As a coach nothing is more fun than the small improvements hard working kids make over the course of their careers. The athlete who is highlighted in this video has great power levels, decent speed, and an extreme work ethic. She is not a finished product and won’t be for a number of years. However, because of her work ethic we already beginning to see great progress in just one season. Mechanically, we have a number of gross motor skills we are still working on like head position and arm carriage. Where she has really improved has been her reaction time to the gun and her speed endurance. She has already set PRs in the 400 and 200 dash. This video is not a recording of her fastest time due to poor lane assignment from inaccurate seeding. The video does display her willingness to fight to the finish even when things get uncomfortable. All things being equal the athletes ability to fight is immensely important for success over the long haul. Track can be a brutal sport. To achieve greatness kids have to be willing to get up after being knocked down, dinged up, and sub-standard performances. Moving forward my new goals for her are improved heal recovery and posture. In addition she has never done summer track. I believe expanding her season into the summer will allow her to experience the speed breakthrough we have seen time and time again on our select team. As a coach I am excited because her improvement has been so large in just a short period of time. Last year she opened up her season with a 29.7 this season she opened up with a 27.6. You can make people faster if they are willing to believe and fight to get better every day.
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