Josh Partridge

Sprint coach. Trying to get a little better each day.

[Steve Magness @stevemagness]

Parents overcoaching is one of the biggest contributors to fear of failure. @landondonovan is right.

Kobe Bryant said the same, "Don't say anything. There's a conversation happening inside her head. An outside voice interrupts her process. Let her figure it out herself."

[Dustin Wright @CoachWright333]

A bad meet should never get to tell a kid who he is.

A coach spends an entire season fighting that battle for 30+ young people at once.

Across 7 to 10+ meets, and for some from indoor straight into outdoor, you’re in the trenches. One athlete fighting doubt, one learning patience, one guarding against ego after success, and one rebuilding belief after a public bad day.

That is the real work.

You are not just teaching starts, splits, exchanges, or technique.

You are helping young people handle pressure, disappointment, success, frustration, accountability, and growth, without letting the wrong lesson take root.

This is why track, and sports in general, matter so much.

Sports let kids learn life lessons at a price they can still afford, with a coach beside them before the real world starts charging full price.

#TrackCoach #CoachingLife #TrackAndField @pntrack @MikeCunningham

[Steve Magness @stevemagness]

If you’ve never cried after giving everything you had to something that mattered, you’ve probably never given everything you had to something that mattered.

The UCONN women’s basketball team was undefeated, 38-0 for the season. But with a little over a minute left in their final four matchup against South Carolina, Kayleigh Heckel went up for a lay-up to cut the score to 9 and keep alive a tiny bit of hope. She missed. The camera zooms in on Heckel as she drops her head and tears began to flow. It was a harsh moment of realizing that the dream was over.

In 2024, Keisei Tominaga was captured crying on the sidelines with a minute left when his Nebraska team lost to Texas A&M in the tournament. Back in 2006, Adam Morrison had a similar reaction with a few seconds left, after Gonzaga had blown a 17 point lead in the sweet sixteen.

Will all due respect to Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own, there is crying in sport. A lot of it. And contrary to some of the talk on social media, it’s the opposite of weakness. It’s a clear signal of a genuine competitor.

We cry because we care. Tears are proof of our investment.

Psychologist Ad Vingerhoets at Tilburg University has spend decades studying crying. He found that humans are the only species that cries emotionally. And the primary reason we do it is it acts s a kind of communicative device. Tears signal to others that something matters deeply to us and we need support. It’s as if the tears are saying, “this thing matters to me more than I can say.”

As a coach, I’ve seen the toughest of competitors, athletes who are among the best in the country or even the world, break down from time to time. It’s one of the beautiful things about sport. For many reasons, it’s one of the few areas where we let the guard down, show what we really feel, and express genuine emotion. Sometimes, that means tears of joy, other times a crushing bitter disappointment that we can’t quite process. This is especially true for men, who often try to be stoic, thanks to a combination of culture and biology.

Yet, in the days before memes Morrison might as well have become one, as he “got murdered for it” and was “kind of shocked by how much negative feedback” he received. Heckel’s been met with a mixture of support and the sadly expected condemnation.

Those people are clueless.

From the sidelines, it may look like a weakness because you’ve never been in those moments. You’ve never given your all to something, risked greatness, and saw that dream get ripped away. When you step into the arena, you put it all on the line. And in sport, music, and performance arts, one of the few places that are the last bastions of reality. You can’t fake it, it’s all there to see, and there’s a clearly defined success or failure.

You have to care deeply to even be in that spot in the first place. No one made it anywhere close to fulfilling their potential, let alone the pinnacle of their endeavor by not caring. That kind of nonchalance is reserved for the sideline. It’s the cool kid in high school who tries to convince others not trying is the cool thing to do. All so they can protect their ego and say, “I would have gotten an A, made the team, won the tournament, if I had tried…”

Caring is cool. It’s also the only way you see how good you can be. Our brain has a kind of internal safety mechanism that prevents us from ever truly pushing to our limit. And for good reason. If a marathoner really ran out of glycogen or let their core body temperature keep rising, then serious illness or death awaits. Instead, we run a kind of inner calculation that says: is the juice worth the squeeze? Caring deeply is what allows us to push just a bit harder. It tells that safety mechanism, “Ya, we’re in a lot of discomfort right now, but this means a lot, so give us a little bit longer of a leash.”

So if I ever saw someone crying after a tough race, I knew that was an athlete I wanted on my team. It meant they cared. It meant the moment meant so much to them, that they could no longer put on a face, or hold things back. It meant more to them than they could verbally communicate.

We need more people with passion, who are willing to risk it all, to be have the emotions of the moment overwhelm them. It’s only by stepping into the arena and taking that risk that we find out how good we can be, and more importantly, who we are. The potential for tears is the price of admission.

Morrison got murdered for crying in 2006. Tominaga said it should be celebrated in 2024. He was right.

-Steve

[Shawn Siemers @Siemers_XC_TF]

The freshman who got me most fired up last night didn't qualify for anything.

He ran the 800.
He didn't qualify.
Wasn't even close.

But me and my assistant coach were standing on the infield losing our minds.

Because this kid stands on the gas from the gun. Every single time.

He doesn't know how to do it any other way.

He's not very good yet. He knows it. We know it.
But the way he competes?

It's like he doesn't care what the clock says. He just wants to race.

My assistant looked at me after.
"Man, I wish I could bottle that."

So many kids are afraid to try. Afraid to look like they care. Afraid to hurt.

This kid doesn't have any of that in him.

He just goes.

Watching him compete made us more fired up than anything else that happened all night.

[Jeremy Frisch @JeremyFrisch]

Since it's youth football Jamboree day here's a message to all the football parents and coaches out there...

Back in 2017, my 5th/6th grade youth football team went 0-8
No wins... lots of losses.

In 2024/25 7 out of those 18 kids will play a college sport.

I can't tell you how meaningless youth football is to your son's potential high school football career.

Nothing truly happens until after puberty.

Doesn't matter what "elite" organization you play for.
Doesn't matter what town you play for.
Doesn't matter if you're the best player or only play 10 plays.
Doesn't matter how many times you go to Florida.
Doesn't matter how many superbowls you win.

The only thing that matters is that you have fun and learn to love the game.

I've seen the best youth player quit in high school...
I've seen heavy slow lineman become a stud high school running back.
I've seen the monster kid just average size in high school.

Do not care,
do not compare...
Learn skills...
Have fun...
Love the game...
#football

[Missy Mitchell-McBeth @missyMmcbeth]

If you have a pre-pubescent athlete putting up exceptional numbers…

That probably ain’t you, Coach. Thats Mom and Dad.

I have a lighting fast 12 year old in my program. She was lighting fast when I got her. My job is to:

A) not ruin that
B) make sure she can brake
C) make sure she enjoys training/sports

My job is not to claim credit for the expression of deoxyribonucleic acid.

Be transparent and authentic.

[Andrew Brownhill @AndrewBrownhil]

This maybe the most important advice on building an organisation 👇
🗣"We get the right people, not the best people. Because sometimes the best people are arseholes, sometimes the best people are self centred, sometimes the best people aren't team players. So you get the right people, that's important"

[Hoop Herald @TheHoopHerald]

“Mediocre people don’t like high achievers and high achievers don’t like mediocre people ... Get the right guys on the bus, get them in the right seats, and get the wrong guys off the bus." - Nick Saban

[Jonas Dodoo @EatSleepTrain_]

“Changing running technique won’t work for football players”

“Even if we could, we should really deliberate on if it’s a good idea”

“Even if it’s a good idea , it will take too long and too much effort”

🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥

Stop thinking change, start thinking improve!

[Salisbury Rovers FC @Salisburyrovers]

“coaching” is becoming a huge field, but sadly it seems to be about the coaches themselves and not the children who are being coached.”……

Never a truer word.. https://t.co/SBCYtTDWi3

[Jay Johnson @coachjayjohnson]

There are no magic workouts.

And a single workout won’t make your season.

Consistent work, over the course of weeks and months, is what leads to PRs.

#ConsistencyIs🔑

[Jonas Dodoo @EatSleepTrain_]

Today we worked on acceleration prior to a big block of conditioning.

Instant feedback is great tool and our @VALDPerformance timing gates are awesome.

But… we don’t use the initial splits EVER with any timing gate.

When it comes to early acceleration, video doesn’t lie!

[Prof Chris Cushion @CoachC1]

This is a fantastic thread/ commentary on youth sport
• competition structure drives coach behavior
•how we confer ‘expert’ drives coach behavior
•objectifying children drives coach behavior
Youth sport WHY, and WHO FOR?

[Tony Holler @pntrack]

As summer begins, lots of talk about coaches leaving the profession. The job has become too big.

This parallels with stories of coaches breaking athletes in the pursuit of mental toughness.

Broken coaches, broken athletes.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

[Alan Couzens @Alan_Couzens]

Pssst. I have a secret....🤫

As a coach, you're not supposed to have favorites, but I do.

There is one trait that defines the favorite athletes that I've had the pleasure to work with & it's not drive or commitment or determination. To be sure, I respect all of these traits, but they're not it.

The one trait that is common to all of my favorite athletes....

In Japanese, it is called #Shoshin.

In English, "a beginner's mind" (https://t.co/U61So2jDCg):

An approach of genuine, authentic, child-like, curiosity to learning new things.

A willingness to embrace something that may be completely new and different, all in, 100%, to see where it leads.

It may surprise you that this trait is in no way related to the athlete's experience in the sport...

I've worked with some professional athletes at the very top of the sport, with decades of experience behind them, who had it.

Similarly, I've worked with athletes new to the sport who, most certainly, didn't have it.

Beyond being my favorites, these were the athletes who improved the most, as they weren't held back by previous biases/beliefs.

Don't underestimate the power of the beginner's mind. It's a trait worth cultivating.

#BeginnersMind

[Steve Magness @stevemagness]

The Little League World Series started in 1947.

Since then, thousands of the best youth baseball players from across the world have played in it.

Only 64 have made major league baseball.

Youth stars seldom make adult stars

Stop worrying about your 12 years olds 'success'

[Brett Boettcher @brettboettcher1]

You should never ice your injuries again.

Here’s why (and what to do instead):

[ALTIS @ALTIS]

⚡️UPPER EXTREMITY MOVEMENT IN SPRINTING

As velocity increases, arm swing range and frequency correspondingly increase.

If one stands at attention with arms at the side, this is the position the arms should be at during gait at the point in time that the femurs approximate.

[Sian Allen @DrSianAllen]

14 days of coffee consumption vs caffeine avoidance:

➡️ 36 mins less sleep, on average

➡️ ~1000 more daily steps, on average

(n = 100 healthy adults)

[Gerry DeFilippo @Challenger_ST]

“Testing Days,” are overrated

Mix testing in throughout training weeks

- Time sprints & measure jumps throughout your speed days

- Test chin-ups & grip strength during upper body days

Best thing is if you track weights used week by week, your always testing strength