Cross Country from start

A good start may be to read Joe Newton's 'Coaching Cross Country Successfully'. It focusses on HS.

Bugis Street wrote:

A good start may be to read Joe Newton's 'Coaching Cross Country Successfully'. It focusses on HS.

I respectfully disagree. Newton had a tremendous coaching career and produced some of the best HS teams of all time, but don't try to do what he did. He was a one of a kind, but his methods will lead to injury in 99.9% of kids.

The best book I ever read dealing with running physiology was Advanced Marathoning by Pete Pfitzinger. I know it is not the same training, but he explains things in a very good way. Similar to Daniels, but better, I think.

The best way to learn pre meet drills, warm up, cool down, etc., is to watch other great HS teams in your area. I am not saying that you should try to imitate them, just glean from them and learn what it takes to become great.

One idea would be to hold a training camp together. I know that I used to host other teams at my training camps even if they were rival teams. I always felt that hard work was the key to winning and I didn't mind sharing ideas with other teams and coaches. If they wanted to work harder and beat me, good for them. It would motivate us to work that much harder the next year.

Use your head, Coach.

Where does thou experience come from?

Are you starting the season now or are you a year away?

If you've got the time and budget buy Eric Anderson's "Training Games"

http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=215

Who the hell are you? I need to rant. All these people walk around bashing on successful progams. They say, there has to be another way, then run off and beat their heads against the wall as they get handled or "poned" by teams that promote a successful running philosophy.

Joe Newton has inspired thousands of coaches. His system works. Hell, who would of thunk it that to be a good distance runner you would have to run distance. wow! what a concept.

I would say getting that book is a great start. I started coaching a terrible program used to just goin out havin fun and getting their asses wooped. Some coaches think this is good, but have you ever been that runner on a team who gets last all the time? It is not fun, you look at the winning teams differently, you feel not good enough, and frankly mediocrity is not acceptable to anyone.

High school kids are looking for direction. They are looking for discipline, they are looking to be coached, and news flash!!!! They want to win. Who shows up for football practice and the coach says do what you want, just have fun, it doesnt matter, by the way we are gonna get blown out 500-0 this weekend?

This team and program was terrible. We came in a started from scratch, implemented a few ideas.

#1. anyone can run on varsity, we held a weekely 1.4 mile run-off each tuesday. Top 7 run that saturday.

#2. two-a-days are a must!!! Any successful program will run two-a-days. We had a practice each morning before school where we ran our hardest workouts, followed by breakfast together in the track house.

Get that book, it works! we went 18-0 in dual meets, undefeated in our region, city champs, and runner-up at state, it was challenging and difficult but the kids really liked winning and look back on the experience as a moment in their life they will never forget...that they respect!

leave an email if you will. I will talk about ideas but not on this message board.

never visit this site to get advice. that will make you a great coach.

My high school team won every dual meet over my four years there (41 - 0), we won one state championship as a team and had one individual state champion (different years), and many, many all-staters.

We never did 2-a-days. We never did one workout on the track my whole four years there.

We ran mostly in a wooded park on trails. Played a lot of Pom-pom in an open field and a lot of tag over a super-hilly off-road four-wheeling area.

I don't think there are any "must do's." If your kids work hard, run an appropriate amount of miles to be reasonably fit, and have a lot of fun doing it, they'll be successful. There is no one way.

who da thunk it wrote:

#2. two-a-days are a must!!! Any successful program will run two-a-days. We had a practice each morning before school where we ran our hardest workouts, followed by breakfast together in the track house.

Two runs a day are not a must unless you are trying to get over 100 miles a week at a faster paces.

This is also like saying to be a sub 15 guy you need to run most of your workouts at 6:00 pace or faster, when its obvious that there are plently of runners sub 14:30 who run at 7-9 min pace for every workout besides their one-two a week speedwork/tempo/fartleks.

Joe Newton's coaching methods worked for him of course if I got 200+ athletes to come out and run for me I'm sure I could get a few state titles too.

If you have won a bunch of state titles your more likely to get more people out for your team.:) Besides no one wants to hear about the teams winning state titles running 60 mpw.

o.O wrote:

who da thunk it wrote:

#2. two-a-days are a must!!! Any successful program will run two-a-days. We had a practice each morning before school where we ran our hardest workouts, followed by breakfast together in the track house.

Two runs a day are not a must unless you are trying to get over 100 miles a week at a faster paces.

This is also like saying to be a sub 15 guy you need to run most of your workouts at 6:00 pace or faster, when its obvious that there are plently of runners sub 14:30 who run at 7-9 min pace for every workout besides their one-two a week speedwork/tempo/fartleks.

Joe Newton's coaching methods worked for him of course if I got 200+ athletes to come out and run for me I'm sure I could get a few state titles too.

Definitely take a look at Jack Daniel's Running Formula. Very knowledgeable book and will allow you to build the fitness of nearly everyone on the team while minimizing injuries. If you don't look at it, the key principles are to do about 2-3 quality sessions, be consistent, and focus on phases of training where each different muscular and aerobic system is built up.

Next year, I advise you focus on team summer base runs. These should be conversational and fun to bring the team together. Trails and grass are better than roads, softer footing and uneven ground builds strength in the lower legs. Runners with solid bases stand a smaller chance of being injured. Post-run/workout, do some strides lasting about 100-200 meters, with about 50 of the meters being at the runners top speed. Barefoot is good, though can hurt some runners arches. Emphasize about 20-30 minutes of static stretching a day, hitting all the major muscle groups in the legs(quads, hamstrings, calves, ankles, arches, light shin stretching.) Throw in a core routine that involves plank exercises and balancing on one leg for a period of time. A daily ab routine is the icing on the cake. It will let your runners feel stronger. Push-ups are good, as are pull-ups.

Drills are a good way to get the team together at the beginning of practice and warm the body up to run. Possible drills are high knees, kareoka, and fence steps, which loosens up the hips. Ankle rotations are good too. Don't let your drill routine exceed 15 minutes, athletes will lose interest and half-ass the drills. The drill routine should be easy to remember, as athletes will often have to go out and do their own thing on race days.

Warm-ups can vary from athlete to athlete. I suggest trying a large team warm-up that lasts about 15 minutes of easy running to start, and possibly a few minutes of tempo thrown in to prepare the body to run at aerobic threshold. Your teams should get to the line about 5 minutes before the start, they should be sweating, and ready to go. A couple strides and maybe quick feet drills will pass the time until the race starts.

Don't worry too much about whose training philosophy you choose, as long as your athletes are not overly fatigued and feel like they performing well, the training is working. If athletes complain about the training being too hard, tell them to back off the easy days first, limiting volume and speed. If the athletes say they feel like they are not working hard enough, increase the number of reps they do during a work out, but DO NOT let them run faster paces in the workouts.

My e-mail is

jexasfromtexas@yahoo.com

if you're interested.

who da thunk it wrote:

Who the hell are you? I need to rant. All these people walk around bashing on successful progams.

How did I bash Joe? I openly stated that he is one of the best all time, did I not? I simply stated that his approach won't work for most. I have hosted Joe's teams at my training camp many times and have discussed racing/training strategies on the phone with him many times (we coach in different states). Listen, Joe open admits that his approach is not for everyone. He is great guy, tremendous coach, but he is one of a kind. That is not bashing.

As for who I am, I am a former NCAA DI All American and HS coach with multiple state championship rings to my name. I have also coached national champions in HS track. The advice I gave is very sound whether you agree with it or not.

New Ton.....I agree with you 100%!!

I agree with New Ton, Newton has had great success, but I wouldn't eve do what he has done training wise.

I have never had 2 a days, make sure easy days are easy, never ever done time trials (for the insecure), keep it fun to a point and sty away from the track.

Have coached several state championship teams and individuals, three footlocker finaliss i the past 5 years, 1 national champion, 1 national runner-up.

And, most importantly, 80% of the kids run in college, and continue to improve, D. 1 all-american, 2 D.3 all-americans in the past four years. 1 runner at this past olympic trials.

o.O wrote:

Joe Newton's coaching methods worked for him of course if I got 200+ athletes to come out and run for me I'm sure I could get a few state titles too.

This point is very important. That being, recruit numbers. The more the better. If I had 200 kids, you bet I'm run them twice a day. I'd put them through tons of miles. Most would quit, but who cares? You have 200 of them. Those that stick around will have a chance to be pretty good.

So many of you comment without any real knowledge of Newton's program. A new coach CANNOT begin his or her career following Newton's approach to a T; it is too hard for the beginning runners. You need to build to that level of training, and it can take years to get there. But that it works is incontrovertible, and that kids buy into it as well. The fact that Newton gets a lot of runners out does not guarantee his success; many run because of the tradition, and the likelihood is that only a handful do the really high level training. For example, only maybe 10 each summer hit 1000 miles, and of those, not all of them are top 7 runners. But also, he does not do twice a days in training, though I am aware kids will run a second LSD during the summer if they want to, but that is up to them.

But, you know, it is not a few state titles. It is 26 of them, with something like 19 second place finishes on top of that. In a 52-year career. There is no coach in the US even close to that, anywhere. Something is working there.

The key is recruiting for long-term success. Go after and concentrate on getting the best available young athletes, like 7th graders, 8th graders. Make sure any upperclassmen on the team are leaders, nice people. The young kids have to see some examples. Don't take on some punk, it could ruin your program for years.

If you have the best athletes it really doesn't matter what coaching philosophy you subscribe to. Keep them healthy, engaged, and challenged.

Get to know them as individuals and tailor make sessions according to their needs and capabilities.Work with them as a partnership agreement. Be patient and gradually increase demands/mileage/workouts etc but try to add variety to ensure they dont get too bored and lose interest (which is very common amongst youngsters afraid).

Start building confidence and self belief and a good team ethos. This will all take time but Good luck anyway. _