I have pasted it below. Firstly I am not a writer, my grammar is crap. So excuse it.
Hopefully it is useful. Starts now
POST SEASON THOUGHTS
DARREN ALOMES
The track and field season has finished, cross country season is going in earnest. Athletes and officials are
generally having well earned breaks from training and competing. Coaches although not necessarily visually
coaching athletes, are into post-season reviews and pre-seasoning planning for athletes.
What do coaches do for post-season reviews and pre-season planning?
Post Season Review.
The role of this review is as the heading suggests, reviewing the season after it has finished.
Why do we do this?
Review what went right, what went wrong. This comes about because we are humans and we humans have
been known to stuff up.
This information is used in pre-season planning.
Pre Season Planning
After the review, the coach and athlete work out a plan. There where three articles on planning done in
previous issues of the newsletter, namely issues 2, 3 and 4, so this article will refrain from re-hashing
information. Instead this article will look at two issues that cause angst among coaches, athletes and parents.
These are;
Priorities
Time Management
Priorities
As an athlete I remember attending a meeting with John Quinn, former TIS high performance, who mentioned
your priorities as an athlete should be as follows;
Athletics
Athletics
Education or Employment
Social Aspects
What are your priorities?
Listening to more experienced people, read older, they talk about how the youth of today have it easy. In
contrast the youth of today, believe they have it tougher then previous generations. The older generation think
that is BS, in hindsight I believe they are both partially correct, the younger generation probably do have it
easier in some parts then the older generation, but I respectfully suggest that the youth of today have it harder
then previous generations in other areas.
Who is to blame for this? No one group is to blame, but I believe a change in culture and society has overall,
lead people to wanting more, and becoming lazier. Read wanting more for less.
Back in the 1960’s getting employment was reasonably easy, you left school and the next day you had a job.
In the next 40 years, you had fewer jobs due to the increase in use of technology and employers wanting more
skilled workers at a younger age. I can remember a job ad asking for junior staff to work full time in an
occupation with 2 years work experience in that occupation.
Issue 10 Page 13
The two areas, that I see as being harder for the younger generations is firstly the requirement to have a solid
educational background with experience in work earlier than older generations. Other areas that are perceived
to be harder are probably cop outs and excuses.
The reason I feel that education and employment are the two areas that has become a higher priority because of
the premium on occupations and the requirement of getting the best education you can. Remember athletics
doesn’t pay the bills, so what a 20 year could do 10 years ago is not what a 20 year old can necessarily do now.
Time Management
This is by far the biggest issue concerning people in the sport, whether that is parents, athletes, partners or
coaches. With any development of time management, you have to be realistic and remember there is only 24
hours in a day and 7 days in a week. Nothing more, nothing less.
During my final year at University I used a time management sheet religiously. This had to cater for study,
full time work and training commitments as well as sleep and relaxation.
Roughly my daily schedule looked liked this.
5:30-6:00 - Abdominal, yoga or pilates
6:30-7:30 - Training at Gym
8:00- 6:00 - Work and Uni Commitments
6:30 - 8:00 - Training
8:00 - 9:00 - Study
10:00 - Bed
My priorities at this time were
Study
Work
Sport
Social
Ask yourself this. Do I have what it takes to be single minded about something and push everything else to
one side?
If YES, you will achieve.
If NO, you may achieve but if you give part effort you get part results.
To finish below is a common statement parents make to their teenage children when they complain about how
tough they have it. I quote
Enjoy school, as it is the best time of your life. The only responsibility you have is to go to school.
Wait till you get a full time job, a house and a family then come back and tell me how hard you had as a child.
Mum & Dad