How to determine what event an athlete should run?

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1

Say you have a mass of 80 athletes who say they want to be sprinters… What metrics should be used to determine who should be guided towards the 55-200m route, as opposed to a 200-400 or even 800m route?

Same question for distance, if there are any experienced distance coaches reading: what do you look for to determine if an athlete should be an 800m, 1600m or 3200m?

I know that personal choice has a role… but all my athletes want to do the 100, some the 200 and a brave/insane soul of two choose the 400. I could line them all up and run them in each of the events over multiple days… but that is physically taxing to them and horribly time consuming overall.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

2

1: 30m sprint
2: 30m Fly in sprint
3: 150m
4: 600m
5: 30sec run
6: Shot toss
7: SLJ and STJ
8: 5 and 10 bounds
9: attitude and fortitude

3

Awesome! Do you have a preference of which you group together over a certain number of days?
Thanks

4

A not very talented individual who has never trained can improve out of sight.
A very talented never trained individual can run into a brick wall very quickly.

If they all want to train for 100 - well, train them that way.

1yr of proper coaching and you’ll see trends appearing. Until then, discount nobody.

5

Good article:

http://completetrackandfield.com/measure-what-matters/