What advice would you give parents and coaches of young athletes? For developing distance runners?

Question

Drew Wartenburg · Answer

What advice would you give parents and coaches of young athletes and for developing distance runners? I think one of the most important things in terms of allowing a young athlete to find his or her own motivation and reason for pursuing any sport, running included, is to hand over some ownership to that young athlete. I think it's great and it's really affirming when you have athletes that will say, you know, I run because my parents or one of my parents runs or I have family influence in a particular sport and that's led me to try it. But eventually it's important to allow the athlete to form a little bit of his or her own identity, allow that person's own intrinsic motivation to drive the process and to sort of figure out that, you know, your own why and to get in touch with the reasons that you are pursuing a particular sport. In the same vein, I think unless you are a parent that coaches, it's important to be a parent and then let the athlete's coach serve that role. It's really hard to straddle the line and some people can do it successfully, but if you are not the coach in name, let the coach coach and be supportive of both the athlete and the coach. And then the final thing that I will sometimes tell people is always make sure the F word is involved and the F word is fun. For young athletes, fun is a premium. They will get better if they're having fun.

Brad Hudson · Answer

So so first and foremost I Would tell parents and coaches to encourage young athletes, okay, get them interested in the sport get them to enjoy it Okay, and there's nothing wrong with really developing their aerobic system You know the greatest athlete in the world one of them Deborah Solasi was running 10k to school back and forth as a little kid. There's nothing wrong with that Okay, encourage them try not to push them too much because you want them to Survive you want them to have a future in the sport and to enjoy the sport if they can enjoy the sport Then they're gonna be motivated for it. The other thing I would do besides working on their aerobic system is find some sport activity that works on Their nervous system like dance Movement, okay, make sure they're doing drills and all that stuff, but definitely like Movement is huge to their success if they can move really well and develop that nervous system while they're young It's gonna allow them to be much more efficient as an athlete Forgetting just the aerobic system the ability to move is huge and you know, there's a great story about the boxer Lomachenko his dad was a boxer and he trained him as a boxer as a kid But before he got serious into the sport and started really fighting his dad said look you need to learn some movement activity and he taught him I think traditional Ukrainian dance or something like that and He moves so amazingly well if you watch him box, okay, so Definitely don't neglect the nervous system. Yes. We want to go after the aerobic system Yes, you want your kids have a little bit of success They need to be pushed probably a little bit at times But we don't want them to have too much success just enough that they're still hungry They're motivated And most importantly they enjoy the sport

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"What advice would you give parents and coaches of young athletes? For developing distance runners?"