No monitoring of hs runners when on training runs

not monitored wrote:

We were never monitored in HS.

If any of us behaved as you describe above, I'm sure our freedom would have been instantly throttled.

Worst thing we ever did was scrap an easy run for a game of jail break at a local playground.

Similar, although sometimes we would we would write the word "p*nis" (are you allowed to write that out in full here?) in the gravel at the local forest preserve, and then sign it with the initials of our rival school.

(Sarcastic gasp)

We thought we were so clever

I had this much freedom in high school. We were responsible. Our coach would lay down the hammer if he caught us behaving inappropriately. It did happen to a few people. Your team lacks discipline, and it comes from many different places. The runners being awful people, the coach for not disciplining kids before it got this bad, but not the coaching style. That can work, and it can work well. I'm glad my coach never had to bike with us on runs

Unless you have a young assistant coach, the coach can't run with the team and in most places the running won't be accessible to vehicles anyway. At some point in life, you need to take some responsibility for yourself and not be constantly supervised. That began about a decade earlier in my generation but even now it is fair to let it happen in high school during runs. And obviously the suspensions show that what happens during the runs doesn't go unpunished. You can always send the boys and girls off in different directions.

Did you really say you don't think high school kids should have that kind of freedom? You seem to be overreacting a tad bit. Remember, some of them are adults and most are a year removed from adulthood. Never once was i supervised during a run in high school. Had i been, or had i been forced to run on the track, i probably would've quit and ran for a club team. You can't take the fun out of a sport and expect kids to want to play, especially when cross country is already as unpopular as it is amongst high school kids.

I am a hs coach (assistant) and we either run or bike or drive out on almost every run. We do not come close to seeing kids for an entire run but we are always out there in some form. I think it is imperative, not only to monitor but to converse with athletes. I have talked strategy, football, politics, college choices, dealt w/ team drama, just shot the breeze with athletes or sometimes i basically run by myself just passing them back and forth checking in. I'm not fast enough anymore to do much speed work with them, but I am out there, I also like the role modeling it provides.

Again we don't see everything but just this week caught a few boys cutting the run by just a few hundred meters. Not the end of the world but I certainly made them feel like it was. I can't imagine not at least driving out most days when its possible. I would get way too bored nasty waiting for them to come back to me.

It sounds like there is a large range of monitoring of training runs out there. I didn't get involved at all but the same kids did some other over the line stuff and the AD and coach dealt with it appropriately. They were disciplined and I'm sure it sent a message and will inhibit bad behavior for a while. Some of the parents are blaming the coach for a loose atmosphere and I assumed the very limited coach contact on runs was unusual but sounds like it's common. I would think you'd want to know distances and paces being run as well, and I'd assume better programs are tracking that stuff at least to some degree.

What I think is challenging about this style is the only way bad actors get disciplined is if other kids narc on them, and then those kids become targets for retribution, and the limited monitoring makes that easy, especially if it's girls getting harassed by boys.

By the time a kid shows up for the first day of practice, he's run hundreds of miles on his own over the summer. Why does he suddenly need to be supervised while doing an activity that he's done all on his own for countless hours already?

Teaching the kids how to do the sport. It's like soccer coaches telling the kids to go play soccer at the park three days a week, and not watching or instructing. Sure you get a lot out of pickup games, but the point of organized sport is to teach skills.

'Bored nasty', sounds like you are still at hs!

Keep mollycoddlng them it will be great preparation for college.

In all seriousness this might be OK in first -. 2nd year hs but in latter years it's not doing them any favours.

HW,

Both my kids' favorite saying is, "My sport is your sport's punishment."

Part of what the saying means is that every kid on the XC team is choosing the hard way. Some try to hide at the back of the pack for a while but that group usually ends up wising up or quitting.

Many of the kids have to do all sorts of things to get themselves to work that hard. That work ethic is the "skill" they are being taught. If they are never tested without the coach's supervision, then they never learn. On the other hand, part of the testing is to make sure the coach is out there making sure they are doing what they are supposed to.

Where is the captain? I was never monitored in HS and if we ever tried to cut or act up our Captain would make sure things were handled. The coach has to much to do and shouldn't be forced to waste his time watching the distance runners on their runs. Typical millennial behavior.

The kids who do the right thing will excel.

The others won't.

If they weren't on the team they'd be free to run around doing inappropriate things.

It all works itself out.

You don't need supervision on runs.

For most of my high school career, our easy runs were unsupervised. We did all run the same route, though, so the coach would at least know where we were.

At one point I remember he had to start driving out to some point on the route to "supervise us", but I can tell you that this was the result of some meddling parent complaining, and not the result of anything that actually happened.

Don't be one of those parents that blames teachers/coaches for their kids' bad behavior/poor test scores/etc., especially not when they're in high school. Teach your kids to be responsible for their own actions and to call out bad behavior of their teammates.

The problem here is that the problem seems to have gone beyond the minor hazing of yesteryear, through bullying that would be a problem, all the way to actual harassment of the girls team leading to suspensions. (what kind of suspensions?) It sounds like the girls did call out the bad behavior. The question is what is the coach/AD doing to make sure it doesn't happen again? Are the problem guys off the team or is the coach checking in more often or maybe the girls and the guys teams should be split into separately functioning units?

Millennials have all already graduated. This is a new generation.

Howling Wolf wrote:

Teaching the kids how to do the sport. It's like soccer coaches telling the kids to go play soccer at the park three days a week, and not watching or instructing. Sure you get a lot out of pickup games, but the point of organized sport is to teach skills.

You can't run with ever kid. Or even bike for that matter.

Watching at a check point offers little information.

We are lucky to have 5 coaches who all run. We have two coaches who can run with our fastest two girl groups. An older coach who runs only a couple miles and follows behind. We start the run with a 1 mile warm up, stop stretch tell the kids the route and off they go. We can't keep up with varsity but run into them out there.

Varsity needs to self police. Coaches are out there for accidents and emergencies. If the team can't do that guess what... You run laps on the track.

Unfortunately we had a kid hit by a car once (he was ok). The school told us we could only run on the track and could not go off campus. The parents flipped which helped get the off campus privledge a back. One good thing is we never were allowed to have busses to go to trail. We were told it cost too much. After the accident we got busses to local trails as the admin said it was more safe than roads.

So unless you want to kill your program and run every day around the track to monitor everyone you gotta have some trust with the kids. Best is to train them young. The slackers eventually stop showing up.

You have to grow up, really kids harassing girls? I am a high school runner and I would never ever consider this. Do the work your coach asks you to and be respectful.

A coach can't monitor every runner on a team, all the time, during all practices. Its up to the runners to show some responsibility. Most will, because if you don't run you'll suck in races which kind of blows. A coach can bike along the team and see every runner at some points during a run, run with a certain group or two, and monitor workouts on a track or xc course. If runners can't be trusted, the only thing to do is hold every single practice on campus where they'll be visible most of the time, which would suck. I think that's why most people didn't goof off or shirk runs at my hs; we knew if we did, we'd be running around a half mile field for months.

Yo these kids are jerks, why would they attack people?!? Anyways my team is the same but on pre- meet training runs me and my friends usually mess around by doing flips jumping over trash cans and running like naruto. I dont think its a big deal since we still run but i think your kids more discipline.