Attention and Athletes

Posted on August 25, 2009 by CoachJay

There is a saying I came up with (or at least I think I did – if you’ve read this somewhere else please let me know…I have a friend who swears he came up with the term “going postal” and while we love him, his story detailing how he came up with the term is insufferable).

Attention is to athletes what sunlight is to plant life; not every athlete needs the same amount of attention, but they all need some attention.

As I write that I realize that I might be wrong, that maybe by saying that as a college coach I was rationalizing why I spent more time with some athletes vs. others.

But I think the quote is important is because it acknowledges one of the key components in coaching distance runners: running is emotionally draining and as a coach you’ll have to give a lot of yourself emotionally to do a good job. I’ve done a pretty good job this year; I only worked with two athletes; I’ve been emotionally fatigued for a couple of months; neither athlete is needy, yet both athletes want to realize their genetic potential; I don’t see this changing in the future if they run faster and their expectations become great. I would love to work with a couple more athletes – the right athletes – starting later this fall, yet the “attention issue” is the make or break determining factor and that’s why I will have to keep things simple.

…back to training posts tomorrow, but thought I would share that tonight.

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  • billzeebub

    I've been coaching for over 20yrs now, starting with just two 13yr old highschoolers when i was just 18yrs old (to keep me sane whilst out with a broken ankle). It worked perfectly with such small numbers, with the girl going on to run for GB senior team in the World XC and the lad running sub 31 before a car wreck slowed him for good.

    I have worked with groups of around 20 coachees (generally 14-25yr old guys, running 14:20-15:40) at any one time in the past, but i've found that many of these guys never reached what i would call their maximum potential during their time in the sport. I used to think that this was probably the athletes doing, due to varying levels of desire, will power and effort, combined with the social distractions which all too often cause dropout at age17-22 over here.

    However, having worked with a few decent athletes over the years though, the common theme linking them all, has possibly been the amount of time and attention i gave each of them as individuals. Each one, whether 49min 10mile guys or 4:16 girls, was given extra coaching time by me and later flourished. I’m not sure that they would have done so if I’d not been able to commit as much time and effort to each of them as each individual required. Did the remainder of the group suffer due to less attention from me? Possibly, but i'm happy that i gave my time to the right people. A coach must trust his/her instincts and spread their time wisely.

    Coaching too many athletes can lead to a multitude of problems, not least of all, the program becoming almost a ‘one size fits all’, rather than a well structured personal program, tailored for each athlete. If we spread ourselves too thinly, then the cream of the group are not always going to rise to the top.

    Over the past few years, I’ve decided to scale down the size of my group again, to just 5 or 6 athletes at one time. I personally believe that I’ll gain better results with these guys now than I would do if I was coaching another 15 athletes alongside them. This is purely down to how I am as a coach and nothing to do with how the athletes perform around others, or how much or how little attention each of them actually requires from me.

    Things are going well right now, with everybody buying into the program 100%, progressing in training and performing well in races. We’re looking forward to the xc season and going back to a small group again has actually given me back a little more time to concentrate on my son, Mrs B and on my day job……with the added bonus of regaining my sanity!

  • Rhymenocerous

    Q: Why does prime rib go into the NCAA system and come out 93% lean ground beef?

    A: “Coaching too many athletes can lead to a multitude of problems, not least of all, the program becoming almost a ‘one size fits all’, rather than a well structured personal program, tailored for each athlete. If we spread ourselves too thinly, then the cream of the group are not always going to rise to the top.”

    Well said.