December 4, 2014
For today’s blog, I’m gonna share what I’ll call smh Moments. Moments that just made me shake my head. All coaches have them. Here are some highlights from my career:
1. Back in my early days, I had a new hurdler, really fast and athletic, with lots of potential. On the first day of introducing her to blocks, she had trouble, as all beginners do, with angles, pushing out, driving, etc. But I thought she made decent progress. The next time practicing blocks, maybe two days later, she saw me bringing the block cart to the track and said, “Do I have to use those?” “Of course,” I said, “why wouldn’t you?” “I don’t like using blocks,” she answered, “they slow me down.”
2. With the youth track team I coach for in the summer, I like to have practice with the hurdlers at 5 so we can get started before the rest of the team comes at 6. That gives us more space and makes it easier to focus. One day last summer, one of my hurdlers texted me at 5:30 talkin’ ‘bout, “I’m gonna be a little late to practice.”
3. About ten years ago, on the first day of outdoor practice, one of the new kids showed up wearing old-school Chuck Taylors. The canvas joints.
4. Again about ten years ago, my school team was competing in a weekday meet against two other teams, neither of which had a boys 4×1 team. All we had to do was get the stick around. The second leg just stood there when first leg came sprinting into the zone. So of course they crashed into each other, the baton fell to the ground and clink-clinked out of the lane. The kid running second leg was the same kid who’d worn the Chuck Taylors.
5. Last year one of my athletes asked another athlete, between sets of a hurdle workout, “Can I have some of your Gatorade?” The other athlete responded, “It’s Kool-Aid.” And it really was.
6. This one happened in like my second or third year of coaching. A new athlete, who was actually pretty talented, walked up to me, about a week into the outdoor season, and asked: “Can I just practice with the team but not run in the meets?”
7. At State finals about four years ago, a sprinter who’d been running the sprint relays all year walked up to me during the mile and asked, “Hey Coach, do you know when the 4×1 is?”
8. About three years ago, on the second day of a weekend youth meet, one of my first-year hurdlers who had qualified for the finals the previous day was warming up, when I noticed he didn’t have his bib number on his uniform. Assuming he had it in his bag or had maybe given it to one of his parents, I asked, “Where’s your bib number?” Absolutely oblivious to the fact that he couldn’t compete without one, he answered, “I don’t know.” Somehow, he had lost it. I had to pay $5 to get him a new one. There goes my funnel cake money.
9. The only time I felt no compassion for a hurdler who fell: last year I had a girl who hadn’t been to practice in three weeks. I’d assumed she had quit. She came back one day like she had never left, came late and jumped right into the workout without stretching or warming up. The hurdlers were doing 300’s that day, clearing the first and last two hurdles of the race. So of course, she crashed and burned. Face-first, on the first of the last two. Everybody laughed. Even soccer players who were practicing in the infield.
10. The only other time I felt no compassion for a hurdler who fell: I had a group of new kids learning hurdling mechanics last year. We started with side drills, then progressed to over the top. One girl tripped and fell. It wasn’t a bad fall, but one of the other new kids was weak with laughter, rolling on the ground, pointing at her and imitating her. No one else laughed. The very next rep was his turn. He tripped and fell too, and we all had a good laugh.
