Coach's Toolkit Thursday
My name is Tom Gose. I have served as the Head Girls XC and Track & Field coach at Lindbergh for longer than some reading this have lived. Toss in my stint in charge of the wrestling program and we are talking well over 30 seasons as a high school head coach.
And I have a problem.
It's not one solved with 12 step programs or prescriptions, No, no, no. My issue stems from the unfortunate combination of limitless bad judgement and limited intelligence. Fortunately we have had good athletes and great assistant coaches to keep me between the guardrails and make the program good enough to be asked to contribute to this blog. If you glean anything useful from this article, it was likely the idea of an assistant coach. On the subject of team management, here are some thoughts.
Daily Routines
Each day the athletes are asked to arrive 15 minutes after school ends to do a package of "prehab" exercises to strengthen the muscles of the shin and feet while also working on improving ankle mobility. If you aren't doing this, I cannot recommend it enough. Our specific exercises aren't a magic elixir, merely addressing those areas with well known/common exercises will help. Google the topics, or "Youtube it" and you'll likely do fine. Latif Thomas has a good routine he writes about. After about 15 minutes, we get started with a quick (possibly) team talk. More on that later. If it is a road run day, I ask the seniors to choose the route they prefer. It is their monotony I am trying to avoid and by giving them input I think inevitable athlete-sourced squawking about other issues may be muted. Teenagers are oppressed you know.
After the run, we address leg health again. We ask the ladies to elevate their legs for 10 minutes, lying on their backs with their cabooses against a wall and their legs resting straight up. It's a common thing in endurance training and helps prevent inflammation and pooling of the undesirable parts of blood chemistry brought on by training. It isn't uncommon for the ladies to get caught in conversations that turn into filibusters. Occasionally someone may fall asleep while the runners are in that "L" position.
It's typically a coach though.
After elevating for 10 (or 40...) minutes, the ladies partner up and roll each other out with "Tiger Tails" or the creatively named "The Stick." Credit to the ladies, they do this very well and diligently. We kind of enjoy the grimacing and pounding on the floor caused by a good roll out.
Eventually a coach, hunger or the scent of boys sends the ladies onward, downstairs to get in an ice bath. That is the last step in our daily process and they are good about that as well. All of these routines are invaded by the hectic schedules of modern teens and bits and pieces are re-arranged, skipped or done poorly on occasion but on the whole it works well.
Final daily note, we make tremendous use of our wrestling rooms for track and XC. On our campus, they happen to be beside the track which helps. We store our uniforms, sticks, Airex pads, ab rollers, stretching ropes, battling ropes and assorted other things in that room. It is the home base, providing walls to elevate against, floors to writhe on while being rolled out and air-conditioned relief from the outdoor furnace we all practice in often. We use this room for XC and T&F seasons. Over the years, we have installed battling ropes on the walls (useful for the gimpy), a flat screen TV on another which is used for video analysis via the Coaches Eye app. The room also allows a variety of "training games" which provide relief from the routine of distance running. Chariot Races, Wagon Wheels and Sock Tag championships all take place at some point.
Weekly Routines
Twice a week before the roll out routine, we take the ladies to the weight room. In my opinion, Power Cleans are vital to optimal athletic development. The neuro-muscular coordination and muscle recruitment the movement requires is worth the time investment alone. The "explosive element" it brings Is vital to our program in both sports. We add an upper body routine which isn't to be overlooked. Nothing magical about the exercises or lifts we do, common stuff. On a day where we are scheduled to lift but are running late, I will void or modify the upper body portion but the power cleans are rarely skipped. The teaching element of this is crucial as many first-timers look like they are trying to fight off a barbell that is attacking them. We focus on body positions, verbal cues, bio-mechanics and technique over flashy weight totals early on. In time, our best technicians will be taught the overhead press part too. With most we do not.
Once a week we also add "wicket training" to the tail end of practice. I cannot over-emphasize how this has helped many of our athletes develop better running mechanics, both front side and backside. We do this at the end of road runs to emphasize good form when tired and make a connection mentally with speed at the end of a run. Wicket training isn't new, or our idea, but I think it is under-utilized. Jim Cary, one of my incredible assistants, leads this. He built the wickets, marked a tape measure for quick, easy setup and it has paid enormous benefits. When most athletes do this for the first time they look down as though the wickets are land mines. They will initially use poor running technique over the wickets as the eyes tell them to take bigger steps. By the end, they look like a soldier goose-stepping in a WWII video.
That is a good thing. It's a teaching moment and a great way for them to realize what happens to speed when they have bad mechanics. Quickly, or eventually, they improve and accelerate smoothly with good posture and eyes forward as though there aren't even wickets in front of them. As you know, when an athlete develops from what looks like a career JV athlete into a varsity contributor (or better) it's a major boost to a program so we do the best we can to squeeze whatever juice from them we can.
In addition, twice a week we ask the ladies to do some balance drills on Airex pads for further work on lower leg strength and stability. The proprioception enhancement this provides not only plays into better leg health but foot strike mechanics which are a big part of optimal top end speed. Don't overlook true speed mechanics with your distance runners. No matter the distance, it's still a race. A few years ago, we had a girl qualify for state in XC in a three-way tie for 30th place at Sectionals. The finish line photo's proved a three-way tie that couldn't be visibly broken. Think of that tiny fraction of a second that put all three of them in a tie for 30th rather than 30th, 31st and 32nd. What if a State Trophy or Championship was won or lost in that manner.
Finally, once a week we try to give two types of talks. I aim for a topic not focused necessarily on running but one more "zoomed out" on life lessons with running possibly related. The vast majority of the athletes high school coaches lead cannot vote or drink (legally). Some cannot drive yet (and some who can shouldn't.) All of those restrictions are caused by their relative developmental immaturity. I taught for 25 years and unfortunately had over 20 students die tragically either while they were students of mine or shortly after while still young and figuring life out. Any "dad" talk, cautionary tale or rousing rah rah about life is well worth the time and effort if kids are even slightly nudged down Smart Street when at a fork in the road.
Most recently, I spoke to them about the prowess and legendary success of New Zealand's "Black Shirt" rugby squad. Their coach gives every new player a leather book that details and recounts the success, stars, memorable moments and team ethos. However, the last several pages of the book are blank. The coach tells the athletes to fill those pages with the success they attain. To write their own script as the earlier pages recapped those of past athletes. It is that ownership of their own path, decisions and success in all things that I hope they grab ahold of.
And I like to hear myself talk I'm told.
The other topic is Sports Psychology and several coaches contribute to this but, again, Jim Cary leads it. Once a week we delve into another topic under that umbrella. We hope the topics crescendo parallel to the kids stress with the post season races. In my opinion, this is also vital and under-utilized. We got away from it for a few years and feel like we paid a price.
RELAX a bit
Final topic, for the two of you still reading, is..... have fun with the athletes. We have an assistant coach Bret Scheidenhelm that has a good personality for this sport. He blends a running background with equal parts court jester and psychiatrist. We have a day, named in his honor, where the team is divided into several small teams. Each team is named by its members. It's a two-day competition with assorted events like log rolling races, chariot races, blind folded antics but it culminates with a blindfolded eating competition. The athletes have to taste test something while blindfolded. Each item tasted has two ingredients and they have to correctly identify both ingredients. It's not a race, more of a quiz. We talk frequently about one time a runner tasted a brownie with a mustard "frosting". Those watching remember the look on her face well. We take precautions for food allergies and the kids typically don't actually eat the combo, just taste it.
We also create challenges during the season. It could be a team place at a certain race, a goal time for our 1-5 split, timeliness of a fundraiser. It can be anything. Recently after winning a meet, I told the girls they had to take the plaque back to school that night for the homecoming game and get a picture of the plaque with 100 strangers. This was done just to give them the recognition around school for winning the invitational. The reward for successful challenges can be anything from food, ice cream to a day off practice (run on their own to be clear).
Kally Fischer, my newest assistant with an incredible resume' has a reward system based on certain things seen in a race aside from time and place. She also is inspirational with sports psychology and emphasizes the goal of hers to create strong, tough-minded young women. Gary Skaggs is our "quality-control" coach. That means he predicts things I will forget to do, and reminds me of others. He is a key contributor to my favorite day each season. We choose someone new to the team and send them on an errand out of the room. While they are gone, we place a girl inside a full-size trash can that has a lid. Yes, we remove the trash first. Upon returning from the goose-chase errand, the girl is asked to throw something away for me. She lifts the lid and the rest is predictable.
Cameras rolling of course.
That's a snapshot of our inner workings. Above all else, enjoy the athletes. And let them enjoy the sport. Coach them with great detail, high expectations and a clear memory of your own state of mind as a high schooler. Most of all, enjoy the stress-free environment of checking grades and know that many coaches in your school don't enjoy that process nearly as much as cross country coaches do.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask though, as this post indicates, you'd be better off asking one of my assistants.
Coachgose@gmail.com
Good Luck!
If you would like to share in the coach's Toolkit please contact me at rbanta@milesplit.com and let me know what you would write.