Old School Coaching in running:
1. An old school coach has the art of coaching down. They can take one look at their athlete without using scientific data and know how the athlete feels. Often they detect the slightest limp before the athlete even knows he or she is injured.
2. An old school coach has a very generalized training plan for the season but everything is subject to change. They don't write down the plan either.
3. New school looks for scientific justifications to avoid volume. Old school doesn't care what the scientific justifications say because the race results say volume is important.
4. Old school doesn't mind repeating the same cycle over and over. They go through running workouts like 10x1000, 3x1.5 mi, 6 mile tempo run for weeks on end before moving on to the next thing. New school changes things up every week because some study says so.
5. Old school could care less about getting USA Track and Field or USA Triathlon coaching certificates. You won't find them at the coaches association meeting either.
6. Dan, if you want to go see a really good old school coach in action go visit Steve Scott at CSU San Marcos :)