Are they good running coaches or disorganised?

Question

heya everyone. got a question about running coaches for youngsters. im 16 at the moment and i have been running for about four years now competitively. i was very good for my age once in year 7 i achieved 2.20 in 800metres, which was apparently ranked 24th best in the country fort the age catogery which isnt bad for first year. anyway ive had the same two coaches all my life. they coach together. I have concerns about them though for the reason i am about to explain. they have both helped me alot since i started and they i was told by my dad they have a laid back attitude for children, to add fun to the session and get young people into running that way. in comparison to the other groups for the same team, they seem to have much harder sessions and a much more competitive mind. the other groups coaches make the effort to go to the meetings, yet ours don't, according to my dad because they dont want to push us, but i'm not too sure if thats right way to coach.

Answer 1

well im 15 andd i just started cross country last year. i ran track in middle school but it wasn't anything like what high school is.

we have two cross country coaches one for the guys and one for the girls...but they both sorta help us so its like one big team i guess. now the guys coach is the most disorganized laid back guy i have ever met. we held a meet at our school this year and it was a disasterrr!!! every coach has a different strategy. some think running 50-60 mile weeks are the best to get better...others think that running hard for short distances are what help you. my opinion is it depends on what kind of person you how/how your built/what else you do. i play basketball and thats my number one sport sooo the shorter harder distances work better for me. plus running 8 miles a day doesn't help you get faster like intervals and fartleks do. my brother was a really good cross country runner and he was in the same boat like me with basketball. one summer he decided to try running all those distances and he did really good at the beginning of the year. but towards the middle of the season he totally burned out and he kept getting worse and worse and worse throughout that season. burning out is the WORST thing that can happen cause you work soooooo hard during the summer for it and it just ends up hurting you in the end. sooo it sounds like your coach just doesn't want you to burn out, i think they just want you to have fun which sports should be. and you're lucky to have a coach like that in high school....trust me! if they gives you something to do that seems too easy for you just run a lot faster for it. dont like full out sprint unless it really is that easy but it'll help you become faster.

well good luck!! i hope i helped...i tend to babble a lot, sorry if it was really long! =)