Talking Points on Track & Field in Tennessee
The State Track & Field Championship meet this season was well-organized and the performances were superb as usual. That wasn’t the end of Track season this year in TN by any means though. As has been the case over the past few years, several athletes are continuing into the summer at various meets. This is a very encouraging trend if you are an enthusiast of Track & Field. These summer athletes are entering meets that include some local meets, USATF, AAU and even some national meets.
If you watched or were at any of the major track meets this summer, you may have got a glimpse of a few former TN athletes. At the USATF championships in Sacramento, former West High School athlete Jackie Coward made the semifinals in the 100 hurdles. Andrew Bumbalough was second to a fairly famous athlete - Bernard Lagat in the 5000M at the same meet. At the USATF Junior Championships 2013 Long Jump state champ Phillip Smith (West Creek and now Lipscomb) getting a 7th place finish in the triple jump. And some current (or recently graduated) athletes are making some noise as well. Carlton Orange (MUS) ran in the 800 finals by way of a PR of 1:50.97 to get in that spot at the USATF Juniors. Harrison Williams is going to represent the US in the Decathlon at the World Junior Championships at the famous Hayward Field in Eugene Oregon after winning the Decathlon in the USATF Juniors with a whopping 7734 points. Also, D1 sprint Champion, Maia McCoy and D2 Decathlon runner up George Patrick will represent TN in the USATF Region 6 championships at Samford University this weekend with hopes of going Texas for the USATF Nationals. Janel Pate, runner up in the 100 at state will also be shooting for a spot in the nationals in kind of a rematch of the state championships. Very exciting!
Bottom line, the state of Track & Field in Tennessee is very healthy at the moment and more and more athletes are getting involved. With that in mind, we are throwing out a few topics of discussion about track. There isn’t any logic to these topics just some that happen to be on the mind at the moment. Let us know whatever you think and what may be on your mind related to Track & Field. Ok, well… on with it then….
Topic 1: Schedule. This is nothing new, but the State track schedule was changed for this past season. The 4x800 started off the running events, the 3200 was later in the day and some other events switched around a bit. Some people have commented that they like the new schedule and some say they don’t. From what I can tell, it seems to depend on what your strength is and the size and talent level of the team.
If you put a lot of emphasis on your sprinters and sprint relays but don’t have a lot of depth, then this schedule probably really stinks for you. The 100H, 4x200, 100Dash and 4x100 are all entirely too close together to run one person in all four events. Even taking the hurdles out, it’s still a tall order for one athlete to do these events. On the distance side, and if your 800 runner is also a 1600 runner, you can put them in the 4x800, 1600 and 800 and expect a reasonable amount of rest between each event to get a decent result from an athlete. Of course, as an athlete it does bring a better situation if you want to run those three events. Of course, 2 800’s and a 1600 in one meet can be a hurting proposition for an athlete and so the training will require some very good preparation. If your 3200 runner is also on the 4x800 or can run a 1600 decently, and you also have a small group here, then those athletes are going to be tired if they tackle the 3200 too. Of course, this all has to be weighted out based on the propensity for athletes to get injured too – sprints and distance. So, I really don’t care for the new schedule and would prefer the old (or some other version). I would especially prefer seeing the 3200 run in the morning (never did care for the D2 running the evening before).
Different states run their state Track & Field championships in various configurations. Here’s a sampling of how some other state schedule their running events at their championships:
|
California |
Texas |
Mississippi |
Tennessee |
|
400M Relay |
3200M – Morning |
3200M |
3200M Relay |
|
1600M Run |
400M Relay |
100/110 Hurdles |
100/110 Hurdles |
|
100/110 Hurdles |
800M Run |
100M Dash |
100M Dash |
|
400M Dash |
100/110 Hurdles |
800M Relay |
800M Relay |
|
100M Dash |
100M Dash |
1600M Run |
1600M |
|
800M Run |
800M Relay |
400M Relay |
400M Relay |
|
300M Hurdles |
400M Dash |
400M Dash |
400M Dash |
|
200M Dash |
300M Hurdles |
300M Hurdles |
300M Hurdles |
|
3200M Run |
200M Dash |
800M Run |
800M Run |
|
1600M Relay |
1600M Run |
200M Dash |
200M |
|
|
1600M Relay |
1600M Relay |
3200M Run |
|
|
|
|
1600M Relay |
There are a lot of states that don’t run the 4x800 relay. I’m personally not a big fan of that relay. But for some schools with a strong cross country focus, it can be a pretty strong event for them during the track season. And some (like New York) run the 400M hurdles over the 300’s and a 2000M/3000M steeplechase is part of their state championships. And some even do the Race Walk but it doesn’t seem to be a state contested event. Also, some states run the boys and girls on the same days (still over a two day period though). There are a lot of differences how track meets are managed across the US and so there are a lot more opportunities for TSSAA when it comes to Track in this state.
Sometimes track schedules are set up to allow for athletes to compete in multiple events with adequate rest, sometimes they are set up to get through in the shortest time…. But whatever the reason, in my opinion, the primary objective of the schedule should be to set up the meet in a way that gives every single athlete across the state the best chance to compete at the highest level possible on that given day. Any ideas on a better schedule to accomplish that?
Topic 2: Hand Timing. Let’s start with one thing, and that is that I am not suggesting that everyone go out and buy a very expensive FAT system just so they can get out of hand timing all their meets. That’s not fiscally responsible for everyone. However, going to FAT timed meets is an easy task. Schools – especially if they have a potential state level athlete – should make the effort to enter a meet with FAT timing so their athletes can have legitimate seed times for future large meets. There are meets all over the state that you can enter without spending a dime.
Now for a little soap box time. One of the most annoying – and unethical in my opinion – is the posting of poorly handled hand-timed events. I have no problem with a hand-timed meet since some places just don’t have the dollars to spend on FAT systems. Let say you have a girl that has run a FAT time of 12.25 in the 100 and she runs a hand-timed 100 of 11.84 with a strong helping wind. So you round up (11.9) and add the .24 and she gets a 12.14. Is that legitimate? Close, but yes it’s legitimate, so she gets the “h” next to the time and go ahead and publish that mark. What about if you have a guy that has run a FAT time of 10.98 and you see that he runs a 10.50 in a hand-timed meet? If it was properly adjusted, that means he would have had to run around a 10.24 or something close to that (with some fudging on the rounding up part). As a coach and meet director do you publish the 10.5 time? Not even if somebody paid you to! Learn how to use a clock, and throw that meet, and especially that time, out the window and forget it ever happened!
Topic 3: Qualifying Standards. Should Track meets such as your Sectional meet require qualified meet performances? What I mean is, should athletes have run in a legitimate meet (FAT of course) prior to these state qualifying level meets? Some states do require this for their state qualifying meets and it seems a few more are coming on board too. The idea here is to be sure that an athlete isn’t just thrown into an event to fill a spot – a spot that a legitimate track and field athlete could use to help them get to compete at the state level and maybe open an opportunity to compete in college.
I’ve noticed some meets have set informal standards based on previous years performances as a ‘guideline’ for coaches to enter their athletes into specific meets. There are other meets that set standards of performance so they can control the size and time it takes to complete a meet. Of course, if injury was a legitimate factor, using the previous year’s mark could be an option (providing of course that athlete wasn’t already participating in another spring sport).
I am a firm believer that no athlete should be allowed to run in a Regional or Sectional meet without having to at least run something that season – not necessarily the specific event they will run, but at least participate in some track meet during that season. So yes, in my opinion the end of season meets should require legitimate times posted that season. What do you think?
Topic 4: Quality – and Quantity - of Athletes in the State. This is a bit of a double edged sword in some respects. Comparing TN results to massive states like New York, Texas, California and so on might not seem fair and primarily so because of the number of athletes there are involved in the sport. But the number of TN athletes that have posted top National marks has been significant none the less.
As I mentioned at the start of this article, several athletes have decided to take their training to another level by continuing through the summer with some positive results. Several middle schools have started Track programs over the past couple of years, so this will bring younger athletes into the mix even more. From this perspective, we see athletes starting younger and taking their talents to meets outside the typical regular season duals. Track is growing in this state.
Last year there were 3,248 posted times for the girls 100M dash in Tennessee. This year 3,556 girls ran the distance – about a ten percent increase. Since 2010, we’ve seen a whopping 43% increase with this sprint event and just about equal numbers across all the other events as well. Surprisingly enough, the TN numbers are only about 2% of the national volumes. But another surprising stat, TN’s growth rate is about ten percent faster than across the nation. And yes, more meets are being posted on-line to increase the data that’s available, but bottom line, more TN athletes are taking a shot at the sport of Track & Field!
But all this doesn’t mean that TN can’t compete across the country on performance scales…. Track is run on a 400M track. Maybe TN doesn’t have gazillion athletes to choose from, but it only takes one to move into the top of the national rankings. It’s the desire of the athlete, talent of the coach, support structure around the athlete, and in some cases, just a safe place for the athlete to be able to train if that’s what they want to do. I’ve seen a lot of schools open up their facilities to all year so they can train. Sometimes for specific hours of the day, sometimes all day…. Within reason, I believe this needs to happen more so that we can promote track and field to more potential super stars.
Topic 5: Parent Involvement – and how much. I’ve noticed these past few years that the more the parents are involved in the development of the Track & Field athlete, the better the chance that athlete will succeed. Sometimes even when they help with some of the coaching. But to make it work requires a tight balancing act. There needs to be a realistic view of capabilities – of the athlete, the coach and the parent. Having a parent push an athlete to run a 9.64 in the 100 when the fastest they’ve ever run to date was a 12 second sprint – well, you get the picture. But a parent can provide coaching assistance if they have that talent and besides, who is in a better position to understand the athletes daily temperament. Who better to identify a potential for an injury or better to control the rehab of an injury. A parent can be a huge asset to the Track & Field coach – but only when they are knowledgeable about the sport and have the best interest of the athlete in mind. So… I wonder what the perspective is from coaches and athletes on having parents help out with coaching (at some level).
Topic 6: Supplemental Coaching. Nowadays, there are all kinds of coaches out there that athletes are turning to so that they can get the extra work needed to excel at this sport. Very few schools have the staff or the dollars to fund all the coaches that a really talented and dedicated Track & Field athlete could possibly need. That’s even truer if they are a multi-event athlete where it’s almost a necessity to have multiple coaches. The technical pieces of most of the Track & Field events require a very detailed knowledge in order to teach it right. And when you really get down to it, every single event in track and field can be broken down to the most complicated and microscopic detail that it’s almost impossible to have one coach knowledgeable enough to teach everything needed to perfect all the events.
So, in comes the specialized coaching. And with that comes the question on whether it’s a good thing for athletes to have more than one coach. This too requires a delicate balance to make it work. When a track program is limited on the coaches they have available to correctly teach athletes all the details in the Track events, then yes, it is a good idea for the athlete to reach out for additional coaching. This too is a balancing act between the two or more coaches involved. But it’s a balancing act that when done well – and everyone’s ego is put aside - is a really huge asset to that athletes development as a true track and field athlete. Not to mention the overall benefit to the Track & Field team.
Topic 6: Indoor & Summer Track. We all know that here in Tennessee, your high school team can only compete between March and end of May. For an athlete in this state to enter a summer or winter meet, they have to do it unattached or as a part of a club team. There are exceptions, but it’s tough to go through everything needed to get that exception. A lot of other states follow this same philosophy, but some do not. So, what do you think – should TSSAA do an indoor championship meet? Or at least say it’s ok for schools to enter a team. And in the summer – a time when track & field is flourishing – shouldn’t legitimate track athletes (and coaches) be exempt from the dead period (it does occur during some pretty big meets). Maybe we need some type of group – a coaches and/or athletes council – to come up with ideas to better the sport of track each season. Just like every other sport at the high school level, the short regular season isn’t enough to develop athletes properly. Especially if the athlete has goals to run at the next level.
So after looking at everything with Track & Field in this state, I’d say TN does have a good solid foothold in the sport. Yes, we could see some schools do more to promote the sport and share athletes across sports. Overall though, the number of athletes giving Track & Field a shot (yes, a pun!) is increasing and the level of athleticism is definitely improving. Can we do better? Of course. Are we going to do better? Well…. That’s in your hands.
See you on the Track!
Coach Ted