I hesitate to share this but maybe it needs to be shared. When coaches fail kids, someone should speak up.
Twice in the past two weeks, 4 girls, all freshmen & sophomores, made nearly a 3- hour round trip to train with me in the parking lot of Dryden Elementary, across from my house.
The girls run at a small school. They are talented. Their MPHs (Dashr Silver): 18.9, 18.7, 18.6, and 17.9. Their verticals (OVR): 25, 24, 22, 19. Solid athletes!
After the first session, parents said the workout was the first positive experience of the season. The girls wanted to do it again.
Problem #1: track practice should not be consistently miserable. 🥴
The girls told me that their meet warmup was to run two laps as a team. I showed them how sprinters warm up. When they asked their coach if they could try a new warmup, the coach made them run a mile. 🥴
They think their best chance to qualify for state is the 4x1. (Remember, they are all underclassmen.)
I had them practice handoffs. They had been taught some crazy things:
1) Run in middle of lane (no inside-outside lane ownership) 🥴
2) Baton stayed in right hand (no R-L-R-L). 🥴
3) One “go mark” at only “5 short steps” (measured to be 12’) 🥴
4) They had never been videoed doing an exchange 🥴
I taught them how to do it right, hoping their coach wouldn’t find out and punish them with a two mile run. Our go mark was 16’ with a bang step (first step down at mark). I videoed every exchange. I maintained their upsweep technique. They looked GREAT. ⚡️
The girls were free to train yesterday because they didn’t have practice on the Monday of Sectional… because the boys team had a meet. 🥴
For Sectional tomorrow, I wish they weren’t all required to do 4 events. Wish they could concentrate on 4x1 and 4x4 (they have a chance in both). One girl is entered in 4x1, 4x2, 300h, and 4x4. Never have I entered a boy in those 4 events, let alone at a Sectional. Another has to run 200 and 4x4 back-to-back. 🥴
It’s sometimes hard to support the work of other coaches.
Kids get one chance to do high school sports.
As Vishy Anand said at the start of the tournament, "It's not like the 1st year or even the 1st decade" Magnus Carlsen has faced the problem of defending his sky-high rating!
It's not often you coach a group of young men that care so much for each other and gave me every ounce of perspiration they had in them. Loved every day I was with them. Thank you Men!!!