First Part: The high school system is based off racing into shape. Duel meet system calls for 2 meets a week and invitational on the weekend. This allows for optimal training in high school if you look at it from the vantage point of a sprinter does a 100 meter dash takes a long break does another 100 meter (4×100) takes a long break does a 200 meter takes a long break and maybe does the 4 x 400. 2 all out 100’s, a 200 and maybe a 400 with plenty of rest. That’s a decent workout to me and this is done twice a week. A weekend meet may call for rounds so an extra 100 and 200 added in. Honestly I feel a lot of college programs over train because they think they have time to train so by the time they get to the weekend their athletes are dead. This added with the life style things talked about by others when they go to college leads to sick warn down athletes. Anyone ever notice that sometimes an athlete is hurt for a week or two and comes back they PR. If this happens in your program time to look at your program design and think am I over training everyone.
2nd part: The same could be made for coaches out there. Depending on the college the coach is currently at they are maybe paid a tad over the poverty line for an assistant. This is just enough to survive. As a coach you understand you will work long hours during the school year working with the college athletes for 9 months, but you make if lucky 8-12 dollars an hour. Plus you spend so much time at the school you can’t work anywhere else. This does not even add in the time needed to recruit and the travel finding the next group of athletes to work with. By the end of the day how much time did you really have to actually coach when the facility space and time to train is limited to 2-3 hours for 100+ athletes depending on the size and scope of your team and facilities available.
Now if your in this type of setting and you have past athletes come back and go “train me train me” your left thinking to yourself when and how. I tend to think I have a good grasp on things when it comes to coaching and developing. Does the average person realize how long it takes to put together a well thought out training program especially for 50+ athletes at a time. The constant adjustments that need to be made to match with how the athlete is feeling and what is going on during the training year.
Honestly, I can see how coaches who have been in the field for 15+ years can after a while just say here is the basic program if it makes you better great if you don’t get worst even better. I am going to do as much as I have to so I dont’ get fired. Is this the right attitude to have no way, but how many people do you think sit in the work world and do the same thing. Motivated people make success for themselves. Did you ever think that the college coach doesn’t know how to make you any better and sees the fine line that you don’t. Maybe they are thinking I have for 4 years tried to make you better and you didn’t get any better so why should I waste my time helping you get better. They physically can’t so why is it worth their time.
Personally as a coach I am going through exactly what your talking about in terms of relationships with current and post athletes. I have one elite athlete training with me, that doesn’t get paid (no sponsors very little prize money even though this guy finished top 3 in US last year) about 4-5 post college athletes training with me and an entire college program and I should add the college doesn’t really like to pay coaches at all, below poverty. Plus I have to work 2 other jobs just to pay the monthly bills. As athletes I think you sometimes need to take a step back and look into the life of the coach and understand what he or she is going through as much as what your going through. At the end of the day some of us coaches sit there and go wow I just put in 14 hours of work and made maybe 80 bucks. Face it there is no backing in track and field period. Not for the athletes or for the coaches who want to and wish they could work with post collegiate athletes. Plus in all honesty after training the same person for 4 years, repeating the same things over and over and watching them never change or fix anything you get frustrated and sadly start to think it is hopeless. Think to yourself are you a stubborn athlete?
In the end the situation is simple. Would you go to work and not get paid? Why would you expect someone else to do it day in and day out for free. You do realize the job of a coach is to coach and hopefully get paid for their services. If you had a job as a personal training and did that for 14 hours a day and you ran into a friend and they go i am thinking about getting back into shape would you be willing to write me a training program for free, what would you think? Humility goes a long way did you ever think about the way athletes approach coaches. Did you just expect your old coach was going to help you? Did you ever talk to him or her about it? Did you ever talk to the school about using their stuff or did you just expect it? After 4 years of training under the same person don’t you think you have a good idea what they are going to have you do anyways? What is the role of a coach for a post collegiate athlete, is it to baby you or give you inside tips and suggestions? Do you need their eyes or everything? Did you ever offer the coach even something as small as 20 bucks a month to help you or did you just expect it to be free? I do think everyone needs to feed the mouths of their family. Every minute you spend on something is a minute you can’t spend on something else.
Now that I have said all of this I personally am not to this extreme yet, but sadly it seems I am heading down this cruel viewpoint. I am still young and naive enough to get paid peanuts for all the work I do on the college, high school and elite levels. I am sure other coaches on the forum who have also worked with college programs, elites (getting paid) and up and coming elites (never getting paid) can comment on this as well. As a whole the entire system is flawed. No one is supported except a small few. Sadly the sooner we all as a whole realize that and do something about it the better. Putting the blame on someone else isn’t going to make things better.