let them jog simple
let them jog simple
I have them stay on the track- give them a watch and tell them to run 400's at 2:00 each with a short rest.
Then have them run 800's in 4:00 with a short rest.
Remind them that they will be out on the roads (with their teammates) when they can run 2 miles in 16:00.
I plit practice anyways. I have 25 boys in 4-5 groups and 17 girls in 3 groups based on ability.
I even split my top 7 varsity. My top 2 boys are among the best in the state (NY).
Coach,
Think outside the box.
Graduation for each kid to the next level.
For instance, start in the jog/walk program, graduate to the JV squad.
Prove yourself mixing it up with varsity runners, and maybe get a chance to run in a varsity race.
Kids will be kids. I used to tell everybody at the end of each year "all your xc strength will come from your summer's base. So, if you don't run, don't complain if you are a senior or junior and a sophomore takes your place in the varsity race.."
But, there are some that still slack off in the summer, and some that can get away with that and still produce. Each kid is different.
^^^ This
Every kid on our team wants to run trails or on the road with their friends, none of them wants to stay at the park where we train - where there's a 2k blacktop jogging loop around the park (park is oval, loop's around the perimeter). A simplified version of our system is that we tell them if they can't go 2 miles without walking, then they have to stay at the park and do the 2k loop - which again, they hate doing. The carrot of leaving the park on runs with their friends who can go 2 miles creates an incentive to "graduate" out of the park-only group.
I'm not from the U.S. so I don't understand how an HS XC team is formed:
Do the kids volunteer to be on the XC team or is a compulsory activity?
Coach them. Write a program for them. Start with running for x minutes/walking for y minutes. Over time the running portions get longer and the walking portion gets shorter. Basic programming to coach someone to run. Most people cannot run more than a lap on a track.
Alan
buttcheeks98 wrote:
Cut them. Encourage them to develop their fitness on their own and show up next season better prepared for the sport (maybe give them some sort of a general training plan and a pirated copy of Without Limits). You could touch base with them a few times throughout the fall and see if they're progressing.
I guess you could keep them on the team if you have help from other coaches, but in the end the kids who put in the work (regardless of talent) are the ones who deserve your attention.
This. XC season starts in early June, even if the first practice isn't until August. These kids skipped the first half of the season if they showed up in August with no fitness. Let them come back next year when they understand the training cycle.
For next year, make sure to communicate expectations for summer training to prospective athletes before the summer starts.
HS Coaching conundrum wrote:
I have gone from cut them to split jv and varsity training (jv stays on campus and runs what they can) to just stay the course, train them and hope they improve.
It feels like babysitting. These kids start walking 1/2 mile in. We are a running team not a hiking club. They literally have had zero activity.
Part of me feels like we need to focus on the kids competing at a high level. But this could also change their lives. Is there a way to do both?
A good coach will adapt to his athletes. 20x400 with 200m walk breaks is a fine way to let them walk while they get in the workout.......
This is a hard situation to deal with. I think figuring out WHY they are there is a good start. If it is their first year running or with the program, I think it's easier to find a way to work on their fitness and get them used to running longer distances at a time without walking, learning paces so they can complete practices, etc. If it is a runner that is 2nd, 3rd, 4th year in the program and this has been a cycle their entire time, they might need to be handled differently (whether that means cutting them, JV, runs around the track until they "graduate" to longer distances, etc.
So much of this sport is mental and a lot of kids need that encouragement to push themselves physically further than they have done so before. It's not always that they can't do it, it's that they don't know what to expect and have no clue how far is too far or not far enough.
My take on the original post is this:
I had played another sport in HS (football), but a friend and I decided to join cross-country in our senior year. During our first practices, I was definitely a walker. I ran and then when I couldn't, I started walking. Believe it or not, even though I was slow as could be, my practices drifted from walking less to running the whole time, even if I was not that quick. Making those progressions kept me enjoying the activity and the freedom of the trails that cross-country offered. Because I had that freedom to be slower and initially run-walk-run-walk, I was eventually able to finish a 5K race.
While I was definitely not the quickest, I had a season best of 21:41 at 3 miles. This will seem slow to many of the rabbits, but I was pleased with it.
Later on, because I -enjoyed- Cross Country, I later ran track in that spring. Again, I was not the quickest but I was not walking anymore. I had my personal bests of 5:33 at a mile and 12:09 at 2 mile. Because of my grades, my ability to run track and be competitive academically led to a scholar athlete nomination in the county.
Furthermore, the discipline and enjoyment and intrinsic rewards of running lead to the 41 year old runner I am today. I am still not the quickest, but I have posted a 19:35 5K PR this year and have run a 5:30 1500m in lane 2 of a standard track in a training run. I have also run and or walked full marathons.
---------------
My whole point of telling you this is that we would not be having this discussion if I, and others, had not been allowed to walk during practices to start.
My plan for the walkers is simple: Have them account for time running and time walking. And have them create a better balance. And, if you are a coach worth your weight in gold, be happy that these students have decided to spend time on trails in the woods out of breath running, rather than in being out of breath smoking.
Thanks
M
Please explain why it's "hugely different"? Does a football coach (I know, I know, you believe this not to be analogous) apply the same coaching principles to his students as well as his team? The point is, when it is a sport, the coach's primary mission is to put together a competitive team of student athletes. To that end, the development of noncompetitive students into competitive athletes is a priority. When a student does not want to be competitive (I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that - competitive running isn't for everyone) it would be a good time to send him off to PE class to get his/her aerobic exercise. It is no different than any other sport.
BTW-I never coached but I participated on HS teams that had an accomplished coach that, more likely than not, would have smoked anything you've put together. So I'm starting to question your ability to define the sport of cross country for all of us as well.
Jefe,
Read the other posts on this thread.
Perhaps it can give you some perspective.
There is a difference between kids who walk because they are so out of shape that they have to and the kids that when you come up on their pack and they are ALL walking and once they see you start running again. Clearly these guys are intentionally dogging it.
Here is what I do:
"I'm worried that if you can't complete a training run without walking that you will not be physically able to race. I'm going to have to hold you out of meets until you are able to complete a training run. The goal is to keep you injury free and healthy."
Then hold them out on as many meets as possible until they start running. In the meantime concentrate on the kids who try. Do this and you'll get less flak from parents and the kids will eventually run or quit. Insist that you're doing it from a safety standpoint.
Runningart2004 wrote:
Coach them. Write a program for them. Start with running for x minutes/walking for y minutes. Over time the running portions get longer and the walking portion gets shorter. Basic programming to coach someone to run. Most people cannot run more than a lap on a track.
Alan
That would be great if they wanted to work hard and improve. We have those kids and as long as they are willing to give an effort we do everything we can to help them.
I do take in kids who have not run over the summer. Some coaches do not and I respect their position. All the other sports expect their athletes to come in prepared. If a XC coach does not want to take in a kid that did nothing over the summer to prepare then I don't blame them. I do it because I feel like young teenagers make so many bad decisions already and maybe with some encouragement they could be good members of the team that can motivate others around them.
That being said most of the walkers are lazy. If you have a new kid on the team who is out of shape with no talent they can run for 15-20 minutes. If you're telling those kids to go out and run 60 minutes, then yes, they will be forced to walk.
My experience has overwhelmingly taught me that the common thread amongst the hikers on the team is laziness. I'm really not sure why they bother coming to practice.
Perfect!I have no negative critique of that strategy.I hope other coaches realize the value in that.Good work, coach.
All great ideas, thank you all.
One of our issues is we often get kids who want to "train but not race." Thus holding them out of meets has little weight.