The advice on here is quite good.
The advice on here is quite good.
Hounddogharrier wrote:
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 .
couldn't disagree more. Kids grow a lot between ages 14-18. My high school program has had several kids show up short and a bit rolly-polly, and run 23-24min their first year or 2, only to hit puberty, develop a competitive streak, and become 16-17min guys.
Info wrote:
CPAHELP wrote:
Just accepted assistant coaching position at local powerhouse HS. Whats your advice?
1. Get involved with most of them on social media.
2. Make them like u and think your funny by telling lots of jokes, sex jokes.
3. Talk about dieting.
4. Determine the females menstrual cycles so you can properly design their training
5. Correct the head coaches training by secretly suggesting, giving, or conducting alternative workouts.
6. Belittle and criticized slower runners in order to motivate them to new heights.
7. Show favoritism.
8. Super high mileage.
9. You yourself should wear short shorts, or tight tights, to practice. Add a cut off shirt.
10. Constantly name drop all the famous runners you have been associated with. The kids need to know your legit.
11. Exaggerate your own running achievements. Make sure it is not easily verifiable.
12. Earn the trust of a vulnerable one and pursue a “relationship” with them. This could be a male or female.
13. For recovery, massage their legs after hard workouts. Use lotion.
14. Do everything in your power to get rid of the old blood (i.e. coaches, non compliant athletes) so you can take over and control the program.
15. Start making cuts.
All of this is pure Gold minus getting into a relationship with a student. Also, you need to add getting rid of The AD as they usually hate the sport and are more concerned with football.
I'm surprised by how much of the advice here is about not getting into trouble and doing what you're told. That's the advice of people who, above all else, don't want to get fired. If you really want to become a great coach, you should focus on adding value in ways that you are uniquely able to add. That may be different for every assistant. You're fast, so maybe you be the coach runs up and down the pack in practice and takes note of important details (e.g., guys who are limping, straining, slacking, happy, sad, motivating others, etc.) -- sharing that info with the coach, and using it to be a better mentor. Maybe you have a talent for getting people more engaged. Maybe you are the one they will come to for advice about injuries, race strategy, or balancing academics. You know what you can do and you will soon learn what is needed.
I love stats, so I am the guy who knows everyone's trajectory, sees who tends to do well early/late in the season. I know who is injury prone, who put in the big summer miles, and who it pays off for. I know who had a big breakthrough in track, who's more of a half miler and who is more of an strength/endurance runner. I also like to think about who responds well to different kinds of workouts and different mileage loads. The more you know about the runners, the more useful insights that you will have -- some of which will lead to breakthroughs for the head coach and the athletes.
So of course do what the coach wants and do no harm, but be creative about adding value, too.
Hounddogharrier wrote:
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 .
0/10
Every program is going to have kids who are not gifted or talented. In my 24 years of coaching. I only ran off three.
One for drugs.
One for skipping practice., and cutting courses on the days he did show.
One for just not trying. Ever.
I had a lot of those 26 minute boys over the years. Some became 21 minute runners. Some became sub 20. And some became All State.
The most important thing I expect from my runners is EFFORT. I believe in our training program. I know that if they attack the workouts, they will improve.
I also hope they will be runners for life.
It is very gratifying when I get a call, text, or email from a former team member telling me about their latest race or tun. It asking for some advice.
Pretty solid advice here for a Letsrun thread. Some of it, however is real outdated and a lot of it is just an opportunity to tell you their made up stories about back in the, day. Here is what I would tell a new coach from 34 years in the trenches:
1. Kids don’t have the same objectives you do. People get into coaching because they love cross-country and track . I loved it in high school I love it at 67. But most kids who sign up are there for different reasons- they need to pad their college resume, the girl they want to date Is on the team , they want to be in the yearbook picture. The trick is getting those kids to come around to your mindset.
2. CYA at all times. This has been posted here lots of times and it is so true. High school sports is a toxic brew. We have a generation of kids who are totally self-absorbed. You can give them the shirt of your back but you tell them something they don’t want to hear and they will suddenly act like your worst enemy,. Parents think their job is to be the muscle for whatever their kids want and have no perspective as to their kid’s level of talent. If making up lies to get you fired will make their kid happy, they will do just that. Athletic administrators won’t stand up for you. Most are battered by constant parental complaints and unless you coach a powerhouse Texas football team, it is easier to fire you than hear the same parent complain for the 20th time. The last factor is doctors. Doctors will give parents notes for anything and they are treated like proclamations for Heaven. “Julie is taking penacillin and is excused from practice for 3 weeks.” “Johnny has asthma and can not do speed work.” “Billy’s muscles are sore and he can only practice twice a week .”Etc etc.
3. Quality over quantity. Success for a coach is different than success for a teacher. A teacher is a success if all the class passes the state test, even if everyone gets a 70. You win at cross by having 5 great runners. It doesn’t matter how bad your worst kids are . Despite all the baloney here you can tell early who has the physical tools to succeed. That doesn’t mean you can tell who has the heart to do the work to be the best, but you can tell by looking at how kids run, their bodies, their athleticism, how hard they are breathing who can do it.
Focus on the kids who have the tools. Yeah it sounds cruel but every team is filled with attention seekers who want you to spend all your time and energy on them and why they run 26 minute 5ks. When you have 40 kids and two coaches , and six 2 hour practices a week you need to time manage. This isn’t any different than what D1 college coaches do. There are constant threads here about why can’t a 10:09 3200 meter run walk onto a PAC 10 school team. Those college coaches recognize each additional athlete requires a little more of his attention and the coach gets no benefit from turning the 10:09er into a 9:25er.
Maybe there are schools that have 8 coaches for 15 kids, and you can spend hours with each kid but I’ve only dealt with teams with 30 kids and 1 or 2 coaches .
4. Get your athletes vested in their own success. I used to start the first practice of the season with saying “Believe and I can make you a champion.” Then I realized that was completely wrong. Now I tell kids “ I can give you the tools to make yourself a champion.” Giving them stewardship of it makes all the difference.
5. Keep innovating - one year I had to take a medical leave . They made the swim coach the xc coach. Each workout that year was a certain number of Laps around the 1.5 mile loop of our race course . The team started with 35 and ended the year with 6. The kids quit from boredom. One season in track I found 3 abandoned shopping carts filled them with cinder blocks and had kids push them for starts . The kids loved it until one kid ran the cart of cinder blocks into a parked car and left a huge dent .
6. Remember the motto of parents :“ The reason behind great teams is the coach has great athletes. The reason behind bad teams is the athletes have a bad coach.”
7. Forget the life skills junk. Only coaches who don’t know the sport talk about that. Teach kids to run hard.
missilesilo wrote
0/10
Every program is going to have kids who are not gifted or talented. In my 24 years of coaching. I only ran off three.
One for drugs.
One for skipping practice., and cutting courses on the days he did show.
One for just not trying. Ever.
I had a lot of those 26 minute boys over the years. Some became 21 minute runners. Some became sub 20. And some became All State.
The most important thing I expect from my runners is EFFORT. I believe in our training program. I know that if they attack the workouts, they will improve.
I also hope they will be runners for life.
It is very gratifying when I get a call, text, or email from a former team member telling me about their latest race or tun. It asking for some advice.
I call baloney that you coached 24 years and you only let one kid go for not attending practice. Every other kid for a quarter century dutifully attended ???? Yeah right.
7. Forget the life skills junk. Only coaches who don’t know the sport talk about that. Teach kids to run hard.
Wrong: Two words: Joe Newton.
Hounddogharrier wrote:
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 .
Dumb. I ran like 22min my third race of 9th grade. And that was after two years of junior high. Didn’t take high school too seriously and ran 17:20 before I graduated and then ran 1:52 for 800m in college. You never know. Especially after just 3 races.
greenliner wrote:
7. Forget the life skills junk. Only coaches who don’t know the sport talk about that. Teach kids to run hard.
Wrong: Two words: Joe Newton.
If Joe Newton started coaching today the parents would have gotten him fired in two years tops . Only because he was an institution did the parents not chew him up.
ThatAverageRunner wrote:
Hounddogharrier wrote:
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 .
Dumb. I ran like 22min my third race of 9th grade. And that was after two years of junior high. Didn’t take high school too seriously and ran 17:20 before I graduated and then ran 1:52 for 800m in college. You never know. Especially after just 3 races.
So if you didn’t put any effort into high school, why should a high school coach have put any effort into coaching you ???!!
NO!!!
Teach kids how to train and avoid injuries.
Many kids will run hard. But you will lose their abilities if you just have them hammer every day.
mcguck wrote:
Info wrote:
1. Get involved with most of them on social media.
2. Make them like u and think your funny by telling lots of jokes, sex jokes.
3. Talk about dieting.
4. Determine the females menstrual cycles so you can properly design their training
5. Correct the head coaches training by secretly suggesting, giving, or conducting alternative workouts.
6. Belittle and criticized slower runners in order to motivate them to new heights.
7. Show favoritism.
8. Super high mileage.
9. You yourself should wear short shorts, or tight tights, to practice. Add a cut off shirt.
10. Constantly name drop all the famous runners you have been associated with. The kids need to know your legit.
11. Exaggerate your own running achievements. Make sure it is not easily verifiable.
12. Earn the trust of a vulnerable one and pursue a “relationship” with them. This could be a male or female.
13. For recovery, massage their legs after hard workouts. Use lotion.
14. Do everything in your power to get rid of the old blood (i.e. coaches, non compliant athletes) so you can take over and control the program.
15. Start making cuts.
All of this is pure Gold minus getting into a relationship with a student. Also, you need to add getting rid of The AD as they usually hate the sport and are more concerned with football.
I had tons of problems with an A.D. I do not know if he hated XC, but he certainly did not understand it and
didn't think about it much. You must be proactive and educate athletic directors. They might say you cannot
have kids skip meets or whatever, but at least you are communicating. It's better to do that than lose your job or
head in that direction. You can win a sectional title and lose your job in XC and Track & Field.
sleeeper wrote:
Hounddogharrier wrote:
There are winners and losers . I teach kids to be winners .
FYI my squad has won the league 3 of the last 8 years .
Sounds like a losing record to me.
Seriously, this has to be a joke lol