Winter break is a great time to regroup after a long cross country season. The many months and long hours coaches spend preparing athletes to race fast can leave coaches tired and burnt out. Unfortunately, winter training and racing is right around the corner so it is important to use this break to prepare for the future. Here are some of things I do to prepare for the coming seasons.
1) Review XC
The best start to planning the next season is to look back at last season. Involve assistants and be honest with yourself. Examine your racing schedule and evaluate how each meet helped your team succeed. Take notes on how to improve coaching structure for meet day, meet week and day preparation. Be prepared to make changes to anything and everything.
2) Evaluate Training
Look back at the season's training plan. Decide what worked and what did not work. Evaluate your system and overarching training plans for different groups. Make sure your system suited your athletes. Do you need to remove or add certain blocks of training or specific workouts? Again, take notes and add the changes to your logs.
3) Evaluate Racing
The racing schedule is an important aspect of your team's success. Look at each race and decide what it did to better or hurt your team. Some courses may be too challenging or too easy to prepare athletes for more important races. You may be able to find courses that exploit the talents of your athletes. Use this time to begin to prepare a schedule that will help your team improve.
4) Examine Team Focus
Dive into a discussion with your assistants and leaders about your team's focus. Did you underestimate or overestimate ability? Is it time to rebuild? This conversation is the first step in planning a winter and spring schedule. A group of young runners often need different planning than an older, experienced team. Be sure to have team goals in mind during this step.
5) Plan Season Schedule
Build a schedule for the upcoming season. The schedule should fit both short and long term goals. Find meets that challenge and inspire athletes to achieve as a team and individuals. Your meets, or meets you focus on, must prepare athletes for bigger, more important meets and seasons. Be ready to throw schedules away in the winter due to weather, illness and other obstacles.
6) Plan General Training Schedule
Prepare a plan for training. Avoid heavy detail as workouts will change constantly. Plan according to your general principles in training and coaching. I like to work backwards from important meets. Planning ahead makes coaching easier. If you aren't worried about training, you can lead, educate and prepare your athletes better. Create plans for individuals and groups. Workouts must build upon each other and must help athletes physically and mentally. Involve athletes in this process if it makes sense for your program.
7) Plan Reading/Learning for Yourself and Staff
Winter break is a great time to prepare learning for the future. Find clinics or books you'd like to explore. Involve assistants so you can all be on the same page. It's also a great time to divide and conquer. Maybe you want to add hurdle drills. Encourage an assistant to take the lead on that endeavor while you dive into other things. Use the resources you have. A coaches book club could be a great winter activity. Plan it out now.
8) Build Leadership
Good teams have a great leaders. It is a coaches job to build leaders out of athletes. Start to build leaders in underclassmen during this time. Reach out to them, give them responsibility and evaluate how they respond. You may find natural leaders but you will most likely have guide them or even create leaders. Winter break is a stellar time to sit with assistants and seniors (or current leaders) on the team to discuss who can lead the future and how you can build leaders.
Comments