Can't get sprinters to come to practice

Practice? Y'all talking bout practice?

Make clear, or rather have the head coach make clear, that there are rules about attending practice. If you miss so many practices with a doctor's note or other valid reason, you're cut. Go to the AD and explain you need uniform rules and no exceptions can be made. If he won't listen, approach your principal. So they're football kids? They're not missing track practice in the spring if playing football in the fall. So how does football factor in? (I mean, I get it, I know how it factors in, but it should not directly preclude their attendance of practices.)

Your state association may also have rules in its guidelines germane to this and I suggest consulting that guidebook, too. I would also speak to the sprinters directly and explain hey, we require all our athletes to attend practices—I cannot make exceptions. Explain if they skip in college—and that goes for football, too—chances are they'll be dropped from the team just like that. Explain the gravitas of this, but I'd also revisit it with the AD.

Get some hot girls on the team. Then they will show up.

The distance kids tend to stay away from "those people" without any guidance

Yep, just feed the sprinters egos and let the distance kids know it's just an endurance game that's all. No need to fret, they will figure it out.

We had the same problem on our team this year. We are also in california. We finally just made cuts. It made a huge difference. The kids who were left realized we actually cared, so any who were borderline started putting in a much better effort, and the kids who already worked hard kept up what they were already doing.

One of the kids we cut was a star of the football team and probably had a chance at state finals. We made our cuts the week before our league meet, because the epidemic of skipping practice had gotten so bad. Your AD is an idiot if he blocks something like this. What exactly does he think is the purpose of sports in schools?

Cal W. wrote:

Sprinters made the state meet. Talented, some of the best in California. But they just won't do any work. Literally getting them to come to practice is a chore. I'm not the head coach but the team thinks they're a joke and I'd cut them. But they're football guys and the AD won't let the head coach cut them. It's a bad situation. They hardly do anything yet they are the ones in the state meet. Is there any hope they'll come around? How do I keep my distance kids away from this crap? Suggestions of what we can do?

Sprint performance is mostly natural talent. Even Bolt and Blake don't work out nearly as hard as advertised, that is a smoke screen to build up their images. But sprinters do need to be consistent and put in some hard days. I wouldn't sweat it at the high school level. If I were your head coach I would have a meeting with those sprinters and explain that if they learn how to work consistently it will improve their results and improve their chance of athletic scholarships. I think that is about all you can really do.

From the football side of things: 🏈

1) You can't coach speed.

2) Speed never has a bad day.

I wouldn't worry too much about making sure the distance kids don't get caught up in this. I have found that the distance runners want to be there and don't associate with this anyway. Due to the higher workload required to train for distance (whether this is real or perceived, I know that at a high level sprint training isn't any easier, just different) these kids wouldn't choose to be distance runners if they didn't want to be there. If they wanted to slack off they would have chosen sprinting in the first place because it is "less work"

An alternative view:

1. If you have sent the message that you will not be cut no matter what, how can you expect a commitment.

2. Someone mentioned that sprinting is mostly talent. Yes and no. You need to practice and practice hard to approach your potential. On average it takes for males 5-7 years of dedicated training to become competitive.

3. Summer football has started. Football gives FULL scholarships; track not so much.

4. Training for sprinting, NOT running, is incredibly taxing on the nervous system. Since this is a distance forum many of you may not be familiar with the stresses and loads exerted on the body when sprinting. For elite males (Diamond League, Worlds, Olys) you are taking 10-12 times body weight. Think about it, how many times have you or your teammates go for a 5k run and blown out a hamstring.

5. Track and field is a tough sell to kids AND their families.

Easy, threaten to kill their families and everybody they love. You can get anybody to do pretty much anything they want at that point, that is, unless they're a bunch of real sociopaths without family or friends hahaha.

Don't forget to follow through as well, otherwise they'll own you and take advantage of you as their bitch.

Artificial Intelligence wrote:

Practice? Y'all talking bout practice?

This is the right answer. haha

Perfect

don't worry about it wrote:

The distance kids tend to stay away from "those people" without any guidance

No doubt. I have a feeling the two groups don't even know each other's names.

In the real world - right or wrong - results talk. You don't get any credit for try hard. There are different rules for different people and it's all based on results. It's not what they teach you in school or in church, but that's how it is.

Like you said, sprinter made the state meet. The distance kids didn't. Maybe the distance kids are the ones that need the practice. I wouldn't take this too far because the football coaches will then pull their players from track and then you won't have any good talent and you'll be watching the meet on TV instead.

AD knows the real world. The real world isn't fair. There are financial advisors who show up six months a year and only work 25 hours a week when they show up. There are other financial advisors who work 70 hours a week but cannot make $100,000 per year. Why does this surprise you?

Had this issue once, and the AD wouldn't let me cut them. But he couldn't make me run them either. So it was basically like they quit. If they came to practice and asked about running in the meet. I just told them due to lack of attendance I couldn't assure they were prepared. I used athlete safety as my arguement.

Most sprinters are bottom feeding parasites, leave them to ruin their lives.