I’m going 100% alone.
Look at me to possibly walk on at UofA next year. That’s my goal. If not there, then I may run USATF through college at either a JUCO or at GCU or ASU and then run track during grad school wherever I go.
That’s how I’m looking at it.
i’m kind of torn here…
on one hand, running on my high school team has been pretty frustrating. my coaches knew what they were doing, but a lot of times i would find myself in the position of coaching younger athletes during my practice time because our coaches couldn’t get around to everyone. i’m def. a team player type, but it would be excessive- once my coach had me catching steps for our high jumpers and checking ppl in 15 minutes before my hurdle race, and i hadn’t even gone over any hurdles. when i tried to explain this to him, he yelled at me and made me furious and i went home later and cried. being part of a team when you are trying to break away and do something really special for yourself can be really hard, when the team is large there is a hint of one training program fits all, and you have to go out and try to learn smart training on your own time. (like 400stud 
)
however, there are a lot of benefits as well… in terms of getting recruited for college, i got the captaincy and a lot of awards for track that i couldn’t have gotten any other way. when it comes down to it, the time or the distance is what counts, but competing in high school meets can give coaches an idea of where you stand compared to other kids coming through. dazs makes a good point… i think a lot of coaches would be suspicious of a kid who couldn’t get along on their high school team. they probably won’t want to hear about how awful your coach was or how much training theory you know… even if you are right.
Screw the team!
Screw the Coaches!
Be selfish…how many girls on your team Krasnay are wearing those pathetic state champs jackets? Too many. They didn’t earn them. Do you see me wearing that crap? Be stong women.
I don’t care if I don’t get a scholarship because people didn’t like that I couldn’t get along with my coaches.
Let’s see here…my coaches sucked and couldn’t get me past mediocre, yet training alone I have been able to get myself in a position where you guys are even thinking about talking to me. Hmmm?
I would tell them to kiss my ass if they wanted to disregard me because I made a decision that was best for me. Screw them.
Besides, the dummy meets where I will have to go against older, Master’s division people because everyone else is running school, is strictly conditioning and testing/preparation for the real meets to come over the summer. So who cares. I’m obviously doing something right if the coach is contacting me, right?
I’m going to be selfish because sometimes you have to make sacrifices to get what you want out of life and that’s what I’m doing. I can walk on and get scholarships that way, but if I don’t get one because of a smart decision, they can kiss my naked, black, ashy ass.
i’m as selfish as i can be in my position- but that didn’t extend to leaving the team even though i definitely considered it.
there are only a select few who earn bragging rights- the rest just piss me off, and i will hold them to task.
So are you guys trying to imply that by leaving the team, as I am doing, I am being selfish?
I feel a debate raging on.
selfish in a training context is a good thing.
Cool.
Hey, I want to run for my team and help our 4x4 go to state again, but I doubt they will let me train 100% alone because the same coaches that think an 8 mile run is good for 400m sprinters and that 400m runners are distance runners think they know everything and tell our players they do.
So, I want to, it will just be unlikely. Our head coach is also my football coach (Off. Coordinator), so I will talk to him after the season, but I highly doubt it will happen.
Everyone:
I just spent 20 minutes writing a reply and had this new, awful interface dump me out, ask for a password again, and kill my post. Am I just stupid or is there a way to aviod this? 20 minutes out of my life that I’ll never get back and it’s of no benefit to anyone.
Okay, so I can post but no preview. So my posts will have to go out with all the original typos unless there’s a way to edit, which I’ll now try.
Okay, that works. I wish I could write all that again, but I won’t now, it drives me nuts when work is wasted and I can’t do that again now.
Cliff’s notes:
Forget the coach.
Train yourself, it’ll probably be better.
you can still repost it 
I have that problem occasionally and I haven’t figured out the cure yet.
Pete, I am with you, if you had good answers, probably so. Seriously 400stud, I understand where you are coming from, but no one has gotten anywhere with the “f*#@ the world, I’m on my own” attitude. Well I’m sure you can find people who have. Maybe you ought to talk to your coaches, but be mindful of the way you approach them. No one wants a high school kid demanding they change their workouts or telling them they don’t know anything. I would even try to have my parents talk to him or the athletic director. You have to find the right context to put things in. I don’t think saying, “he doesn’t get me faster is the answer”
How about telling them you feel his workouts are good but they don’t seem to be hitting all the deficiencies in your race. Or tell him you seem to be sore every day from his workouts, "can we mix in some tempo, rest, and special endurance. I understand many times high school coaches are just football coaches or teachers who were forced to coach track but you have to learn people better and play their game to get what you want. Correct me if I’m wrong 400stud, but you don’t seem to be the type to have approached the coach in a manner that didn’t make him feel like some kid was questioning his authority or knowledge.
400stud, we all know you are track smart, but you have to be people smart too. In life you will always come across people with different track philosophies, morals, beliefs, etc, you cant just say, “well if they don’t like it they can kiss my black ass.” Most coaches I know will tell you to kiss theirs too, because everyone is replaceable… everyone.
I know some coaches are idiots, have old school ways of coaching and refuse to seek innovative and correct information, but you have to find a better way to get your point across without pissing them off.
What is funny 400stud, i would have done the same thing you are doing had my high school coach not been smart. I would have had the same attitude, but that was when I was a 15-16 year old who thought he was scarface. Now I am 28 and I guess I know a lot of life is a game and you have to know how to play it to get where you want. I just think you would be better off running in high school. Also, what if you find the same problem with your juco coach, or college coach, believe me, they are out there also.
Having said all this, I’m not trying to be your dad, tell you what to do, or even get you to decide how I would. I am just trying to help you make the best decision for you. You feel me?
Basically what I was saying is that if you run slow, no one will care about your “attitude” or anything else. Better to run fast and get to at least get the attention of coaches. “Hey coach, I’m slow as hell but I do what my coach says and I have a good attitude.” yeah right. Run fast and be smart about your answer if you are asked. Something like, “I could better fit training into my study schedule so I could do my best in both” or some BS like that.
Respectfully to dazs, I disagree. Completely. If an athlete is convinced(and it does have to be an educated decision) that a coach will not help him reach his goals, then another coach is in order. I get the part about getting along, but if you’re unsuccessful, no one will care whether you “fit in” or not. If you run well, people will ask what the deal is, and just don’t dis the coach. Spin some nice BS and let it go at that.
I totally understand where you are coming from. I have yet to approach the coach or even mention anything about it. That’s why it is eating me alive. He is my football coach and my track coach so it would look bad to do one and not the other, considering I gave up football Jr. year for track.
I know I have to be articulate in how I approach the coach and that’s why I have been thinking. Even last year when I began having problems I talked to one of the assistants who is actually a bit brighter than the head coach and he even said I’m not getting helped. The problem is that my coach is young and hard-headed. He’s actually your age.
Another thing is that if I make the collegiate levels, I don’t care how good or bad the coach is, as long as I’m there. So, that wouldn’t even be a problem.
Another problem is that the coach doesn’t really know ANYTHING. He honestly looks at 10x300m as speed work as well as 15x100, 15x150, 10x200, all at full or near full speed with minimal rests. He thinks you need to “build up your lungs” in the middle of the year by having the 4x4 team run w/distance for 2-3 weeks. Our distance coach, who really mentors our head coach in some ways, thinks that 400m runners are distance runners and when I voiced my opinion, in a non-threatening/demanding way, he laughed and walked away. How do I deal with that? He has the head coach thinking we’re distance.
I have proof that his methods are totally incorrect, yet if I tell him that I know my chances of running for the team are slim and none. How do I voice my opinion about my ways getting me the results I desire and how it would in-turn help the team?
One other note, he is also upset because I quit track Frosh year for football, and this past season gave up Region and State because my injury kept recurring and because I needed to concentrate on my studies. Point…I’m not that replacable. He got lucky last year, but we are missing 2 members of our 4x4 team going into this year and have no replacements that can get us back to state. Again, I have a valid argument that would get me nowhere.
I’m in a real bind. I understand everything you are saying and I am trying to devise a way to talk to him about this sensibly, man-to-man so I may be able to get results, but I don’t know. He is very anal and hard-headed and would hate to see anyone prove him wrong about anything. What if I talk to him sensibly and he still says no? Do I still run USATF or just give up track all-together because I can’t run for my school and scholarship opportunities are gone? See what I mean?
I’m very baffled. Any suggestions?
Is is feasible to leave the team? The “coach” sounds like an idiot. Any kid’s coach who gets annoyed at the kid’s decisions is missing the point, major.
Is it feasible for you to train on your own and compete USATF? If you can do that, then that’s my suggestion. I mean, I’m a juggler reading the forum for training info. A lot of stuff is really helpful in my training. My point in that is, I don’t even run, not a track person at all, and even I know that 400 ain’t distance. Maybe for lazy, out of shape 10 year olds, but really, who are these people?
The selfish bit: really, who cares if “the team needs you”? Can you put that on a resume? Is being self-sacrificing going to get you to college?
It will get you five minutes of gratitude if that.
I just read your post and I see you’re a senior, missed it the first time. In that case, everything I just said goes triple. You have little time to put up some impressive times. You can train outdoors in AZ in the winter. Train yourself with the forum’s help and impress some coaches with your times. Either your coach understands, in which case no problema, or he doesn’t, in which case he’s a jerk and who cares what he thinks.
Go for it.
It’s perfectably feasible for me. Membership is cheap, I live a 5min bus ride away from GCC which has one of the nicest tracks in AZ, my mom is getting me spikes for X-Mas, plus I only have 2 classes next semester so I can train and still have time to get good hours at a job as soon as I get one. That’s not a problem at all.
Thanks, though. At least I see I’m not the only one who thinks what I think.
Man 400, you got it bad. I know where you are coming from. I would try talking to him first. Like I said be smart. Here is the problem.
I have had about 7 kids in my coaching tenure come to me and talk to me about our workouts, relay leg order, many other things. I would say 5 of the seven were totally idiotic and the other 2, i changed some things based on their concerns. One kid who was 5’6 and the sixth man on our basketball team told me his dad said no matter what I say he can’t run the 100 because it will hurt him and he is a baller. Now here was the kicker, it was ok for him to run the 4x1 because you don’t run as fast in that, and he could also do the long jump and triple jump because his dad, who ran at OU told him that wouldn’t hurt him. The kid was the 6th man on a team that barely made it to the post season, a senior with no scholarship offers, and 5’6 with nothing but respectable defense. He kept reminding me that his dad ran at OU and told other kids that his dad was going to come to the practice and let me know something. I finally told his dad, after accepting a job at the junior college, that the high school job would be vacant next year and it was his to take over.
See 400, it is the idiots that have come before you that have messed it up for you. I don’t know what the right solution is, but i think you ought to try talking to him first and if that doesn’t work, talk to your parents about maybe mentioning something to the a.d. telling them you have a personal coach and would be able to train with the team for relay handoffs. Any smart a.d. would go for that if you went to them with your parents and went correctly.
I like that anecdote and response. Here’s the kicker…I have no coach. I train 100% alone. My coach is my mind and you guys on this board, as well as my weights coach from CA. Now how do I handle it?
Juggler,
What you are saying certainly would apply for some one who is SUPER talented…
Let’s be realistic here: No disrespect intended, but 400stud is an 11.2?, 100m sprinter and a 51.??, 400m sprinter going into his senior year. In order to be eligible for relays at schools like U of A, and ASU, he would have to split at least 46s-47s in the 400m.
The question is: Can he do it in less than 1 year? Possibly, although it would be very difficult. And in this case, 400stud has not even started his training yet -this makes it even more doubtful…
It took me approximately 10yrs to go from 10.9 (with no training) to 10.3 (with training). I found that coaches were incompetent, and took my training in my own hands. I read 100’s of books. Still in the end, it took trial and error to finally put it together -which took many years. Given the opportunity to redo everything, I would’ve done it like Mo Greene -drive out to L.A. and try to convince a coach like John Smith to work with me…