Except in rare cases the drive to train effectively won’t take hold until high school (and even then not for everyone). Ultimate Frisbee, Indian Runs, Form Drills, these are things middle schoolers can have fun and be social doing. Hardass drill instructor middle school coaches will only make kids hate running and never get to the point where they can dedicate themselves to the sport.
I was pretty sure I emphasised that in my post. Don’t forget that I was a certified teacher. I also ran middle school track.
I agree with you, but there is a big difference between having fun in the context of the sport and having fun outside of the context of the sport. Playing “running games” teaches them to have fun “running.” Playing non-running games teaches them that running sucks so we play other sports instead.
That doesn’t mean that you can’t play frisbee, but that a coach needs to really keep in mind what message is being sent to the kids.
we used Ultimate Frisbee as our interval runs
Instead of doing our Sunday run in college the entire XC team would play ultimate frisbee for 4hrs. Sure beat running for 90min. Which might explain why we only had 1-2 guys running sub 25min for 8k and a bunch of us in the mid 27:00s.
I am currently coaching middle school x-country and have done so for 3 years. It’s all about fun. I’ve had zero kids so far who I thought I could push to do well. They just aren’t ready for the preasure. We do little stretching (I think it causes injuries) and even if it doesn’t getting everyone to do it right is difficult. Since the distances for middle school top out at 2 miles we just run intervals. Mostly we race each other doing short hills and repeats up to the 2 miles. LOTS AND LOTS of praise. Bribery helps too. And finally lots of warm up. That’s especially important race day. I also ask the kids what routes they’re interested in and we often vote on which route.
That all said I’m sure I could do better but the above seems to work for us.
My wife coaches middle school track. They’ve developed a pretty good program (0 to over 100 kids in 3 years, a couple indivdial league champions). You have to make it fun but also make it a “serious” program. That does not mean you have to work the kids to death but they need to feel they are part of a team and it is a “serious” endevor as opposed to just an activity. Once that happens, they will come to practice every day and the training will take care of itself. Great teams are built on spirit first, training second.
Get them some singlets or at least team t-shirts for the races. Treat it seriously and they will too.
Final note - you’re number one responsibility is to not hurt anyone. Accept the fact that even though you are a triathlete, chances are good you don’t know squat about actually training 7th and 8th graders. My wife’s biggest problem as a track coach is dealing with the triathlete and marathon running parents who think they know something but don’t.
I’m a fellow middle school cross country coach (my second year) however I don’t fully understand the program at your school. The kids are hand picked? No practice? Anyways, at my school, there are no tryouts, so we have a huge range of abilities. There are 60 kids on the team (up from 15 last year) out of a total of 260 in the whole school. The fastest couple are FAST (6:20 miles or so) and the slowest couple pretty much walk the entire race. Lots of great comments from the above, but here is what I’ve found: The key is to make it FUN. In my opinion it shouldn’t be super competitive and there shouldn’t be crazy training plans or elaborate practices. The key is to get them running and to help them enjoy running. The destination runs are great, but we don’t have any destinations to go to (can’t leave school grounds for liability reasons), so I have them run our cross country course which provides a bit of a “destination”. Some days we do some intervals, but I think the kids benefit from long runs more than intervals from my experience (most kids have endurance as a limiter, not speed). I also break them up into 4 groups depending on ability. For a long run, I will do the following for a 30 minute run session: Level 1’s: Complete the xc course (1.6 miles) Level 2’s: an 800 then the xc course Level 3’s: 2x around the xc course Level 4’s: try to complete 3x’s around the course, but more likely only finish 2.5. The kids like this because it gives them a sense of accomplishment when finishing, and they like to work hard to try and advance to the next level.
I have tried indian runs but find that the line always breaks up quickly, so they don’t work unless you have a small team or can make groups of similar ability. I’ve also tried ultimate frisbee on occasion but like someone said, they get the idea that there are more fun things to do than run. Also, middle schoolers CANNOT accurately throw a frisbee (I’ve tried teaching, but find it is more of a highschool skill for most). Other fun things are relays and a game where the slower runners get a head start around the xc course, and the goal is for them to not be caught by the runners leading at certain periods of time later. The fastest runners leave last and try to catch the ones who left first. Whatever you do, try to make it fun and smile and let them know how much you appreciate their hard work.
I also try hard to not injure kids. If they are complaining of injuries, make them take it easy and rest, also try to talk with the parents about the injury. A million kids play on 2 or more teams, so it’s likely they go from xc practice to soccer practice and get little rest throughout the week.
Another thing is try to harp on individual improvement. I try to mention every kid who PR’s so the rest of the team acknowledges the achievement. I think the overall program shouldn’t be too competitive or serious. That is what high school and beyond is for. The goal should be to get as many kids to enjoy running as possible. Good luck and try to run with them on occasion!
Keep it fun for them with a lot of “activities” that they enjoy while they are actually working out. If you call it working out too often they tend to get discouraged and quit. Also, and to me most importantly, keep them IN SIGHT as much as possible so they actually do what you are expecting them to do. Those of lesser talent might tend to walk quite a bit and keeping them where you can see them actually keeps them on task. Coaching middle schoolers can be a real blast because of the energy they have and later, when some develop their abilities and become quite good, you can take a great deal of pride in your influence on them, something that is not as palpable when working with those “cherry picked” from the ranks.
Okay, thanks. One comment about the cherry picking - the PE teacher knew he didn’t have time to coach them - so he would pick the fastest runners from each class. They have to run at or under a 7 minute mile for a mile to get on the team. And he would put them in races when they are available - because many play basketball and soccer with him which go on at the same time.
The thing I have observed though from watching all the schools race is that for the boys it is really competitive and they go out so hard, like a 5 minute mile pace in the heat and after the first lap the ones who are not fast really get frustrated because they get left so far behind and some are throwing up and have bad side stitches. That is why I offered to help coach ours because I felt sorry for them to have to run like that with so little training.
Anything we do will be better than what we are doing already. I know I don’t want any injuries so will be conservative for sure.
We had one really overweight kid who tried to keep up on our long run and he can’t even walk it. And I thought it was mean of his mom to just dump him off. I don’t know what to do with him because all of the others are so much faster.
After yesterday I see they need to work on distance and endurance. I think we will do long warmups and then keep our 1.5 mile loop for the long day and then a long warm up and fun fartleks around our park on our speed day. I am sending home a flyer to the parents and encouraging them to run/rollerblad/bike with them every day for at least 15 minutes.
Thanks to everyone so far. Luckily I have found a few parents and a teacher who have xc experience and want to help, too.
you should have a dual meet coincide with a football game – start and finish on the track at halftime. (would that work, like 20 minutes or so?). do a lap/half a lap, run out of the football area, do part of the course, and finish up with a lap in front of the crowd. i always wanted to do this at my high-school: tons of people, school spirit, hell, even a band, and some recognition for those cross-country guys (they never really had a ton of fan support)
you get the same teams – the other school/bus was coming anyway
you get lots of fans to a cross-country meet
and you geta stadium finish – olympic marathon style
you could do it at any well-attended sporting event (if your school has a big soccer program or whatever).
anyway, that would be a really big carrot/event/showpiece to have as incentive.
I coached middle school track and HS track/XC when I first got out of college; I agree with a lot of the previous suggestions about doing something to make it fun but also to give them the opportunity to enjoy running. If you have access to a network of trails or running through the woods, take advantage of it. Someone mentioned Indian files (guess you’d have to come up with a different name to appease the PC crowd these days). The occasioanl track workout couldn’t hurt, especially for those on the team that are thinking of continuing running in HS.
“Native American Files” or “Aborignal Files”. Keep it fun, and just get them running, the biggest thing is giving them the confidence to run the whole distance. Most middle School cross races are a series of sprints and then walks… If they go a bit slower but run the whole thing, they’ll be fine. You don’t want to overtrain them, because their bodies are still developing and you don’t want to burn them out.
