Something that I have just thought about lately, there are so many track coaches, small who have proper knowledge, but what about the best in the world?
Is it the knowledge? Applying it correctly? Or just simply finding the talent to work with?
There is a sea of talent out there. think about all the NCAA coaches who’ve coached for decades with a slate of scholarships to grant and haven’t produced a sprinter- they claim they didn’t get the talent to work with- I say bullshit.
Let’s make a list of requirements and I’ll start with number one- BE THERE and BE ON TIME. don’t post workouts on the gym or track office door and take off (You’ve all seen it). Sounds simple but it’s amazing how often this cardinal rule is broken. Who’s next?
I get what you’re saying, I would personally (if i was a coach, which I will be later on) hate posting workouts or writing workouts up, be there and tell them what to do is definitely the way to go.
So you would say next thing is having the necessary knowledge? Applying it correctly?
I don’t know much about being world class but here are some comments anyway…
Being a little more general, I would say you need to do whatever needs to be done regardless of how “inconvenient” it is. This includes pursuing educational materials/seminars/mentorship. Make coaching a huge priority in your life.
The one thing that gets me all the time is when a coach has a talent who isn’t responding well to the training or is having injury problems. Instead of changing the training or providing better therapy, they get angry and blame the athlete for all of the troubles. Remember, if you’re going to take all the credit for success then you must take blame for all of the faults.
My coach did that couple times this year. Doesn’t show up and gives out the workout. Also overslept and left us hanging at 6:30am on the track.
Being committed to improving and taking at least some responsibility for when things go wrong as well as right.
Committment
Professionalism
Knowledge and ability to implement it correctly
Ability to be everything that is required.
Produce a world class sprinter…
and all that this encompasses.
What does it take to become a world class sprint coach? Have a world class sprinter, that easy. You cant turn shit into sugar no matter how great of a coach you are.
I suspect this is why the list of world class sprint coaches is not a long one.
I know a very good coach that has no clue about the theoretical stuff in training, but still produce good results. He has no world class athletes though.
I also know a world class coach that doesn’t have much more knowledge then some of the people in this board. He has world class experience though, been there himself.
I also know a guy that’s an expert in everything that has to do with training, but he wasn’t any good as an athlete. He doesn’t have any world class athletes, though, he had one athlete in the 15-16 years that is now in world class.
I would say own experience, rather then knowledge is needed to be a world class coach.
On your last point I have to agree. Many coaches constantly blame their athletes for not performing well and don’t consider that perhaps they did not give their athletes what they needed from their program. A number of them will say they gave the athlete a great program but the athlete failed and just don’t see that they(the coach) might have failed the athlete, instead.
It takes a very good person to say I stuffed up, this goes for athletes, coaches, workers, bossess etc…
I had a meeting with my athletes and parent, and the one parent said my daughters back is sore I am worried as a mother, we have addressed it hopefully, another parent said my daughter is always sore and it is your fault.
We discussed what the programme asked for, of which a lot of the regeneration work (including stretching) is done by them and they hadn’t done it.
I made mistakes and hopefully learnt from them.
Charlie was a good sprinter and learnt from his mistakes, hence why he became a better coach.
Yeah, no doubt that the athlete has to hold their end of the bargain, too, and at times they are not always doing that, either-for example the athletes might be partying it up a bit too much, not getting enough sleep, not tending to their nutritional needs, not stretching regularly, not cooling down properly, etc.
It just annoys me that SOME coaches always blame the athletes and rarely, if ever, look at themselves and their program as a possible reason why an athlete might not be performing up to their potential.
It is a necessity, of course, for the coach to at least attempt to “see the big picture” and realize that many components/variables factor into the final outcome/performances.
From my experience with basketball coaches, you will need to combine a few thinigs to become world class.
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Grab a kid and start working with him while he’s still growing up mentally and physically. that way, if you are good, you can “mold” his mind to either lose or win. you can create a competitor. my first coach made a damn winner out of me, when i lost i felt so bad and had so much will to fix it, im still like that today, that’s why im now jumping 45" off the run, deadlifting 500lbs, getting a good score on the SAT’s even though i never studied english in school etc. teach him values of champions, probably the most important thing.
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be a mentor, dont lay out papers with programs and tell ur athletes to do the drills while u smoke ur cigar, i have seen it EVERYWHERE. if Charlie is still here after all those years and talking about the sport with the same drive and enthusiasm then there no reason those motherfuckers would give u drills and smoke a cigar because they are “tired of training” . You gotta love the sport u train, you must appreciate the sport and your athletes will appreciate you.
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Any athlete needs some sports psychology sometime, talk to your athlete, sit with him and talk about his training program, ask him questions, be his father and he will be your son
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take challenges, do you think Charlie knew he was messing with the worlds fastest man when he first met him ? see for your self on speed trap, Ben was slow, short and boring. complaining about genes is easy… so unless u have a magic pill, theres no reason to mention it to anyone.
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If you can take the 4 laws above, then to be really great, you could use some pro knowledge.
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for the complete package, make sure u get to world class yourself (recommended)
just my opinion, after playing in a ball team with a coach since i was 8 years old. i still consider him as my 2nd dad, it will always stay that way.
Read speed trap. Understand how Charlie got to the position where he is. It wasn’t all from being intelligent or knowing his stuff. He took chances. He had lucky breaks. It wasn’t all just because he was a genius.
At one point he was drained financially and he was suddently named the national coach which releaved his financial burden.
Just look at his mentors. What if he didn’t have them.
I really believe in life that sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time.
Its not just knowledge and great athletes, so many things could have went wrong to where he would have never made it too the top.
Either your destined to be or not.