Am I or is my coach wrong?

I'd say you're in the wrong.

If in your coaches opinion you could have scored points for the team in both events you should have raced both events.

You're in the fun part of your running career where you can lop off big chunks of time each time you race. Enjoy it. You might be a 4:41 guy in another week or two.

Monkeyman wrote:

I'd say you're in the wrong.

If in your coaches opinion you could have scored points for the team in both events you should have raced both events.

You're in the fun part of your running career where you can lop off big chunks of time each time you race. Enjoy it. You might be a 4:41 guy in another week or two.

15 seconds just seems unbelievable. I just ran a 4:57 the week prior and I was fresh too. I had never run an 800m fresh before I ran a 2:05.

I think you fail to realize the nature of the coach athlete relationship.

You and your coach before the last meet:

anonymousposter: "Hey coach, I really would like to focus on the 400/800 because I think that is my niche but I don't want to let the team down either. Would it be possible to run those races in the big meets because I think I am more likely to score for the team then?"

Coach: " We can definitely talk about that. I am glad you have taken the time to talk this over with me instead of faking sickness or injury in the 1600 only to come back and PR in the 800. Thank you for being respectful of me and the team."

I remember a guy like you on our team in high school. I had already run the 5000 and the 1600 in the meet. The guy was scheduled to run the 800 and the 3200 at the end of the meet. I can't remember what it was but he complained of something that would not allow him to do the 800. I asked my coach if I could take his place and coach let me in.

The guy jumps into the 3200 that he apparently saved himself for. I won the 3200 that day. I have to say of all the things I have ever done as an athlete I never felt so excited when I lined up for that 3200 that day. My coach held me back from doing that many events after that but he had my back because he knew I was all about the team. He had me to focus on one race once I reached the championship meets.

You disrespected your coaches authority and direction. He can no longer trust you moving forward.

What to do now? Apologize to him and start to repair the damage.

otter wrote:

You and your coach before the last meet:

anonymousposter: "Hey coach, I really would like to focus on the 400/800 because I think that is my niche but I don't want to let the team down either. Would it be possible to run those races in the big meets because I think I am more likely to score for the team then?"

Coach: " We can definitely talk about that. I am glad you have taken the time to talk this over with me instead of faking sickness or injury in the 1600 only to come back and PR in the 800. Thank you for being respectful of me and the team."

I talked to him numerous times but he wouldn't listen to me.

My school doesn't go to many meets, especially large ones with more than 5 schools, so it's honestly pretty big for me at least when we go to these meets with more than 5 schools. I knew that this would be one of the last times before championships next month that I would really get a good 800m in since the weather was absolutely perfect.

Are you a high school boy or girl running those times?

In the wrong. If the coach thinks you should do something, you listen. I'm going to assume you're a freshman based off of times and ignorance. If you can't go sub 1:50, or sub 50, you're no specialist. Listen to your coach, he likely sees potential in the 1600 you may have yet to see. By going behind his back, you've now been forced to only race the 1600. Could've easily been avoided by listening to him. You asked for it and were rightfully punished.

Versace wrote:

In the wrong. If the coach thinks you should do something, you listen. I'm going to assume you're a freshman based off of times and ignorance. If you can't go sub 1:50, or sub 50, you're no specialist. Listen to your coach, he likely sees potential in the 1600 you may have yet to see. By going behind his back, you've now been forced to only race the 1600. Could've easily been avoided by listening to him. You asked for it and were rightfully punished.

Yeah I am a freshmen, but even then, my older teammates said I made the right move. They could care less about it and said that they would have done the same thing in my position. Obviously I'm not going to be a specialist sub 50 or sub 1:50 guy if it's my first year running but I really think I have more potential in the 400/800 than the 1600 just because my coach has only been seeing me run for a month.......

boyOrGirl? wrote:

Are you a high school boy or girl running those times?

Freshmen guy

Your post typifies youth and entitlement. You should have run the 800 and 1600. Track is a team sport. Most distance kids triple at invitationals without coming on letsrun and whine. The coach was probably trying to build your stamina and mental toughness - which are lacking evidenced by this post. Quit the team and run unattached if you want to race at whim. As other posters stated you need to be someone who runs a state elite time to be “specialist”.

Iowa800 wrote:

Your post typifies youth and entitlement. You should have run the 800 and 1600. Track is a team sport. Most distance kids triple at invitationals without coming on letsrun and whine. The coach was probably trying to build your stamina and mental toughness - which are lacking evidenced by this post. Quit the team and run unattached if you want to race at whim. As other posters stated you need to be someone who runs a state elite time to be “specialist”.

I would have appreciated it if he could have at least talked it over with me or listened with me before he threw me in. At my school, track is not a huge deal at all. We’re constantly spanked and getting our ass kicked in almost all meets and especially important ones so the “team” aspect of the sport isn’t really apparent

Iowa800 wrote:

Your post typifies youth and entitlement. You should have run the 800 and 1600. Track is a team sport. Most distance kids triple at invitationals without coming on letsrun and whine. The coach was probably trying to build your stamina and mental toughness - which are lacking evidenced by this post. Quit the team and run unattached if you want to race at whim. As other posters stated you need to be someone who runs a state elite time to be “specialist”.

Not only that, but those distance kids that triple at invitations are usually pretty good at all 3 in general and have a very good chance of scoring in all 3 regardless.

Your older teammates are siding with you and the team is getting constantly spanked. They sound like losers. Birds of a feather flock together.

I understand the feeling that you should get to decide which event you will run. Many coaches will let you decide, or at least give you input if you feel strongly. But it's hard to say that you've been wronged. Ultimately, it's the coach's call. Just like a basketball coach won't let his players tell him which positions they'll be playing -- a track coach has a right to enter his athletes in whichever events he wants them to run.

What he can't do is force you to run at a certain pace. So if you don't mind continuing to piss him off, you could always treat the first two laps as a warm up and then time yourself for two hard laps at the end.

Iowa800 wrote:

anoynmousposter wrote:

I would have appreciated it if he could have at least talked it over with me or listened with me before he threw me in. At my school, track is not a huge deal at all. We’re constantly spanked and getting our ass kicked in almost all meets and especially important ones so the “team” aspect of the sport isn’t really apparent

Your older teammates are siding with you and the team is getting constantly spanked. They sound like losers. Birds of a feather flock together.

I mean they really don’t care about the success of the team probably that’s just the culture of the team we’ve had ever since our team was created in ‘96. We haven’t had any success with any regional or states titles and the older kids are all mediocre at best and couldn’t give more than 2 shits about the program. If anything I don’t want to sound self-absorbed, but my freshmen times of 55, 2:05, and 4:57 are one of the best we’ve had in over 10 years so you can see why we get spanked. As for the character of the older guys, they’re good guys with bright academic futures who don’t really care about running which doesn’t make them losers if they’re the ones going off to college and getting a good job.

webby wrote:

I understand the feeling that you should get to decide which event you will run. Many coaches will let you decide, or at least give you input if you feel strongly. But it's hard to say that you've been wronged. Ultimately, it's the coach's call. Just like a basketball coach won't let his players tell him which positions they'll be playing -- a track coach has a right to enter his athletes in whichever events he wants them to run.

What he can't do is force you to run at a certain pace. So if you don't mind continuing to piss him off, you could always treat the first two laps as a warm up and then time yourself for two hard laps at the end.

Yes, but normally a basketball coach doesn’t put a 5,10 point guard in the center position in a random game....

I believe that your coach did listen to you and talk with you based on your original post. He just didn't do what you wanted him to do. By your own admission your team's culture doesn't seem conducive to success. Some of that is likely because of this attitude that we aren't very good so we won't try to be very good. Your coach might be looking to change that.

Anyway, what is it you're looking for at this point? You started this thread to ask people if they thought you were wrong or if your coach was and you've gotten a really clear answer to that. Yet it seems that you actually had decided when you started the thread that it was the coach who was wrong as you seem to discount responses saying that you were. Is there something someone could say that would actually convince you that the coach was not wrong?