ArkansasTrackStats.com

Commentary.......Coaches Comments.....Building a Championship Program

12/19/2000

Because of the team and individual successes of my runners in my five 
years at Mountain Home, I am frequently asked, ”What is your secret?”. 
There must be some kind of magic, right? Of course there are no secrets. As 
the old coaching cliché goes, “All has been done before.” Everything I have 
done has been done at one time or another but I chose to do some things that 
worked for me and eliminated the rest. You should have your own coaching 
philosophy about running and sport in general. The things you choose to do 
with your program will likely reflect those values in your coaching 
philosophy.

While there are no secrets, I also believe that championship levels do not 
happen by chance. The secret to a team lies in team each year. It is up to 
you as coach to find or unlock that secret- that motivational team bonding 
mixed with the appropriate workouts to release each team’s potential. While 
this may sound like empty rhetoric to some, those coaches that are pushing 
themselves and gaining experience will find what I am saying is true. I 
have yet to do the same things each year. Those that believe in secrets are 
those looking for shortcuts and who HOPE their teams will run well. Rather 
than putting forth any real effort for the sake of their runners, some 
coaches look for quick fixes and lose credibility with their runners at some 
point. Look to challenge yourself as a coach, be willing to change, but 
mostly be there for all members of your team. The point? If you are 
expecting success, your drive or motivation has to come from teaching kids. 
Period. It’s work; hard work. South Carolina Coach Curtis Frye explained 
at last year’s coaching clinic that there are athletes at this very moment 
sitting at home wanting so much to learn; to excel at something. They want 
and need for YOU to do all you can to help them achieve...something. Shame 
on those coaches who coach just for the paycheck! It is up to you to learn 
how to become part of your athletes so you can teach, coach, and relate to 
them at their level. While you can not coach desire, you can teach the 
tools necessary for the kids to use their desire to achieve whatever level 
that they desire. Provide those tools to them! Go for a run, read about 
your sport, learn about your sport, begin a philosophy of how you believe 
sports should be taught. Develop a training system that makes sense to 
your athletes. How many coaches today have you seen that “fly by the seat 
of their pants” approach? Have you ever had a coach that didn’t know what 
the workout was until just the start of practice? Challenge yourself to 
become better. Your athletes will see this and respect you for it. You will 
then be in a position that you can credibly challenge your runners to become 
better. They will be better runners, better athletes, and better people by 
their participation in this great sport of distance running.
What I have given you is some of my beliefs to building a successful 
program. These are the “big” things. I have found that as I change what I 
do based on the dynamics of each years teams, it is the little things that 
get to a championship level. Those, almost insignificant, unseen things 
that coaches can do to take a team a notch higher, a notch better than 
everyone else. This is where you make a program your very own. Those 
little things you and your runners do to unlock your teams potential. This 
is as close to any secret as any credible coach will get!

Courtesy: Clint Pevril, Head Cross Country Coach
                  Mountain Home, Arkansas

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