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Bistow SP - hill repeats with PHHS CC

August 31, 2017 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: 60, nice, but smokey at the very end

Comments:
AM Practice

Today I ran with the P.Hill CC team. I'd gotten this invite from Beth, the cc coach, back at the coaches meeting, nearly a month ago. At the time I was surprised, but also torn: would it be a good idea to go, or not? Would going somehow condone whatever she did as a coach in the program? I struggled with this for a while, but eventually decided that what she was offering was a gift: an opportunity to observe her program and interact with the kids. Why not take it, at least once? So finally, today, I did.

I could go into enormous detail about the day, but I'll instead bullet-point it:

Instrumentally, we met out at Bristow at 7:15, which started out with an easy 0.75-mile out-and-back warm-up run, preceding the team warm-up. After that, we ran from the main park, about 3 miles up river to the dam, where the kids ran 5x ~400m hill repeats, before running back.

I ran outbound with a variety of folks, and once at the hill, split time between the girls and the guys. Hunter was super-ploddy in his cadence (again) so we worked on improving that, which immediately resulted in a much faster uphill rep. Once they were done, I ran back to the main park with he and Callan.

At the end of practice, I worked briefly with a girl named Julia on some stride mechanics, before we joined the group for about ten minutes of "core".

The positives:
- Beth was, yet again, really nice. She was friendly to me before, during and after, and took the time to introduce me to the team (of the kids, about half, that didn't know me) and regarded me as being skilled at helping with stride mechanics. That was very appreciated, and a tremendous amount MORE than Jeff Hess ever did at SEHS (he *never* introduced me to the distance team, ever; nor did he recognize or promote my abilities).

- Beth was very positive and encouraging with the kids, and genuinely seemed to enjoy their presence, and the practice, itself.

- In general, it was great to see the kids. They were all positive, having fun, and working hard.

- I had a good chat with Callan's mom, Michelle, who assists. We talked about how I think Cal can run at a D-I Ivy League school, and I wanted to promote that opporunity for him.

- It was good and fun to work on some stride skills with the kids, and hopefully be a source of reminder to them about that importance, and to resolidify our work in the spring.

- I had a good, and even brief, chat with Hunter and Callan about their opportunities next year: their ability to run at the D-1 level, *if* they put in the time and work toward their potential. It was brief and fairly general (other than "run six days a week"), but effective and well-received.

- Both Beth and Michelle were appreciative of my presence, and the implication was that I may return.

The Not-so-goods:

- Beth runs the program like an aerobic instructor runs an exercise class: positivity, general encouragement, but a serious lack of instruction, attention to detail, teamwork, and accountability. A lot of stuff was half-assed:

--- warm-ups were half-assed
--- the "workout" (hill repeats) were unorganized (kids ran in irregular pairings, or even alone) and unmeasured (no paces dictated, no splits or other measures, monitored)
--- the "core" session was terrible: either overly-difficult (including a 3m30s plank with arm and leg reaches for kids, most of whom couldn't properly hold a normal plank for 30s) or just a bunch of non-athletic "writhing" on the ground, if not downright stressful.

- There was a serious lack of teamwork:

--- kids mostly ran in pairs and kept to themselves. This isn't an inherent problem; however, I saw no leadership extended from the upperclassmen leaders or the captains (even Hunter and Sam, who were oustanding leaders during track) toward the younger, even brand-new runners. Instead, they acted like this was "a running club", where they chose to simply engage with their close friends, and the only shared experience was the common workout plan: Hunter and Callan, Daelyn and Sam, Jaesa and Maddy. Autonomous pairs.

--- The rift between D&S and J&M persists. It appears that no effort has been made by anyone to resolve it. It's triply unfortunate because the TEAM needs them unified; they, as a four-some, need to be training together -- all FOUR hammering up that hill -- and they need to make that teamwork contageous so that a fifth girl -- one of those younger (and potentially talented) runners can join them to make a state-caliber team!

- There is a serious lack of accountability, in general, and a sense that there are no unifed goals toward which this group is striving. Beth, herself, directly contributed to this in her interaction with Sean Wolfer, to whom she simply laughed and bruffed off the fact that he, a senior (coming off a mediocre track season, and having recently been cut from the basketball team) simply did not run at all this summer. Sean is a great kid, but that behavior - a lack of dedication to himself and his team - is nothing to be laughed off. It's emblematic of this program.

And so it was. Good, but saddening. I'm unsure where to go from here. There's a risk that if I continue to be involved I'll either:

A.) Intercede too much and too far, and be perceived as trying to usurp control of a program that's not mine, or
B.) Get taken advantage of: to do positive things behind the scene, for which Beth takes credit, only emboldening her cause (or whatever motivations she has).

Tough to say. All that said, that Beth was SO appreciative of my presence is telling. Of what, exactly, I'm not sure. Might she be willing to cede control over time (this year, next? 5?) seeing that I'm not a threat, but possibly a good thing to which she'd let go? Maybe...