A Coaches Random Thoughts

Dad and Lauren

Written By Coach Henry Williams

With no active team training going on right now I have time to reflect on all sorts of things related to track and field training and application Here are few of my random thoughts.

• Get involved with your childs growth in the sport

During the season parents often ask me how do I get an athlete to do this or that. They ask me because I am not their kids coach. They see something they obvious like but feel they have to sneak behind bleachers or talk to me out of their own coaches view. Why are these dedicated  well meaning parents so intimidated by their coaches? As my wife points out all the time “We are the consumers we bring the product and there for we all need to work together.PERIOD”

I believe parents are to a large extent for better and worse not being allowed to participate fully in the growth of their child’s athletic experience.(mostly by their own choosing or inability to engage meaningful dialog about training with their child’s coaches) Parents being respectful and willing to learn more can only help the cause of your child. You can make the best informed decision regarding your child when you know as much as you can about the sport your child is participating in. If you don’t know a lot that is okay, just know your input can’t be from a place of knowledge but it can be from a place of understanding your child as you learn and work with the coach as well.

• The  Rationale Of Training

When it comes to training, every coach in every sport wants to accomplish certain goals. How do we do that? Read someone else’s recipe on  how to do this or that?  Use our own experience, others to formulate a training plan that yields success? Consult and confer with perceived experts in the sport or sports in general?  Actually all of the above can and should be used to a certain extent.

The question is , What Is Your Rationale? Why are you implementing  a certain exercise, training method, nutritional protocol with your athlete(s)  If we don’t as coaches answer that simply but profound question  WHY? We are giving our athletes nothing less than a shot in the dark approach to training. A let’s wait and see attitude isn’t in anyone’s best interest.

If a coach knows why he is doing a certain thing and it works, he then knows why to keep doing it. Conversely  If he knows why a certain activity didn’t  yield the performance objectives or doesn’t go as well  as planned (ex. We don’t do many butt kicks because I don’t want to reinforce negative back side mechanics) a coach can correct and or change the course before it changes the performance of the athlete negatively. Simple as that.

Does this mean we as coaches will never make a mistake? Absolutely not. It means that we will be constantly refining our training methods to the most current as well as time held best practices as we work to produce in our young athletes the best they can be.

With that said, I have some observations and thoughts as a coach and a parent.

• Plan for less work.

I know as my wife would say  this is ”counter intuitive” but we both agree it can yielded a healthier happier athlete and parent in my experience. The point of exhaustion is not helping the athlete physically or emotionally. You often times will get more negative damage than positive gain from the more is more approach day in and day out. You can’t use a radio for five days straight and expect on the seventh to have nice loud volume, basically you can’t even expect it to play at all at that point.

We can’t expect our athletes to “play at full volume either”.  From the athletes stand point a variation in intensity gives them a feeling of success knowing they don’t have to go to training extremes every outing and thus their attitude about the work improves and is more appreciated. That equals a better attitude over all. Especially in young children 8-13 we want them to enjoy the pursuit of running and competing not hate the practice so much we kill the desire before it blossoms. I have seen to many sub-bantam 400m races end in tears knowing that kid would almost do anything to sit in the stands and watch than have to run that race.   The athlete that is over worked can be more susceptible to soft tissue ,nagging types of injuries that rear their ugly heads later as full blown time off injuries….choose your poison .

Some sessions may emphasis skill, strategy or relaxation – which are all positive qualities.  stopping before they practice imperfect not quite at the high level you want is very important. Developing the patience and confidence to know that the athletes are getting enough work takes time and experience.

• Body work 

I can’t say enough about the power of good consistent body work that includes Chiropractic care,stretching and proper massage techniques. We are fortunate because my wife is a liscensed Chiropractor and massage therapist  with many years of sports care in private practice. If you don’t happen to have your own personal body worker in house  you can A. call my wife, B call your local chiropractor for information and referral or invitation to their office for a consult, C ask a friend  for a referral . This can be a somewhat expensive proposition but so valuable when applied correctly.

Case in point. Lauren was very body fatigued after flying to North Carolina and because she has regular treatment she  recognized and expressed to Lorraine she really was feeling tight and “weird” Lorraine worked on her the night before and the morning before before her 1st race. Lauren expressed how good she felt and she ran a very fast uncontested 13.22 not her best of the season but a very good start to the JO’s.

We also have a personal therapist that lives almost 150 miles away that we go to periodically when my wife feels like she needs a little more.The cost is very high but the service is A+

As for regular stretching you can do this with your child nightly helping them learn the proper way to do many different stretching routines. There are a lot of good books  if you need a little insight on the how to and when you do it with your child it is a nice bonding moment. Lorraine mostly does this with Lauren but I do on occasion jump in. Our living room is a make shift training room when company isn’t around.

Coach Henry Williams

Quiet Fire Assistant Coach and Lauren’s Dad