News Article on Private Coaches for Track

[rainbowgirl28]

The liability issues mentioned above are important ones that both club and HS coaches should keep in mind.

In my state, WA, the WIAA has said on more than one occasion that anyone who helps a vaulter in a meet can be considered a "coach" for that school. Our state has a rule that prohibits technical coaching between August and the start of track season, so if you were running a year-round club this could be an issue. I haven't heard of any coach/school actually being penalized, but there have been some dicey issues in the past.


I think the majority of the time, PV club coaches and school coaches have positive relationships. I think it's important for club coaches to do whatever is reasonable to foster these positive relationships.

[pickerbuzz]

Private coaching: My take on it.
After coaching track and field for over 30 years at the high school level and being a club coach for over 5 years, I can truly see both sides of the fence. A lot of athletes in high school train off campus in tennis, golf, swimming, etc with club coaches. So there is no reason that a track and field athlete should be any different. No different than math tutoring. You don't get it at your school, go get some help with a tutor. I consider myself a track tutor.

I agree, the majority of track assistant coaches that I know are football coaches, who are assigned a second sport (track) and they treat track and field as their second sport or minor sport. They better or they most probably lose their jobs. Most of these coaches are placed into these positions by their principals with little or no college experience in their sports. That being said... Football for instance, does not need any outside coaching or workout opportunities. They have a year round program available to their athletes and have no use for club athletics. Male track and field athletes, often have to participate in off season workouts then after that go to track practice with one of their coaches who is already burned out from meetings and off season workouts and a full football season.... then spring ball...then 7on seven...you get the idea...

Club PV coaches: A year round program, unlimited amount of vaulting poles, experienced coaching, and a willingness to do just about anything for their vaulters without the pressure to make their sport a minor sport.
High School coaches: Do the best they can with limited vaulting poles, and workout time.

Important: Club coaches need to ALWAYS get permission from the high school coach BEFORE they show up at a meet to coach a high school athlete at a high school meet. This is very important. VERY IMPORTANT! Of course, the opposing high school coaches will scorn you for being there especially when the club athlete beats their athlete.

To high school coaches: Just treat a club coach as a track tutor. We are here to help you with your athletes not compete with you. Sure we have them during the summer, but they wear your school uniform during the school year and after tutoring get better...

[CowtownPV]

I am a high school coach and my views may be a litle different. In Texas we have a rule against private coaches but it is rarely inforced. The rule was put in to keep the wealthy kids from having an advantage over other kids. There is nothing wrong with the athlete getting lessons, going to camps etc but the private coach is not to coach during the contest. We have some great private coaches in our area who do a great job but if we let anyone coach, then those idiots who jumped one year in jr high and think they know everything have to be allowed to coach also. Dads, friends, relatives are anybody else who shows up would be allowed to coach. There has to be some criteria for the job. I also think that I learned the vault to be a better all around track coach and to get points out of an event that we were not scoring in (25 years ago) and other school coaches should do the same. Yet we lost a district championship to a school that does not have a vault coach or throws coach on staff. They have private coaches. We coach all our on kids. Our community and AD expect us to have good teams and we just want to compete on a level playing field.

[VaultPurple]

They have private coaches. We coach all our on kids. Our community and AD expect us to have good teams and we just want to compete on a level playing field.

This is the only part I disagree with. You should not care if you lose a team competition to a team that has three kids that jump 17' because they go to the same private coach. You should be thankful that there is a good private coach in the area there are three kids who are going to most likely go to college with some financial assistance due to training with that private coach. And if you can not coach the vault yourself, you can look in the community and try to find a volunteer because the one thing about pole vaulters is they will go out of their way to help other vaulters. And if you cant find coaching as good as the other schools kids get from the club, well you can't have everything, maybe u should help find your kids a ride to that club!

[CowtownPV]

My kid actually beat the other kids, I do just fine coaching my own. The point is if schools compete against each other then they should go by the same rules. I know its hard with a small staff to cover all the events, I know with limited budgets its hard to afford poles but schools can do it. I now work in a district where money is not a problem for most of my kids and I could sit back and draw a check and let their parents pay a private coach but I don't work that way and I am tried of coaches that do. There are plenty of AAU, USATF and open meets in the summer the private coaches can coach at.

[VaultPurple]

CowtownPV... Read your signature.. That is not a crack at you, but just how it is in general because I agree. If you have a kid that wants to be the best and they don't think they are getting everything they need from their coach, they will exhaust all resources to be the best. Like I said, I know multiple guys who have quit their high school teams to train just with club coaches because they wanted to vault in college and their high school said club coaches were not allowed. If your a senior looking for a big PR, waiting to train in the summer with your club coach is too late.

Your kids have you. I am sure you are a dedicated coach that loves coaching the vault and what is best for your pole vaulters, but those other schools don't have you. In an entire district, maybe one school will have a coach that has any real knowledge of the event, and it is just not fair to limit those athletes access to a private coach. Maybe instead of worrying about them having access to private coaches, maybe you should fight for your kids to have access to private coaches for the events you do not have a coach that specializes in it.

Track and field is about doing what is best for the athletes. And the truth is, the kids that get to train with a private coach all year long are going to be better than the kids that can not. And me looking at pole vaulting as a whole in America, I want the kids across the nation to be the best pole vaulters they can be. And In a sport as specific as pole vaulting, if you have the same coach all year you are at an advantage. Its not about being fair, its about letting the individual athletes become the best pole vaulters they can be. That is what I have always loved about the pole vault, at every meet I have ever gone to, no one is ever trying to beat the competition, they are just trying to PR. And once they do their best, if there are better vaulters left, they stick around and cheer them on just because they like watching people jump high.

[pickerbuzz]

CowtownPV...
You are the exception.... exactly what I stated in the post I made. There ARE good high school vault coaches, I was one... BUT my post was not about guys like you. Most high schools do NOT HAVE VAULT COACHES, POLES, AND TIME TO COACH THE VAULT CORRECTLY. This is where Club coaches come in and HELP the high school coach in any event. No club coach would see the need to coach one of your athletes.

Most athletes migrate to us club coaches because they go to meets and see who is jumping high and want to be a part of that. I have rarely had to recruit an athlete. I make it a policy to not coach an athlete, without contacting the high school coach first. Once again, I know their are GOOD high school coaches out there... I have run into many while coaching high school. I also know that there are a bunch of second sport coaches out there as well....

[baggettpv]

Being a club coach for 25 years I have found it very difficult at time and very rewarding at times to interface with the public school coaches. I like to think about is as team coaching for the kids. While at a meet to watch I like to hang with the school coach and ONLY have the school coach interface with the athlete. I am the event specialist, I have spent years learning technique specifics, training methodology, Sport Psychology, Teaching techniques, curriculum development, task sequencing, competancy learnings and many other things. I don't have the other responsibilities that the HS coaches have and fully respect that. Plus all the constraints that are placed upen them. Believe me, that is one of the reasons I went private! They lead a very difficult live that 3 hours they spend out there. If they are good. Great! If they are not? The end result could be disasterous. ie Death!
I was told once that a coach has thousands of careers (athletes), an athlete has but one. Don't make a mistake, it's far too important.

Rick Baggett
WSTC
USA Senior Coach

[rainbowgirl28]

While at a meet to watch I like to hang with the school coach and ONLY have the school coach interface with the athlete.

This is ideal IMO. The more you can have positive relationships with the school coaches and guide them in the right direction, the better coaches they will be and the safer the sport will be.

[atlegu]

For a non-US reader this thread must be an exotic introduction to "the US-system" of sport. If I had not lived in the US for the last 8 months and had my "under aged" kid training with the high school kids. I would not understand the debate at all. Hello, for everyone else track and field (pole vault included) is an individual sport. It is all about being as good as possible, jumping as high as possible, i.e. setting a new PR as often as possible. If you want to succeed you practice year round, you find the best coach available and you start long before high school. If you are 20 years old and want to be really good, you cut down on studies, and train and live like a top athlete.

High school coaches should be extremely happy if some other wanted to spend time getting US track and US pole vault better. If I were a high school coach and my team lost because the other school had three really good vaulters that practiced with a club, I would be happy. I would also be very happy if some of my kids practiced with one of the many extremely good club coaches around.

Dead periods, or

Our state has a rule that prohibits technical coaching between August and the start of track season,

is for everyone outside US totally strange, actually the whole season system is strange enough. It is impossible to be good in technical events with only four months of practice during a year. Do anyone think Tiger Woods will be good with that kind of rules.

[VaultPurple]

Dead periods only exist for those that follow the rules and for a sport like this that is one worth breaking. Sure they level the playing filed in the state or district, but when it comes to looking into colleges you are competing with kids all over the country. No one wants to graduate jumping 13 for 2 months out of the years and wonder what could have been?

[CowtownPV]

I encourage my kids to go to camps, attend club workouts on Sunday (our rules don't allow school workouts on Sunday) and to jump with others during the fall when I coach football. I do want what is best for kids. I also coach to win and I want the other schools to go by the same rules I do. Then if I get beat, I'll do something about it. I don't see why in track we are so quick to let the hs coaches off the hook. What if the football team didn't have a line coach and all the lineman had to go to a private coach, would the community accept that? In my school district we have some ex-NFL players and a DI college basketball coach who I'm sure could help our kids be better but we don't have them coaching at games. I really see both sides of the issue, many kids need extra coaching, I just don't want it at my district, regional or state meets.