Great story from practice

not a great story. did u make it cleer she needs to train more? cause it sounds she beleevs it's ur metods and not her own fault. what's ur respons 2 her btw?

Why do so many high school coaches burn out athletes? I bet she runs slower in college, too.

You should tell her to run more. Nobody will improve with that schedule.

Of course I have wanted her to train more.

She is that kid that will start out as the fifteenth fastest runner on the team and make her way through the season to end up as varsity at the end of the season which can be a morale killer for the other girls fighting for a varsity spot.

It’s a double edge sword in that when you really need that fast number five as part of your crew for the team to qualify for a championship this is the kid you have who frustrates the others. Without her the top four are not going to move on as a team.

The other side of the sword is keeping her off varsity and you go nowhere because of that decision.

Why Americans suck at the marathon.

I laughed wrote:

Why do so many high school coaches burn out athletes? I bet she runs slower in college, too.

You're a poor motivator. I bet you're a history/social studies teacher just doing this for the $ and never ran yourself.

You ppl suck.

just another funny coach wrote:

Background:

Athlete - HS girl - Incredible talent - Junior year

Miles over the summer - 0

First week of practice - On vacation with family - ran twice

Second week of practice - Ran three times and went on another vacation.

Third week - Came back from vacation and complained of leg pain. I had her meet with trainer. Took a couple of days off

Fourth week - Ran a couple of days easy and felt good. Raced that week and I thought she had done well given her complete lack of training

Yesterday - "Coach, your training is not working for me. I don't feel I have any endurance."

On a serious note, why did you race her? Sounds like she had completed less than 10 practice and had missed almost 10 practices due to vacations.

What are your own team rules in terms of practice completion and attendance?

Good question. Those vacations included some college visits. Maybe a smoke screen from the parents seeing as she is a junior. When school is in session we don't allow that many absences. Having not run over the summer I also did not mind her not jumping in on a 6 day a week cycle of training and racing.

She has been pretty durable in the past so the race served as a baseline I need to see where she is at. As I said she did pretty well.

I don't always make the right calls but those were my reasons.

just another funny coach wrote:

She is that kid that will start out as the fifteenth fastest runner on the team and make her way through the season to end up as varsity at the end of the season which can be a morale killer for the other girls fighting for a varsity spot.

Do you keep talented boys off the varsity, because it would destroy the moral of the others?

You sound like a snowflake.

just another funny coach wrote:

Pinkerton wrote:

On a serious note, why did you race her? Sounds like she had completed less than 10 practice and had missed almost 10 practices due to vacations.

What are your own team rules in terms of practice completion and attendance?

Good question. Those vacations included some college visits. Maybe a smoke screen from the parents seeing as she is a junior. When school is in session we don't allow that many absences. Having not run over the summer I also did not mind her not jumping in on a 6 day a week cycle of training and racing.

She has been pretty durable in the past so the race served as a baseline I need to see where she is at. As I said she did pretty well.

I don't always make the right calls but those were my reasons.

I understand. I would have excused college visits as well- you just have to take the parents' word on that, even if you know they are lying. In the state where I coach, athletes are required to have 20 completed practice days ("days", not practices, so 2-a-days only count as 1) prior to their first meet. I think it's a great rule for reasons like this one.

As far as needing a baseline, I'd have thrown her in a 2-mile time trial at practice and gone from there.

I'm no expert, but I've certainly seen situations where one kid like this, especially if they end up successful, can ruin a whole team's attitude.

I know these suggestions don't help now, but figured I'd throw ideas at you for future cases (she's only a junior....so look out for next year).

For now, I think she's due for a nice talk about training, her mistakes, and why those things led to the poor race (her opinion, not yours). You could definitely use this as a building block for a good last two years of training for her.

How do you respond to her having done zero miles over the summer?

Jeez, the coach has done nothing wrong. He is just mentioning something that about every coach in every sport has encountered.

Thank you. Good advice. I've talked to her about all of those things in her past years. Some kids you can get across to and others you can't.

You are right about this type of athlete. I have seen the same thing happen to a team.

David S wrote:

How do you respond to her having done zero miles over the summer?

I reminder her and others in the same situation of that often. Out of a team of 50 I probably have 15 that did little to nothing over the summer. Sometimes I question myself on taking them on but I have had kids turn it around in a real positive way that would have not been there had I cut them in prior years.

I tell them to not have high expectations for the season, enjoy their team, and plan on training next summer if they want to be good at this. Sometimes they take me up on this and sometimes they don't.

Get your act together, coach.

Alabama BS wrote:

Jeez, the coach has done nothing wrong. He is just mentioning something that about every coach in every sport has encountered.

I appreciate that.

I was really just looking to share a funny story. We are actually a very successful program and have been amongst the top 4 teams in our state for the past 10+ years I have been coaching there.

Been there, done that. Odds are she picked up that comment from her parents at home. Watch out, if her season craters her parents will be calling up the AD complaining about you.

One comment, she isn’t “an incredible talent” if she doesn’t have a work ethic.

Hounddogharrier wrote:

Been there, done that. Odds are she picked up that comment from her parents at home. Watch out, if her season craters her parents will be calling up the AD complaining about you.

One comment, she isn’t “an incredible talent” if she doesn’t have a work ethic.

Good point about work ethic.

I am one of the few lucky ones. I have worked for four AD's and this one has my back more than the other three put together. He will shut them down as he has in the past.

This was only a fair story.