A great start to the day, I met the PE teacher at the car park in the Glen Orden Wetlands car park and by 7:35am we had 14 kids, not bad considering they had only one days notice. The kids ranged from grade 4-6, I knew 6 of the kids, which made it easier for me, especially as the fastest girl is coached by me so most of the others were excited to have the same coach, according to the PE teacher (who is the partner of a Wes Aths runner, small world). The wetlands was chosen as this is where the Hoppers PS XC Region race is, so I got a quick brief of where the courses will be run then off we went. 1km later I stopped the group and we did some stretching before taking off again, with Pauline (teacher) as the 'tail end Charlie' (Army term). We ran for approx 500m at a steady pace and then I picked up the pace for 500m before slowing down, this was great, already I knew who was here because they could run and not because there was no competition at the school; don't get me wrong I don't mean they had to be next to me, I did take age into consideration, etc.
After a few more pace increases we all settled into a nice relaxing run. Hmmmm, I ran 4.8km according to my Garmin, the kids did a bit more than me, as I stopped to watch a few pace increases so I could watch form etc, then they slowly jogged back to me as a group. The hmmm is because I'm not suppose to be running 5k and most of the kids were surprised when I told them approx how far they had run...They were most impressed, gee I hope I didn't 'kill' anyone... (I think not, kids are very resilient).
Then home, ate breaky whilst icing a part of my body that I am kind of over mentioning.....then dropped C & D at school....then off to work, arriving at 9am, maybe all of the bad traffic had gone, 35 min.... :-)
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Today I received an email from AV, the list of teams that are competing this w/e...wow Western Aths have one more team competing than any other Club in the whole State....more than the BIG clubs of Glenhuntly, Knox, Box Hill or the combines of Ballarat City or Geelong Region, it is hard to explain how proud I was when I seen this, so much work from a group of dedicated administrators, coaches and athletes, we all have created a great friendly Club!!!
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No training tonight as I'm broken and most of my athletes I coach either trained last night, this morning, are injured, working, sick or just not interested today... I still went to the track to hand over a few Club Membership forms I had collected and gave them to Clare (Registrar).
Unofficially my coaching mentor is Burkie, I know that and others close to me probably do too, I hold Peter in such high regards! I believe that I am slightly more aggressive in my approach, but I am also sure that I have picked up some of his conservative approach to the overall training package of an athlete. So I listen & learn as much as I can from a Level 4 coach who has been in the sport for more than 50 years and more importantly is just a really nice guy and a friend! A few weeks ago over dinner we were discussing how a 13 year old boy had moved on to another coach, we discussed how both of us have predominantly females in our squads and how we think this may have been a contributing factor, strange how this has happened. But I digress, Burkie was telling me how he gets upset when athletes move on to other coaches or even more so if they quit the sport, its not a business for Peter it is his passion (my words), I wasn't able to convey any worthwhile thoughts as this hadn't happened to me yet, but I knew eventually it would. I now think I know what he meant. Changing circumstances, different priorities means I don't fit in anymore, many hours of helping/coaching and friendship sometimes seem to 'move on' without you really realising, I now understand what Burkie means.
The ups and downs of life in just one day, the highs of being asked to take on a group and the lows of thinking that you are no longer wanted as a coach.
5 comments:
well hopefully youre not too upset... when i FINALLY get to run again, i still want you to be my very bossy coach ;)
I'm not sure if it affects you coaching athletics, but another difficult aspect of coaching kids in a team sport like basketball is when you have to move kids from one team to another because of their ability (or lack of). Most kids seem to accept it just fine, unfortunately parents are another matter sometimes!
I suppose that's life, things change.
Thanks for your comments over my way, much appreciated.
I've been thinking about joining Western Aths but I'd hate to let people down if I can't make events or training.
That's a difficult situation. Losing athletes to another coach will happen, and you'll gain athletes who leave other coaches. As long as there's no "poaching", and everything is out in the open is the main thing.
The coach is obligated to get the best out of the athlete. If this isn't happening, a coach with a different philosophy/style might help. Tamsyn is a good example. There aren't many athletes who stay with the one coach from U10s to Opens.
Very true Ewen, not every coach suits every athletes.
I haven't lost an athlete to another coach, so no poaching, just a change of goals sees no need for coaching. But no loss of friendship, which is more important (now I just need to remember to be quiet & not try to coach...lol).
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