First-time XC coach starting in a few weeks… what do I need to know?

Do whatever the head coach tells you to do. And don’t touch any of the kids.

My advice...remember you are a first time assistant coach at a high school. It is no big deal.

-Support your head coach

-Aim to be constructive and positive with all athletes at all times

-Be a role model, whose primary objective is to serve and influence kids for the better

Oh, and while I gave you some genuine advice in good faith, make it a general rule to not seek advice on this site

An an assistant, assist.

Siding Scale wrote:

Oh, and while I gave you some genuine advice in good faith, make it a general rule to not seek advice on this site

retweet ^^^

my favorite coach in HS was the assistant. He put his attention on the guys who wernt "there" yet. Meaning they showed some talent and determination to be good but wernt putting the times up yet and he was good at turning those JV level runners into the varisty runners to keep our program a top program fro distance runners for 5/6 years

He stopped coaching and the team is now trash again

Sliding Scale wrote:

My advice...remember you are a first time assistant coach at a high school. It is no big deal.

-Support your head coach

-Aim to be constructive and positive with all athletes at all times

-Be a role model, whose primary objective is to serve and influence kids for the better

This is good advice. The best thing you can do for the team is be a role model who positively effects team culture.

Be unrelenting in your attempts to find things that kids are doing right and point them out. It’s my experience that kids respond to specific praise more than anything else. If there is a time when most of my kids are just going through the motions on a drill, or weight workout, I’ll make sure to praise the ones who are paying attention to detail and doing stuff right. Be specific in your praise and recognize effort and ethic over results

CPAHELP wrote:

Just accepted assistant coaching position at local powerhouse HS. Whats your advice?

How old are you? Are you male or female? Are you coaching the boys, girls or both? What type of shape are you in right now? Do you have another job? Get back to me and I'll let you know.

Ben There wrote:

Do whatever the head coach tells you to do. And don’t touch any of the kids.

Far and away the vast majority of coaches dont want to touch the kids. Your advice fell short, though, it is also important to avoid any potential for being accused of touching the kids or of being abusive in any way (sexually, emotionally).

Never be alone with any kid, always have another kid around. Never schedule any unusual meetings or practices with specific kids. Every practice should be open to everybody on the team, dont help that really motivated kid through his long run on a day with no official practice without also inviting the entire team.

Never text or email back and forth with any kids. If you must communicate by text or email or a kid messages you, keep it extremely limited and only discuss logistics. I.e., your texts should read like this: "coach, when is practice?" "10am at the school parking lot."

They should not read like this: "coach, when is practice?" "Practice is at 10am. Please show up ready to run hard, no excuses about shin splints! :)"

This might sound obvious, but you'll end up being friendly with some of these kids and it's easy to let decorum slip a bit. While something like "no excuses about shin splints" might be intended in a light hearted fashion in the moment, all it takes is for a parent to disagree that you didnt put their kid into varsity one race to suddenly turn that into a personal attack on a kids character. A coach in our section got fired for basically that exact type of text this year. He insisted the school board release the text transcripts to show he wasnt a monster.

A) Don't show up to practices or meets hungover, intoxicated, or smelling of stale alcohol.

B) Look presentable at all times.

C) Be on-time.

D) Do not berate the kids or throw objects at them even when they deserve it.

E) Do not call the kids names in front of parents, and always tell parents you are grateful for their input and concern for the program and will always take it under careful advisement.

F) Never find yourself alone with any of the kids.

G) Gotta give respect to get respect, but always make sure the kids know you are a pack leader.

H) Don't BS.

I) Make sure the kids understand how tough you are and how much harder things were back in the day.

eye no wrote:

CPAHELP wrote:

Just accepted assistant coaching position at local powerhouse HS. Whats your advice?

How old are you? Are you male or female? Are you coaching the boys, girls or both? What type of shape are you in right now? Do you have another job? Get back to me and I'll let you know.

23, male, coaching just the boys team. Just got finished marathon training a few months ago and have maintained pretty decent shape (marathon was 2:39:32). I work full time at a marketing agency in town, doing the morning shift so I'm out of work by 2 everyday

Lots of good advice on LR. Which isn't typical.

I'd add : for all kids, focus on their individual time drop. As long as that's not in tension with the head coaches position.

Parents are very protective of kids and very defensive of everything. I talked to some of the kids about colleges. One of the parents was angry that I had told the kids that a particular college had a weak XC team but a good sprint program. They have a friend who runs for that college so they let me know that I shouldn't be bashing that team. Another time I told the kids that they didn't perform well at a meet which caused 2 parents to tell me that their chikdren always give it their all. Nobody should ever tell them that they did any less. This is a wealthy district so you may not encounter the same types of problems but be prepared for anything.

CPAHELP wrote:

eye no wrote:

How old are you? Are you male or female? Are you coaching the boys, girls or both? What type of shape are you in right now? Do you have another job? Get back to me and I'll let you know.

23, male, coaching just the boys team. Just got finished marathon training a few months ago and have maintained pretty decent shape (marathon was 2:39:32). I work full time at a marketing agency in town, doing the morning shift so I'm out of work by 2 everyday

learn all of their names. you can't give them all attention everyday, but make a point of not gravitating to just a few of the faster kids. remember they don't need another friend, they need a coach that can be an example of what young men should strive to be.

if you ever coach girls, which i don't recommend at your age, come back to this thread and ask again.

Commit to shutting up and learning for a year or two. You've probably got some big, fat important ideas about training, but seeing how somebody else implements their own is really helpful. Kids come to cross country for a pretty wide variety of reasons, which means that even if there is a one size fits all approach to building a successful team and teaching them to love the sport, it's probably not the one you've dreamed up. So do what your head coach asks you to do, watch what he or she does to see what works and what doesn't.

Why should he not give more attention to the faster kids? He ultimately wants a winning team.

learn all of their names. you can't give them all attention everyday, but make a point of not gravitating to just a few of the faster kids. remember they don't need another friend, they need a coach that can be an example of what young men should strive to be.

Strong nod @ "learn their names". Every bad coach I've ever met has ignored this. And making sure that you spread your attention to some of the slower kids is really important too. They can get better. "Helpful" isn't a high bar in this sport, and you never know who can become a valuable contributor over four years.

I remember watching the best coach my team competes against absolutely haul ass (or whatever hauling ass for age 60 looks like) across the course so that he could go wild down the final straight for one of his runners cracking 30 minutes for the first time in a JV race. Younger me would have rolled my eyes, but old me thinks "maybe that's how this team that absolutely works us every single season never has to suffer rebuilding years."

I am a head xc coach at a very small school. I have no assistants. I coach boys and girls varsity. As well as boys and girls modified. But it is small. Graduating classes are 60, and I only have 20 kids total on the whole team.

But...I will have kids who can break 16 minutes and probably all the way down to somebody who can barely break 16 for a mile.

IF i had an assitant, I would want them dealing with those kids who are furthest away from my top athletes so I could narrow my focus and attention. Of course, I would also love input and going over strategy and plans. I would be great to have somebody to bounce ideas off of. But in the day to day aspect, they would be trying to turn the non-contributing runners into future contributors, while i work with the kids who are contributing now.

Who knows what your program will look like. The head might ask you to work separate workouts for lower end kids. He might have you in charge of drills, abs, weight room, etc. He might have you running with the kids. Or maybe he won't give much direction at all, and you will need to figure the best way to make yourself useful, without stepping on the head coaches toes.

Most important, just let him know you are there to do whatever he needs. And then do it to the best of your ability, with enthusiasm.

Here is some advice from an old coach who has been in the game a long time . You can tell by a kid’s 3rd race of his first season if the kid has potential. Don’t waste your time with the kids who show no potential at all . Turning 26 minute 5k runners into 21:30 5k runners achieves nothing . Yeah they may be nice kids but that doesn’t win races .