Teaching the Art of Racing - Breaking Down Mental Walls

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shawnee

New member
I have read a lot of great posts on weekly mileage and different training philosophies but one question still remains. How do you teach your kids to RACE! I have a couple of very good runners that can hit high-mid 16's (5K) consistently and are capable of going faster but I can not get them to overcome the mental aspect and get faster.

The mileage, training, and commitment is excellent.... The one kid in particular is a thoroughbred and should be running in 15's. What can I do to help him get to the next level??

Appreciate your thoughts.
 
 
First of all, be sure that he wants to get to the next level. I think most of us were athletes at one time, and we all got to the point to where we invested as much of ourselves into our training as we wanted and didn't go further. That's very much an individual choice. I think it's important as coaches that we don't project our expectations on our athletes without consideration of their expectations. That only leads to frustration for all.

If you are sure the athlete has the desire to get to the next level, be sure you are clear on their motivation for doing so. At a coaching clinic in Eugene during the 2008 Olympic trails either Terrance Mahon or Julie Henner were talking about how they had to approach training and racing plans uniquely for each athlete they were coaching. They specifically talked about how the 4 or 5 athletes were very different in what motivated them. One was all about time. One was all about place. One was all about "feeling". I can't remember some of the other motivations, but the idea was that the coach had to structure training activities and racing stategies according to what movitated each athlete.

Be sure that your goal of "Teaching your kids to RACE" isn't code for "getting kids to run like I expect them to". Understand your "thoroughbred's" motivations and develop his training and racing around them to the degree you can, and make sure the cues you use the day of the race to motivate/encourage him are aligned with his motiviations.

It's tough to do that with an entire high school team, but I do try to have successful upperclassmen share with the team what they do, and think about, in order to run well in big meets. It gives the younger kids a chance to see that different approaches can be successful and what techniques are used in each approach. This can provide the building blocks for their own approach to success. As a coach we can help them identify what's common in the approaches as well.
 
I know that every kid and team that I have ever had that reached any level of success it was all due to 2 things:

leadership and goals setting.

Also it may depend how the program is set up. Some kids are highly motivated to run for themselves. Most can get to that next level by trying to achieve and help their program.

Explain to the kid what goals he should set..they have to be his goals not yours, and explain how setting lofty goals by being a 15 minute guy can help his team.
 
Figuring out what drives a person, be it physical activities, educational goals, and working world is always the key. These can be very different for different people and are usually never one single thing and can really change over time.

I started running track after getting picked on by a senior my freshman year. He was a PV and hurdler, so naturally being competitive decided I wanted to beat him (how hard could it be :) ). I never really did beat his marks as I only later figured out just how good he really was. But I found a really liked competing in individual sports where it was ALWAYS clear who was the best on that particular day at that particular site. No if/ands blaming other people like happens in team sports. I transitioned from wanting to beat a specific person to specific goals (heights, distances, times). It was always a good day if I PR'd regardless of where that put me in the finishing order.
I have found that understanding the motivation of 12-18 year old boys to be extremely challenging. This is where sports psychologists come in, I guess.
 
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