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How many times have you asked an athlete how they performed at a meet and their response was something to the tune of “I did so bad”?  I coach high school athletes and I have heard them express their displeasure with their performance more and more frequently especially over the last few years.  Not only that, but upon further investigation, the performance the athlete labeled as “so bad” would very often turn out to be a top 10, top 5, and even top 3 performance all time in that event.

I don’t believe this mindset and attitude about a performance is healthy or sustainable in the long term.  

This past season was particularly challenging with a few athletes who’s KPI’s (key performance indicators) existed in the mental realm more than the physical realm.  Because these kids were older and the more talented ones on the team, others adopted this mindset and soon I had a whole group of athletes who thought that every performance that wasn’t a PR was “bad”.  

I had to do something to stop the infection from spreading.  I sat down after a meet one evening and started coming up with every reason I could for why a performance could not only be not “bad” but in fact be considered “good”.

The list I came up with was extensive and almost made me angry because upon doing this thought exercise I realized that the positive lens’s with which I was trying to evaluate performance through would have really helped when I was competing… 

*sigh*

Upon completion of this list I realized a few things…

1.) It truly is completely up to the individual to decide what’s good and what’s bad 

2.) It does take some effort and time to reflect to find that silver lining 

3.) Reframing your performances to something more positive and constructive will require a complete retraining of the brain for some athletes and thus, like anything that needs to be trained, will require consistent practice.  

Now it was time to put all this into practice.  I created a spreadsheet with my athletes performances in each of their main events from the beginning of high school and through the magic of graphs, formulas, and conditional formatting, I had a road map to interpret their performance as positively as I wanted.  

“Ohhh you did bad huh? Well actually that was your 4th best performance of all time” “ohh you did awful? Well actually this was your best performance in the month of April and 15% above your average performance got the year.”

Now so far that just sounds like extra work for coach.  And in some ways it is.  Personally, I would put this type of work up right up there with prescribing sets and reps of acceleration if the athletes KPI’s are in fact mental and not physical.  But nevertheless, the athlete does need to be involved somehow.  I don’t expect my athletes to know their top 10 marks all time or their average best mark in the month of April so I shared this spread sheet with them and we would have debrief sessions the day after meets to look at where the performance fell.  The first few sessions involve me pointing out all the silver linings.  Gradually this should morph into the athletes pointing them out with the ultimate goal of creating a mental environment of skepticism in the face of perceived failure.  

The results of this exercise are still to be seen but what I can tell you is that the smiles that show up of the faces of the kids that are particularly hard on themselves when you show them multiple reasons why their performance wasn’t a disaster are the kind of smiles you get from someone who’s just had a weight lifted off their shoulders. 

That’s reason enough for me.

To help get you and your athletes started, here is a link to a template of the spreadsheet I created.  Make a copy and add any sort of data points you’d like that fit the needs of you and your athletes!

Performance Evaluation Spreadsheet Link

-Coach Mike

The start of any run or jump in track and field is a single skill.  That skill is to, from a staggered stance, forcefully project the bodies center of mass in the appropriate direction, at the appropriate time, in order to establish proper displacement and optimal momentum for the given event.  That skill is the same whether you are in the set position in the blocks, executing a rollover start in the long or triple jump, or toeing the line for the 1500m.  The positions of the start, as well as the acceleration pattern that follows is different in each of those events.  But the skill of the start itself is the same. 

For this reason, I am of the belief that the foot that is in front in the start should be the same regardless of what event you are doing.

Before I continue, I acknowledge that events like the 100/110m hurdles may warrant a start with your non-dominant foot.  However, that is not the topic of this blog post. 

Now the reason I believe that you should have athletes start with the same foot in front in the start regardless of the event is simply that you are then only tasked with teaching one single skill with regards to the start.  To have athletes start with one foot in front in a sprint race, and a different foot in front in the triple jump approach would require the teaching of two skills instead of one.  

When you evaluate human handedness patterns, all humans have what is commonly referred to as a “strong” side and a “coordinated” side.  Speaking generally, an athlete kicking a soccer ball would kick with their coordinated leg, and plant for the kick with their strong leg.  

With my athletes, I have all of them start with their strong leg in front.  The strong leg is better at producing force and is tasked with overcoming the majority of the athletes body weight in a start.  The coordinated leg, located in back, has to move from back to front at the right time and in the right position to apply force in the correct direction on the first step.  

To believe that switching the legs would not produce different force, timing, and position dynamics in the start is, in my opinion, illogical. 

Furthermore, as coaches we are always looking to make things more efficient at practice to get the most work done possible.  If you have athletes In multiple events that involve a start, you cut down the amount of teaching you have to do dramatically by having them start with the same leg in front every time.  

Sounds pretty good if you ask me. 

-Coach Mike

The warm up is a crucial element of any practice session.  This isn't new information.  While many may inherently understand that the warm up is important, I believe there are a few aspects of the warm up that are, dare I say, MORE important yet often overlooked.  

Let me explain.

1.) The Warm Up As A Readiness Screen:

The warm up is a great place to screen the readiness of athletes.  Whether it be physical readiness, technical readiness, mental readiness, ect., the warm up is a fantastic opportunity for the coach to carefully observe their athletes state of readiness.  This observation needs to be intentional and diligent as information regarding how ready the athlete may be to take of the training of the day is often subtle and takes time to notice.  Changes in movement range of motion, rhythm, posture, and even tone of voice can all be clues to the coach as to how well this athlete in front of you will respond to the menu items of the practice session.  Unfortunately, this opportunity to observe and learn about your athletes is missed by many and replaced by socialization with other coaches or perusing of social media.     

2.) The Warm Up As A Supplement:

The common thought about the purpose of the warm up is to do just that, warm the athletes up.  Now although in certain circumstances (cold weather) this is absolutely true, the warm up can serve a much deeper purpose to the session if thought of as a supplement to the training session and the the bouncer at the front door of Club Practice.  In order for the warm up to act as a supplement to the training I believe there needs to be 3 major elements present.  Variety of movement patterns, large ranges of motion, and teaching (more on this in #3).  

A warm up that includes a walking march, then an A-Skip, then high knees, then butt kicks, then walking knee pulls, then lunges indeed has a variety of movements.  However upon closer observation the MOVEMENT PATTERN is quite similar.  A warm up with a good variety of movement patterns includes movement in all 3 planes of motion (frontal, sagittal, transverse).  This means movements need to be done forward, backwards, sideways, and with rotation.  When you get to the meat and potatoes of your session (Sprinting, hurdling, jumping, throwing) you have less room for variety as there is a certain volume and type of work that needs to get done for high performance.  That being said, the warm up is the perfect place to insert a variety of movements that may be lacking in the technical training done after.  

Large ranges of motion in the warm up are critical for proper potentiation of the body and its systems for the demand of the training session or competition.  But most importantly, employing large ROM activities in the warm up promotes athlete health and longevity.  There are many warm up activities seen on social media of very small and quick movements to do things like "enhance speed".  Although these may have a place depending on the athlete and where those activities are scheduled, they should not make up the bulk of the warm up activities.  Good sprinting, jumping, and throwing all result from elastic energy produced by stretch reflexes in the body.  When ROM is shortened, this FREE and efficient energy is not produced resulting in movement that look tight and guarded.  If we want our athletes to be healthy, compete for a long time, and produce movements that are fluid and dynamic, nudging athletes towards full ROM in the warm up is a must.   

3.) The Warm Up As A Classroom: 

As I eluded to in #2, a good warm up needs to be TAUGHT.  I can't emphasize this enough.  You can have the perfect inventory of warm up exercises structured the perfect way but if its not taught DAILY, the target will be missed completely.  You cannot leave the quality of the movements up to the athlete.  I have never had an athlete that was able to learn all warm up movements and execute them flawlessly on day one.  In fact, most of the time I was teaching warm up elements throughout the year even to my best kids.  One would not expect a student who has failed all of their homework to ace the test.  We as coaches need to think of the warm up the same way.  Bad movement patterns that aren't addressed in the warm up will show up in training.  Luckily it can be prevented quite easily.  Teach the warm up.      

#4.) The Warm Up As A Culture Builder:

When all the above are in place, you are giving your athletes a good chance at success and health in the later units within the training session.  That alone is enough to make coaches and athletes very satisfied with the warm up.  However, in my experience, when implemented properly the effect that the above elements can have on the culture of a team are incredible.

By caring about the warm up activities and athletes health and movement quality, and prescribing and teaching the WHAT, HOW, and WHY of each exercise you are enhancing buy-in, creating standards, enhancing accountability, developing movement intention and ownership, and practicing communication methods. 

I have seen the above manifest themselves in ways such as leaders and coaches emerging from among the athletes as well as bonding and unity within the group (which many think is only accomplished by by sharing a garbage can to vomit in after a hard workout).  

This result may not be universal, and it definitely doesn't happen quickly but by enhancing your warm up in the ways listed above I believe similar results are possible to achieve for many and is more than worth chasing.   

-Coach Mike

Coaches are teachers.  The subject we teach is movement and sport literacy and skills.  Because of this, it is our belief that technical TEACHING of sport skills and movement literacy should be at the heart of everything you do as a coach.  

Unfortunately, there are many coaches out there who confuse "training" with "Teaching".

Training is not teaching.  Teaching is Teaching.  However, these two things are not mutually exclusive.  They require a balance to produce the best results but many often bias too far towards the training end of the spectrum.

Training athletes involves prescribing workouts in hopes of creating positive adaptations.  It is one dimensional.  Teaching involves communication, problem solving, motivating,  listening, collaboration, careful and intentional thought on the part of the coach, and focus and accountability on the athlete.  It is multi dimensional.  Correct teaching of skills promotes long term progression in the sport, athlete health, and efficiency and fluidity of movement among many other things.  

The question then becomes WHAT do we teach and HOW do we teach it?

An in depth What and How is beyond the scope of this article but it is the reason Tennessee Track and Cross Country Coaches Association was created.  So if you want to know what to teach and how to teach it, stay tuned for some of our future clinics and blog posts!

But, not to leave you without anything actionable, here are some steps to start TEACHING instead of just training athletes.

1.) Teach EVERYTHING.

It doesn't matter if it's the warm up or the cooldown.  Teach from the moment athletes walk onto the track.    

2.)  Remember that learning is hard under a state of fatigue. 

Learning a new skill is difficult.  Add in fatigue, be it mental or physical, and learning a new skill will be next to impossible.  There is a time and place for placing an athlete into a challenging situation.  But when basic sport skills have not been learned and stabilized yet, fatigue will just promote bad habits rather than good.  If you want athletes to learn a skill you need two things, reps and rest.  

3.) "You have not taught until they have learned."  - John Wooden

This quote is a guiding mantra in my every day coaching.  If you know what you want to teach, and are attempting to give cues or instruction to athletes in an attempt to get them to execute the skill and they are not demonstrating what you want, then you need to change your message.  Coaches have to be incredibly creative and open minded in their instruction as every athete will learn differently and understand things differently.  Sometimes stuff that makes no sense to you will make sense to them but who cares if they are demonstrating the skills you are trying to teach!

There is a ton more that can be talked about regarding this topic and there will surely be more posts that dive deeper into the specifics of what and how to teach.  But until then, stay tuned for learn by doing and annual clinics that will come available in the "Events" tab above! 

-Coach Mike

In the past, I have used historical performance data to guide my coaching and also to guide my athletes goal setting.  I think the practice of collecting performance data and coming up with averages at the conference, sectional, state, and even national level is a great way to give the coach and the athlete an idea of what it takes to achieve at a high level in the sport of track and field/cross country.  

For that reason, I'd like to share with you some of the individual performance data, as well as the team performance data from the Division 1 Large State Championship Meet over the last 10 years and 15 years respectively.

FYI before you check out the data...

For all events, I have included 10 year averages of what it takes to be All-State (top 8) at the championship meet in each event.  The TEAM points are averaged over 15 years.  

For all events, I have included a standard deviation and a range of performances.  For those unfamiliar, the performance in the "range" section are +/- 1 standard deviation away from the average.  In other words, just about 70% of all performances in that time span fall within that range.

For certain running events I have included split times of distances that, I believe, more deeply conveys the speed necessary to be successful in that event.  

For vertical jumping events, I have included a mode (most frequently occurring number) as that may be more insightful than an average for those events. 

For the short hurdles, I have included estimated touchdown times that should correspond with the average time run for that place.  The touchdown calculation was based on a 1.0 average per hurdle unit which would lead to roughly a 13.0 second hurdle time.   

And lastly, the 4x100 meter splits take into account an average* differential between the time ran and the sum of the individual 100m PR's of the athletes in the relay. This differential is roughly 2.3 seconds.  For example, a 42.00 boys 4x100 probably didnt have four athletes with a 100 PR of 10.50 (42.00 / 4 = 10.5).  By adding 2.3 to the time and dividing by 4 you get a time of 11.1 ((42.00+2.3)/4 = 11.1).  I believe this number probably more accurately reflects the talent level of the group 

Enjoy!

In the past, I have used historical performance data to guide my coaching and also to guide my athletes goal setting.  I think the practice of collecting performance data and coming up with averages at the conference, sectional, state, and even national level is a great way to give the coach and the athlete an idea of what it takes to achieve at a high level in the sport of track and field/cross country.  

For that reason, I'd like to share with you some of the individual and team performance data for boys and girls XC for all divisions.

Enjoy!