Three weeks ago was the middle school district meet. Our little hurdle crew of 29 produced a 6th grade district champion girl, a 6th grade district runner-up boy, 3 other top 10s, and 17 personal bests at that meet!
My first group of returning athletes at this school – 5 eighth graders and 2 seventh graders – ran satisfying races, looking their best technically when it counted most and overwhelmingly winning their heats, even if that didn’t produce overall wins.
And as I shared high-fives with the eighth graders when parents came for them, I had my first taste of that melancholy every scholastic coach knows well: hurting while you watch your athlete move on to a new program and a new coach.
I wanted to spend a few days sad about it. I’m sad to see them go. But after most lows come highs and this situation was no different. Within a day of the (painfully short) middle school season ending where I was rotating 10 athletes at a time through 15 minutes of speed & technique practice, I had five rising freshman request private coaching over summer.
The dynamic of 45 minutes one-on-one with an athlete doesn’t even remotely compare to 15 minutes in a group of 10. There’s an added pressure, certainly, where the athlete (unrealistically) expects to get better on every single rep and the coach (unrealistically) aims to correct every technical issue with a single perfect cue. But there’s also an added ease, where the athlete can slow down to shore up fundamentals and the coach can give undivided attention to determine the most valuable issue to address first.
A lot of athletes and parents seemed to recognize summer as an optimal opportunity to get this sort of attention for their development. In fact, in feeling surprised at how many of them reached out, I was late to the party about how much opportunity there really is for coaching hurdlers in private!
Silly me. But as I change gears for the summer and start the patient work of developing individual hurdlers for their next season, I realize how important it is to me to spend more time serving athletes this way. I need to change gears in my life, too.
I’m a professional coach. In both the sense that I’m paid for my time and in the sense that I’m invested in honing my craft by any means attainable. I tried to retire from coaching when my family moved from Texas to Colorado; when my business ATX Speed & Strength moved out of a shared facility and all my athletes moved on to my peers’ facilities.
But that retirement is over. I don’t know how to be completely satisfied professionally if I’m not spending time with and on athletes to see them get better. So I’m keeping my “real” job at the same time I’m coming all the way back to what matters: SHIFT Speed and Strength helps athletes perform in cleats and in spikes. And I’m available to serve new athletes.
It has to be this way. I know it because the one day I had to be sad when track season ended I actually spent writing up new practice plans for next season. 17 of 29 athletes seeing season bests isn’t enough for me; I want every single athlete I work with to end the season on a high note.
I want your next season to START on a high note.
If you want the same, contact me and let’s get to work!