My HS coach is an idiot: change my mind

I’m not sure who does your scheduling, but that’s a lot of meets. You can’t do much about the duals, but maybe the AD or coach could be convinced to reduce the number of invitationals you enter. They are pretty much meaningless meets.

consider this wrote:

Treat wrote:

Are you completely unaware of the concept of training through a meet? If not, then you should not be commenting on what constitutes a “good coach.”

Did you read the original post? The coach wanted him to get points, not train through those meets.

Those are not mutually exclusive.

Sure, they'll improve, but preventing injury and creating success long term is a far superior philosophy to having an athlete score points 3x a week, as you put it. Over racing/over training is still relevant to 15 year olds.

Wristy wrote:

consider this wrote:

Did you read the original post? The coach wanted him to get points, not train through those meets.

Those are not mutually exclusive.

Yeah, in theory. Doesn't sound like OP trained through. No mention that the coach instructed him to do so and freshmen aren't usually smart enough to do it. Moreover OP has stated the team got killed anyway, so there were no team accomplishments to be had.

You are fine. Don't panic. You can do what is required. That's the problem with HS coaches is that they don't tell you what you are capable of doing. Lack of communication is very frustrating.

Mr over raced wrote:

I just completed my 8th track meet in the last 15 days running 16 races ranging from 800 to 3200m. I had a breakthrough in mid April but my times have sucked since then. I am a hs freshman fast enough to run in the post season in the 4*800 and 1600. My coach insisted I had to run in every meet for points.

How screwed am I now that the important meets are coming up?

You gave us virtually no context past the number of races you have been doing. But. That is a lot of meets and races. Make sure you are doing plenty of recovery days and aerobic running as well.

Pretty skeptical of the OP -most states have restrictions on how many meets you are allowed to run -esp JV in GA it’s 10 total for the season. If the schdule posted is accurate I would be as worried about the coach getting burned out as the kid! Idiot or not that is a huge time commitment for the coach as meets will generally take twice as long as practice including set up and or travel time. So whatever else he/she is that is sure some dedication.

BS wrote:

Pretty skeptical of the OP -most states have restrictions on how many meets you are allowed to run -esp JV in GA it’s 10 total for the season. If the schdule posted is accurate I would be as worried about the coach getting burned out as the kid! Idiot or not that is a huge time commitment for the coach as meets will generally take twice as long as practice including set up and or travel time. So whatever else he/she is that is sure some dedication.

This.

I remember at most 2 meets a week, maybe 3 one week “back in the day”. There would be dual meets where I would “race” then do a short workout after. Running 3 events was common my senior year...4x8, 1600, 3200. Only the 800m would be all out and the other two would be just win. By the time the end of the season came around I went all out in the 1600 and 3200 and easily PRd.

Alan

wait a minute! am i to read this correctly?! 8 meets in 15 days?! i would like to see that schedule. that's four track meets per week - come on, dude. i'm calling b.s. ... no high school track team has that kind of schedule. PROVE IT!!

BS wrote:

Pretty skeptical of the OP -most states have restrictions on how many meets you are allowed to run -esp JV in GA it’s 10 total for the season. If the schdule posted is accurate I would be as worried about the coach getting burned out as the kid! Idiot or not that is a huge time commitment for the coach as meets will generally take twice as long as practice including set up and or travel time. So whatever else he/she is that is sure some dedication.

Our normal schedule is a Tuesday dual meet /weekend invitational but almost all of our early season meets we’re postponed for weather. That’s why they were all crammed in at the end of the season. I ran 2 events each meet. I wish I was trolling but I’m not.

Quit your wining. I'm a high school junior who had to run the 4*8, 16, and 32 last Wednesday so we could win the meet and I still bounced back to PR in the 32 on a hot Saturday yesterday. You're only screwed if you don't like to work. Just shut up and trust your coach

cvoet55 wrote:

Quit your wining. I'm a high school junior who had to run the 4*8, 16, and 32 last Wednesday so we could win the meet and I still bounced back to PR in the 32 on a hot Saturday yesterday. You're only screwed if you don't like to work. Just shut up and trust your coach

Run 6 meets in a week before you did that then you can talk tough guy.

coach coach wrote:

Freshman need to shut up and listen to their coaches. Nah, your coach isn't an idiot, you need to prove to him that you're worth spending time on.

SeriouslY?

What a douchenugget you are.

High School is for learning the sport, loving it, learning to race and not getting hurt. If these questions are arising from the athlete, the first question should be about the coach.

HS coaches are not important to workouts. Only atmosphere.

No a smart coach usually scores the meet ahead of time based upon PR or seed times and has a sense if there is a chance to win. If it looks overwhelmingly as if they would need miracles (ie amazing PR on their side and injuries on the other side) one would be smart and not race the athlete to “score as many points possible.” Or in the middle of the meet know the score and shut the athlete down if their is no hope keeping them out of the last race. Also with that many dual meets, why go to worthless invitationals at this point. With that much racing at his age, not like he is going to PR. Finally, that is a recipe for injury and ruin his chances to PR in bigger meets at the end and prepare him wiell for XC which I presume he will train for next. How many NCAA athletes who are more seasoned run that type of schedule?

In the future OP, if your coach pulls that stunt again, just treat some of the races as tempo runs. Finish strong and win if you have the energy to do it, but do not go all out and focus on your best event or if getting the points will matter.

Same Guy wrote:

In the future OP, if your coach pulls that stunt again, just treat some of the races as tempo runs. Finish strong and win if you have the energy to do it, but do not go all out and focus on your best event or if getting the points will matter.

Please disregard this fool.

Coach > troll wrote:

Same Guy wrote:

In the future OP, if your coach pulls that stunt again, just treat some of the races as tempo runs. Finish strong and win if you have the energy to do it, but do not go all out and focus on your best event or if getting the points will matter.

Please disregard this fool.

Please disregard THIS fool.

nontroll > this guy wrote:

Coach > troll wrote:

Please disregard this fool.

Please disregard THIS fool.

You have been disregarded per your request.

Yeah your coach is an idiot is so is mine. I can definitely relate to the frustration in this. I am also a freshman girl, but still the best distance runner on my team and my coach then has all of these high expectations because of it. I had a different coach during indoor and improved a lot, I took about 30 seconds off of my mile time from the first race to last and over a minute off of my 3k time. I was excited for outdoor but we got a new coach is he sucks. Our track team is small and we all know we won’t win any meets, but our coach doesn’t get it and overworks us. There is meets he puts me in 4 events: 3200, 1600, 800, and 4x400. Just for points (some invitationals he will even put me in 3) We still do not win because of how small our team is but we are overworked. Yes you could say treat these like workouts and I do but I am so young and still a very underdeveloped runner that it is a lot. Every race I run I get worse and my best times aww worst then my worst indoor times. We usually have 2 meets per week (one league and one invit) and we also have another workout as well. I am doing horrible and it is very frustrating because it is not only me. My team try’s to talk to the coach and half the time he gets angry when we try to reason. So basically I am getting worse and the injuries are piling up. First I just feel terrible when I run and so much pain. Half the time when I even walk my legs hurt so much and when I run they are terrible no matter how slow. I have horrible shin splints, knee problems, and I eengot a sprained ankle. But the problem usually comes on how I feel. I feel so weak and tired and half the time dizzy. Yes I am eating and drinking enough that is not the problem. It is really annoying I had a good shot a making states now unless I have some kind i miracle I won’t even qualify for districts (the times I need are times that came easy for me 2 months ago). I really don’t know what the problem is as well if this is over training or something wrost.

As a several decades coach - and longer than that competitive distance runner - I have full sympathy for the O.P. If you run a race, you should always expect to give 100%. Only a kid who is far better than his competition can train through a race. And middle distance and distance races are tough mentally and physically.

Dual and tri meets usually last 2-3 hours. I would never ask an athlete to race the 1600, 800, and 3200 in that time frame. Even at State, where the 4x8 use to be in early afternoon and the 1600 and 3200 was at night, I never asked a kid to triple. The only kid I coached who ever did so was Billy Convey, a 4:08.3 miler (2nd at Golden West) and an 8:57.5 2 miler (still the Florida Relays record after 35 years). He wanted to triple at State to try to break Class 2A records set by Scott Scheffler of Clewiston. He succeeded. Barely. By a total of 3.0 seconds for all three races. In under two hours. (In other words, he had to go all out.) Yet in the last, he ran just 9:23.4 in the 2 mile. 25.9 seconds slower than his Florida Relays record. The first call for that race came while he was on the track waiting for the stick to anchor our Sprint Medley. Billy was by far the fastest runner I ever coached and he was also probably the toughest competitor. But at the end of a triple, in a short time frame, he was far off his P.R. It was a unique opportunity. He wanted to do it.

Asking any kid to triple repeatedly is in my view absurd. The coach can have no comprehension of what it means to give an all-out effort. It is also stupid. Many kids will find something else to do with their afternoons rather than run for such a coach.