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Post by StraightFlexin on Feb 17, 2017 8:23:22 GMT -6
I was curious about your football program's relationship with track. At my HS, we hold so many off season speed and agility sessions to make up for the lack of track participation. I could strongly encourage/force our kids to run track, but with the current situation of the track program I am not sure.
Our track program is awful. The coach is very old and stuck in his ways. He does not understand simple concepts of building speed and explosiveness through training fast twitch. He does not believe in lifting weights. He thinks in order to build football speed that kids should run the 1/2 mile consistently. He believes that gatorade causes your kidneys to shut down (dead serious). A mother had to coach her daughter for an event because the coach/athlete relationship got so bad.
Realize......... I am not complaining, we do have speed within our program and we have been successful. I am just asking others about their relationship among their school and if any other coaches have similar situations.
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Post by mrjvi on Feb 17, 2017 9:50:54 GMT -6
The right track coaches can be a huge asset. I coached track (head for some of it) for many of the years I was the head football and there were great advantages. That being said, when the track coach(s) don't understand how to increase speed and all my sprinters are running 400's and 800's, and training for them by doing lots of distance, I have trouble encouraging them to do track. When the football guys tend to be the track guys also, you usually have a great situation. At the small school I'm just starting at, the baseball and track coaches are on board and are having the weights (that I'll run) an important part of their practices. Never had that in my prior 34 years. YEAH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (We'll see if they do follow through, though)
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lmorris
Sophomore Member
Posts: 195
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Post by lmorris on Feb 17, 2017 10:15:17 GMT -6
At my previous school, our HFC and Track coach came to an agreement. There were 6 football coaches one of which was the track coach. Rather than him take "his guys" to go do track stuff, they all athletes stayed and lifted, and they all ran track, and all 6 coaches would go out and do the track practice for about 30 min or so. Track became part of the Off-season program.
I personally like track for my football players, it gives them a chance to compete in something that time of year. If I were in your situation, I would talk with the old coach about "helping" him. Tell your kids its part of off season. They won't all go to meets, but by the time that sophomore becomes a Sr he may be the best disc thrower your school has ever had. Some of those kids who have just been track athletes may also start coming out for football as they see the football guys won't eat them.
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Post by bigm0073 on Feb 17, 2017 10:35:26 GMT -6
That is a tough and frustrating situation. I have been there in the past with track coaches as well. If he is not on board with working out, etc.. It can be extremely frustrating.. With the coaches in the past that were like this I would discourage our guys from running track.
My current situation is the head track coach is our RBS Coach/Assistant Head Coach. We work hand in hand. After school he allows the football players to do football stuff for about an hour.. Lifting, Skill work, etc.. At 3:20 they go right to track practice.
He benefits because he has ALL of our skill guys running track.. DB, RBs, WR, etc.. He wins and I win. He works them hard in practice they increase endurance, etc..
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Post by seabass on Feb 17, 2017 10:59:33 GMT -6
It's a shame when coaches at the same school can't get on the same page. The track coach and football coach should be best friends at every school.
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Post by PSS on Feb 17, 2017 11:04:34 GMT -6
At my previous school, our HFC and Track coach came to an agreement. There were 6 football coaches one of which was the track coach. Rather than him take "his guys" to go do track stuff, they all athletes stayed and lifted, and they all ran track, and all 6 coaches would go out and do the track practice for about 30 min or so. Track became part of the Off-season program. I personally like track for my football players, it gives them a chance to compete in something that time of year. If I were in your situation, I would talk with the old coach about "helping" him. Tell your kids its part of off season. They won't all go to meets, but by the time that sophomore becomes a Sr he may be the best disc thrower your school has ever had. Some of those kids who have just been track athletes may also start coming out for football as they see the football guys won't eat them. If you're not using track as part of your offseason then you are definitely missing a key part of development for your athletes. Every track coach is also a football coach. All our athletes go through the workout whether they compete in every meet or not. Even the football / baseball players will go through the workout 2x a week and compete in at least 2 meets. The only "track only" athletes we have are distance runners and pole vaulters. Everyone else is also a football player.
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Post by mariner42 on Feb 17, 2017 11:58:06 GMT -6
I'm head track coach and JV FB HC. The relationship is great.
It also helps that our boys lift as a class, so its not like they can be told not to lift.
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Post by seabass on Feb 17, 2017 12:25:22 GMT -6
I'm head track coach and JV FB HC. The relationship is great. It also helps that our boys lift as a class, so its not like they can be told not to lift. That sounds like the perfect relationship....unless you go all Me, Myself and Irene.
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Post by coachfloyd on Feb 17, 2017 12:27:25 GMT -6
I love the track coaches that make everyone do the same conditioning. My offensive linemen are out running laps because they have to get in shape to walk to get their shot put? I walked over to the track coach who was also a fb coach and said man if you want these guys to throw you better not ask them to jog.
The best though are the track only guys.
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Post by spreadjet31 on Feb 17, 2017 12:56:13 GMT -6
I'm the HFC and an assistant T&F coach. I coach the sprinters and jumpers so I employ all the tools at my disposal to enhance speed and explosiveness in my track athletes. That being said, I strongly encourage all of my football players that do not already play a spring sport (I will not recruit players away from other sports for personal reasons) to participate in our track program. In the past I've had some of my fb players say they would practice, but not compete. However, by the start of the season they have always wanted to do the meets and see where they stood. As important as sprinting mechanics and speed development from our t&f program is to our football players, I feel that our power development used to aid our jumpers is just as critical, if not more so.
And of all of the sports that lift in-season at my school (including my football team), our track athletes do the most work. We lift 3-4 days per week in-season, depending on what day our meet falls on. That is definitely more than I hold my football players responsible for (2 days/week in-season).
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Post by hunhdisciple on Feb 17, 2017 14:11:01 GMT -6
I don't remember the last time a football coach wasn't the head coach of either the boys or girls track team.
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Post by sweep26 on Feb 18, 2017 8:58:35 GMT -6
If your aren't in a state that has high school spring football, being both the head football coach and head track coach is a natural.
This is a win,win situation for everyone. The kids become better conditioned athletes, they get to compete in a unique setting that combines both individual and teamwork challenges; and the Track & Field environment is also uniquely conducive to developing awesome friendships with the student-athletes from other schools.
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Post by coachphillip on Feb 18, 2017 16:12:35 GMT -6
Too hard to find track coaches around here (or coaches of any other sport for that matter) that believe in lifting weights. That's a "no way am I going to support you" situation for me.
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Post by mrjvi on Feb 18, 2017 17:04:23 GMT -6
That's been my experience for 34 years also. Hopefully my new place will be different.
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Post by newhope on Feb 18, 2017 17:13:41 GMT -6
At my current school, head track coach and asst track coach are on football staff. Win, win.
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hwkfn1
Junior Member
Posts: 258
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Post by hwkfn1 on Feb 20, 2017 12:29:30 GMT -6
I am head football and last week became assistant track. Our head basketball coach is now our head track coach. Its a perfect arrangement. He is big on lifting and now I don't have to get up at 4:45 to get in the weight room before school. Plus, I now get paid to run the weight room and help with track!
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Post by coachcb on Feb 20, 2017 14:09:42 GMT -6
Well, I never discourage players from participating in a sport. It sucks that the track coach isn't well-informed but I'd still do whatever I could to have them lifting when I could. If he tells the kids they can't lift, then so be it. It's on him.
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Post by PSS on Feb 20, 2017 14:35:26 GMT -6
Hard for me to understand why a coach of any sport does not promote lifting. Even our straight track kids (distance runners and pole vaulters) lift 3 times per week.
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Post by fantom on Feb 20, 2017 14:37:24 GMT -6
Too hard to find track coaches around here (or coaches of any other sport for that matter) that believe in lifting weights. That's a "no way am I going to support you" situation for me. Around here admin doesn't place a high priority on finding great coaches for lower profile sports like track. Once a guy gets the job the only way that he gets fired is if he commits a felony. The guy at our place is great but I've been at places where they weren't. At one place one of the football assistants was also a track assistant. He begged us to encourage football players to go out for track because they were low and numbers. We took all of the skill players out to track practice. Within a couple of weeks he was complaining about how lazy and disorganized the track HC was. Within a month all of the kids were back in the weight room lifting with the football team. This is a true story (And if it isn't, the fact people believe it says a lot about the guy): One time when he sent the cross country team on their run, the track/CC HC gave a kid some money and told him to stop at the 7-11 and get him a chili dog.
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Post by mrjvi on Feb 20, 2017 14:57:23 GMT -6
hwkfn1
I'm amazed the basketball coach is on board. I honestly, in my 35 years of coaching, can count on 1 hand any BB coaches that WANTED the kids lifting. And that might be a favorable estimate. Different breed of coach, at least from me.
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Post by coachphillip on Feb 20, 2017 16:06:13 GMT -6
Well, I never discourage players from participating in a sport. It sucks that the track coach isn't well-informed but I'd still do whatever I could to have them lifting when I could. If he tells the kids they can't lift, then so be it. It's on him. Neither do I. I'll never discourage a kid from playing another sport. But, if I know the coach does things the right way, I'll talk him up, get some kids interested, sport some gear, etc. If they're a waste of time, I say nothing to promote them.
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Post by coachcb on Feb 20, 2017 16:36:14 GMT -6
Well, I never discourage players from participating in a sport. It sucks that the track coach isn't well-informed but I'd still do whatever I could to have them lifting when I could. If he tells the kids they can't lift, then so be it. It's on him. Neither do I. I'll never discourage a kid from playing another sport. But, if I know the coach does things the right way, I'll talk him up, get some kids interested, sport some gear, etc. If they're a waste of time, I say nothing to promote them. I'm the same way. Some of our baseball players have been told by their coach that they can only lift in the spring and the summer if they follow his bullchit Muscle and Fitness program. It's good that they're lifting but I'll be talking up track all spring long and pushing football all summer. And, our lifting sessions are treated as a practice with and those baseball kids know to stay out of our way. All of the Olympic bars are generally being used at the beginning of most sessions because everyone does power cleans to start off. So, the baseball players will have to wait until we're done to use them. Mondays kind of suck for them as that's their "chest, shoulders, and tricep" day and they get to stand around as we're using the Olympic bars from the benches. They can use the dumbbells if they'd like. I'm not trying to take it out on the kids but I have made it clear that we run a specific weight program and it takes priority. I'm not going to have kids strolling in and doing curls and bench when they feel like it.
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Post by coachphillip on Feb 20, 2017 17:14:06 GMT -6
That's why I love our weight room setup. We have a football only weight room. That's the one with the Racks and the free weights. The other weight room is all cables. Sports only get into the football weight room if we're not using it and they show proper use and care of the equipment.
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hwkfn1
Junior Member
Posts: 258
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Post by hwkfn1 on Feb 20, 2017 17:22:20 GMT -6
hwkfn1 I'm amazed the basketball coach is on board. I honestly, in my 35 years of coaching, can count on 1 hand any BB coaches that WANTED the kids lifting. And that might be a favorable estimate. Different breed of coach, at least from me. It is nice to have him on board. He began a weight program before I got there, but couldn't get kids to buy in unless they were strictly basketball. When I started we worked together to improve the program and now most of the football guys buy in. It is a slow process, but we are getting more athletic. I'm very lucky that he is on board, no doubt.
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Post by carookie on Feb 20, 2017 19:23:19 GMT -6
Could be worse, I was at a program where our HFBC was relatively naive as to the importance of weight training (tried to build a more powerful car by building a smaller engine). He wanted to be the head track coach too, luckily they hired someone who better understood the science behind how the human body works.
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Post by PSS on Feb 20, 2017 19:31:02 GMT -6
Could be worse, I was at a program where our HFBC was relatively naive as to the importance of weight training (tried to build a more powerful car by building a smaller engine). He wanted to be the head track coach too, luckily they hired someone who better understood the science behind how the human body works. I've been through that before but he was more involved with baseball in the Spring. Didn't see the importance of lifting and track. He didn't last too long.
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Post by dytmook on Feb 20, 2017 19:34:21 GMT -6
Our track coaches are football coaches. We have no issues. They send them to us for football stuff and we adapt to their track schedule so we don't wear them out before they have a meet.
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Post by coachcb on Feb 20, 2017 20:41:27 GMT -6
That's why I love our weight room setup. We have a football only weight room. That's the one with the Racks and the free weights. The other weight room is all cables. Sports only get into the football weight room if we're not using it and they show proper use and care of the equipment. I'm new to this school and we only have one small weight room. But, with that being said, I have basically made it MY weight room. Lol. They asked me to do the S&C with all of the sports which I was glad to do. But, I made it very clear that we do things my way when we're in that weight room. I opened it tonight, had a few guys going through their workout for the day and another one tried to come in and do an "arm day". He wouldn't do our routine and we're short on space so I told him to grab a couple pairs of dumbbells and go out in the hallway for his "workout".
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Post by coachloosearrow on Feb 21, 2017 12:09:17 GMT -6
At the school that I teach and coach at we require that our football players must run track. Our RBs will not touch the ball if they are not in track. Our head football coach is the boys head track coach and I am the d-coordinator and the girls head track coach so our football players have no choice. Maybe having the football coaches coaching track also helps. Our football staff is spread out thru our sports we have so that makes a difference as well. We have tons that do both track and baseball/softball. We have track until 4 and that is when our baseball/softball players go to practice from 4-6. Granted we are a small 3A school. We have managed to have that work for our athletes that do both. we have morning lifting at least 2 times out of the week and footwork/plyometrics/agility the other days. (this is if kids do not have games, this is if the week is clear, if not we adjust) We have a 7th period athletics and with the athletes that come in the morning we do mobility and stretching or if we need to footwork. This is with boys and girls.
Have you thought about being an assistant for track?
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Post by groundchuck on Feb 21, 2017 12:18:40 GMT -6
The track program at the school I last coached at put down lifting. They did not believe in strength training. The throwers coach did, but the head coach made it hard for him to find time. A lot of dysfunction really.
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