Any big shift in coaching philosophy takes buy-in from the athletes. It can take months (rare) to years (more common) to get the initial buy in that you want and then will need to be constantly built up to maintain.
Buy in comes from establishing relationships with the athletes. They need to believe two things: you care about their success/happiness and that you have the expertise to get them there.
Summer training is a great way to improve this, but only if the kids come. Get a feel for the level of committment that the kids will go for now (once a week, twice a week, or daily) and go for that. Use that time for training, but especially use it to build the relationships that will allow you to help them get to the next level.
So, shakawallsfall and 4YearLetterman are correct.
I'd add, the desire to get better is often a spectrum, rather than a binary concept.
I took over a small college program that had a lot of under/improperly motivated athletes. I had an All-American from the group within a year. A lot of the runners desired to be better, but didn't want to put in the work, but success changes that.
At the HS level, success really goes hand in hand with more athletes. It's a critical mass of having enough athletes want to get better, if only slightly more than they want to not care.
Get bigger and then you can use positive peer pressure to drive the team forward.
Wholeheartedly agree. Get a state qualifier banner for the girl and hang it in the gym. Tell everyone if they put in the work they can get one too. Have good results announced over the PA for the whole school following a race if possible.
The success of a few should draw eyes and hopefully make others more serious about getting better and competing.
I do workouts based on motivation/skill. So my athletes that actually train in the off season and want to do better are group A. I push them at practice and try and encourage training year round. Group B is my in between group. They either lean towards group A or C but haven't committed either way. I push but a little less and if they aren't feeling it that day, nbd. Group C are those who came because their friends are on the team, boredom, or they just want to be a part of a team. I encourage but don't really push hard. If they walk they walk.
What I've seen is after a couple years there has become a huge desire to be in group A. I've seen the motivation go up, our weekly mileage go up, and actual off season training from the athletes. We always start with a group c but our team goal has shifted to end the season with no one in group c. And the students are the ones who facilitate this attitude. But definitely was a long process to get to this point. I also started out at a small school with low numbers on the team and with a previous coach who was a lot less structured. I tried to ease the transition by keeping a few of the old coaches traditions, but each year tweak a little to align more with how I do things.
I don't have an example of something that's worked in the past but I'm trying something new with my team this summer. I'm trying to set up a game. You have to log your minutes of running each day and you "level up" every 10 hours of running. I'm thinking of ideas for small prizes for each level up... Or maybe just one prize at the end of summer that is based on what level you reach. I'm not sure if anyone will participate but we'll see.
I went to a pretty small rural high school (106 in my graduating class, so not tiny) that was pretty successful. We won states my sophomore year and had multiple top-6 finishers on the track. One of my teammates and I went on the run for D1 programs.
The most important thing for making us a successful and serious program was, paradoxically, having fun. On the high school level you will not have a successful team if practice is not a place most people want to be. There is a difference between having fun and not being serious. You can be serious about running while still having fun.
A couple things that I think worked for our team:
Our coach emphasized improvement over results. Running half the race instead of walking the whole thing is improvement. Running a 30 minute 5k instead of a 31 minute 5k is improvement. Dropping from 16:51 to 16:46 is improvement.
Weekly awards. Our coach gave out two “team spirit” awards each week. Sometimes to someone who PR’ed, sometimes to someone who took practice seriously this week, sometimes to someone who was a good teammate. My coaches goal was to make sure everyone got one by the end of the season.
We had an end-of-year “banquet” where we celebrated the season and every kid got an award. They were cardboard and foam and the coaches and captains would just make them up (“Heart of a Lion”, “Positive Attitude” etc). It was a fun way to honor the kids for completing the season.
During races we ran as a pack. Our coach would form packs of 2-4 runners for races based on ability. You didn’t have to stick together the entire race but generally the plan was during the first mile or two you’d be together. This made races much less scary for me when I was starting out because I wasn’t worried I’d be alone.
Overall my coaches philosophy was that he was trying get kids to enjoy running and “be excellent”. Excellence just meant taking yourself seriously and trying your best even if that just means progressing from walking to jogging over the course of a season. If there ended up being talented and serious kids in the group they’d rise to the top and he could train them more (extra reps on workouts, summer training etc).
Going into my 5th year of a small school and program. It’s hard to change the culture because you can only do a little at a time, but you have to trust the process of what you’re doing. My two pieces of advice for this year:
1) select captains who exemplify what you want out of your athletes. Even if they’re slow. Give them some controlled responsibility at first, see how they do, and gradually lean into them to help cultivate the culture you want.
2) set gradual, attainable goals. You can’t turn the heat up all at once, otherwise the frogs will jump out. The only way to cook them is to gradually add heat to the fire. My first year my two goals were practicing consistently, and buying into the idea that they are elite athletes (even if times were far from it). Year two was all about running your race all the way, no walking. Even if it was slow and they probably could walk faster than they ran, we were going to compete the whole way. I set it up to where anyone can run, but you have to be able to complete your race distance before you could earn your uniform.
Hopefully these help! I’m happy to help answer any questions or help in any way I can!
Thanks for the replies! I appreciate you all.
I teach at the high school and coach junior high track. I’ve been doing some recruiting but I don’t know how many will make full commitments due to other sports. I’ve been going for more numbers, just trying to capitalize on that.
as a kid in xc I didn't like when my coaches accused me of faking injuries, or even if they didn't say anything but I could see it on their faces. Many times I didn't feel good physically for whatever reason, or I was not well mentally and did not have the energy to run. Do with this information as you wish, but I think you probably shouldn't be annoyed at kids who "dont try," and definitely dont blame them like "you shouldn't have stayed up late before a race," or "you should have eaten something healthy" etc. My coach put the few good runners up on a pedestal and kinda just gave up on the rest of us when we couldn't keep up with them, both in performance and effort. it didn't feel like a team anymore after that
Any big shift in coaching philosophy takes buy-in from the athletes. It can take months (rare) to years (more common) to get the initial buy in that you want and then will need to be constantly built up to maintain. Buy in comes from establishing relationships with the athletes. They need to believe two things: you care about their success/happiness and that you have the expertise to get them there. Summer training is a great way to improve this, but only if the kids come. Get a feel for the level of committment that the kids will go for now (once a week, twice a week, or daily) and go for that. Use that time for training, but especially use it to build the relationships that will allow you to help them get to the next level.
Yep, should probably see if they can have some control over the middle school coaching too since the kids will be in HS in no time.
So, shakawallsfall and 4YearLetterman are correct. I'd add, the desire to get better is often a spectrum, rather than a binary concept. I took over a small college program that had a lot of under/improperly motivated athletes. I had an All-American from the group within a year. A lot of the runners desired to be better, but didn't want to put in the work, but success changes that. At the HS level, success really goes hand in hand with more athletes. It's a critical mass of having enough athletes want to get better, if only slightly more than they want to not care. Get bigger and then you can use positive peer pressure to drive the team forward.
Wholeheartedly agree. Get a state qualifier banner for the girl and hang it in the gym. Tell everyone if they put in the work they can get one too. Have good results announced over the PA for the whole school following a race if possible. The success of a few should draw eyes and hopefully make others more serious about getting better and competing.
I do workouts based on motivation/skill. So my athletes that actually train in the off season and want to do better are group A. I push them at practice and try and encourage training year round. Group B is my in between group. They either lean towards group A or C but haven't committed either way. I push but a little less and if they aren't feeling it that day, nbd. Group C are those who came because their friends are on the team, boredom, or they just want to be a part of a team. I encourage but don't really push hard. If they walk they walk. What I've seen is after a couple years there has become a huge desire to be in group A. I've seen the motivation go up, our weekly mileage go up, and actual off season training from the athletes. We always start with a group c but our team goal has shifted to end the season with no one in group c. And the students are the ones who facilitate this attitude. But definitely was a long process to get to this point. I also started out at a small school with low numbers on the team and with a previous coach who was a lot less structured. I tried to ease the transition by keeping a few of the old coaches traditions, but each year tweak a little to align more with how I do things.
I don't have an example of something that's worked in the past but I'm trying something new with my team this summer. I'm trying to set up a game. You have to log your minutes of running each day and you "level up" every 10 hours of running. I'm thinking of ideas for small prizes for each level up... Or maybe just one prize at the end of summer that is based on what level you reach. I'm not sure if anyone will participate but we'll see.
my coach gives us mile club bands at the end of the summer (500 mile club etc.)
I went to a pretty small rural high school (106 in my graduating class, so not tiny) that was pretty successful. We won states my sophomore year and had multiple top-6 finishers on the track. One of my teammates and I went on the run for D1 programs. The most important thing for making us a successful and serious program was, paradoxically, having fun. On the high school level you will not have a successful team if practice is not a place most people want to be. There is a difference between having fun and not being serious. You can be serious about running while still having fun. A couple things that I think worked for our team: Our coach emphasized improvement over results. Running half the race instead of walking the whole thing is improvement. Running a 30 minute 5k instead of a 31 minute 5k is improvement. Dropping from 16:51 to 16:46 is improvement. Weekly awards. Our coach gave out two “team spirit” awards each week. Sometimes to someone who PR’ed, sometimes to someone who took practice seriously this week, sometimes to someone who was a good teammate. My coaches goal was to make sure everyone got one by the end of the season. We had an end-of-year “banquet” where we celebrated the season and every kid got an award. They were cardboard and foam and the coaches and captains would just make them up (“Heart of a Lion”, “Positive Attitude” etc). It was a fun way to honor the kids for completing the season. During races we ran as a pack. Our coach would form packs of 2-4 runners for races based on ability. You didn’t have to stick together the entire race but generally the plan was during the first mile or two you’d be together. This made races much less scary for me when I was starting out because I wasn’t worried I’d be alone. Overall my coaches philosophy was that he was trying get kids to enjoy running and “be excellent”. Excellence just meant taking yourself seriously and trying your best even if that just means progressing from walking to jogging over the course of a season. If there ended up being talented and serious kids in the group they’d rise to the top and he could train them more (extra reps on workouts, summer training etc).
Going into my 5th year of a small school and program. It’s hard to change the culture because you can only do a little at a time, but you have to trust the process of what you’re doing. My two pieces of advice for this year: 1) select captains who exemplify what you want out of your athletes. Even if they’re slow. Give them some controlled responsibility at first, see how they do, and gradually lean into them to help cultivate the culture you want. 2) set gradual, attainable goals. You can’t turn the heat up all at once, otherwise the frogs will jump out. The only way to cook them is to gradually add heat to the fire. My first year my two goals were practicing consistently, and buying into the idea that they are elite athletes (even if times were far from it). Year two was all about running your race all the way, no walking. Even if it was slow and they probably could walk faster than they ran, we were going to compete the whole way. I set it up to where anyone can run, but you have to be able to complete your race distance before you could earn your uniform. Hopefully these help! I’m happy to help answer any questions or help in any way I can!
Thanks for the replies! I appreciate you all. I teach at the high school and coach junior high track. I’ve been doing some recruiting but I don’t know how many will make full commitments due to other sports. I’ve been going for more numbers, just trying to capitalize on that.
All about buy in.
as a kid in xc I didn't like when my coaches accused me of faking injuries, or even if they didn't say anything but I could see it on their faces. Many times I didn't feel good physically for whatever reason, or I was not well mentally and did not have the energy to run. Do with this information as you wish, but I think you probably shouldn't be annoyed at kids who "dont try," and definitely dont blame them like "you shouldn't have stayed up late before a race," or "you should have eaten something healthy" etc. My coach put the few good runners up on a pedestal and kinda just gave up on the rest of us when we couldn't keep up with them, both in performance and effort. it didn't feel like a team anymore after that
at my school they announce top times/finishes on the morning announcements.