Should High School Cross Country Coaches Run with the Team?

No. Separation of roles. You coach they run. Run on your own time.

Is your coach a girl or a guy?

If it's a guy coach training a girl's team... *rolls eyes*

But if it's a guy coach training a guy's team and everyone's in split shorts? Ung, yes!

our coach always did and would whoop our asses in some workouts. He is also around 60 years old. The team can't bond when the coach is always doing recovery runs and long runs with the athletes. No dirty talk.

alsharir wrote:

our coach always did and would whoop our asses in some workouts. He is also around 60 years old. The team can't bond when the coach is always doing recovery runs and long runs with the athletes. No dirty talk.

I disagree. For high school cross country, there is definitely a place for a coach to run with different groups on different days, especially to help the freshman and jv kids understand how to run.

Most high school cross country teams are pretty large and if a coach does this, any given group of kids gets to run without the coach 4 out of 5 runs, should be no problem for them to find time to bond without the coach getting in the way.

I ran with a group of my kids which included a freshman trying to run with the varsity kids in his second week of running. He kept up for two miles before being unable to keep up. I noticed he had stopped and turned back to run with him. I found out he has been giving up and turning back at 2 miles every day to only run 4 miles. I ran slower with him and got him to make it a 5 mile day instead.

I can't expect the kids to always do that, they do encourage the newer kids to some extent, but they also have their own workouts to do. I have nothing specific to train for, so have no problem sacrificing my run to help a new kid learn how to get a run in.

True. My team was only about 15 boys and 15 girls so we didn't have much to work with. But in larger schools it would make sense.

I used to just coach. But I got fat and out of shape. Now I started running again. But I'll run the opposite direction of the loop so I see everyone. We also have a coach stay back to check people in upon their return.

For intervals coach should hold a watch. Seriously though, for trail runs wtf are you doing for 2 hours while they are out there f-Ing around?

I think there's a time and place for such things.

My first two years of coaching, I ran a lot with the team, under the guise of wanting to provide midrun feedback. My third year, I really felt like such an approach removed me from being able to provide information (splits, feedback, etc) to everyone, so I really scaled back the amount I ran with the team. I still ran with the group occasionally, but those were on easy days and runs where the 'coaching' was much less essential.

Run for supervision only. This means running with multiple groups, doubling back, stopping to give splits, walking with tired and/or out-of-shape runner(s), making sure everyone is safe, etc. You should know where your athletes are at all time.

On the other hand, if you're doing track workouts with the kids, you're a tool. You're supposed to be coaching, not getting your workout in. Do it on your own time! You can't supervise, coach, etc. if you're huffing & puffing, & beating 15 year olds in mile repeats.

I think it's ok for a long run.

Not for intervals for the reasons everyone else said.

I usually ride. Sometimes run. Depends on the situation. My real workouts happen on my own time.

On easy days, I usually run with the kids. We're primarily on trails with limited road access and I can supervise better that way. I constantly vary the group I run with based on the needs of the team or I'll run fartlek style where I run with 3-4 groups over the course of a practice for 5-10 minutes each.

I almost never run with them on workout days. I want to be able to give feedback to a wide variety of groups so we set up loops where we can regularly check in on everyone. On occasion I will jump in on a workout if I know a specific group needs extra monitoring or help to get through something. The kids usually enjoy one of the coaches hopping in on a workout...they seem to enioy watching us suffer!

In what situation would a coach be able to run with the team? I've never had a head coach who would have been able to keep up past the warm up.

H.S. Coach #73698 wrote:...if you're doing track workouts with the kids, you're a tool.

Bingo. This annoys me to no end. Even worse when it is a male coach of a girls' team.

Well in McFarlane the coach rode a bike so that must be the right way to do it.

Seriously I can see some value in running with the team from time to time, but that does not mean the coach is training. Running with them allows a coach to get to know them better, but also the coach must not get sucked into the "cool coach" thing where he or she is "one of the guys" and takes part in inappropriate conversations.

Riding a bike makes a lot of sense. Not a HS XC situation, but when I was part of a group coaching a large number of runners (about 100 and 60 in our long runs) I would often bring a bike to be able to spend some time with the faster runners and double back to talk with the slower runners. I might ride 35 miles when they were doing a 20 miler but I could touch base. We had another coach who would run.

Hdhdjdjd wrote:

No. Separation of roles. You coach they run. Run on your own time.

This is correct.

No coach needs to run with freshmen and JV runners to show them how to run. That is ridiculous. The coach should impress upon the upperclassmen to help teach the newbies how to go about things, but only as an echo to what the coach should say to all athletes.

Having a coach run with the athletes is fun-killing and detrimental in the long run (no pun intended) with regard to building a team with great chemistry. Freshmen are tired of being treated like little babies from middle school, and they really enjoy running with and talking to older kids on the team...without some damn coach hanging around. These are high school kids. Give them space.

I don't care how cool you think you are or how much you think your athletes like it when you run with them, but you aren't that cool, and they wish you'd not run with them.

What exactly is a coach supposed to do if an entire team is out on a trail run. Sit there and wait for them to come back? That's ridiculous.

Now, if you're doing intervals on a track with the team, that is also ridiculous.

NoXCinCoach wrote:

H.S. Coach #73698 wrote:...if you're doing track workouts with the kids, you're a tool.

Bingo. This annoys me to no end. Even worse when it is a male coach of a girls' team.

I didn't run too much with my team during xc. Warmups and hill repeats, thats about it. I'd only run the hills with them so they'd push themselves. High schoolers don't like getting beat by grandpa.

During track I'd run a leg of endless relay if we were short one runner.

I agree there should be some separation between coach and athlete but sometimes it doesn't hurt to run with them.

Running with them and running at the same time are not the same thing.

Flagpole wrote:

I don't care how cool you think you are or how much you think your athletes like it when you run with them, but you aren't that cool, and they wish you'd not run with them.

Depends on the specific relationship. I really enjoyed running with my coach. He had been an all-conference runner for a solid collegiate program, and a lot of what I now know about running is just a result of chatting with him during distance runs. I still had plenty of time to run with just my friends over the summer and during the weekends.

I do think that it takes a special type of personality to maintain professionalism while also being friendly (this is true whether you're a coach or an employer or a parent). Our coach could pull this off. Even if you had a friendly chat with the guy during your run, there was no question that he was in charge, and there was never a sense that he was "just one of the guys" or that he was trying to be cool or anything like that. Not everyone has that skill, and people who don't probably need to maintain greater separation from their athletes.