It’s one thing to be an unlikeable unsupportive a-hole if you’re like a Bobby Knight or a Bill Belichick and get the results. But Angela Reckart, ummmm, no….
If you want to know why Duke XC isn’t relevant see this article. Tells you everything you need to know about the culture. Unfortunately that will continue on.
Does this type of "team revolt" happen in other sports regularly? I don't feel like it does. It is primarily a track & field thing, and specifically, mostly a distance runner thing. If that is true, there is a problem in the overall culture of distance running. Is it the independence? Social awkwardness? It attracts athletes that are not athletic in the traditional sense?
There also could be a problem in that track & field in general, and distance/xc specifically, have a much larger athlete to coach ratio. It's not easy to coach up to 60 distance runners with an assistant or two, much less as a single coach. I don't think any other sport has that skewed of a ratio. How to you build personal relationships and provide attention to that many athletes? Both the athletes and the coaches suffer for this.
Distance runners also get coached different. Where nearly every other sport is skills based, team focused, and have 5-6 extensive team practices a week, distance runners do 1-3 quality workouts a week, and long distance runs out in the world, often by themselves, the rest of the time. Those quality workouts take about 2 hours total, and often have the athletes out of the coaches sight for parts of the workout. Distance runners can use each other to help their practice, but it isn't required to operate as a team like other sports.
It is also a sport of pain. Pain is the primary foe. Other sports, and even the rest of the track events may have pain, but they are also focused on skill, technique, a physical opponent, their teammate by their side or that they have to connect to with a ball.
I also think because it is individual and primarily about pain, being on a college team with 15-30 teammates, and what seem like sometimes impossible goals (in terms of being top 5, or all-conference, or all-american), it can be hard for some to continue to be motivated to endure the pain. And without the team support system that most other sports have it is tough for some. That transition from high school and being the best, having family and hs community support and attention. In high school most DI distance runners were the top runner, or in the top 3. They got ALL the attention. In college they are free, and are often not the big dog any more, rather one of 30 on their own team.
While college is different, the pressure felt to live up to the past glory and the expectations of hs coaches, former teammates, family, self, and the expectations of receiving a scholarship, is all there. Not many people like to take responsibility for themselves. And few want to hand that scholarship back and say "this isn't for me anymore". Much easier to blame a coach or a program for whatever lack of success is experienced (and keep getting the money).
I'm just rambling because it seems the problems reported at Duke are not uncommon with distance runners, especially compared to all other sports. We see these articles and claims every year. There must be reasons for this, that is unique to collegiate distance runners, and maybe solutions?
You’re wrong here. “Revolts” like this happen with a very small percentage of college track/xc teams. So when they do happen that’s strong reason to believe the athletes that the coach is the problem
Does this type of "team revolt" happen in other sports regularly? I don't feel like it does. It is primarily a track & field thing, and specifically, mostly a distance runner thing. If that is true, there is a problem in the overall culture of distance running. Is it the independence? Social awkwardness? It attracts athletes that are not athletic in the traditional sense?
There also could be a problem in that track & field in general, and distance/xc specifically, have a much larger athlete to coach ratio. It's not easy to coach up to 60 distance runners with an assistant or two, much less as a single coach. I don't think any other sport has that skewed of a ratio. How to you build personal relationships and provide attention to that many athletes? Both the athletes and the coaches suffer for this.
Distance runners also get coached different. Where nearly every other sport is skills based, team focused, and have 5-6 extensive team practices a week, distance runners do 1-3 quality workouts a week, and long distance runs out in the world, often by themselves, the rest of the time. Those quality workouts take about 2 hours total, and often have the athletes out of the coaches sight for parts of the workout. Distance runners can use each other to help their practice, but it isn't required to operate as a team like other sports.
It is also a sport of pain. Pain is the primary foe. Other sports, and even the rest of the track events may have pain, but they are also focused on skill, technique, a physical opponent, their teammate by their side or that they have to connect to with a ball.
I also think because it is individual and primarily about pain, being on a college team with 15-30 teammates, and what seem like sometimes impossible goals (in terms of being top 5, or all-conference, or all-american), it can be hard for some to continue to be motivated to endure the pain. And without the team support system that most other sports have it is tough for some. That transition from high school and being the best, having family and hs community support and attention. In high school most DI distance runners were the top runner, or in the top 3. They got ALL the attention. In college they are free, and are often not the big dog any more, rather one of 30 on their own team.
While college is different, the pressure felt to live up to the past glory and the expectations of hs coaches, former teammates, family, self, and the expectations of receiving a scholarship, is all there. Not many people like to take responsibility for themselves. And few want to hand that scholarship back and say "this isn't for me anymore". Much easier to blame a coach or a program for whatever lack of success is experienced (and keep getting the money).
I'm just rambling because it seems the problems reported at Duke are not uncommon with distance runners, especially compared to all other sports. We see these articles and claims every year. There must be reasons for this, that is unique to collegiate distance runners, and maybe solutions?
Blah blah blah … does this even matter? You people are boring bland losers who have nothing better to do than complain and opinionate about Duke. You don’t attend Duke University to run for obvious reasons.