Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: Sammy Dabbs-High School Coach vs Club Coach debate

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BONUS: Sammy Dabbs-High School Coach vs Club Coach debate · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

0:00
Hey everybody! Mike getting him here.
0:02
Host of The Gila headaches, connections podcast, quick,
0:04
little bonus episode for you here, Sammy dabs, great hurdler.
0:08
Coach down in Texas. Has worked on the high school
0:11
college. Professional levels would
0:13
success on all three levels recently did an Instagram live
0:17
talking about the club, coach and high school coach debate if
0:21
you will and while it's very centered around Texas and his
0:24
experiences we thought that this might be good material for
0:27
everybody to listen. So enjoy say Amy Dabbs.
0:43
So, after this weekend, being up in Lubbock Texas, sick at the
0:50
high school Invitational me, I was driving back and just kind
0:55
of reflecting on the on the meat and those who had not had a
0:59
chance to see the results from the Meet Up In Love Again.
1:03
Texas Tech quite impressive board to be a nun Championship,
1:08
me, and with the amount of time that I've been around high
1:11
school track, Field for the last 10 years.
1:15
It's probably one of the most impressive high school track
1:18
meets especially if and ordered I've ever been around and the
1:22
reason it was so impressive, it wasn't just the quality of the
1:27
performances. It was the depth of the
1:30
performances. So if you go in about a month,
1:35
you're going to have mid major programs across the country
1:38
started to have their indoor conference meats.
1:41
And so we started looking at the Sun Belt Conference USA, the wag
1:45
Mountain West and you start looking at these results from
1:50
these coppers mates and then you go back and look at the results
1:53
from Texas Tech. And you look at what the top
1:56
eight, what it, what it takes to make the final of these kind of
1:59
person eats, and then you go back and look at Texas Tech, you
2:01
want to realize like, whoa, you had a high school competition
2:06
that had results that were very similar and along the same lines
2:11
of what the Collegiate meat is now.
2:13
I've seen Big Time High School meets like this before but they
2:18
were in March in New York, not in January, in Texas.
2:25
So that was what was so impressive.
2:27
And then the depth of the me, the fact that you had, I want to
2:31
say, 50 plus girls over 125 seconds indoors.
2:36
The fact that I think you had somewhere along the lines,
2:40
almost 40, 30 to 40 boys. Who ran under seven flat indoors
2:46
in 60-80. In these are numbers of the
2:48
pretty ridiculous. I mean, to me, top 16.
2:51
You had to run under 772 be top 16 for high school girls.
2:56
These are really, really like, you know, at least status type
2:59
numbers. So that was what was impressive
3:01
to myself. Now, albeit are definitely was,
3:05
you know, we you were in Lubbock, Texas.
3:07
So, there were some altitude, but regardless, the competition
3:12
was top-notch. So when you start talking about
3:16
indoor track, the first thing you have to look into an indoor
3:19
track is where these kids coming from who are competing indoors
3:24
because very few high school programs are actually taking a
3:28
team or taken athletes to an indoor meet and so, who are the
3:33
people who are getting these at these to the meats and it's
3:37
their parents, it's your Club. Coaches is their private
3:40
coaches. These are the ones who are are
3:45
being very sporting looking for proactive in making sure that
3:50
the athletes one, they get their season started a little bit
3:53
early, but they get a chance to get the experience of what
3:56
college is. So as a former college coach who
4:00
did it for 11 years, a person whose work for high school
4:03
athletes foot 10 years now, in a person who actually owns a High
4:08
School record indoors, indoor track is very important whether
4:12
people like it or not. If you run track in college,
4:16
nine times out of ten, you are going to have to run indoor
4:21
track. And if you have to run into a
4:23
track, then it's something that if you have the experience on in
4:27
the college, it can be a huge benefit for you.
4:30
If you don't your person who has a decent amount of money that
4:34
lack of experience in doors could cost you.
4:36
So having the indoor experience as a huge deal in my opinion and
4:41
this is coming from somebody again who actually Close knit
4:44
college. So right now we have a big
4:48
debate in Texas and it's across the country.
4:51
But in Texas, it's a huge thing and you have a fight.
4:58
Yep. You have a fight between the
5:01
high school programs and the club and the private sector and
5:05
myself. Being a private coach, who
5:08
coached in college, who had full control over his kids and over
5:12
his program, I definitely get a chance to see kind of little bit
5:17
from both sides. So, one of the first athletes
5:23
that I work with, that was a nun College athlete.
5:25
And this is back. When I first started coaching,
5:28
Young lady, who her high school. She had a new coach every year
5:36
for four years. Now, think about that every
5:40
year, you have a new coach, so there's no continuity, there's
5:44
no relationship, there's no history, there's nothing that's
5:48
going on. And so, by the time, she got to
5:50
be a senior, her parents made the decision that it was better
5:54
for her to graduate early and compete.
5:58
Eat in the meats that were available versus the stay and
6:02
run for her fourth. High School coach at the side at
6:05
the high school. So this young lady, we made the
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decision that she wanted to run hurdles.
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So she's an 11-9, 11h Sprinter who wanted to learn hurdles.
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Well, we ended up running a full indoor season and because me,
6:21
being in the college world. The way I was, I knew the meats
6:26
I could get her into and computer unattended.
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Attached, small low-key image. Well, she ended up running 14-1
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by the end of that year and getting a full scholarship to a
6:38
school that was in the Sun Belt Conference at the time.
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So it worked out for her, but she had a brand-new event which
6:45
was the hurdles. Well she was working with a
6:47
person who was coaching hurdles in college.
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Now, Would we have gotten the same outcome had?
6:54
We done that same thing and she stayed at the high school.
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We have no idea. But the high school coach
7:00
probably would not have been as open to her doing only to hurdle
7:05
stuff with myself because she was just learning that versus
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sharing her with a coach at school.
7:12
So that was the decision. We made it paid off for her, she
7:16
got a full scholarship to college and you know, we were
7:20
good today. Was my first kind of encounter.
7:23
This was right around 2007 that I had this encounter and so it
7:32
allowed me to look at some things on a different basis.
7:34
So, a situation like that, what do you tell a parent who their
7:39
local high school has had a different coach every year.
7:44
Alright, different philosophies, you don't know the coach may or
7:47
may not care as much if you're a parent and you're in a situation
7:51
like Like that. I have to get my kids, some
7:53
outside, help. I have to, I mean, what other
7:56
choice do I have? Because every year, the coach
7:59
there, they've been changing coaches at the school.
8:01
So, parents are put in situations where they have to
8:05
make some decisions at times. So starting to get into my
8:10
notes. Let's see some of the main
8:15
issues that from the private sector and Club coaches that
8:22
they may have with the high school programs.
8:24
Okay? So I hear this a lot, the track
8:30
coach at school is a football coach or a basketball coach, or
8:36
has another coaches. And number one, sport and track
8:39
is our number two sport. So they don't feel like the
8:43
coach invest every opportunity into being the best track coach
8:48
that he can be and just looks at the program as well.
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This is just my number two coaches, who do not pursue any
8:57
additional type of coaching education who literally do not,
9:01
try to get better, they just take what they got and they Just
9:04
Go With It year. After year, older coaches, who
9:08
have been around for a significant amount of time.
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I'm who unfortunately are still coaching the exact same way that
9:14
they did when they first started and you have now a huge
9:19
transition when you talk about technology and even just the way
9:24
that the athletes and the kids are today and you're still
9:28
trying to do things the way you did.
9:30
So much longer goes like no and the other big issue I hear
9:34
coming up in front of the club and the private sector is a lack
9:38
of proper offseason program. Which for me the fact that a lot
9:47
of programs have offseason but you have coaches who've never
9:51
had to go through an offseason program.
9:54
That was one of the main reason I actually started doing my
9:57
clinics. And the reason I did clinics is
10:00
because all I was hearing programs doing it.
10:03
All season will bleachers, miles and weight room.
10:08
And that was it and I'm like there's so much more that can be
10:12
done in the offseason outside or running, bleachers, running
10:15
miles and render repeat for hundreds.
10:17
Like there's so much more that can be done.
10:19
So that was that some of the issues that I've heard from the
10:25
club and private sector that people have with High School
10:28
coaches, high school code for everyone in college.
10:32
I'll be honest, I have not. I used to think that that was a
10:36
prerequisite, but to be honest. After now, 21 years of coaching
10:42
at a lot of my, former athletes, who are, who are now current
10:45
college, coach High School coaches, and a lot of them do
10:48
not remember half of what they did in college and high school.
10:52
I mean college is from a coaching standpoint from the
10:55
athletes that point. They don't remember the
10:57
day-to-day things that they did and And they have some structure
11:01
in your head, but when they really get down to it ages,
11:04
like, I do not, I don't know where to start, they don't
11:08
remember the X's and O's on the specifics of from a coaching
11:11
standpoint. So that was one of those things.
11:14
One of the problems I hear now because I do planning some
11:21
because I support a lot of High School coaches.
11:23
And I mean, I'm a big supporter of a high school coach because a
11:26
lot of times, they don't, they can be put in the wrong.
11:29
Operation and be labeled just like club and private.
11:31
Coaches, can be labeled a lot of the issues that a lot of the
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High School coaches have with club and private people.
11:37
There's number one, not acknowledging that the of the
11:40
high school coach or the season actually exist and that's a big
11:45
one for me to not acknowledge the high school coach to not
11:51
acknowledge that they have a season that your, that your
11:55
season is more important in errors and supersedes.
11:57
No, it does not work that way. Undermining the high school
12:02
program. That's another big one.
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Coaches, who literally say well they don't know what they're
12:07
going to school. They're not going to do X Y and
12:10
Z. So or on the other side, that's
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all you did. You need to do some more.
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So here's what we're going to do.
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And I've seen kids, leave a tough day at the high school
12:26
practice and then turn around and having even tougher.
12:29
Day at the next practice and you keep putting those days on top
12:34
of each other. That kid is going to break at
12:36
some point or they're going to be overturned another one.
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I say I call it being a foe and not a friend going to the meat
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being in the stands, causing problems coaching kids from the
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stands. Those things are very
12:54
unnecessary yet. We see it happened over and over
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and over. You know, when people ask me,
13:01
they say well what about your dad's assignment to a high
13:04
school meet since 2016? The only meat you're going to
13:07
see me yet or these indoor meets where I actually get a chance to
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go coach the kids at these enduring weeks and then
13:12
throughout the high school season.
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Hey, I'm going to stay in my lane and I want to stay away.
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I don't ever want a coach looking over their shoulder
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thinking that I'm doing something from the stands, or
13:24
undermining them in some type of way.
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I'm not going to do that because I wouldn't want it done to me.
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And so I stay as far away as I can and never guard.
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So those are some of the basic issues you hear from both sides
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and you're going to hear me talk about things from both both
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sides and both perspectives because a lot of times you have
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the people in depriving the club sector, who never look at it
13:48
from the high school section perspective and vice versa, you
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have some time private and you have High School coaches, who
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never look at things from a from a privacy perspective.
14:00
So like so let's look at a good example.
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If I makea this asteroid and running with summer track when I
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was eight, And I've been running with the same program forever
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from the time. I was 8 2014, I've developed a
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relationship with a coach and a program.
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Then I get to high school and now I have a new coach.
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Well, it's going to be very hard for that person walking in on
14:24
day one just to have total buy-in and everything when the
14:28
person that they've been with, for the last that space, six
14:31
years, all of their success has come from working with this
14:35
particular individual. Now, that young person is being
14:40
as to kind of share. And now they have to look at
14:45
this other person. Now, the thing is where the club
14:49
coaching in that situation can be a huge advocate is speak
14:54
positive things towards and say, hey, I need you to trust this
14:58
coach, I need you to do x y, z and that would help the
15:03
situation but that does not always happen.
15:06
But from the high school code perspective, I think it's better
15:09
for the high school coach need to understand.
15:11
Hey, this person doesn't No me. They've had some success but
15:16
they've had some success with this other individual.
15:18
Now, I'm asking them to have a total buy-in to me and then they
15:23
don't really know me. So I have to do something to try
15:26
to earn this Young Person's respect.
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And a lot of people who are older do not want to take the
15:32
time to say, I need to earn a kids respect.
15:36
They say they won the kid walks in the door.
15:39
They need to under percent by, in listen to me, and it's like,
15:43
Like, that is not how it works. Like you're going to be fighting
15:47
more than anything else, so, That's, that's a big thing.
15:52
That's a huge thing. So, that's something that I've
15:56
seen, that's the scenario. I think a lot of times programs
16:00
on look at. All right, let's talk about
16:03
indoor track. All right, we talked about this
16:05
Texas Tech me just recently. What, what took place indoor
16:10
track in states that don't sponsor.
16:13
Indoor track is usually where you get some of the biggest
16:17
fights. So State like Texas, where We do
16:21
not sponsor indoor track yet. We have indoor track meets
16:24
because we have an indoor track. So, if you think about it, we do
16:30
have some high school programs that actually do take their
16:32
teams to an indoor track meet but 98% of the people competing
16:39
in the competition. They're being taken to the meat
16:42
and running for either their Club program that running
16:45
unattach or some situation like that.
16:48
But they're not it's not being sponsored by the school.
16:51
All right, so the indoor facilities are the people who
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have these facilities know for fact that they have an
16:59
opportunity to make some money and that opportunity to make
17:03
money by holding a track. Meet is, is not directed at the
17:07
high schools per say, is directed at the club and the
17:10
private sector. That's that, that's a direct
17:15
correlation words going to, alright, and if you think about
17:18
it, the house programs have a better relationship with the
17:24
club and the private coaches. So they're directing in their
17:30
eyes right into where they're the main source of where they're
17:35
at their talent is coming from, which is the club in the private
17:38
sector. Now these same kids do run on
17:43
high school teams and traditional high school teams.
17:47
Yeah they do not change coaches very often but you have a lot of
17:50
non-traditional teams in a lot of areas where you got coaches
17:53
and change that we just talked about this every two to three
17:56
years. I may have a new coach So the
17:58
pain is consistent. If as a former college coach, I
18:03
knew there were certain areas of Houston that when I went to
18:06
Houston where I went to certain areas of Dallas.
18:09
I may not know the high school coach at that high school, but I
18:12
do know the club that's in that area.
18:15
All right, and so if I got to make a relationship, it was
18:20
going to be more beneficial to me as a college coach to build a
18:24
relationship with the club that was in that area.
18:27
Not necessary to high school coach.
18:29
That was in that area because I swim, coaches come and go Club.
18:33
Stay track, Houston wings for North Texas cheetahs.
18:41
I mean the Hallmark track. Look, these are programs that
18:44
have been Around in certain parts of the in Texas in Dallas
18:49
and Houston forever. So again, if I am a college
18:54
coach, I am better serve having a relationship with the club
18:58
program, then I am high school program.
19:01
Now, this is not saying that I will not communicate with a high
19:04
school coach, or I did not communicate.
19:06
I had great relationships with high school coach, but as I just
19:10
said, again, a lot of them move around the club stayed pretty
19:13
consistent. So that that's one thing.
19:18
So, indoor track in a state like Texas where we do not sponsor
19:23
indoor track, all right? And we have these indoor
19:27
opportunities. It is the club and the private
19:30
coaches. Who were the ones who were
19:32
providing these opportunities for these athletes to compete.
19:36
All right. Second of all for me, one of the
19:40
main reasons I have a program. I tell kids coming into it and I
19:44
tell the parents, Parents, my program is a college prep
19:50
program. All right, so being a college
19:54
prep program, I'm going to expose the athletes to not only
20:00
training but also the experience of what it's like to be in a
20:05
college setting based on how we do things, how we interact, how
20:09
we go to competitions, how I coach you have to competitions,
20:12
how we do things throughout that entire time.
20:14
So going to 223 indoor meets a year and for the elite ones that
20:20
like I have in the past, allow them to travel and go compete
20:23
against high-level competition. That's what a Collegiate season.
20:27
Looks like doing the inverse. He's so these indoor Meats
20:31
really give us a chance to kind of get a chance to get exposed
20:33
to that. Absolutely row.
20:38
All right, so we we in Texas with this indoor season that we
20:44
have or these through 23andMe. So we have, I can't tell you how
20:49
many times I've heard at least 70.
20:51
Well, my high school coach has told me.
20:53
I don't need to participate in doors and it's like, I
20:57
understand to an extent. Why?
21:01
But in at the same time, I don't because like why would you take
21:04
an opportunity away? For an athlete.
21:07
And when we start talking about taking opportunities away for an
21:10
athlete, if you're in Texas, where we have double relay
21:13
points, there are a lot of kids who do not get the individual
21:17
opportunity to compete. And so when you got kids who
21:20
don't get the individual opportunity to compete sometimes
21:24
the only time that they actually get an opportunity to run their
21:27
individual races, are these indoor meet.
21:31
So if it's not for the club or the private coach that is doing
21:35
what they Can to make sure these hits get to these meets these
21:38
opportunities do not present themselves, okay?
21:42
These indoor meets very important.
21:44
All right if you don't think the end or meats are important let's
21:48
go back this weekend. All right, on Friday at Texas
21:51
Tech ahead of Collegiate meet they had about I say about eight
21:55
schools. All right let's look at the a
21:57
schools LSU Kentucky. Miami UCF, Clemson, Oklahoma
22:06
State TCU, the whole school. Texas Tech you had UNT, you had
22:12
TSU. So you had about 10 schools in
22:15
attendance at this track meet When the meat was over with and
22:20
they had about an hour and a half break before the actual
22:22
high school competition started. There were at least seven to
22:27
eight representatives of that track meet, who stayed behind to
22:31
recruit that night. All right, so that right there
22:39
tells you just how important an indoor track media is by itself.
22:43
All right, the previous week we were in Arkansas and you had a
22:46
lot of those similar schools that were at the same
22:48
competition. When the meat was over with on
22:51
Friday night, when we came back into the venue on Saturday, at
22:56
least 80% of those schools who ran on Friday night enough,
23:01
coaches back to recruit at high school me on Saturday.
23:05
All right, that's why it's important.
23:07
Okay, young lady that I work with in my program, all right?
23:11
There's another program. Texas State, Texas state was at
23:14
the me. And I was talking with the coach
23:16
from Texas day and he had, hey, coach who you have in your
23:18
program. That looks pretty good.
23:20
And I said, well this money young lady she she did this.
23:23
He said, okay, he said know what do you think?
23:26
I said no, I think she has what it takes and then I went to go
23:30
speak to the young lady and I say, I just talked to the coach
23:33
at Texas State about you. First thing I'd heard my coach,
23:38
I was accepted to Texas State and I got academic money.
23:42
I said, give me two minutes. I ran back over.
23:46
Found the Texas State coach coach, she's been accepted,
23:49
there is she got meal and she has after giving one.
23:53
He was literally in the middle of watching your race.
23:55
I said, coach watch the race. I'm going to make sure I go grab
23:58
her and y'all to meet up. And as soon as he finished
24:02
watching the race, brought her over there, they shook hands and
24:05
spoke it out. and then it's a hey, your friends competing,
24:09
just go get Mom, they had a chance to go meet Mom, it's only
24:13
right then, There was a connection that was made, okay?
24:18
Just that quick being in the right place at the right time,
24:22
okay? Me as a former college coach.
24:26
I can't tell you how often I would go to the AME.
24:32
Until my head coach. Hey the enemy is Friday and
24:36
Saturday, I'm not coming back to Monday and he said why I said
24:41
because I'm going to have home visit set up on Sunday.
24:44
He said with who I said it's my job to figure it out at the meet
24:50
and I would go to the meat on Friday Saturday, make
24:54
connections and literally be in kids homes on Sunday doing two
24:59
and three or four home visits driving around the city of
25:01
Houston and then turn around and come back to dip.
25:05
The following Monday and I did this consistently.
25:09
When I was a college coach, I would go to meet and tell my
25:13
coach. Hey, I'm going to stay over
25:14
another day and they will be like, well who are you?
25:16
Recruiting. I said I'm gonna figure it out
25:19
and I would go to the meeting. I was hustling, I will figure it
25:21
out and when I'm at these meats, I see the exact same thing going
25:25
on there. So that's how it works.
25:29
And unfortunately you have a lot of High School coaches who did
25:32
not run track on College who They have played other sports
25:37
and so they really have not even, they haven't seen an
25:40
indoor track, they haven't been to an indoor.
25:42
They don't know why. It's important thing that they
25:46
see is this is an interruption to the beginning of my training
25:50
here and I'm not, I don't even have time to get into that part.
25:54
But yeah, the indoor track season, it's very important.
25:58
I've seen kids run races have life-changing events offer two
26:03
races at and or competition. So, I remember one time at UNT.
26:12
I had a home visit. No, I had an official visit and
26:16
at the end of November early December, I brought in for kids,
26:21
three of those kids went to the opening M to season opened up a
26:24
u.s. top 25 marks. And I did not sign none of them.
26:29
All right, but because they up, I'm sorry.
26:31
Open up with top five marks and because they opened up with top
26:34
five marks, the schools that they really wanted to go to.
26:38
They got a chance to go to So the the coaches who don't
26:43
understand the importance of indoors, like no indoors.
26:45
Huge now. Miss Texas, Tech me, somebody
26:53
asked me why was this me so hot and I said, well, I had to sit
26:59
back and think about it. I said the reason to Texas Tech
27:02
me is so hot. Every year is you have to look
27:05
at the timing of it. You have about two to three
27:10
weeks, prior to Texas Tech, whether it's in December first
27:15
couple weeks of January. All right, so because a lot of
27:18
times these indoor facilities Aren't allowing kids to get on
27:22
and have practice like we do when we were in college.
27:24
Coaches are like we do at the pro level, the kids have to
27:28
learn how to run on the track on the job.
27:32
Once they've gotten to the three reps of racing on the
27:36
facilities, and they've gotten a chance to kind of figure their
27:40
warm-up routine out. By the time, they show up to
27:43
Texas Tech, they run two to three meats, gotten anywhere
27:47
from four to six races under their belt.
27:49
So they finally start to have some Rhythm, they finally got
27:52
some experience, they finally have some confidence on how to
27:55
execute their race plan. All right, then you have the
27:59
best athlete from the Dallas area from Houston area, and then
28:04
you're going to get a splash of athletes coming from other parts
28:07
of the United States. So because of social media,
28:12
these kids know that the other type kids in the country and in
28:17
the state are coming to this one location.
28:20
So the expectation the excitement is already building
28:25
before they even get there, the coaches are excited.
28:28
The kids are excited. You put all of them in the
28:31
building and there's Justice energy in the building.
28:35
You have wall-to-wall fans all over the place.
28:38
And on top of this Texas Tech has a beautiful facility, very
28:43
fast service. And in addition to all of that,
28:47
you also have the fact that this altitude So, when you throw all
28:51
of these things together, Texas Tech is set up to be just like
28:56
the, it's a big deal. And so what we get is a
29:03
microcosm of April, and May which we normally see in April
29:09
and May in Texas. We actually get that in January.
29:14
And so that's the only time these top-level kids get a
29:17
chance to put it together for that.
29:21
All right, and this is one reason why the numbers in Texas
29:24
Tech are always. So freaking just nuts the way
29:27
they are. So, Yeah.
29:30
Texas Tech was great but if you go look at them that the numbers
29:32
down in Houston, the numbers in Houston where not bad at all.
29:36
And so like I say when you get the experience under their belt
29:40
and you put them all together in Texas Tech, we get a chance to
29:44
like I say, you get this april-may vibe in January, a lot
29:51
of these kids, unfortunately won't get a chance to compete in
29:56
as many open race has come March and April.
29:59
We met as they will right now and during the indoor season.
30:02
So they're taking advantage of these opportunities, all right.
30:06
A lot of them may not get the same level of coaching, because
30:10
a lot of them may have to return back to their high school
30:13
programs and have to deal with a coach who may not be as
30:17
knowledgeable. And again, I'm not dogging a
30:20
high school coach, all right, I'm going to go back and go back
30:23
over some that other stuff I spoke about earlier, so some of
30:26
them are getting some of the better coaching from it.
30:29
The visual standpoint is what I'm talking about.
30:33
And so now, when I go got to go back and do what my high school
30:36
program there a time where my high school program may not be
30:40
as knowledgeable about the technical aspects of what it
30:43
takes for me, to be better in certain races.
30:47
So when you get back and I'm now I'm leaving indoor season.
30:52
And now I have to return back to full-time with my high school
30:54
program. All right.
30:56
What are the big issues that I have to deal with it?
30:59
If I'm a high school athlete or from my high school coach, well,
31:03
one of the biggest things as a high school coach that you got
31:05
to deal with the fact that there is a ratio anywhere from
31:09
fifteen, twenty twenty five to one.
31:13
And I'm one coach. So me getting the chance to
31:16
interact and talk a lot of High School coaches.
31:19
Some of the things that I found out is a lot of them are they're
31:22
understaffed, okay? And even if there are
31:26
understaffed the coaches who they are, As assistant coaches
31:32
aren't knowledgeable in the sport of track and field.
31:35
So you may have one knowledgeable coach and a staff
31:40
of four to five people. But only one of them is a
31:43
serious track person the other for just trying to do the best.
31:47
They hit, they can do. And I've heard some horror
31:50
stories from people who are real legit track people on high
31:53
school, staffs who actually give a damn about kids and say, I
31:58
don't have any help on my team. and now you have one coach
32:01
trying to do so much stuff and if I'm in a situation like that,
32:08
am I mad that a kid is still doing some stuff with their
32:13
outside coach? I almost needed in certain
32:18
situations. And it's not a not.
32:22
The thing is this is where the communication has to come into
32:25
play. If I know, I got to add Fleet
32:29
that's doing some stuff outside, whether it's the high school
32:34
coach, the private coach, the club coach, the parents, at some
32:39
point, some people have to come together.
32:42
Say hey let's sit down and let's do what's in the best interest
32:45
of that beat. All right, I tell everybody.
32:50
People, 10 years of doing this, I've had some phenomenal high
32:54
school athletes, all right, the problem will not the problem.
33:01
What has made those athletes. So phenomenal was the fact that
33:06
myself and those High School coaches, actually work together,
33:11
it was huge when I go back and think about how we work together
33:16
at Arlington. Seguin we took me and Marshall,
33:19
okay? And I tell people, I need you to
33:21
look at the Tonio Marshall situation like this.
33:24
If I was a selfish person who was just looking at trying to do
33:29
things that were only going to benefit myself.
33:32
I would have pulled her from our high school program.
33:36
Okay, Sonia's junior year. She was second and long.
33:40
Jump at stake. She won the 100 hurdles before
33:44
by one with second. She was on that relay.
33:47
The 4x2 with first For events. And she was a piss participate
33:53
in every Point ever scored on the team and they want to stay
33:57
tight, okay? The next year, that same force
34:01
and came back to get second estate.
34:03
So two trophies. For girls.
34:07
She is gone on to go to college and be a professional athlete.
34:11
One of the young lady on that team, participated in track and
34:14
field in college. The other two graduated in
34:19
school, doing whatever. Twenty years from now.
34:23
They all come back to their High School reunions there.
34:25
Always can look at and point in Saving state champion.
34:30
That's a highlight from an athletic career for the other
34:33
three girls. So he is going on to be a sec
34:36
Champion. She's going to be in C double a
34:38
champion. She's going to run an Olympic
34:40
trials, potentially make a list. She has track for the future.
34:45
So it was only a bump on her career path.
34:50
But those other girls, it was a highlight.
34:53
So me as a private coach, if I would have been selfish, look
34:58
what I would have, took away from those athletes from those
35:01
parents and not only from the parents from the coaches and
35:04
from that school. So it's not about me, it's about
35:08
what's in the best interest. Okay?
35:11
In this is where coaches have to be able to put their egos aside,
35:15
I think about it. Samantha Gonzalez.
35:17
All right, working with her High School coach, keeping her in the
35:20
loop of what we were doing on a daily.
35:23
And stuff like that. I think about working with
35:27
Danielle Wieck and not only working with Danielle.
35:29
Why does it I'm working with the entire team at Cedar Hills that
35:32
time to work on because Jones and how it benefited those
35:36
girls. So comes Jones trusting me
35:39
enough with Danielle sort of when we went to indoors.
35:42
Then you're going to 2390 in the prelims and she did not run the
35:46
finals. We went to Arkansas, she ran
35:50
23:7 and the premiums and she did not know.
35:53
The finals and I had people fussing at me and I said, well,
35:56
the kid is not fit enough to run the finals.
35:59
She's only fit enough to get you a fast race.
36:02
Now, people who say well you know, these kids are running
36:05
fast right now. Well, let's fast forward to
36:08
April at the regional meeting District me where Daniel rent 23
36:11
to at district and then 23 to at regions when she ran 23 to are
36:15
regionals, it was race. Number six over the course of
36:18
two days. All right, she went to State and
36:22
ended up I mean she broke it up into four by one of the four by
36:25
two internal getting third in the 200 because she literally
36:30
shot her load on the relays. So by the time became, they're
36:33
individually that she didn't have anything left and she still
36:36
managed to run 24/7. So I have plenty of examples of
36:42
how it can work, but it comes down to because adults, having a
36:47
conversation right now, one of the biggest issues that come in
36:54
these situations, our parents, because you have parents, who
36:59
will play coaches against each other.
37:04
And that's why it's so important that the coaches have dialogue
37:09
and communicate and talk to each other because I've seen a lot of
37:14
situations where you have parents who will not collaborate
37:20
the way it's supposed to be done.
37:23
Yes, you're right row. We talked about that
37:25
professional courtesy. So I try to tell my athletes and
37:29
I tell the parents look, I am open door for coach wants to
37:32
reach out and communicate with me.
37:33
They can I typically for me I let coaches know that I'm
37:39
available to talk to but out of respect I don't want to just
37:42
come directly at them because I don't know them that well but if
37:48
between parents and stuff like that we usually can't
37:50
communicate. Now that I have a Formal social
37:53
media. A lot of them have been able to
37:55
reach out to me through social media and see.
37:58
Okay, this guy is not such a bad guy.
38:01
So if I'm a club or a private coach, I have to make myself
38:04
available to be able to talk with people.
38:07
So at the end of the day, it's supposed to be about what's in
38:11
the best interest of the athlete.
38:15
Now a big topic of conversation and this is probably the biggest
38:20
one we have right now, is right where we are right now.
38:24
Indoor Seasons about to be over High School Seasons about to
38:28
start. Should I keep working with it at
38:32
me? If I'm the outside coach and I
38:36
say that is dependent on every different situation.
38:43
I've had some kids Who their coaches did the bare minimum?
38:50
And it was very disheartening seeing that their coaches
38:52
getting very much to the point where it almost was more work
38:58
because you were having to make up because they weren't doing.
39:00
They weren't getting anything. All right, then I've had coaches
39:06
who do too much and in those situations like that, I have to
39:10
tell the parents usually is not the kid I have to tell the
39:13
parents. Hey look, that's too much going
39:15
on at school. I can't do anything for your
39:19
Athlete on the outside. So if they if I try to do
39:24
anything, they're going to be hurt.
39:26
So I'm going to back off. And I've had parents get upset
39:31
at me because I back off. And then you have some
39:34
situations where kids just aren't getting everything that
39:39
they can or the coaches, just don't have the knowledge to do
39:44
everything that needs to be done.
39:46
And in those situations, I just tell the parents and the kids.
39:50
All I need you to do is communicate with me with what
39:52
you're doing and what you're not doing.
39:54
Because based on that, I'm going to be the person to fill in the
39:57
gaps and I would probably say, 75% of the kids that I work with
40:02
actually fall into that field in the Gap space.
40:05
All right, and when I say falling that feeling, we're
40:09
talking about things like this. I've seen kids Foo and they say
40:14
hey y'all do blocks of they're like yeah say what is the
40:17
progression of Learning Blocks been about this.
40:19
It what progression? We put the blocks out and we
40:21
just go well that's a red flag for me because as a college
40:27
coach it took me ten weeks of acceleration and Technical work
40:32
to move a kid from a standing start all the way down and
40:35
getting into the blocks with both hands.
40:38
That was a college kid so if I Got a high school kid who didn't
40:42
have nowhere near the same amount of experience who doesn't
40:46
have the same amount of coordination?
40:49
Who is not a strong. It's going to take some, take
40:52
some time to get that young man, or that young woman to the point
40:56
where they can actually push out of the blocks.
40:58
Great example, I had a young man last year who quit basketball
41:01
and started running track and his parents brought him to me
41:04
because they found out. I did some stuff for some kids
41:06
from their school. And so, I remember how he looked
41:09
at the blocks. And it took me, I started
41:13
working with him in late March, and they probably took me to the
41:17
summertime to get him to be able to execute a proper block start,
41:21
but he had never run track before.
41:23
Don't play basketball. So but unfortunately, it's cool.
41:28
He has to start races from the blocks so what he was doing was
41:33
horrible, but what choice did he have?
41:36
He had never done it before. So the teaching of them It's so
41:41
I have kids who, you know, we do our offseason program, we're
41:44
teaching proper blocks acceleration patterns and things
41:48
like that. I get kids who come to my
41:51
program and let's say they run the 400.
41:55
And I said, okay, what's your race models, like what race
41:57
model, what's that? And it's like, okay.
42:01
Sometime their entire workout might be two reps and it might
42:05
be running 180 200 meters, and they're like, that was it?
42:12
Well, the whole goal of the workout was a teaching them how
42:15
to run different parts of the fortune and each week we work on
42:20
different parts of the race. We're not accurate doing
42:22
endurance work or anything like that.
42:24
We're doing things were put in cones out, teaching them.
42:27
Okay. Now when you get to this part of
42:28
the back stretch, you got to go and what's called a flow phase
42:30
and you Try to maintain Rhythm XYZ, if it's a 300 hurdler where
42:36
it's cool, they did a bunch of 300 heard of conditioning, but
42:39
they didn't really work on what leg was coming up.
42:42
Now, it's me coming back and saying, okay, this is going to
42:46
be your race model for the 300 hurdles.
42:49
And now I'm trying to go down and say, all right, we're going
42:52
to be this leg right here. We're going to do this and XYZ
42:56
and that's what we're trying to do.
42:59
If this the one under her dress, I said this at my clinic when I
43:03
spoke a few weeks ago, most of the kids, I asked him.
43:07
I said how many hurdles do y'all?
43:10
Go over practice and they say no more than five or six and I'm
43:13
like it's a 10 hurdle race. Most coaches want to do over
43:17
distance on everything, but then when we get to our hurdle race
43:20
as 10 hurdles, we don't want to run at least a minimum or a
43:23
certain number of minimum number of hurdles in the race on a
43:26
straightaway like that makes no sense.
43:29
So, get may come to me, he's like, hey, you got two reps a
43:32
day. We got two times.
43:33
Twelve. Full recovery was for
43:36
recovering, 15, probably 20 minutes between reps, but that's
43:40
all they got. That's the supplemental stuff
43:43
that's going on in my program. Now, I don't know how everybody
43:46
else is, but if you are outside coach and you're not
43:50
supplementing, what may not be taking place at school, you
43:54
might need to rethink how you're doing that.
43:56
And then, at the same time, I may say, hey coach.
44:00
If because of time and resources you only got time to do this.
44:04
If you do this, I'll do this and let's work it together.
44:09
One of the biggest fights you see.
44:12
Is usually in the field events and hurdle events, and it's not
44:18
so much fights. A kid, who pole vaults I usually
44:24
don't see a lot of grapes when they go to the pole.
44:26
Vault coach, who's most likely an outside coach, very few High
44:30
School coaches having actual real legit fo ball coach.
44:36
The throwing events. You may have a football coach
44:39
who Like literally they don't know nothing about The Throne
44:44
events, they picking up Implement.
44:47
There are looking at some they found on YouTube which I can
44:49
appreciate at least in doing that.
44:51
But okay, let's go get specialized person who can work
44:56
with these events, the hurdles which is what I did.
44:59
So many heard this kind of to me and is like hey this is what
45:03
we're going to do, this is how we're going to do it and no
45:08
that's that's those areas. It seems like I've had some of
45:12
the most resistance I've had kids who do not have a hurdle
45:15
coach, get a Mentos to, they can't work on the outside.
45:17
And like, what sense does that make like?
45:21
That makes no sense to me at all.
45:23
You can't give them the resources that they need yet.
45:26
You're upset when they go find it and I think someone make a
45:29
note here earlier, and this, that's a great example.
45:32
If I was a student in school and I needed help and I needed to go
45:37
get a tutor, nobody would get upset at me getting a tutor.
45:42
Working with me outside. Are you saying that the teacher
45:45
is lacking? You know, how many kids are in
45:47
class? How long it's class time?
45:49
It may not be enough time for the teacher to be able to get
45:51
that individual attention. Or it may be too many kids for
45:55
the teacher, to address all the issues with everybody.
45:58
So by me getting a tutor for my kid on the outside, that's what
46:01
we did and it's can be looked at the same name from an athletic
46:06
standpoint. so, when you look at the fall in the offseason
46:10
program, Coaches who don't have a legit following.
46:14
Offseason program is like hey if you don't and these kids are
46:20
doing what they got to do to be able to run indoors, I mean I
46:22
still have kids today who their initial, their initial track
46:30
practices. Don't start too late January
46:33
into February and it's like anybody who does as I.
46:37
Let's think about this. The football team has Spring
46:41
football. They have summer workouts.
46:43
They start practice at least a month before the first game they
46:46
have to scrimmages. They have all these things that
46:49
take place before the first actual game and you're going to
46:54
start practice two to three weeks before attract me.
46:58
And so you're telling me that in three weeks of training, the
47:01
person who's supposed to run the 400 four by four to eight
47:03
hundred or whatever it is, it's going to be ready to participate
47:07
in those events like know. Let's get real.
47:10
Come on. Like you're already telling me
47:13
you're just here to do the Basic Metal.
47:15
And so if you're here to do the basic, no, I'm sorry.
47:18
You cannot get upset that that family has made the decision to
47:22
say. I got to find somebody else that
47:24
can work on my kid. No.
47:29
And I understand that there are our limits and stuff like that.
47:31
And this is where the collaborations and stuff come
47:33
into play. This the coaches who actually
47:36
give a damn, like, typically they're trying to do everything
47:43
they can to exhaust all there. Everything they can to help kids
47:46
get better. Most of the time.
47:49
The fight is with the coaches who, who aren't there now, If I
47:55
know for a fact, there is some coaches at the high school level
47:57
who do an awesome job and if I have a kid that's in their
48:02
program is like look I don't have to do anything extra with
48:05
you that coaches efficient with their time.
48:08
They know about set up. They know about training Cycles.
48:12
They know about they know what they're doing, okay?
48:17
And if I know I have a kid that's in the program like that
48:21
with a coach that's knowledgeable that way.
48:23
Hey, I'm good. All right when the kids are with
48:27
I'll see them later on. Okay, I don't need that.
48:30
But unfortunately, I would probably say 75 to 80% of my
48:35
kids I deal with are not in situations like that and that's
48:40
the reason why somebody on the outside is necessary.
48:44
You know, when you look at the other sports, when you look at
48:47
soccer, can you look at softball, when you look at that
48:55
seed basketball, when you look at a lot of these other sports
48:59
and go They have seasons that almost mirror the Collegiate
49:06
seasons. Okay, I've heard in the case of
49:10
volleyball where volleyball teams won't allow an athlete to
49:15
be on Varsity if they're not playing Club. like, In a track
49:22
coach would be like, wow, that's pretty crazy, but because these
49:28
regular High School Seasons mirror, the Collegian Seasons.
49:34
A lot of times the exposure that the kids get in those other
49:38
sports is what their clubs and their private teams and it's
49:42
almost encouraged. Tracking feel.
49:46
It's the one that seems to be our most.
49:49
It is I'm not going to say it's discouraged, but when you look
49:52
at a timetable, if I'm a, if I'm a program that didn't start
49:56
actual training until January and I was with my kid.
50:00
I had my kid january/february, doesn't 11, February, March, 2
50:05
months, march to April 3 months. All right, April is rouget
50:12
around District regionals. And listen, I didn't make the
50:15
state. So let's add had my athlete
50:18
three and a half months now that athlete when in the summer track
50:22
and all the May June July, they were in summer track, that's
50:26
three months. Took August off, September
50:29
October, November, December 9 months of the year.
50:35
They actually with their Club, their private coach three and a
50:38
half months, they were with you. That's why I when I posted this
50:59
past weekend about looking at the results from Texas Tech I'm
51:03
not trying to call a coach out or anything like that.
51:06
All you saying is if you're a coach and you're not that
51:08
knowledgeable about stress and hurdles and you pull up the
51:11
results of that me and you look and you realize that over 50
51:15
girls in the country and over 50 girls around the state of Texas
51:18
that run under under 25 seconds indoors over Shoot 40 guys, have
51:26
read 20, 25 22 and to and faster already.
51:31
We have almost 40 guys who run under seven flat in the 60.
51:36
You have a man. The number of girls who ran
51:39
seven who ran under 780. All right. 780 is usually when
51:46
you start getting under 780 and getting into the 770's.
51:50
Now you're looking at it right? At 1211 9.
51:52
So you have that many Any young ladies who are ready to run
51:57
right at 12 flatter faster. If you don't have the knowledge,
52:02
if you don't have the wherewithal, the background to
52:08
understand how to coach and athlete to improve, and be ready
52:13
to compete against individuals who are running this way.
52:17
And your solution is just a, I'm just going to stick these kids
52:19
on relays. You're probably going to be one
52:23
of the coaches Who start getting left out or find somebody who
52:27
can work with you to help you get better and a lot of times
52:31
their frustration that High School coaches see from the
52:33
outside. It's because if a person feels
52:36
like, hey I may not know everything but I'm doing
52:40
everything I can to help and if they feel like you're not doing
52:44
the same thing that's where they have a problem.
52:48
So that's kind of what my big thing is these days.
52:55
Watching observing seeing what I saw at that meat, it was quite
52:59
telling it was quite telling for someone who's a hurdle guy, the
53:06
fact that it was so many hurdles that we could not even get Block
53:09
starts in because the line was so long and then to go out there
53:15
and see how the kids performed on them.
53:18
Track. It was pretty crazy.
53:22
It was pretty crazy. So it literally was one of the
53:25
most impressive nice I've seen and I really challenge everybody
53:30
in a month. When they start running
53:32
Conference Championship meets go back and look at the results
53:37
from Texas, Tech go back and look at what the eighth place
53:42
Mark was. And then when you do that, go
53:45
and look at these mid major conference meets.
53:47
And Really will realize you wasn't just watching a normal
53:53
high school competition. This was along the lines of an
54:00
NCAA style track and field meet. All right?
54:04
What I will. So, that's something that I
54:09
mean, you got to pay attention to and if I'm not mistaken a lot
54:13
of these kids are young, I mean, the young lady, I mean, I saw
54:17
the video on Twitter. At the young lady, who ran over,
54:19
200 by ourselves and I said, that's probably one of the most
54:22
impressive things I've seen 24 to indoors.
54:26
It's one thing to do it in the rounds to come back and a final
54:31
by yourself in Lane six, run. 24.
54:34
To again, with the crowd, just going crazy for you.
54:37
That's freakin nuts in the fat out, the young lady's just a
54:40
sophomore. That's if I'm a college coach,
54:44
I'm trying to get her to commit today.
54:47
I want her on my team. All right, because her mindset
54:52
in order to go out and do something like that.
54:54
It's something that you can't coach.
54:58
That's impressive. Very impressive.
55:00
So you know, the high school club private debate is not going
55:06
away. It's not going away.
55:08
No time soon. We all have to figure out a way
55:12
to be able to work together because again, it is about
55:15
what's in the best interest of the kids.
55:17
And that's one thing I have done everything in my power,
55:22
especially when I've had these Elite kids on high school teams,
55:25
just to make sure. That I was able to do something
55:28
to not only benefit that athlete but also benefit that team like
55:32
don't just go there and just be selfish and help desk that one
55:35
person. Help the team out because it's
55:37
needed.