Question about getting child in correct system

[nycjay01]

@Bluesky0098

Hi,

Although I don’t have a kid right now, I wanted to get some ideas on this. As a child in high school I had great potential to getting a scholarship for T&F (and not just saying that either). However, I later transferred to a second high school, which had a T&F program run by an authoritarian football coach who only cared about “teamwork”, stealing other teams batons, and beating on kids.

Long, of the short, I would like to give my kid opportunities I didn’t have when I have one. I would like to have a place where my kid could be free to train under his own better system if the high schools T&F program sucked and be able to compete independently in T&F meets.

Does anyone know a place where that would be possible in the USA (or what country is fond to doing that)? Unfortunetly, much of the USATF programs are only for younger kids under high school age and also aren’t always active in all states.

It sounds like a strange question, but I have really bitter feelings to what I had to put up with in high school and the lost opportunity I had due to the ignorance of a coach. I want to make sure my kid is free to pursue his or her dreams if they desire to compete in T&F.

Thanks for any information.

keep your kids away from track and field until they are in HS. Unless you coach them yourself or have a really good coach that will not overtrain them. I find that europeans have a better understanding about how to train young children in athletics. If you look at some of the the track meets outdoors in europe they have shorter distances and more progressive training for kids. Here in the US the a-hole youth coaches train the kids like adults get them fast in the first year then they run no better as HS Seniors than when they were 12 or 13 years old. I wish my girls liked tennis they would kick ass with all the CF style training I have them do.