Do young people listen to their coaches at all these days?

Hi Coach! I just got back from your 3 mile easy day today. Those intervals on Tuesday were tough but I'm ready for more tomorrow. Don't worry, I'll take the weekend off like you tell us to rest up for your workouts next week. See you at practice!

waltertompatton wrote:

Judging by the many posts I have poured my heart and soul into I gather there is not

much respect for coaches these days. Just because you have ran fast times does not mean you

know everything about training, race strategy, running form, and life in general.

Yes, a statistical analysis of all teenagers on all sports teams reveals that 99.9% of athletes nationally listen to their coach, but it's only when he/she says, "OK, Nike sent us some swag. Come and get it!"

Judging by the many posts I have poured my heart and soul into, I gather there is not much respect for waltertompatton these days, because he posts moronic threads.

Hey, waltertompatton, do young drivers use their turn signals? Do young students cheat on algebra tests? Do young runners with runny noses snort their snot out, one nostril at a time, while on the run?

I’ve now had 9 coaches in less than 5 years of competitive running. (HS plus freshman year at D1 school) Obviously some coaches were better than others, but the point is, I had no continuity in my training. Since sophomore year, ive been pretty much making up my own training, with mixed results. Without the guidance of a competent coach (incluiding college) i have been injured a lot.

Oh how I wish that I had a coach that actually cared enough to coach me. It’s hard to “trust the program” when there isn’t one, or when the coach doesn’t notice you.

I wouldn't rely very much on coaches that never has trained and raced hard personally. After years of hard training you've probably learned many things the hard way.

You're runner wrote:

Hi Coach! I just got back from your 3 mile easy day today. Those intervals on Tuesday were tough but I'm ready for more tomorrow. Don't worry, I'll take the weekend off like you tell us to rest up for your workouts next week. See you at practice!

Lydiard is against over-doing the hard interval training. I have always been a big fan of Arthur Lydiard.

So obviously you have never read one of MY posts.

Hate much?

Daniels disciple wrote:

I’ve now had 9 coaches in less than 5 years of competitive running. (HS plus freshman year at D1 school) Obviously some coaches were better than others, but the point is, I had no continuity in my training. Since sophomore year, ive been pretty much making up my own training, with mixed results. Without the guidance of a competent coach (incluiding college) i have been injured a lot.

Oh how I wish that I had a coach that actually cared enough to coach me. It’s hard to “trust the program” when there isn’t one, or when the coach doesn’t notice you.

This is what I am talking about!

Because we have the internet now kids (and adults) think they know more than the coach.

I've seen state championship coaches who could not turn big schools around because of this attitude.

U.N.O. wrote:

I wouldn't rely very much on coaches that never has trained and raced hard personally. After years of hard training you've probably learned many things the hard way.

Yes that does happen and some coaches lose touch with new information coming out. But to not talk to your coach is a mistake. How do you expect to succeed without a coach?

There is as much respect now for coaches as always. Kids today are just like kids during any other era. If they are not listening to their coach maybe the coach needs to speak the team or athletes language. If a coach isn't getting respect maybe the coach should step up their game.

Daniels disciple wrote:

I’ve now had 9 coaches in less than 5 years of competitive running. (HS plus freshman year at D1 school) Obviously some coaches were better than others, but the point is, I had no continuity in my training. Since sophomore year, ive been pretty much making up my own training, with mixed results. Without the guidance of a competent coach (incluiding college) i have been injured a lot.

Oh how I wish that I had a coach that actually cared enough to coach me. It’s hard to “trust the program” when there isn’t one, or when the coach doesn’t notice you.

Try becoming a Lydiard disciple. The training is much simpler to understand. I have Daniels 3rd addition. Great book but I do not understand it well enough yet to follow it. I'd probably get injured if I did. Daniels talks about doing things at set paces. He warns about training above your fitness level. How many have the discipline to follow it correctly. I would not. There are probably a lot of coaches and self coached runners that would try jumping ahead of their fitness level. With Lydiards system it is much harder to do.

Hey! Get off of my lawn! I don't care if Peter Snell trained on a grass track -- get off of my lawn!

I believe not listening is what cost me national gold medals underage and strong performances as a senior.

Was 4th in national schools 2k steeplechase just doing my own thing I was too young and needed structure but coach from local club didn’t give me enough at the time.

It set me up to distrusting coaches all my senior career (including coaches like jerry kiernan who coached me & saw lots of potential )and eventually retiring from athletics a number of times.

No reason why I couldnt have run a 2 20 marathon with proper support

Stat Man Crowthers wrote:

Judging by the many posts I have poured my heart and soul into, I gather there is not much respect for waltertompatton these days, because he posts moronic threads.

He also had a complete public meltdown on the boards last week because of some minor issue where he couldn't post certain words or his posts got cut off or something. Acted like it was the end of the world. Freaked out on multiple threads with tantrum-like behavior. I feel bad for anyone that has to interact with him in real life.

when you have a coach who has us doing 3-4 hard interval workouts a week regardless of the time of season and 30 min easy runs, yeah you don't listen

sure coach, I'm listening! I did those 6x1000s Tuesday after my top 25 finish at footlocker regional, that mile time trial Thursday and ill be ready for that 15 mile run Saturday!

Stat Man Crowthers wrote:

waltertompatton wrote:

Judging by the many posts I have poured my heart and soul into I gather there is not

much respect for coaches these days. Just because you have ran fast times does not mean you

know everything about training, race strategy, running form, and life in general.

Hey, waltertompatton, do young drivers use their turn signals? Do young students cheat on algebra tests? Do young runners with runny noses snort their snot out, one nostril at a time, while on the run?

young drivers turn their signals on more often than older ones easily, feeling guilty I see....

stop cheating on your wife

who cares how someone snorts snot while you're snorting weed clearly, lay off it

Dublin24 wrote:

I believe not listening is what cost me national gold medals underage and strong performances as a senior.

Was 4th in national schools 2k steeplechase just doing my own thing I was too young and needed structure but coach from local club didn’t give me enough at the time.

It set me up to distrusting coaches all my senior career (including coaches like jerry kiernan who coached me & saw lots of potential )and eventually retiring from athletics a number of times.

No reason why I couldnt have run a 2 20 marathon with proper support

You Irish Dublin24 ?

ill say this

there are very few coaches in high school who really understand the sport, there are way more athletes who know much more than their coaches.

when I was running in high school we lived in an area that had 4-5 school in about an 10 mile radius, all the athletes would rather be coached by my dad because they saw that I was doing much better then all of them due to poor coaching, and my younger brother cane along and was even better. we didn't listen to or put ourselves under bad coaching and nobody else wanted to either, no kid wants to be in a situation where because of bad coaching they feel like quitting or like they arnt as good as they can be.

so to all the kids out there, keep ignoring the bad coaching and don't feel bad about the bad coaches who think you should listen because they are a "coach".

No, because most of you guys haven't done what you teach.