Winter vacation started today. Only three people showed to practice. Here's my coach's email.

what school system has a spring break in Feb?

My Coach Sucks wrote:

Free Advice wrote:

If the subject of your posting comes up, just apologize and say you were equally frustrated with the lack of commitment.

Kiss my ass.

Pics, sweetcheeks?

nottacoach wrote:

what school system has a spring break in Feb?

I've lived in New England my whole life and there has always been a February break. Kids get out of school in mid to late June depending on snow days. We've had 5 so far which has already pushed graduation and the end of school back a week.

I have cousins who live in TN and Georgia who get out in May and only have a March break instead of our Feb and April.

This coach needs an attendance policy. 3/27 is abysmal, especially if the team is in season.

Right now, however, most northeast schools are between winter and spring track, with just a few kids from schools going to state and regional meets. Are these optional practices? Winter is over for most and spring officially starts on 3/6.

My Coach Sucks wrote:

I have attached our training schedule to this email. For those interested I am still willing to meet up to conduct the workout but will need you to commit to meeting.

bailing on you? did you not read this sentence?

so you have 150 athletes, but no assistant coach was around? If I was the coach, I'd have emailed a winter break training schedule to everyone and had an assistant run things for those who showed up.

Free Advice wrote:

My Coach Sucks wrote:

Kiss my ass.

Really? Really?

You pretty much out and out say that your coach sucks, and you expect him to care about coaching you. Why should he care about you when you disrespect him. Sure, you showed up, but that is all.

You screwed up. Period. You are entitled to my opinion. My conversation with you is over.

F*** you. How is pointing out his incompetence being disrespectful? I thought this site was for Real runners.

What is it about the word "vacation" that you don't understand.

As someone who has coached cross country and track and field for almost 50 years I can see that coach's point. He definitely showed his concern and interest in the sport in his letter. If you are a disciplined and committed distance runner you are going to get out there in all weather and run. You will also show up to practice.

As a young coach I put a lot of pressure on myself. I also didn't have a family, so I had a lot more free time. As an older coach you have witnessed many kids changing over time, usually for the best. Kids who could barely make it around a cross country course as freshmen sometimes turn up as solid varsity runners and even sometimes as state medalists. On the other hand sometimes old coaches get very discouraged when their present team doesn't match up to the ones that they had in past in terms of commitment and talent.

Also take into consideration that this is a vacation week. Letting the kids know where he stands gives them an opportunity to reassess what they want to do. Are they truly serious or not? Sometimes leaving distance runners alone to do things on their own is the best thing to do. When school starts hopefully they will be ready for the commitment that is necessary to become a successful distance runner.

What should you do?

Keep showing up, no matter if there is a practice or not.

Phone, text, post, the practice schedules for all of your teammates to see. Invite them all to be there.

Keep showing up, even if you're the only one.

Tell your coach that you're going to show, no matter what.

Keep showing up, work hard.

Call your teammates back again when they don't show.

But, mostly keep showing up, coach or not, keep showing up.

You wont change the hearts of those that are not committed, but in the end your resolve and dedication is being tested just like everyone else - so keep showing up, work in silence, reap the rewards down the road.

Your coach has a plan, you are just not bright enough to see it.

I expect that like many HS coaches, the first week of practice may be considered "tryouts". If you haven't been training, you won't make the cut

My runners knew this was coming every season, and they gritted their teeth and survived that week of hell, knowing that the slugs wouldn't be clogging up the track/roads/weight room starting the second Monday.

Another thing to keep in mind: there is no magic workout/training program. Most HS programs do about the same stuff. So if you only do what your coach tells you to do, you will never be above average in relation to your natural ability. If you want to be an elite runner, you will do more.

As a young runner, I never worried about how much or how hard my teammates ran. I was focused on MY goals, and MY success.

"We can only be responsible for our own path."

Before passing along judgement, we need more context regarding the expectations of attendance on breaks/holidays.

What was the expectation for this practice? Did the coach expect everyone to be there?

If so, then the old-timers in this thread are right that it's the young punks fault for being flaky.

If not, then how can you get mad if the majority of the team thought that they didn't need to show up during the winter break?

If that's the case, then it's the coach's fault for a miscommunication.

On a side note, regardless of whether there was an expectation to show up to the practice with the entire team, I'm assuming that the runners are at least expected to put in the miles on their own time.

My Coach Sucks wrote:

Free Advice wrote:

Really? Really?

You pretty much out and out say that your coach sucks, and you expect him to care about coaching you. Why should he care about you when you disrespect him. Sure, you showed up, but that is all.

You screwed up. Period. You are entitled to my opinion. My conversation with you is over.

F*** you. How is pointing out his incompetence being disrespectful? I thought this site was for Real runners.

0/10. No one could be this dumb so you just made your trolling obvious, OP.

Need More Context wrote:

Before passing along judgement, we need more context regarding the expectations of attendance on breaks/holidays.

What was the expectation for this practice? Did the coach expect everyone to be there?

Exactly. It all comes down to clearly defining expectations. The majority of young runners don't understand the need for consistent training and taking a 4-5 day break while doing nothing could be detrimental to their fitness.

Regardless of expectations, a high school coach is almost always going to deal with kids missing practices over winter or spring break. Give them the workout plan to do on their own and communicate it to their parents if possible.

Your coach can try to find ways to make practice a little more fun and interesting to encourage attendance during school break as well.

When I joined the "collegiate system" in the USA my biggest issue was having to train with the group all the time or face the fury of the coach, back at home, I could send a text saying I feel like doing something on my own for whatever reason and the coach would let me be without being all anal about it, I didn't skip practice, I just wanted to do training on my time some days. I didn't find my coach in the USA that understandable, it felt like I was back in high school and that's probably my biggest critique of the my experience here in the USA. Actually the funniest thing for me is how the coach tells athletes if they are allowed to go home for the weekend or not, it's like he's talking to children. The other internationals on the team from a club system, where you're a little more on your own, felt this way too. I guess Americans are all just afraid of being sued so they do everything by the book. This is not meant to be a generalization or insult, its just my experience and my observation. So any USA coach reading this, when you get a international athlete, have some patience and understanding when they don't do always do things your way and if they question you about stuff in a manner that may seem rude. Ps. I told my coach this and he understood, I'm enjoying the experience this side.

no special order

Hot Stuff Danna Summer

Stayin' Alive Bee Gees

Born To Run Springstein

Driftin' Away Dobie Gray

Overnight Sensation The Raspberries

The coach could have made a better email, not letting his emotions run wild, something around:

Dear Team,

You missed practice today. I know it was raining and you're on break for the week but let's try to all make it to practice going forward.

Mark, Billy and Tom showed up and we had a great practice despite bad conditions. Thanks again for being dedicated.

For the rest of you, show up or let me know ahead of time if you can't make it.

Coach

Nah original email was good. Sincere, measured, and let the team know what was up. There was no anger in there, just a statement of facts. Put the decision on them to be good or not. learn 2 train noobs

Are you f'ing kidding me..... "Kiss my ass" is your only response???????? You and people like you are the reason I question coaching every year and giving my time for almost no money to care more then my athletes do...... thankfully my team is not full of d-bags like you and your teammates ... I thought you were one of the ones who cared until this post... your coach deserves better then you