Coaching a young runner

Bump. There's 15 threads about a guy trolling right now and no one will give me a bit of attention...

Well as someone who's coached kids for 20+ years ....

1. How much to charge? This is a 5th order question. If you're focused on a paycheck, then you're not really committed to it. start with free and see where it goes after 6 months.

2. It's gotta be fun.

3. Surround her with team mates who are committed to working hard and having fun.

4. Don't want it more than she does. She has to choose to be successful.

5. Don't insist on 3 seasons to start. Pick XC and outdoors and have her focus on something else during indoors.

That should get you started.

You have the opportunity to legitimately coach someone for the long term. I wouldn't automatically assume that high school XC and track would be the best thing for her long term development, especially for triathlon.

First, many high school programs do a poor job of training young runners for future development (not enough of an aerobic emphasis, lots of intervals, over-racing, etc).

Second, if she is completely training for XC and track, she will be doing so 6 days per week, which will automatically de-emphasize the other two disciplines involved in triathlon.

If the local high school program is a good one for long term development, then you should think about how to make it work for a triathlon future.

If you end up training her from a running perspective, focus on the foundations, namely stamina and basic speed/power. Slowly but consistently build her mileage, increase her aerobic capacity with progression runs and tempo runs, introduce some aerobic focused intervals/fartleks, and work on her basic speed with short track sprints and/or hill sprints.

[quote]Mama June wrote:

Well as someone who's coached kids for 20+ years ....

1. How much to charge? This is a 5th order question. If you're focused on a paycheck, then you're not really committed to it. start with free and see where it goes after 6 months.

Jesu, I hate this attitude. Your time/knowledge is worth something. What to charge? One way to set a price is to look around and see what other coaches/personal trainers/fitness clubs charge for individual sessions. You will likely be appalled and come to figure out a reasonable figure that is fair to both sides.

2. It's gotta be fun.

This, my friend, is the key advice. Points to OP, except it should have been point one.

Maybe you should also figure out if she is going in to swim season or xc right now. In some states, girls swimming is in the fall so she might be in her primary sport. Leave her alone if she is swimming, her coach won't want her running. And if she is going in to xc season...why, the same thing. This girl is very young and she has her high school sports to deal with. Or you could volunteer with the high school xc team to help her out.

Doesn't really sound like she needs all that much help, if she is winning. Adding more coaching and training might push her over the edge to overtraining and injury.

"Jesu, I hate this attitude. Your time/knowledge is worth something. What to charge? One way to set a price is to look around and see what other coaches/personal trainers/fitness clubs charge for individual sessions. You will likely be appalled and come to figure out a reasonable figure that is fair to both sides."

To charge or not charge is not clear cut at all.

If the OP had experience/knowledge coaching then he would know what to charge and it would be expected. What he has is some knowledge about training. Can he translate that into coaching? Who knows... Everyone is guessing at the start.

I do agree with the clarifier and the OP that he should charge something. The reason he should charge something is that the parents (and the girl) will be more likely to fire him and hire a better coach if they are unsatisfied with the deal if they are paying for his services.

Since the OP has no experience with this type of arrangement, he will have lots of prep work to do and will likely spend many hours holding a stop watch. While he is honing his craft, I would make two suggestions. He charges $10 an hour and that he reserves the right to coach as many as say 4 other athletes on the track at the same time.

Thanks for the responses. I'm in Canada. I don't know who her xc and track coaches are, but when I was in HS the librarian was coach of both. She knew absolutely nothing, we once ran stairs 2 days before a meet. But anyways... I'm totally aware of what goes on in HS track and xc training. I know there isn't usually enough aerobic stuff. Her high school xc team won't run together more than 3 times a week, I'm sure of that. They will also only race about 3-4 times in about 2 months depending on how far she makes it.

Originally I was thinking of doing it for free. Everyone was telling me I was an idiot for thinking about it. I now realize, they're kinda right. People pay $15 for a half hour of guitar lessons around here, why is my running knowledge not worth something? Plus if I didn't charge anything it would end up costing me money to coach her after I factor in gas money.

Don't need to start building mileage yet, need to work on mechanics through drills, etc. Basically just building a strong foundation on which to build mileage years down the road.

Oh and by the way, I do realize her WANTING to run is the most important thing, and she does. She's the one who realized that running is her weakness and asked her parents about it. She is very dedicated, everything she does she seems to do well. Her mom told me she didn't miss a single swim practice all year last season (September - June) not because her parents made her go, but because she wanted to improve, and she loves it.