ADHD Athlete

You coach at Oklahoma State, don't you?

1. Talk with his parents about his medications. If he is not on any, he may need some.

2. If one doesn't fix the problems, find a way to get him off the team.

From what I've seen adhd individuals in athletic environments are a hazard to themselves and everyone around them. Some can be helped through medication to approximate normal, many can not. They do very poorly in structured environments, such as sports teams and often find ways to inadvertently injure themselves or someone around them. In a classroom, a special ed teacher can monitor them all day, but at practice that individual is not there. Be careful.

I'm ADHD combined and I'll do literally whatever it takes to become a better runner, so most coaches really enjoy coaching me. Is he being treated? Get him treatment and if he cares about his running there's literally no reason ADHD should get in the way. Don't treat it like a behavior issue.

Xenonscreams I am the same way and actually am ADHD combined as well, so I'm perplexed at the variation. Some issues may be just behavioral not attributable to ADHD, since I am a mirror image of you in my own approach to running. However, I have coached multiple athletes of this ADHD type that all shared the same undesirable traits I listed, and ultimately were labeled "un-coachable" by every coach they encountered throughout their career.

I wonder where the differences manifest themselves. I guess it is a nature vs. nurture debate.

Talk to his parents and find out if he's taking medication. It's quite possible he has a prescription and simply isn't taking it.

I'm always late for things if I don't schedule them, so I've taken to using Google Calendar to schedule things out in a lot of detail. Even though you are not his therapist it might help him if you sit down with him and schedule things in his calendar so that he can make it on time.

Also just ask him if he really cares about his running. ADHD people are usually very good at focusing on the things they care about. So maybe he needs a wake-up call to realize he cares. Or maybe he really doesn't care, in which case you're SOL