Running from juvenile into senior ranks.

Wottle wrote: »

As a coach of juveniles, I would be very curious to hear from seniors who came through the juvenile ranks, like Myles.
What has been the main factors for keeping you in the sport?
Were you successful as a juvenile?
Are we as coaches missing any tricks as regards to the longevity of athletes?

I ran as a junior and I'm now still running as a senior (albeit with a few exile years there in the middle ).

Main factor for keeping in the sport would be a strong connection to my club. The club looked after me very well when I was a junior and was very supportive so when I went back to running I quickly joined back up with them. That element of belonging to a club or representing a club was, and is very important to me.

I was reasonably successful as a junior, I won a fair few Leinster titles and a number of All Ieland sprint titles from 60-100m. Also won a few obscure events like ball throw and long jump (which I never trained for!). I really regret leaving when I was about 14 but at the time the club was pushing all the sprinters into cross country and I used to HATE it with a passion, eventually one winter I left and didn't come back for a few years (but I did come back eventually of course!).

In my own club the main drop of point for me is different for the genders. Boys seem to stick it out a little longer, usually until college and then girls and beer take over. We have lost a lot of good lads as soon as they move away to college (the moving away is also another factor, no more weekly club sessions to keep focus). However we do get some of these guys back a few years later when they get bored of partying. Girls seem to lose interest a little earlier (IMO), usually around 15/16. Sport seems to become of less importance in general with more focus on fitting in with ones peers. It's hard to say what can be done, you can't force kids to stay running. Maintaining interest at that age is always going to be a personal choice. Even parents have less sway at that age and if parents are even a little pushy, it can have the effect of driving the kids further away (rebelling against their parents wishes!). I think if a good group can be established from an early age that can stick together throughout the teenage years, then the kids are much more likely to stick it out. That has been the case in our club anyway.

Would be interested to hear what others say, good idea for a thread.

Oiriallach wrote: »

Given your history when you were younger, did you not try sprinting/long jumping/javelin throwing when you made your comeback to the sport? Or did the club know where your true potential lay when they tried to push you into cross country?

I think it was more a case of the club being stuck for kids to run on a team so everyone was pushed into XC. The problem was I never trained long distance and 600m races were like a marathon to me!! When I came back to the sport I was pretty naive and started with long distance races, but now I run middle distance. Sprinting never really appealed to me when I came back, it was great when I was younger because I had a bit of natural talent which was enough to get me through the races. But now I don't fancy the training that goes along with sprinting (block work, gym), I prefer the type of training involved in middle distance running.

I didn't run as a junior (or a senior, straight into masters!) but I can see the effort my club puts into trying to keep juveniles involved. They've been developing more of a structured pathway between juvenile/senior training to ensure as straightforward a progression as possible and I think that's starting to show results.

I think the club has to concentrate on putting the structures in place and, after that, it really is down to the athletes and individual levels of motivation. Lots of kids have very structured routines at school level, which fragment once they start work or go to college. There is a limit to what the club can do.

From what I've seen, two things that help are, firstly, being part of a graduating group and, secondly, having successful peers or role models in the age groups above. Similar enough to the experience Myles had. The social element is very important too.

There's a group of guys who came up through the junior ranks in xc teams at our club and four of them were in the club's top 5 finishers at the Inter Clubs on Sunday. And there's another younger group that I can see sticking together too. Otherwise, it's 1s and 2s that are jumping into the senior ranks more or less on their own.

One area which I think is worth watching for is the change with respect to coaching. At juvenile level, most clubs have a fair few parents/volunteers coaching and helping out. Everyone gets a good bit of attention. But, once you get to senior level, that drops off and I guess the guys just below the top level can fall between the cracks a little in a bigger talent pool if the motivation isn't there.

Great idea for a thread! I didn't really take up athletics until I was 22, I did actually make a proper stab at schools xc for a month or so when I was 17 (had plenty of fitness from being a rugby winger), did a decent bit of training etc, but almost zero interest from my school (utterly hopeless and disinterested PE teacher), I wasn't really aware of my local athletics club back then either, so that was where it all ended for me until I was 22. One thing I do now is liberally tell any of the kids in the club is never ever be afraid to ask their friends if they want to join etc.

Staying on the coaching side, I'll echo what most others say here. Team competitions in my book are hugely hugely hugely important in helping to instil loyalty into athletes, once you got a good group of loyal athletes who can work together for the same team goal you're 3/4s of the way there. Ensuring training/competitions remains a positive fun environment is hugely important also, Pushy parents and pushy coaches are the biggest issue here (not to long ago a 13yr old kid told me "childhood should be about having fun"!!). As a coach keeping your group small, and staying in good communication with everyone is very useful also, very easy to have too big a group.