I believe athletes should love training because it gives them more than it takes from them.

Related to that, selfishly, I just want kids to love track.

Last year, I started volunteering with a local middle school’s track program. For roughly 30 hours (5 one-hour practices each week or 4 practices and a meet), I got to represent my favorite event in my favorite sport to students becoming introduced to it at the same age I first did.

The teachers running the program, a mix of experienced youth coaches (in other sports) and first-time coaches (in any sport), discovered I had history as a hurdler and granted me full freedom to develop a hurdles group.

The Best and Worst Of Youth Sports

Now, remember, this is middle school. That means all comers are welcome, every kid who wants to race will race, and there are no performance standards. I LOVE that. It’s what youth sports should be.

But, again, this is middle school. Kids are observant and kids are competitive and kids are self-critical. A kid who struggles with the hurdles knows they won’t win races, so they are inclined to quit.

Nope, no go, no thank you, please! What I wanted was for every single student who walked over to my hurdles station after the first week of practice to have a positive experience, to want to keep practicing, to believe they could enter a race and be proud of the outcome.

First Season In Middle School Hurdling

Out of 20 students who joined my hurdles group at practices, 17 competed. Of those 17 who competed, 11 of them competed in each of the 4 meets. That, to me, was success. Middle school students who had never watched a hurdle race, many of whom had never run in a track meet, took on an incredibly difficult and technical event, met all the literal and figurative obstacles inherent in the event, then kept coming back!

I’m a bit obsessive as a coach so, for the upcoming season, I already have grand plans for refining my teaching progressions and for developing more speed in these young athletes. But that’s all a distant third to my actual priorities:

1. I want all athletes to love training
2. I want kids to love track

With those as my goals, the foundation of my coaching philosophy matters. There’s no way to satisfy my priorities if my approach is to beat kids down with hurdle drills and walkovers, critique every rep they run, and demand wins as the measure of success. I can’t satisfy my priorities chasing perfection with youth athletes. My approach to coaching is built on a few pillars:

1. my beliefs about sport (speed kills, strength saves, movement heals, & conditioning is overrated)
2. Tony Holler’s “Feed The Cats” concept (happy, healthy, fresh; simple, essentials only; put the athletes first)
3. The best coaching advice I ever received (give the athlete confidence and they will feel confident)

Coaching Philosophy Determines Coaching Decisions

My beliefs about sport determine what training activities I’ll select. Timed reps, racing over hurdles, circuits that build in strength and speed and adequate rest.

The Feed The Cats concept determines how I’ll select between options. Full speed with rest over intervals, video review & 1 cue focus over team speeches, recording times and celebrating every PR over correcting every rep.

And the coaching advice I was given determines how I’ll talk to athletes. Hurdling at reduced height and reduced spacing, finding a positive in every rep to repeat, asking & listening to athlete opinions.

This piece has wandered a bit, but here’s the point: I just want kids to love track.

And the way I hope to lead them to that love is the same way I’ll approach YOUR sport goals: I will offer you the minimum of exercises and training sessions to make you better, will ask about your perception of the work at every step, and will choose the next skill to both challenge you and ensure you can feel successful.

In my mind, if I do that, you’ll (1) get better and (2) enjoy training.

You Have to Love Training To Get Better

I wrote in my book Fast Kids Don’t Train Slow, quoting the same Tony Holler of @pntrack, that “speed grows like a tree.”

You can only be consistent enough to grow speed – or strength or flexibility or conditioning or overall performance – if you are getting better and if you enjoy training.

Similar to the premise I wrote in my recent piece about periods and performance, what works for youth athletes works for all athletes. I want positive feedback and essentialism to fuel you and feed your confidence. I want you to love training and for that love to carry you to superior performance.

I Want It For You

I think what I want – the way I want your training experience to go – really works. Because 9 of those 11 athletes who hurdled in all 4 meets ran a PR every week – and on the last week, they and their teammates in other events asked if I would come back the next season.

I didn’t help every kid fall in love with track last year, but I’m excited to try again!

Until then…how can I help you?