Interviewer asked Ato what he has learned as a coach…
“I learned that rest was a good thing”
There is so much talent out there that you have tons of athletes that never realize their full potential as they have no idea about method, about recovery, about a plan.
Which is exactly what st fort got once she began getting coached from ato. Went from 12.0 to 11.1 in a year.
He is right about all the kids down here getting ran into the ground. Another problem is other coaches from other sports making my kids do other stuff outside of track, like play flag football, or train during weekends when they are supposed to be resting. Kids get hurt during a meet and its the track coaches fault. Ive been having that issue this year
What I was interested in was the idea that rest might not have been too much of something he did as an athlete.
I think what happens is many coaches are winging in out of sheer will and they may not have a background as an athlete or coach and or they lack training of any kind professionally or otherwise.
If you had issues as an athlete you may be more inclined to try new. Or if you felt the coaching was not ideal or helpful.
Some kids can play all sorts of sports and before a certain age I think it’s a good idea to play more variety opposed to focusing too much on one sport too early.
I think it’s an underlying philosophy we have in NA about sport which is more is better. Everything I was taught was less is more and quality is best and the rule. I wonder if people don’t understand what quality is. THat’s what I have noticed. We are all caffeinated up and multitasking and now we have computers to distract us even more.
i encourage kids to play other sports, i dont encourage them to skip out on one sport thats in season to practice for sport thats out season. I have had issues with other coaches training my kids during rest days or after my practice.
Funny how Ato speaks with a Caribbean accent when interviewed by someone from the Caribbean!
lol, they all do that.