workouts) importance diminishes. The importance of recovery workouts are just as if not more important than the harder workouts. I don't want them to waste the workout so even if it's easier, there are paces/efforts that need to be employed to continue to move forward developmentally and in performance. In addition, it's a good idea to diversify the workouts with a variety of methods for developing various systems progressively throughout the training phase, cycle, season, career etc...
The daily challenge is holding them accountable for every aspect of what they are there to do. As they mature, they gain more ownership and the partnership between athletes and the coach becomes pretty solid. Research and goal setting becomes more focused. Knowing how to turn the focus on and off when needed is important. It can't be all serious or it becomes work instead of hard play. Trust me, there is a good share of goofing around when the time is right but they can turn it on when they have to.