Last Tuesday morning I was helping a 14 year old plan his Junior Olympic 1500 meter race. The young man succeeded in setting a new personal best, but Coach Tower's game plan kind of fizzled out a little bit.
Duke (Demetrius is his real name), was the fastest runner by a few seconds on paper in a pretty slow race. He was in the first of four heats. The fourth heat actually saw a national record fall by nearly twenty seconds. Anyway, I told Duke to play around on the first lap and save some energy for his second lap. Then he could take the lead as I suggested. Duke was unable to practice due to a muscle strain during the month of July, so as he expended all of that energy on lap two, he also grew a little weary.
He did lost a few spots on lap three to finish fourth, but he was still able to come in five seconds faster than his previous race. I will probably be coaching Duke in cross country this fall, so we will both be getting ourselves in pretty decent shape soon.
Overall, I did have an enjoyable time at my first Junior Olympics as a coach. Due to where I am at the moment (car dealership), I do not have many pictures that I can upload from the event. Our field event guys both set PRs in the shot put, and Duke set a PR in his quarter mile race as well.
Duke and Coach Tate
Duke getting warmed up
Duke (Demetrius is his real name), was the fastest runner by a few seconds on paper in a pretty slow race. He was in the first of four heats. The fourth heat actually saw a national record fall by nearly twenty seconds. Anyway, I told Duke to play around on the first lap and save some energy for his second lap. Then he could take the lead as I suggested. Duke was unable to practice due to a muscle strain during the month of July, so as he expended all of that energy on lap two, he also grew a little weary.
He did lost a few spots on lap three to finish fourth, but he was still able to come in five seconds faster than his previous race. I will probably be coaching Duke in cross country this fall, so we will both be getting ourselves in pretty decent shape soon.
Overall, I did have an enjoyable time at my first Junior Olympics as a coach. Due to where I am at the moment (car dealership), I do not have many pictures that I can upload from the event. Our field event guys both set PRs in the shot put, and Duke set a PR in his quarter mile race as well.
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