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TRADITIONS, PHILOSPHY AND THE SCIENCE OF COACHING AND TRAINING

AND HOW THEY IMPACT TRACK AND FIELD PERFORMANCE

_____________________________________

AN ABSTRACT OF THESIS

PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF

KINESIOLOGY

WESTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

_____________________________________

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE

MASTER OF SCIENCE

_____________________________________

SHELBY ASSMUS

_____________________________________

DR. ALGERIAN HART, ADVISOR

MAY 2016

ABSTRACT

The sport of track and field has some of the deepest-rooted historical tradition,

science, and philosophy foundations dating back to the Ancient Greek Olympiad. Yet, no

research has investigated how tradition, coaching philosophy, and coaching science affect

track and field performance. The purpose of this study was to explore the different

coaching methodologies, modes, and protocols used by National Collegiate Athletic

Association (NCAA) Division I track and field coaches to understand better the role of

tradition, philosophy, and science of training and coaching athletes. The researcher

interviewed five NCAA Division I track and field coaches from the Midwest Region of

the United States using semi-structured, opened-end questions. By means of Grounded

Theory, the results from the inductive data analysis discovered two major concepts. The

coaching background of education and experiences as an athlete or coach drive the way

coaches training and coach their athletes, and the entities are difficult to separate from

one another when looking at how a coach impacts athlete performance. The three entities

merely interact with one another, in turn, leading their track and field cultures towards

success. This study is the first study to identify any interactions between tradition,

coaching philosophy, and coaching science, but is consistent with existing research that

supports each entity. Each track and field culture has their own coaching blueprint that is

specialized to meet the demands set by their culture; therefore coaches apply

methodologies within coaching philosophy, coaching science and tradition to meet these

constraints. Future research should investigate the education and experience

backgrounds of coaches to clarify further this blueprint of how coaches use the three

entities to lead their track and field cultures towards success.

APPROVAL PAGE

This thesis by SHELBY ASSMUS is accepted in its present form by the

Department of Kinesiology of Western Illinois University as satisfying the thesis

requirements for the degree Master of Science.

________________________

May 2016

TRADITIONS, PHILOSPHY AND THE SCIENCE OF COACHING AND TRAINING

AND HOW THEY IMPACT TRACK AND FIELD PERFORMANCE

_____________________________________

A THESIS

PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF

KINESIOLOGY

WESTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

_____________________________________

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE

MASTER OF SCIENCE

_____________________________________

SHELBY ASSMUS

_____________________________________

DR. ALGERIAN HART, ADVISOR

MAY 2016

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a note will indicate the deletion.

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Published by ProQuest LLC (2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author.

ProQuest Number: 10107638

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Grateful acknowledgment is extended to Dr. Algerian Hart and committee

members Dr. Cynthia Piletic and Dr. Mark Cole for their valuable suggestions and

guidance given in this thesis project. I especially want to thank the participants for

volunteering your time and experiences, Tim Piper for the moral support and insightful

discussions and suggestions throughout my thesis project, and Katie Hosteng for the

thesis process guidance. I would also like to thank Chris Assmus, Laura Barber, Becca

Fischer, Tara Jackson and Chelsea Davis for proofreading and edits. Finally, I would like

to thank all the friends and family members who morally supported me throughout this

thesis journey. You are only as good as the people that you surround yourself with, and I

appreciate all the time and dedication that you all donated me to help me be successful.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ..............................................................................................................

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................... ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................... iii

CHAPTER1:THE RESEARCH PROBLEM .......................................................... 1

Statement of the Problem .................................................................................... 3

Purpose Statement ............................................................................................... 3

Significance of the Problem ................................................................................ 4

Hypothesis ........................................................................................................... 4

Definitions ........................................................................................................... 4

Assumptions ........................................................................................................ 5

Limitations .......................................................................................................... 5

Delimitations ....................................................................................................... 6

CHAPTER2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ........................................................... 7

Track and Field Tradition .................................................................................... 7

Theory of Reasoned Action. ........................................................................... 7

Outcome and Performance Driven. ................................................................. 8

Summary. ........................................................................................................ 8

Coaching Philosophy & Models ......................................................................... 9

Science of Coaching .......................................................................................... 11

Knowledge & Knowledge Acquisition. ........................................................ 12

Coaching Model. ....................................................................................... 12

Coaching Effectiveness. ............................................................................ 14

Effective Coaching Model. ....................................................................... 15

Expertise & Effectiveness. ............................................................................ 17

Summary ........................................................................................................... 19

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................................. 21

Research Question ............................................................................................. 21

Research Design ................................................................................................ 22

Sampling Procedures ......................................................................................... 22

Participant Selection and Recruitment .............................................................. 23

Data Collection .................................................................................................. 23

Pilot Study. .................................................................................................... 24

Interview. ...................................................................................................... 25

Trustworthiness ................................................................................................. 25

Data Analysis .................................................................................................... 26

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS ...................................................................................... 28

Definition of terms ............................................................................................ 28

Coaching Science. ......................................................................................... 29

Coaching Philosophy. ................................................................................... 30

Tradition. ....................................................................................................... 31

Success. ......................................................................................................... 33

Emergence of Entity Interaction ....................................................................... 36

CHAPTER5: DISCUSSION ................................................................................. 41

Entity Relationships .......................................................................................... 43

Philosophy-Science Relationship.................................................................. 43

Tradition- Philosophy Relationship .............................................................. 45

Science-Tradition Relationship. .................................................................... 47

Model Application............................................................................................. 51

Summary ........................................................................................................... 52

APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW GUIDE ................................................................. 54

APPENDIX B: THEORY OF REASONED ACTION MODEL ......................... 59

APPENDIX C: THE EFFECTS OF TRADITION, PHILOSOPHY, AND

SCIENCE OF COACHING ON TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETES ............................. 60

APPENDIX D: PHILOSOPHY-SCIENCE RELATIONSHIP COMPONENTS 61

APPENDIX E: PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCE, AND TRADITION INTERACTIVE

MODEL OF COACHING SUCCESS .............................................................................. 62

APPENDIX F: INTERACTION PYRAMID MODEL OF COACHING

SUCCESS ......................................................................................................................... 63

APPENDIX G: COACHING SUCCESS STOOL ............................................... 64

APPENDIX H: TRANSCRIPTION SUMMARY P1 .......................................... 65

APPENDIX I: TRANSCRIPTION SUMMARY P2 ............................................ 97

APPENDIX J:TRANSCRIPTION SUMMARY P3 ........................................... 114

APPENDIX K: TRANSCRIPTION SUMMARY P4 ........................................ 147

APPENDIX L: TRANSCRIPTION SUMMARY P5 ......................................... 161

References ........................................................................................................... 190

CHAPTER 1

THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

Track and field has played a significant role in sport history dating back to the

ancient civilizations. The first traces of track and field derivatives were first

demonstrated in the funeral games. According to Mechikoff & Estes (2006), Achilles

hosted the Funeral Games in order to honor his good friend, Patrocles, who died during

the Battle of Troy. Some of the earliest track and field derivatives in the Funeral Games

were footraces, discus throwing, and spearing contests. As the Panhellenic Games

developed, track and field was further developed. Of the Panhellenic Games, the

Olympic Games were the most prestigious, resulting in the first Olympic Games in 776

B. C. During the first Olympic Games, the events were an approximate 200m footrace,

known as the Stade, and an approximate 370m sprint. The “long run” was approximately

4800m long. Also in the early Olmpics, there were wrestling, chariot races, boxing,

armor races, and the Pentathlon. The Pentathlon comprised of jumping, the swift

footrace, discus, javelin, and wrestling events. The Olympic Games were a way Greek

athletes made sacrifices in honor of the Greek God, Zeus, which included socializing and

drinking wine in the stadium of Olympia (Mechikoff & Estes, 2006).

Traditions, philosophy and science have influenced the athlete development, since

the ancient times in Greece. As previously discussed, the Panhellenic Games were

traditional games that athletes trained to compete for each year. The historical

philosophers, like Plato and Aristotle, affected the athletes by using their philosophical

methods to assist in improving performance cognitively. In addition, there were early

science philosophers like Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, and Isaac Newton, who

contributed a further understanding of science amongst the universe (Mechikoff & Estes,

2006). These are all early examples of traditions, philosophy, and science practiced.

Similarly, today there are traditions, philosophies and sciences that all impact the

role of athlete development and sport development. The track and field culture has the

deepest-rooted traditions beginning in Ancient Greece, but advancements in sciences

have helped to evolve the sport of track and field. For example, the size of the throwing

rings, the length of the runways, the track surfaces, the padding and sizes of the jumping

pits, and the diversity of equipment needed for each event have been all quantified and

improved through advancements in science. These quantifications have advanced the

strategies and changes in technique needed to achieve optimal performance. For

example, the addition of the Fosbury flop in the high jump technique prompted

researchers and manufactures to develop the appropriate size and cushioning for the high

jump mats.

Though the sport of track and field has evolved over the Modern Era of sports, the

meaning of the Olympics has remained constant. The timing of the Olympics has not

changed (i.e. competition is hosted every four years). Another factor that has not altered

is the nature of the Olympics bringing diverse athletes from around the world together to

compete on yet the most prestigious competition stage. In addition, the athletes

representing and honoring their countries, families, teams, coaches, and themselves has

not transformed over the years.

Statement of the Problem

For centuries, coaches have been training track and field athletes to reach the

highest level of competition at the Olympic Games. Every four years, the most

traditional and prestigious competition in the realm of sports brings elite coaches and

athletes together to compete in one of the most multifaceted sports. Elite level coaches

have assumed an important role in developing successful athletes, and they must know

how to work with and improve various types of athletes with different personalities, body

types, and psychological states. Therefore, a track and field coach must be able to think

critically on their feet at all times, use their knowledge to make the right decisions at the

opportune times positioning their athletes for success. Historically, track and field

coaches have been following a formula for their athletes’ peak performance, but there is

no blueprint to depict how they do it nor display a map to understand why coaches do

what they do. Seemingly, there is an underlying method of how track and field coaches

train their athletes while including multiple disciplines to consider.

By further investigating this underlying method of optimal track and field

performance, coaches can better plan and elicit peak performance while always

considering the athlete’s best interest. By doing so, injuries and other adversities can be

alleviated by following the underlying blueprint to track and field coaching and training.

Purpose Statement

The purpose of this study is to explore the different coaching methodologies,

modes, and protocols used by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)

Division I track and field coaches to understand the role of tradition, philosophy, and

science of training and coaching athletes.

Significance of the Problem

By investigating how track and field coaches use coaching science, philosophy,

and tradition to improve athletic performance, this study would help others better

understand the importance of each entity. Coaches could also apply the findings of this

study to improve their coaching, by identifying strengths and weaknesses, to develop a

solid foundation in preparation for athlete and team success.

Hypothesis

The research hypothesis was that coaches tend to alter coaching and training

techniques based on the training state of the athletes and team. A secondary hypothesis is

that coaches tend to develop philosophies based on the way they were coached as

athletes.

Definitions

Coaching science consisted of a series of scientific principles, which includes

motor skill acquisition, sociology and physiology. In addition, coaching methodologies

included a combination of the practices and methods of teaching, also known as

pedagogy (Nash & Collins, 2006), historical factors, and traditional factors. Many

subjects are compiled within pedagogy and science principles, thus a coach must have a

diverse knowledge base of not only of the sport but also the training parameters, social

interactions, and the theories of coaching.

Other terms to be define were success, traditions, and track and field culture. In

this study, success was defined as an individual’s self-perceptions of goal attainment,

high-level competitions (conference, regional, or national), and any additional awards

and honor achieved in comparison individual or team potential abilities. Traditions are

the beliefs, rituals, and customs passed down from year to year, as a track and field team.

Traditions are fundamentally a sub-culture of the track and field culture that exists at a

particular university. Track and field culture was defined as the customs, beliefs,

practices, and traditions that exist due the environment that is fostered within track and

field program and from place to place.

Assumptions

1. The participants have either coached or participated in track and field in a

context in which instilled an elite level of experience within track and field.

2. The participants were honest about the various training and coaching methods,

modalities, and protocols used.

3. The participants’ coaching goal was to enhance track and field athlete

performance.

Limitations

1. The researcher was limited to the Midwest region of the United States, due to

fiscal access.

2. Full representation of the NCAA Division I school across the nation.

3. The study does not represent NCAA Divisions II & III levels of coaches.

4. Timing of recruitment may have limited the availability of coaches for

interviews.

Delimitations

1. Participants were from NCAA Division I Schools from the Midwest.

2. Participants had a high-level experience within track and field.

CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Coaches have been training and developing track and field athletes for

generations. Athlete development relies on the coach’s education, organizational skills,

experience, work ethic, and sport specific knowledge. These attributes encompass the

abilities of coaches to be successful and to advance their coaching careers (Bloom &

Salmela, 2000; Côté, 1998; Cregan, Bloom & Reid, 2007; Cushion, Armour & Jones,

2003; Erickson, Côté & Frase-Thomas, 2007; Schinke, Bloom, & Salmela, 1995; Vallée

& Bloom, 2005) by producing elite level athletes. However, many factors affect the

attributes that in turn affects coaching advancements and successfulness in sport.

Chapter 2 will encompass the previous research and how it is applied within the track and

field culture.

Track and Field Tradition

Tradition plays an important role in the success of sport. In track and field,

tradition is demonstrated by the recurrent success of well round track and field programs

or production of elite performing (conference, regional or national) competitors. The

Theory of Reasoned Action essentially supports tradition of recurrent success (Fishbein

& Ajzen, 1975).

Theory of Reasoned Action. Theory of Reasoned Action is utilized to predict

and further understand the effects of motivation on behavior (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975).

According to Appendix B, this theory begins with the underlying attitudes towards

performing the behavior and normative beliefs that influence an individual’s subjective

norms. The subjective norms reflect the self-interpretation if the athlete should perform

the movement. These two factors lead to the actual reason of performing the behavior.

With enough motivation, the behavioral intention is then transferred to the performance

of the behavior.

For example, schools with a successful track and field history have a high

normative standard of track and field. Thus, all the athletes who are recruited have a

subjective norm of being a part of a successful track and field program. Therefore, the

behavioral intention is to perform at the athlete’s highest potential. With subsequent

motivation, the athlete reaches this potential.

Outcome and Performance Driven. This motivation is dedicated to the athlete’s

ability to achieve goals and continuously improving performance. Track and field is

predominately outcome and performance driven, meaning achieving predetermined goals

or outstanding performances drive track and field athletes to achieve higher goals. The

athlete will diligently work to achieve his/her highest potential performing level, which

means he/she will work at improving until no further improvements can be made or other

adversities affect improvements.

Summary. Schools with track and field cultures with traditions of success

typically have a high level of competition standard individually or as a team. This is

because they have had recurrent success at attaining goals, higher levels of competition,

and other awards and honors within their culture. The recurrent success can be

contributed to the sport of track and field being such a performance driven sport, thus

eliciting enough motivation to achieve normative behavior set by the culture.

Coaching Philosophy & Models

Aside from coaching traditions, what really drives a track and field culture is the

coaches. Coaches are the one who drive the success of a team and uphold track and field

tradition. Striving for coaching tenure may allow coaches to foster stability within

traditions and values within a culture. Therefore, understanding what makes a coach

effective or an expert is relatively important in regards to knowledge of coaching and

experience within track and field. An even more important concept is how coaches

should coach. This is essential for athlete adherence, motivation and commitment.

In a study by Ehsani, Amiri, and Hossini (2012), explored the relationship

between leadership styles with coaching and coaching efficacy among elite Iranian

judokas. They used Chelladurai and Saleh’s (1978) Leadership Scale for Sport

instrument to assess the five dimensions of leadership behavior. These five dimensions

are as follows: (a) training and instruction, (b) social support, (c) positive feedback, (d)

autocratic style and (e) democratic style. The training and instruction refer to the steps

coaches take to improve athletic performance. Social support encompasses the positive

inter-personal relationship with the athletes, their well-being and promoting positive team

spirit. Positive feedback reflects the behaviors mitigate rewarding and recognizing good

performances. Democratic behaviors let athlete’s take ownership and make decisions.

Whereas, autocratic behaviors include those where the coach is in control of all the

parameters and the athletes respond to the coach’s authority and power.

Using the Leadership Scale for Sport, Ehsani, Amiri, and Hossini (2012) found a

significant relationship between the democratic leadership style with the use of positive

feedback and social support with the motivation of athletes. They also found a

significant relationship between the leadership styles of both autocratic and democratic

behaviors with the use of positive feedback in addition to appropriate training and

instruction and social support correlates with strategy use. They also found a positive

relationship exists between the use of positive feedback and training instruction with

overall coaching technique.

Coaches are leaders of teams who shape and seek success. These leadership

styles and coaching techniques/strategies help show how track and field coaches relate

and strive for the best in their athletes. Over time, other leadership styles have been

researched identified as coaching styles.

Three coaching styles have been researched and established, (a) autonomous, (b)

autocratic, and (c) relationship model. The autonomous style reflects athlete-centered

model. According to Simmons and Freeman (2006), the athlete-centered model includes

every part of an athlete’s life that affects the way they are motived to succeed. For

example, family, faith, friends, education etc. influence the way athletes are motivated.

This coaching style manipulates and utilizes these factors in order to alter athlete

motivation.

The autocratic style is also known as the coach-centered model. The coach-

centered model is different from the autonomous coaching style in the way that the

coaches surround themselves with the athletes and have a similar relationship with each

athlete. The coach expects the same outcomes regardless of the individual. This style is

dependent on the imposing nature of the coach to extrinsically motivate the athletes

versus intrinsically in the athlete-centered model (Simmons & Freeman, 2006).

The third relationship model combines both the autocratic and autonomous styles

together. This model suggests that the coach and athlete form a relationship in equal

parts, and suggests that they both must establish a relationship with each other in order to

seek success. Therefore, the coaches and athletes work together to determine the best

interest for the athlete, and in turn, the athlete is both intrinsically and extrinsically

motivated (Mageau & Vallerand, 2003).

There are different styles coaches can apply to their coaching practice.

Determining a coaching style to improve athletic performance is essential. Coaches

primarily interact with the athletes using their coaching and leadership styles, and lays the

foundation of the existing relationship between the athlete and the coach. Thus, fostering

good relationships can lead to athlete success and then lead into further overall coaching

success and/or effectiveness.

Science of Coaching

Track and field coaches have an underlying coaching science that has not been

identified or explained. The science of coaching encompasses various ideologies of

science that include motor skill acquisition, sociology and physiology. Coaching science

also includes forms of effective coaching which requires variations of pedagogy

(commonly known as the practices and methods of teaching) and the science principles

(Nash & Collins, 2006). Many subjects arise from the definition of coaching science.

Thus, a coach must have a diverse background of knowledge of the sport, the training

parameters, social interactions, and the theories of coaching.

Knowledge & Knowledge Acquisition. Research supports that coaches should

utilize multiple resources in order to effectively coach. One study by Gilberts and Trudel

(1999) discovered that amateur coaches play an important role in the development in

youth, hence the training programs should be tailored to better educate coaches. Coaches

need to display more importance towards positively influencing other coaches.

Models and theories have been developed to help better understand the multi-

dimensional subjects reflecting the roles and science of coaching. For instance, a study

by Brinkerhoff (1987) utilized an evaluation model which focused on three stages (a)

course delivery, (b) knowledge gain, and (c) knowledge use. Testing this strategy,

Gilbert and Trudel (1999) found that a combination of factors lead to the inefficiency of

these stages. For instance, the course delivery was not implemented the way it was

designed to be delivered. Additionally, the coaches pre-existing knowledge also could

have interfered with the ability to gain and use knowledge effectively. This study

supported a potential science behind coaching.

Coaching Model. Côté, Salmela, Trudel, Baria, & Russell (1995) investigated

elite gymnastics coaches’ knowledge. Upon interviewing seventeen elite coaches, Côté

and colleagues developed the Coaching Model via inductive approach. This Coaching

Model expressed six different components with twenty-eight categories and 134

properties. One component of this model is the goal. The goal reflects the coach

developing the athlete.

Three other components make up the actual coaching process, which are

organization, training, and competition. Organization reflects the application of

knowledge to create an optimal training environment and structure in order to reach the

goal of developing the athlete. Training imitates the application of knowledge which is

directed toward aiding athletes in acquiring and performing various skills utilized in

training. This includes tactical, technical and mental skills required of sport.

A validation study of the Coaching Model by Gilbert and Trudel (2000) supported

that two goals of the coaching process exist, (a) promote athlete personal development

and (b) develop technical and tactical skills in athletes. They also suggested that

competition is related to the application of knowledge by the athletes. This knowledge

instilled by coaches in order for the athletes to perform to their highest potential during

competition. The competition parameter additionally includes the coaches’ roles during

competition.

One factor that influences the three core components of the coaching process is

represented by the coach’s mental model of athletes’ potential. This idea explains a

coach’s assessment of peripheral components and demonstrates the coach’s mental

blueprint of the steps to reach the overall goal. The mental blueprint uses the coach’s

knowledge of the athlete’s needs in order to organize, train and compete, thus the coach

estimates the potential of the athletes. The coach can raise or lower the standards and

expectations of the athletes that is affected by the peripheral components.

The peripheral components positively or negatively affect the overall goal by

deterring the coach’s mental model of athlete’s potential. These peripheral components

consist of the coach’s personal characteristics, the athlete’s personal characteristics,

contextual factors, and the level of development.

Consequently, the coach’s philosophy, perceptions, beliefs, or personal life make

up the coach’s personal characteristics. Any variables allocating with the athlete’s stage

of learning, personal abilities, and other personal characteristics comprise the athletes’

personal characteristics. Any unstable factors that do not pertain to the athletes or

coaches are considered the contextual factors (i. e. working conditions, crowds,

equipment etc.). All three of these factors can affect the coaching process of

organization, training, and competition (Côté, Salmela, Trudel, Baria, & Russell, 1995).

Coaching Effectiveness. Coaching effectiveness within track and field is

important to relay information to multiple athletes in way they can relate and/or motivate

themselves. If a coach cannot relay important information to athletes, the knowledge is

then useless.

Côté and Gilbert (2009) further discussed how coaching effectiveness is defined

by three components: (a) coaches’ knowledge (b) athletes’ outcomes and (c) coaching

contexts. Coaches’ knowledge refers Anderson’s (1982) broad definition of

“knowledge” which encompasses a complex structure of coaches’ declarative (knowing)

and procedural (doing) knowledge. This definition includes all coaches’ personal

behaviors and experiences in addition to the strategies to effectively coach. The athlete

outcomes mimic the athlete’s behaviors, attitudes and performances resulting from

various types of coaching. Coaching contexts are the models coaches utilize with athletes

who may differ in age, ability, needs and goals (Côté & Gilbert, 2009).

NCAA Division I track and field coaches usually have a solid history in track and

field given knowledge of the sport and experience within the sport (i.e. the knowing and

procedural knowledge). In addition, these coaches are hired based on their ability to

produce successful athletes who can compete at the conference, regional and national

levels of track and field. This demonstrates the coaches’ ability to use different models to

meet the needs and goals of all different types of athletes.

Effective Coaching Model. To further investigate subjects of coaching

knowledge, one study by Bennie and O’Conner (2011) discovered an “effective coaching

model”. This model assesses three different parameters: the coach, coaching skills and

the environment. The coach refers to the coaches’ personal characteristics and their

coaching philosophy. Coaching skills encompasses leadership, communication, people

management and planning. The environment refers to what creates an effective coach,

thus develop a positive team environment and team culture.

The effective coaching model is two dimensional. The focus of the model

develops both the player and the person (Bennie & O’Conner, 2011). Whereas, the

coaching model is one dimensional and focuses on just developing the player (Côté,

Salamela, Trudel, Baria & Russell, 1995). The effective coaching model does not only

create a successful track and field athlete, but it also molds the athlete as person and/or

professional all together.

Another study performed by Tusak and Tusak (2001) identified six areas of a

coach’s role in order to be successful. First, the coach utilizes a sports preparation

process where he/she investigate various parameters required for a sport (ie.

biomechanics, psychological knowledge and sports medicine in respective track and field

events). However, a coach becomes only so proficient in some event areas and may

never reach ‘expertise’ levels in some parameters.

The second process is implementing training programs. Coaches must prepare

their athletes via strength and endurance programs in addition to practice programs to

create more skillful and more tactical athletes. This includes the coaches executing the

practice play in a way the athletes can understand and know the purpose for practice.

The third process suggests that the coaches should utilize feedback with their

athletes leading to training program effects control. This feedback will not only give the

athletes a chance to correct their mistakes, but also aid in motivational parameters.

Furthermore, the fourth parameter consists of comprehensive care for the athlete, thus

ensuring that the athletes can perform their best at practice and competitions. They do

this by considering the athletes’ care first (i.e. making sure everything is taken care of

prior to and during traveling escapades etc.) These tie into the fifth parameter of

counselling the athletes. Counselling includes sport related matters in addition to

personal matters.

Lastly, the coach must understand the competition aspect. For instance, the coach

sets the attitude of the team, hence a role model for his/her athletes. The coach is in

charge of the emotions and confidence of the athletes throughout the duration of a game,

or even the season (Tusak & Tusak, 2001).

In summary, models and theories within coaching science try to explain what

truly makes a coach successful. Coaches at the NCAA Division I track and field level

need to be dynamic in the way that they develop athletes across different levels and

experiences, while shaping them based on individualized characteristics. One model and

theory cannot solely summarize what is most important to be an effective Division I track

and field coach.

Expertise & Effectiveness. One-way researchers have tried to explain coaching

effectiveness is through identifying a coach’s level of expertise. Coaching expertise or

effectiveness has been described in several ways. For example, measuring coaching

effectiveness is easily validated by the athlete’s or team’s achievement via win and loss

records. Another way is by athletes’ personal attributes like satisfaction, enjoyment and

improved performances. In addition, coaching expertise or effectiveness can be

described by years of coaching experience (i.e. twelve years versus three years of

experience) (Côté, & Gilbert, 2009).

An expert coach utilizes and understands the differences between practice and

play. The different practice structure styles (free play, deliberate play, structured practice

and deliberate practice) are utilized at various points within various sporting settings.

Play, according to Smith, Takhvar, Gore, and Volstedt (1986), is referred to behavior that

is done for its own sake. There are no set rules or social demands that must be met. Côté

(Côté 1999; Côté & Hay 2002) distinguished play within sport expertise and identified

deliberate play. Côté and colleagues identified deliberate play as a fun loosely monitored

activity that does not require focus on immediate corrections of activity and experience

immediate gratification. Structured practice focuses on improved performance and is

monitored, but corrections are made through discovery learning and is focused on the

outcomes due to practice. Whereas, deliberate practice is also focused on performance

gains, but the athletes are very carefully monitored and correction is given immediately

(Ericsson, 2001; Ericsson, Krampe and Tesch-Römer, 1993). Both structured practice

and deliberate practice are not for immediate enjoyment.

One job of track and field coaches is to know when to utilize these practice styles

to seek specific performance outcomes. One retrospective study by Soberlak and Côté

(2003) assessed 20-year-old professional hockey players and the number of hours these

athletes spend on each structure style. They found as the players turned fifteen years of

age, the time spent in deliberate play and in other organized sports decreased when the

time in deliberate practice and organized games increased. This suggests that the athlete

began to change emphasis from various sports to a singular hockey focus investing time

into playing hockey.

However, through the lifespan of these athletes, they spent more time in free play

and deliberate play then progressed to structured practice and deliberate practice. This

could be due to skill development, motivation and interest in particular skills in sports.

Expert coaches know how to identify when the athlete is ready to progress to the next

practice structure style. Therefore, the expert coaches know how to alter different

contexts for different levels of athletes (Armour, 2010).

Utilizing deliberate practice structure takes the athlete’s focus from fun and

directs it towards enhancing performance (Trudel & Gilbert, 2006). As the context

switches to a more competitive level, more commitment is derived from athletes and

coaches, thus leading towards more stable and enduring relationship between coaches and

athletes over several years (Lyle 2002; Trudel & Gilbert, 2006). This connection

between the coach and athlete creates a solid commitment to one another so that the

coach can aid enhancing performance with no fear of distressing athletes with more

strenuous deliberate practice.

Once the focus of the athlete switches from fun to performance, coaches then

must apply more intensive planning of training and competition in order to exemplify

situations high-level athletes compete at (Côté, Salamela, Trudel, Baria & Russell, 1995;

Lyle 2002; Trudel & Gilbert, 2006). High-performance coaches must have an organized

and systematic approach when it comes to scheduling deliberate practices and must be

dynamic (Woodman, 1993). Where scheduling deliberate practice becomes difficult is

when the time and context oriented situation is multifaceted, uncertain, and unpredictable

(Jones, Armour, & Potrac, 2004).

In the realm of NCAA Division I track and field, most of the athletes should

ideally spend more time in deliberate practice. Yet, they could reap benefits from the

other structure styles especially when motivation levels decrease due to excessive

deliberate practice. Knowledge and knowledge acquisition are both important concepts

to identify coaching effectiveness. An approach to measure this is through assessing

expertise. When further investigating coaching science, one should identify and include

some of the coaching models and philosophies to answer the question of how we should

coach based on knowledge and effectiveness.

Summary

Track and field coaches have much to consider when looking at optimal

performance in athletes. Understanding how to the tradition of track and field, leadership

and coaching styles, and the underlying science of coaching is important in order to

improve performance. Appendix C demonstrates the purpose of this study to explore

how coaches take various types of track and field athletes achieve peak performance,

while considering traditions, philosophies, and sciences of coaching.

CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I track and field coaches seek

the best performance of their athletes to ideally benefit their respective teams and their

individual athletes. These coaches must apply and plan more intensively training

protocols and competitions to characterize situations high-level athletes compete at (Côté,

Salamela, Trudel, Baria & Russell, 1995; Lyle 2002; Trudel & Gilbert, 2006). By

exploring the training beliefs, protocols, theories, and methods used by track and field

coaches, the researchers can identify and better plan periodization strategies within the

realm of coaching to lead to peak performance in athletes. Therefore, the purpose of this

study was to provide a descriptive analysis of the different coaching methodologies,

modes, and protocols used by NCAA Division I track and field coaches to understand the

role of science, tradition, and philosophy of coaching and training athletes.

Research Question

The chief question of this study was to determine how NCAA Division I track and

field coaches achieve optimal performance in their athletes. The researcher asked the

coaches grand tour questions exploring (a) what type of track and field traditions their

program has/have, (b) how they defined their coaching philosophy, (c) how do they train

their athletes, and (d) how does their coaching philosophy and/or traditions affect their

training philosophy and/or science.

Research Design

Qualitative methods allowed the researchers to become fully absorbed into the

data, in order to obtain exceptionally rich and vibrant data. The research used grounded

theory approach to understand how NCAA Division I head coaches achieve peak

performance in their athletes. By using the grounded theory in this study, the researchers

were able to develop, or discover a theory of a process or an action (Creswell, 2013).

The grounded theory derived a description that grows from the view from the coaches

and will create a blueprint for the effects of traditions, philosophy and science of

coaching on optimal track and field performance.

Sampling Procedures

Criterion sampling, also referred to as purposive sampling, was used to categorize

and include participants who met particular conditions, had a distinct feature, or specific

experiences (Pitney & Parker, 2009). This study utilized purposive sampling in order to

target the appropriate population. The particular criterion for the sample selection was

that the participants must (a) be NCAA division I track and field coaches, (b) have more

than two years of coaching at NCAA division I level, (c) be coaching at the institution for

more than one year, and (d) be a head coach. The participants were selected based on

this criteria due to the fact a particular level of experience must exist to understand the

role of coaching, in addition to the understanding the track and field program at an

institution.

By selecting head coaches, the researchers assumed that theses participants are of

an elite standard in comparison to the rest of the coaching staff and have the capacity,

experience and knowledge to produce successful track and field teams and athletes. The

researcher’s goal was to recruit six to ten NCAA Division I track and field institutions

due to the probability of participants dropping out. The larger the sample size, the results

will be more generalizable for this study (Pitney & Parker, 2009).

Participant Selection and Recruitment

Upon approval from the institutional review board, the NCAA Division I Track

and Field coaches from the Midwestern Region of the United States in this study were

recruited via email, phone, or face-to-face encounters. Due to availability and

responsiveness, four head coaches and one associate coach were interviewed all from

within the Midwest. These schools were purposefully chosen by the researchers based on

convenience and availability. The researcher informed coaches that by possibly

partaking in the study might cause them to further investigate and understand coaching

disciplines in not only their area of expertise, but also other track and field even areas.

Initially, the primary investigator sent the participants an email from the primary

researcher with the informed consent letter in addition to a statement announcing the

purpose of the study. The informed consent assured that all of the responses of the

participant will be kept confidential, and that the participants could withdraw from the

study at any time. The researcher then scheduled appointments with the interested

participants via email or phone at their convenience.

Data Collection

The coaches had the options to be interviewed in a variety of ways based on

availability. These methods include face-to-face interview, skype interview, or phone

interview. Face-to-face interaction was encouraged, but otherwise skype and phone

interviews were an option for the coach. The interviews were primarily conducted via

phone or face-to-face. Each session duration depended on the participant and time of

availability. Time and location of face- to-face interviews was determined by the coaches

and convenience. However, the interviews took place with no distractions and were

digitally recorded. To make the interview setting comfortable, each session started with

an informal conversation between the participant and researcher.

All the participants were asked the same interview questions based on the

interview guide, which were semi-structured, open-ended questions. Performing

individual, semi-structured interviews allowed the researcher to delve into more

individual inquires with each participant (DiCicco-Bloom & Crabtree, 2006). Participant

coaches were asked to discuss personal experiences, training and coaching philosophies,

traditions, methodologies, and other science disciplines pertaining to training.

Pilot Study. To ensure quality research questions, two pilot studies were

performed. These pilot studies were implemented to test-run the interview guide (Baker,

1994). By taking the interview guide through a test trial, the researchers were able to

identify any errors or issues with the interviewing format (Van Teijlingen & Hundley,

2002; Flick, 2007). The pilot studies aided the researcher by providing feedback on

potential alterations of the research questions to hone quality answers (Turner III, 2010).

Pilot testing warranted that the research questions were appropriate, and coaches

could respond in detail of their experiences and knowledge. This allowed the researcher

to determine if the interview guide extrapolates the appropriate answers pertaining to the

study or if any other interviewing questions could have been added. The pilot studies

were performed on former and current track and field coaches who coached at the NCAA

Division I level.

Interview. The use of an interview guide (Appendix A) provided structure to the

interview to further investigate more meaningful topics discussed in more detail. Using

an interview guide also provided a more conversational setting. Prior to the start of the

interviews, the participants were reminded of their rights as they progress through the rest

of the interviewing process. The participants were reminded (a) the purpose of the study,

(b) the interview will be audio recorded, and (c) that their responses will be kept

confidential and private. Upon completion of this discussion during the face-to-face, the

participants will sign the informed consent form. Phone interviews were reminded and

confirmed that the participants were sent the informed consent via email and have the

opportunity to review. After the informed consent discussion, the researcher asked if the

participants had any questions. Once questions, if any, were answer, the researcher

began with the grand tour questions of the interviewing guide and followed up with grand

tour questions with probing questions to obtain more detailed and rich data.

Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness is important to ensure the richness of the data collected during

qualitative research. Pitney and Parker (2009) discuss that trustworthiness is a general

term that encompasses dependability, credibility and transferability in qualitative

research. Qualitative methods that are utilized to ensure dependability are triangulation,

peer debriefing, and member checking. Similarity, triangulation, peer examination, and

member checking all can be used to help assess credibility, in addition to long-term

commitment with the participant. Assessing credibility requires the researcher to

determine the likelihood of the studies’ results (Pitney & Parker, 2009).

In qualitative research, transferability is demonstrated by the ability to apply the

findings to similar occurrences. Transferability is achieved when the researchers obtain

rich descriptions from the interviewees and any other theme emergences (Pitney &

Parker, 2009). Qualitative research depend on trustworthiness throughout the research

process in order to be a great study.

For the purpose of this study, member checking was included by allowing the

participants to alter or add any comments made. Additionally, researcher experience in

the sport of track and field allowed for the participants to engage and exchange more rich

data than compared too little experience. This allowed the researcher to access

information that others may not be able to access from NCAA Division I level coaches.

Furthermore, transcripts were recorded, typed verbatim, and the researcher took notes

during the interview. The interviewing modes were self-selected by the interviewees (i.e.

phone, Skype, and face-to-face) to fit the needs and comfort of the coach.

Data Analysis

Utilizing a bottom up approach (i.e. inductive approach), the interviews in the

study created an organized system of classifications that were established from

unstructured data (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). Thus, the researcher looked for emerging

themes to derive from the data (Creswell, 2014). Grounded theory helped establish

categories by comparing the responses from the interviews with different concepts within

the disciplines of coaching philosophy, coaching science and traditions to find

commonalities to help develop a theory or an action (Strauss & Corbin, 1990; Creswell,

2013). The theory or action will help explain how track and field coaches obtain and

strive towards peak performance in their athletes and organizations.

To start, the researcher organized and prepared the data for analysis post-

interview by transcribing the audio recordings verbatim. The researcher read through all

the data, and open coded the data. Then, the researcher will use the codes to derive

categories and descriptions of the meaningful and rich data. The researcher also used

notes taken during and after the interviews to assist in deriving categories and

descriptions. The researcher then identified the appropriate format for articulating how

the description and themes were demonstrated in the data in order to make an accurate

interpretation of the qualitative research from the findings of the study (Creswell, 2014),

while being fully submersed in the data.

CHAPTER 4

RESULTS

The researcher engaged with four head coaches and one assistant coach in the

Midwest Region of the United States. What made this study unique was that the

researcher interviewed 104 years of combined coaching experience. Participants one

through five had the following years of coaching experience: twenty-six, fourteen, forty,

eighteen, and six. In addition to their coaching experiences, the coaches discussed their

passion and success stories of being former track and field athletes.

The education of the track and field coaches also influenced the way they

responded to the interview questions as well. Some of the coaches discussed their

educational backgrounds of physical education or exercise science/kinesiology. The

foundations of physical education and exercise science/kinesiology differ from one

another. For example, physical education focuses on the pedagogy concepts, whereas

exercises/kinesiology develops strong backgrounds with science-supported disciplines.

Experience and education contributed greatly to richness and power that emanated in the

coaches’ responses to the interview questions.

Definition of terms

This study allowed the researcher to investigate further the roles of traditions,

coaching science and coaching philosophy on track and field performance. Additionally,

the investigation uniquely defined the terms traditions, coaching science, coaching

philosophy, and success within track and field. In the track and field culture, these terms

are viewed different with respect to track and field performance. It is important to

understand that in the track field culture individual success can lead to overall team

success. The milieu specific definitions of coaching science, coaching philosophy,

tradition, and success will be defined before discussing relationships contributing to track

and field performance.

Coaching Science. Within track and field culture, the coaches have defined the

term coaching science in various ways. The coaches’ definitions were influenced by pre-

existing education and coach and/or athlete experiences throughout their track and field

career. The following quotes illustrates the definitions of what coaching science meant to

them:

P1: “When you say coaching science, I look at…the physical and technical

standpoint… we are taking out the emotional component… we are taking out the

psychological component… I look at science. This is how our muscles function.

This is how energy systems work. This is how technical development applies.

This is where your arm should be when you’re throwing shot put. This is where

your foot should be when you hit the board during take-off. These are the proven

ways of attaining better … physical performance. This is how was are going to

move forward, and these kind of workouts are better for you for these reasons.

This is how we replenish energy stores. That’s my idea of what coaching science

is. ”

P2: “Coaching science would be…improving athletic performance to the

understanding of the physiology and biomechanics of movement. I mean… from

my event area specifically technique is sooooo important, so understanding

biomechanically what is happening throughout the throw and being able to get

your body to do that is vital… and physiologically I don’t want my kids running a

bunch of distance races… or running a long ways cause our events lasts… maybe

tops five to ten seconds. It’s always trying to improve your distance or …

improve your performance. ”

P3: “Coaching science… well the unique thing about coaching science is that …

track and field is all about science. There’s so much involved in physics …

biomechanics…and unfortunately chemistry if you get involved with drug

testing… but you know track and field because it’s such a unique sport in that it

has so many different unique properties… the other part is that…track and field is

judged on a tape measure and a stop watch… it’s measurable. Track and field is

sooo science related. ”

P4: “I think that’s just taking… the available knowledge out there and applying it

to your coaching style. ”

P5: “The biggest thing is … organizing you’re learning… there’s a lot of different

concepts out there… there’s a lot of different theories… it’s kind of like there’s a

thousand roads to Rome… over the course of a career… more than one can be

right… for a coach it’s not how great their one idea is … it’s how expansive do

all their ideas reach. You’re going to work with … a lot of people over the course

of your career … and they’re all kind of different… you kind of have to come up

with . . . new methods for a lot of them… so that’s the science of it. Being able

to recognize what the individual needs, and applying those methods to your

athletes. You got to make sure that you’re keeping track of everything, and the

better you are at organizing all of that data, I think that’s really the science of it.”

The definitions that the coaches provided the researcher were powerful. The

meaning was more than what they thought science meant, it was the power of their

definitions came from reflecting on their personal beliefs and perceptions of science and

training, in addition to their experiences. Their experiences of either participating in

track and field or coaching throughout their career shaped their responses.

Coaching Philosophy. In this study, coaching philosophy reflects the influences

and experiences to shape one’s own personal beliefs that affect and influence the way one

coaches their athletes. These combined influences reflect what the individual has

practiced or experienced as a coach or athlete. In addition, they are also obtained through

the individual’s education throughout their life span that impacts their beliefs and

practices as a coach.

When it came to defining their own coaching philosophy, initially, each coach

could not communicate their definitions within one sentence, and spent more time

collecting thoughts compared to other questions asked by the researcher. Many thought

fragments of their philosophy were revealed through their responses to other questions, or

were demonstrated in a personal story. Their philosophy was exemplified in their stories

and supporting statements in the responses to some of the questions. Each coach had

different experiences, education, and varying years of investment in track and field that

resulted in the varying definitions of their coaching philosophies, in addition to

supporting stories and experiences reflecting their coaching philosophy. The following

are samples of the coaching philosophies mentioned:

P2: “…I guess it comes down to a lot about the kids. There are so many different

levels of athletes you can get depending on where you coach… you have to find a

balance between training hard and making them improve… and training too hard

and breaking them. It’s also just getting to them and to their heart and their

mind… so that they know that it’s not that a coach cares about what I do thing…

[Coach] cares about who I am. I guess my philosophy is just kind of getting to

know the kids a bit and the more that we interact and get along… the better they

are going to perform…”

P3: “… Well basically… we’re going to do it the right way. How do you define

the right way? You’re going to do it with pride. You’re going to do it with

dignity. You’re accountable…”

P5: “… I tell everybody… I try to address it as a teacher would. Essentially, I’m

teaching track class in my mind… You can teach anyone the ideas and concepts…

and have them repeat it right back to you and go ‘yup…yup… I’ve got it. ’… It’s

very difficult to teach a feeling…”

Many coaches told stories or discussed experiences where their coaching

philosophy stood out in their answers to support their answers. Their stories and

experiences gave the data life and further meaning of how much their coaching

philosophy has evolved or influenced the way that they engage within their track and

field culture.

Tradition. During the interviews, two coaches asked for further elaboration of

the meaning of the word tradition. In this study, the word tradition is identified as

beliefs, rituals, and customs passed down from year to year as a track and field team. The

traditions are essentially a component of the sub-culture within the track and field culture

that exists at a particular university. Three out of the five coaches reflected upon their

competitive success their institution had in track and field once as either a lower division

school (i.e. NCAA division II). However, these coaches discussed in great length of

striving for current tradition of placing high within their conferences and having a

number of athletes qualifying for national competitions, rather than thriving off the

history of achievements of their programs. Two coaches referred to their institutions

having a rich tradition of team success at the conference level. One of the coaches

discussed some of the athlete success by qualifying and competing in the first and second

rounds of the NCAA Track and Field Championships, and discussed many who went on

to compete for the US Olympic Track and Field Team.

Overall, their traditions went deeper than just current success. Most coaches

discussed the meets that they host each year. Two of the coaches discussed organizations

such as Track Phi groups (track and field fraternities and sororities) that assist in

leadership development and the promotion of the history of track and field success. One

coach told a story about an athlete who was homeless, and the track and field team

became their family. Overall, amongst most of the interviews, the coaches discussed how

they foster a family atmosphere within their track and field culture each year. For

example,

P1: “When I think of tradition, I think of family…One thing we push, or I’ve

always tried, is the fact we are family… We look at the team as a family. We talk

about it as family. When get together and have team meetings, we talk a lot about

the values and the aspect of being a family… that you don’t always like your

brothers and sisters that well, but they are still your family. You love them even if

you don’t like them at the same time. ”

P4: “I build good relationships with all my former athletes…”

P3: “When we’re at practice and out on the road and stuff… we are in this

together… We’re extremely family oriented… always have been… my two

children grew up around the track program…”

Also some of coaches discussed the successes within one event area spreading

like ‘brush fire’ to the other events to motivate teammates to succeed at conference

meets. For example one coach discusses the tradition of the throws team:

P5: “The throws have always been a big part of the program here… [The

throws] have always been a really strong starting place for our team going into

the conference championship… our throwers have been multifaceted. It’s very

seldom we see people throw in one event. ”

Success. Coaches talked about success quite frequently throughout their

interview, even before success was brought into the discussion. They were asked ‘how

do they define success as an athlete, as a team, and as a coach?’ In response, the coaches

elaborated on what success means. For the individual athlete, the definition of success

was multifaceted. One definition reflected the growth as a student and an athlete, for

example:

P1: “I think that the easiest word that I think of… when I think of success is

growth. It’s easy to quantify successes in a lot of ways… but for us we have to….

Look at improvement as growth as our success. We can’t always measure our

successes in how good the team does… so we have to find other ways to do”.

The coach dove further into the definition by explaining what it means to look at

success as growth.

P1: “Some of the things aren’t as easily quantifiable like work ethic and how

hard they get after stuff, and maybe some personal growth. Are they good

people? The thing I always try to tell recruits and recruits’ parents is when a

parent send their kid here… I want to give them back in four years better than we

got them. I don’t want them to be the same. I want to have grown and improved

as an athlete, but also a person. Those things are successful. We have kids

graduate… that’s a success. ”

Another way to look at success is the athlete’s ability to manage grades as a

student with the demands as an athlete. For instance:

P3: “… I think you have to balance between their athletics, their academics, and

their social which all turns into… their professional lives. You see the success

that they have on the track and in the field as an athlete and then a certain level of

success in the class room…and that leads to a strong professional you know…

and for some of them a family life. ”

In the track and field culture, some institutions may have bigger rosters than what

is allowed for conference meets. Being able to compete at conference is seen as an honor

itself for some individuals, while others do not settle less for second round NCAA

national championships. The following quote reflects the athlete growth to a capacity

that was unthinkable at the beginning:

P2: “I may have a walk on kid that never is going to be a national qualifier, but

to see them get on the conference roster or to place at conference is something

that they never that they could do before…that’s a success.”

Though coaches saw these parameters as an individual athlete’s success, a bulk of

the responses discussed that the improvements of personal bests. Personal records (PR)

are common measures for individual athlete success. The following responses are snap

shots of the coaches’ responses for the definition of athlete success:

P2: “… I’m sure the athletes, they would view it differently. They probably base

it on numbers, you know the track and field tape measure or the clock don’t lie.

You know to see that number increase or their weight room number improve. I

think that’s a big success for them. I don’t think they see the mental battles they

succeed as much as the coach does…Success for me for this young lady is going

to be seeing if I can get her to calm down when it’s time to compete so she can

allow herself to better her mark. ”

P1: “I try to look at improvement… each kid on the team… their personal bests…

what they do to get better each time. ”

P4: “The success can be defined… as an individual…one person’s success might

be getting that PR. For another person, success might be winning a conference

championship. ”

P5: “The big thing is… improvement. We are not… probably… going to get that

All-American coming out of high school. We have to develop athletes… and to

me that’s a big measure of success. Are you helping your athletes improve? …

because if you can get your athletes to improve, it has a snowball effect… they

become more passionate about, and they want it more… and they are willing to

work a little bit harder… then that turns into more success for them. That effect

carries on not only for themselves, but their… teammates in the throws and their

teammates all over the track team.”

When the coaches were discussing the traditions of their track and field culture,

the coaches also discussed some of the ways they define success. They were referring to

previous successes as qualifying for the NCAA first and second round National

Championships. Along with the NCAA National Championships, producing All-

Americans was also viewed as a form of athlete success. The inference arose that

becoming an All-American is the most prestigious honor collegiate athletes can receive in

the track and field culture.

Similar to the individual successes, some of the team successes a coach can have

are producing multiple All-Americans, or having multiple individuals competing in the

first and/or second round NCAA National Championships. In addition, winning

conferences and/or placing high as a team in conference is seen as a success to most. The

following quotes further illustrate success at a conference level:

P4: “…you know the team aspect… for us… success is placing high at the

[Conference] championships and trying to win [Conference] titles. ”

P3: “When you first start coaching, you make your success by team titles,

individual titles, and All-Americans. In athletics, what is success? Well, winning

is success. ”

Other team successes reflect the traditional values of family emanated from the

coaches. A coach fosters an environment in which they create lifelong family-like

relationships among the athletes. The following quote exemplifies the important role

coaches play in an athlete’s life:

P2: “I’ve had young ladies or men that …have terrible home lives, and they gain

a family by being a part of the team.”

Further understanding the power and meaning of the definitions gives meaning to

the terms of coaching science, coaching philosophy, tradition, and success life within

track and field culture. The definitions came from the coaches’ previous experiences and

knowledge with respect to their self-perceptions thereof. Understanding the terms will

assist in appreciating the relationships that exist between each term.

Emergence of Entity Interaction

Among the emerging themes of developing the athlete and practicing family

values, the researcher found it hard to separate the entities of coaching science, coaching

philosophy, and traditions. The researcher found a strong interaction between all three in

the answers the coaches provided. Even the coaches found it difficult to discuss success

without the three entities. The coaches were asked to rank the three entities of coaching

science, coaching philosophy and traditions in order of importance (1-3) with one being

the most important and three being the least important. The following responses

demonstrate how the participants answered when they were asked this question:

P1: “… well you know tradition is probably going to be third… I would give the

edge to…philosophy, but not by much. They’re [Coaching Science and Coaching

Philosophy] very close together… they are all… should be pretty high. Traditions

change from place to place and it doesn’t mean you can’t be a good athlete.

Tradition is maybe more a tool for motivation than anything else. I think my

philosophy and my sports science are so closely connect that I can give somebody

a work out… Anybody can give a work out… that’s very well grounded in science,

but if you can’t get the kids to do it the way you want to do it… it’s not going to

matter. So your philosophy has to be a big part of that… and that’s where the

tradition comes in… that’s why they are all tied so closely together it’s like you

could put them on a circle and put three points on a circle and spin the circle and

one of them is going to come to the top. The tradition is a part of the emotional

investment that I think is really important… and the sport science is making sure

you’re doing the right stuff physically that are going to allow people to get to

where they want to be… and they …the philosophy stuff … is how you get them to

do it… my philosophy is what’s going to get … to get the athletes on the team to

do what I want them to do… as an athlete… so I think it’s really hard to separate

them… I guess I would go that way … philosophy first… science second and

tradition third. ”

P2: “…Traditions third… coaching science number one… if you don’t know how

to train your athletes scientifically, they’re not going to improve… and then your

philosophy is based on that… and then traditions yet it’s a nice thing to have, but

you also start to grow that with your coaching philosophy and how you handle

things… you get a … reputation in your area based on what you do with your

athletes so I think that is kind of a result of the other two. ”

P3: “… I’ll say science, then… science, philosophy and the last is traditions…

you know… you don’t win stuff just because…granted one of the best senior

speeches I’ve ever heard said was ‘Sometimes you win because your better, but

sometimes you win because you want it more’… well you know guess what… in

sports just because you want it… doesn’t mean… you have to earn it… and

sometimes you gotta get a break now and then too… you know… which doesn’t

always happen… I: “Why would you go with science 1 and philosophy 2?” P3:

“Ohhhh one because…the sport of track and field is sooo science related. It’s

about you know it’s about physics… like in the throwing events… it’s a lot about

physics… you know philosophy… you know you gotta work hard train hard and

all that stuff… sometimes that doesn’t hold true for ya…”

P4: “… probably the philosophy first, and then the science and then the

traditions. I think you know…. Setting up your philosophy … kind of guides

everything else … ultimately you know you want to be true to yourself …. Use the

science to … you know to…better perform to what your philosophy of training is.

The tradition is …I look at that as part of the wheel of the philosophy that helps

create success. ”

P5: “ I would say… philosophy is out in front… head shoulders knees and toes…

and … cause I feel like that is where you make the strongest connections. Again,

the science is your friend… it’s very useful…you need to have it… but at the same

time… there’s a billion different ways you can do it. As far as beyond that,

there’s a lot of different philosophies too… but …you know I feel like the

philosophies of it, they build the strongest bonds between you and your athletes. I

think that’s where you really let some them know that you that you care about

them…And that you’re taking the time to … to kind of forge that bond with them…

now I’m going to tell ya that the hall of fame thing last year with [one of

university’s coaches]… he always speaks at the beginning of the year … when he

was talking he said… ‘You gotta you gotta love your athletes… and you gotta

make sure that you love them and you gotta make sure they know that you love

em’… and … you know that’s the strongest bond there. If you’ve got that with

them, they’re going to believe in your other stuff… they’re going to believe in

your science… if you don’t have that with them… they’re going to find doubts in

ya… If they don’t like ya… they’re going to find doubts in you… so I feel like the

philosophy is of that… we gotta be together on this… and we gotta be on the same

page. I think that’s the most important thing. I’d say tradition… for me

personally… is three… because ours doesn’t go back that far…”

The coaches’ responses reflected personal opinions that are supported by the

years of experience within the track and field coaching profession. Their answers were

also prompted by the way they practice coaching, and how they approached the

development of athletes and teams. Another factor shaping their answers was their

knowledge of coaching science and philosophy, in addition to how these factors affected

each other in their practice of coaching. The coaches were asked to describe how their

knowledge of coaching science influenced their coaching philosophy or vice versa. The

following responses illustrate how the coaches evaluated their knowledge of both factors

and their interrelationship:

P1: “I would say my …. I don’t know… I think my knowledge of science probably

affects my philosophy a little bit more… because … for the things that we do… in

track and field specifically it’s so much is based on what other sports would call

conditioning and training… and whatever… we don’t worry about too much what

… play we are going run… and offense and defense. We’re just doing a volume

of work so… my philosophy kind of has to mirror my knowledge of sports science

… because we are trying to develop kids in a specific way physically and if my…if

I go… a different direction with my philosophy then that won’t out very well… I

set up certain weeks to be harder than others… heavier loads than others… if go

out there every day and say ‘Okay, every day is grinding it out hard work’… they

are eventually going to burn or get hurt or something like that so… my philosophy

of understanding the sport science of it… and what day should be harder… what

day should be easier and things like that… and then make sure they understand

that within my philosophy… and it kind of comes back to the do what I tell ya to

do thing. Cross country athletes are… it’s the guy that… it’s terrible to say… but

the guys that are least talented on recovery days or easier days will push…

because that’s the only day they get to be in the front of the group… so then they.

. so then all of a sudden it becomes a big race and then the other guys get mad

because the group of guys that aren’t that good are up in the front and then they

start… then the next thing you know the pace the pace is build and then it’s not

recovery anymore… so they have to understand the philosophy and you have to

understand the science and then implement your philosophy around the science so

then they are doing the right stuff at practice. . . ”

P2: “…well I definitely think that my educational background and learning about

the body and how it works has definitely influenced my philosophy… when it

comes to … the actual training cause if I didn’t have that background I wouldn’t

know … how to … manipulate you know… my athletes to just sprinting you know

I could’ve just been a person that’s been like ‘you know we need to be more fit we

are little heavy and run a bunch of miles and get my get their weight down…’

When in actuality, they need to be strong and fast… and doing footwork drills and

speed ladders and … change of direction and being able to go backwards…

definitely I think that’s been a big part…”

P3: “… I guess personally the coaching science aspect of it probably doesn’t

affect my coaching as it does maybe some of the others… maybe in a little bit

more of the technical event areas… the other thing is… is that I have we’re very

fortunate that we have a strength staff… You can think from … physiology and

you know training your methods of how overuse… use and misuse… versus… like

a distance kid… why the hell does a distance runner the morning of meet get out

of bed and go for a run … and then go eat breakfast… take a nap… get up… go to

the course warm-up… and then race… and then run again when they get done…

who the hell thought of that…. Well that’s because science tells us that in a well-

trained distance… that’s the best way to perceive for them to having success…

but if you take a not trained kid and do that… their done when they get done with

the morning run they ain’t going to be able to warm-up because their shot… I

would say it’s about 50-50… I mean I think you would have to be naive to think

that science isn’t involved…”

P4: “It’s probably…they probably both affect each other…. so I think it’s…about

taking the knowledge of the best way to train and … different technique stuff and

… you know applying it… figuring out what works for your individual

philosophy… because there’s been stuff… I couldn’t give you an example off the

top of my head , but…you know there are things over the years that I’m like ‘oh I

heard about this and I’ll try it out’… and that just doesn’t like work for me and

not how I like to do things soo… you know I think it’s you know … probably go

through a little trial and error and then as the longer you coach, you kind of find

the things that you like and really see the ones for you… and then you settle in on

those. ”

P5: “I was…thinking in general…it’s… just making sure that … you continue

you’re learning … there always should be new training methods out there…. And

the big thing…the new idea is the triphasic training, you know the Cal Dietz stuff

… I know that like became the craze like last spring… I was like ‘all right I’ve got

to get into this thing’… and then I started reading into it…. Well it was all stuff

that I have already been doing with Coach [Coach C] like in 2006. To me it was

like a… you know… it was already 10 years old…you go through that stuff you

find something that that you know that’s 50 years old. You know it’s like now…its

plyometrics…. Well yeah you know, our grandfather was out there and they

called it Calisthenics. It’s one of those things it’s like the more things change the

more things stay the same… the science of it… it’s how you…organize it… and

the fact you…got to still be looking for those new ideas cause … if you go a year

without picking anything up …. You know that’s really surprising… I think I

think a guy would accidently pick something up every year… whether you know

…if you’re just going to work and…running into people. You’re…going to pick

something accidently… even if… you’re not trying to… but the biggest thing is

you know… Coach Bondarchuk…Russian coach… that everybody talks about…

ramps and raves about… I think he had a great quote when he said, you know

‘the data is your friend, and science is your friend’. You gotta just make sure

you’re keeping track of everything and the better you are at organizing all of that

data, I think that’s really the science of it. ”

Coaches demonstrated that there was an interaction between the coaching science

and coaching philosophy, and these thoughts that reflected their past experiences and

knowledge.

CHAPTER 5

DISCUSSION

The initial purpose of this study was to provide a descriptive analysis of the

various coaching methodologies, modes, and protocols used by NCAA Division I track

and field coaches to understand the role of science, tradition, and philosophy of coaching

and training athletes. The first major finding of this study was that each coach discussed

a different culture within their track and field institution. This track and field culture was

defined as the customs, beliefs, practices, and traditions that exist due the environment

that is fostered within track and field program and from place to place. As the researcher

became immersed in the data, the researcher found that the roles of coaching science,

coaching philosophy, and traditions certainly influenced their methods of how they coach

and how they program their teams to lead to success. The three entities entirely acted as

the foundation of how and why they implement what they do.

The original hypothesis was, when coaching, coaches tend to alter their training

and coaching plans to meet the training state of their athletes and team. This study

supports this idea when the coaches discussed how they have to develop their athletes.

As not all of the athletes are at the elite level coming out of high school, many of the

coaches discussed how they programmed their training plan to develop the athletes.

Further research exploring how coaches know to effectively alter their training plan to

meet the training state of the athletes.

The second assumption was that coaches tend to coach the way they were

coached. Many of the coaches discussed how their previous coaches in their lives

influenced the way they train, instruct, and develop athletes. Previous research discusses

three terms (pragmatism, existentialism, and phenomenology) that lead to the

development of philosophies (Mechikoff & Estes, 2006). Pragmatism was suggested that

a humans’ physical experience exploits the integration of the body and mind into one

entity which allows contributes value to the body of knowledge (Mechikoff & Estes,

2006). Existentialism reflects the belief that there are three stages that contribute to the

life experience (aesthetic, ethical, and religion), and all three stages strive for salvation

and achieving a degree of satisfaction. The third term, phenomenology, is used to relish

what a direct experience with respect to one’s body means (Mechikoff & Estes, 2006).

These three terms reflect how coaches develop their philosophies by fostering a meaning

and understanding of their experiences in coaching and/or athletic career, which really

encompasses the coach/athlete experience.

At the beginning of the thesis journey, the researcher came in as a track and field

practitioner who only saw concepts and ideas in “black and white”. This made the data

analysis for the primary investigator a challenge with many mental roadblocks in the

development of the themes. Along the thesis journey, the meaning of the data came

together as the researcher engaged with the thesis chairperson, committee members, and

other colleagues. These discussions stimulated thought processes that let the researcher

see the data in a different color and not just in black and white. This study further

contributed knowledge of the coaching experiences and gave life to the researcher’s

experiences as an athlete.

Entity Relationships

During the analysis of the data, the three entities of coaching science, coaching

philosophy and traditions within the track and field culture were found to influence each

other with respect to success. The researcher discovered that traditions, and coaching

science and philosophy do not independently contribute to success. Therefore, each

entity has an interrelationship that influences the degree of success under a track and field

culture. These relationships are the Philosophy-Science Relationship, the Tradition-

Philosophy Relationship, and the Science-Tradition Relationship.

Philosophy-Science Relationship. The Philosophy-Science Relationship (PSR)

influences the way coaches develop each individual athlete within the track and field

culture. Pieces of the coach’s philosophy and understanding of the science impact the

development of both the athlete and the individual. The PSR has two major influences,

the coach/athlete experiences and the coach’s education. These two elements strongly

influence the way that the coaches develop each individual athlete. Each element has a

science and philosophy branch within the coach/athlete experience and the coach’s

education. The components are pictured in Appendix D.

The coach/athlete experience reflects the knowledge and skills they applied as an

athlete and/or a coach throughout their coaching or track and field careers. This is

includes the training and coaching ideas that they learned by participating in track and

field as an athlete, in addition to the knowledge and practices that they have gained

throughout their overall coaching careers. The education side reflects the knowledge a

coach gains through degrees in science or pedagogy, clinics, courses, research, and

coach-coach interactions or other outside sources. These all contribute to the

development of the athlete and individual through the development of philosophy

discussed by Mechikoff and Estes (2006).

Since the PSR primarily focuses on the development of the individual, the way

that coaches interact with the athletes plays a major role in how athletes learn and apply

the knowledge shared by coaches and coaching styles. The primary coaching style

practiced by the coaches was the coach-athlete relationship model. This model discussed

by Mageau and Vallerand (2003) advocates that the athletes and coaches establish a

relationship in equal parts so they can work together to seek the best interest for the

athletes. During this study, the coaches frequently discussed how they needed the

athletes to “buy-in” to their philosophy and that they trust the sciences via this

relationship. Previous research by Côté and colleagues (1995) found that the coach’s

main goal reflects the development of the athlete. Similarly, this study revealed that the

coach does focus on athlete development, but the development is multifaceted, effecting

the athlete and the individual. Improving athlete performance is important to coaches,

and it is also important to prepare the athlete for their future as a professional and as a

person. This development of the person and the athlete is similar to the effective

coaching model discussed by Bennie & O’Conner (2011).

Another way coaches build relationships with their athletes is by the way they

interact with them at practices. Deliberate and structured practices have been supported

to elicit a more competitive atmosphere which drives more commitment from the athletes

and the coaches which in turn leads to a more stable and enduring relationship between

them over several years (Lyle, 2002; Trudel & Gilbert, 2006). This allows the “buy-in”

of the athlete in order to retain the athletes during strenuous training periods without

scaring them away (Lyle, 2002; Trudel & Gilbert, 2006).

Fostering relationships within the track and field culture allows the athletes “buy-

in” to the program to increase retention of the athlete. In addition, this relationship helps

create a solid bond between the coaches and athletes to increase athlete motivation and

trust day to day. The coaches must develop each individual on the team to ultimately

lead to individual success as an athlete and/or as a professional.

Tradition- Philosophy Relationship. The Tradition-Philosophy Relationship

(TPR) reflects the compatibility of the surrounding culture that is fostered by university,

athletic department, and the coaching staff year in and year out. This relationship is

developed from the common philosophy amongst the surrounding coaching culture that is

practiced year to year. The coaches discussed on multiple accounts the importance of

surrounding yourself with a good staff or a staff that best compliments you, your team,

and your philosophy within your track and field culture at your university. For instance,

the following quotation further elaborate on “surrounding culture”:

P2: “… But you also have to have people around you or the staff to help balance

those things. ”

P1: “…Surround yourself with good people. If I want to be successful as a coach,

I need to get assistant coaches that are going to do a good job and that I can trust

and count on…”

P3: “…You gotta have good help. If you don’t have good help, you’re not going

to be very good at this sport… I think if you surround yourself with good people,

coaches, and athletes… and trainers and stuff… You’re only as good as your

staff… You’re only as good as your athletes…”

P4: “… I think it’s always something that you know the people you surround

yourself with… you know teams… are the reflections of their coaches…”

If this compatibility exists, it allows teams to develop the same overall goals in

turn striving for stronger rooted traditions or recurrent success. In turn, the traditions

year in and year out act as motivation for the athletes to strive for further success.

Athletes must also buy into the philosophy and the surrounding culture at the university

to create a bond early in the recruitment process to allow athletes to “buy-in” to the track

and field culture at the university (Mageau & Vallerand, 2003).

What is the foundation of the compatible surrounding culture? In one word, it is

family. Many of the coaches discussed family values directly or indirectly within their

responses to questions. The team is viewed as family. The coaches foster this family

atmosphere that does not only allow athletes to “buy-in” to the track and field culture at

their university, but also leads to commitment to family values and development of an

overall family.

The family atmosphere existed within multiple track and field cultures and were

the strongest of the traditions within some of the cultures. The Theory of Reasoned

Action Model by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) help support the tradition of family passed

on year to year. The track and field culture presses on family creating a high standard,

and coaches practice and emphasize family attitudes in hopes of creating a behavioral

intention of treating each other as family. With the appropriate stimulus, a family

atmosphere can be created within the track and field culture. Many of the coaches told

personal stories of their lifelong relationships with athletes post-edibility coming to visit

or proud of their professional lives or family lives. Coaches also discussed how some of

the athletes they have recruited do not necessarily come from the greatest home lives or

were homeless, by being a part of the track and field team, these athletes gained a family.

Science-Tradition Relationship. The Science-Tradition Relationship (STR)

illustrates how the track and field culture at a university affects the way they train athletes

every year. In addition, the STR reflects the coaching process, similar to the Coaching

Model (Côté, Salmela, Trudel, Baria, Russell, 1995), reflected how they organize the data

to create an optimal training environment within training and competition. The STR

encompasses this coaching process to lead towards the athletes’ performance outcomes in

a given season.

This study did elicit that there is a process and way to plan for success. Previous

research by Tusak and Tusak (2001) discussed six steps leading to coaching success.

Sports preparation process and implementing training programs reflected the time spent

to help develop the athlete. In addition, providing the athletes with feedback was another

way coaches could harvest developmental changes. Comprehensive care for the athlete

and counselling the athletes demonstrate the bond needed in order to build a solid

foundation with the athletes. Finally, understanding the competition aspect is detrimental

for strategic planning programming and during competition planning so that the athletes

are in an environment to succeed.

Coaches were asked, “When they train your athletes, what types of training

methodologies do you insist on using during indoor and outdoor seasons, and in off-

seasons?” Some of the coaches discussed what they learned coming from USA Track

and Field Coaching Association or other affiliates. The following is a sample of a

response that reflects, generally, how the coaches go through and strategically plan and

traditionally train their teams:

P1: well I do a yearly training program … soo … a lot of the stuff that I do…

comes from USA Track and Field back in the old days… which is probably still

similar, but USA Track and Field Coaching Association stuff is different now …

now its… there is kind of two groups. There is USATF & there’s USTCCA or

whatever that is coaching association body and this is USA Track and Field…

so… before USA Track and Field had level I, II, II coaching education… they still

do… um… that was very popular and that was where you went to to figure out

stuff… versus now … so I started with USA Track and Field… learned … how to

develop cycles and all that kind of stuff… mesocycles…microcycles and all that

kind of stuff… those are all things that I implement at um. . . I’m not as

meticulous with it as I use to be…. To some extent… because I’ve done it for such

a long time… and I can refer back to so I don’t break it down and don’t call it my

big macrocycle … this is my years training plan… Same thing…. So … I set

everything up in a year training plan… and I do it in blocks primarily, so I do

essentially the first semester as the first block because we are doing a lot of

conditioning stuff… prep-work… and stuff and then I and then your followed by a

long break… indoor… an indoor block of training and an outdoor block of

training… and I set those things up in advance with a pattern in mind…. With

recovery weeks and whenever I’m trying to have heavier loads and lighter

loads… and all that kind of stuff… and I try to draw that out according to using a

little bit of the landscape of the calendar where if we are gonna have…. If there’s

a break thanksgiving break… is an off load week because they are going home.

They are not going to be here and I can’t control what they are doing… and I

don’t trust that they are going to do it right anyways… soo I always make that a

down week and things like that… um… so I try to set I up in cycles that I want to

be and then but then I still end up manipulating those things so then I’ll get to

do…and we will be half way through indoor season and I’m looking at this is

what we are supposed to do for next week for the work out… and we may not do

that… by the time we get to it… I may have to tweak it or change it for 1) we have

facility concerns that you never… you might not get to practice that day… that

wasn’t in my plan originally… or um… or we just had a meet on Saturday and …

it didn’t go very well and I’m looking at doing this uhhh and I think we need to do

this after getting some feedback… sooo…you have to be…I have to be willing to

change and adapt and analyze what we are doing in the plan to hopefully account

for variables you can see when your designing … so some coaches…. Do yearly

training plans and lay it all out… and some coaches do it week to week or day to

day. The kids all kind of understand what we are kind of doing what we are doing

and they can ask in advance what the work out gonna be… I usually don’t tell

them… because I don’t like them to know…because they stress about it too

much… but they understand the rhythm of it too so there’s… days where we do

certain types of things where for the sprinters types … Monday’s a bigger volume

day… where they are doing more … gross motor movement kind of skills, we’re

just going to go out and run hard and then Tuesday might be more of a technical

development … neurological kind of… this is… we are doing speed, starts, and

those kind of things in there where its … it’s all running they are all runners, but

it’s different… we are asking their bodies to different things and use different

energy systems… and all that kind of stuff. . and trying to a have some variations

…. so they…. They generally know the the… know the ups and downs… they

know what days are going to be harder … what they call harder. What they call

“harder” to me … it’s not. They are all hard if they are doing it right, but where

they are going to feel more exhausted at the end of a workout. They know what

days those are… and what days our other ones are on… and things like that, but

they don’t know what they are gonna get until they get there generally… During

indoor season… we still focus a great deal on… for lack of a better term…

strength… I’m talking primarily about… the athletes that I coach…. So we

have… I look at it as… a pyramid… with four parts… and using very general

vague terms. The bottom of the pyramid is strength development. The middle

parts of the pyramid are speed endurance. There’s generally two parts of speed

endurance… there’s absolute speed stuff on the top… we are trying to build our

pyramid in a certain way. . . and so indoor training for us because we don’t

have a very good facility is… for lack of a better term… is dumbed down a little

bit … we do some bigger gross motor movement things… we work… we can’t do

a lot of speed development in here… we can’t put spikes on. It’s kind of hard to

do some of the things we want… I would normally if I had a different facility. We

have a, what I call a, mini peak for indoor conference championships… we don’t

really lay off and try to set them to be really good, because I don’t think they are

going to be that good. We try to save all of our energy to be better at the outdoor

season where we can go outside…and level the playing field with everybody

else… so we’re… during the fall training… and into… competition phase…

we’re… early on we’re working on um strength… and more speed endurance kind

of thing too … whereas second semester we try to develop some speed

components … and technical development a lot more… understanding that

indoors it’s going to be a little bit more less than that of during the outdoor

season… just …. And like I say is mostly because of our facilities… we have to do

the same. When I was at [a different university], it was a little different because

we had an indoor track and we could do things differently and be more

aggressive… with our training…so I guess I look at it as … one of the things that

I keep in my training …in my year training plan is I have a volume and intensities

chart… and so the volume is … stays a little higher during our… from fall

training in the indoor season than it does for some programs because the intensity

level… we have a hard time managing the intensity level in our building.

Eventually, the volume starts to drop off when the intensity level goes up… and

they intersect… and they go the other direction… so during outdoor season… the

volume is less but the intensity level is much higher… and uh… we just can’t do

that indoors all the time…”

This example elaborates on both sides of working with different facilities and how

the coach has to adapt in order to train athletes in different situations across the track and

field culture. The coach could not accomplish some of the training goals due to facility

limitations, therefore, they had to adapt how they train the athletes until things changes

facility wise. Coaches even touched on training differences with different facilities and

how those variations change the customary way to train athletes.

The Science-Tradition Relationship of the way the coaches train their track and

field teams is extrapolated in the performance outcomes of the individuals and as a team.

For one example, a coach uses the traditional training methods/approaches (X, Y, and Z)

in order to lead their men’s and women’s teams to a 2nd place runner-up conference title

with a handful of NCAA first round competitors. In turn, two of the first round

competitors ended up finishing in the top 12 at NCAA Division I Finals. The team’s

overall GPA was a 3.5, and overall the team’s performance in all parameters improved

from the last three years. This example suggests that X, Y, and Z could indeed actually

lead toward success.

The idea of a coach implementing X, Y, and Z has been developed and influenced

by the track and field culture, and historically what has been successful to them in the

past. Each track and field culture has its own level of uniqueness (i.e. facilities, student-

athletes, coaches, funding etc.). Therefore, the same X, Y, and Z that may work for one

track and field culture may not work for the next.

Overall, the STR encompasses the coaching process in which how coaches

organize their knowledge to create an optimal training and competition environment ever

year to lead their track and field teams towards success (Côté, Salmela, Trudel, Baria,

Russell, 1995). The coaching process is driven by the existing track and field culture. In

turn, this coaching process is specific to the athletes within that track and field culture.

Model Application

The relationships of the PSR, TPR, and STR are all parts of the Philosophy,

Science, and Tradition Interactive Model of Coaching Success. This Interactive Model

demonstrates how coaches can self-evaluate their coaching by identifying their strengths

and weaknesses within their coaching science, philosophy and traditions to measure and

illustrate adjustments needed within their coaching. Appendix E demonstrates how the

three entities interact with each other to provide coaches with a self-evaluation of

successful coaching.

This model is multifaceted in the way that coaches can use both deductive and

inductive reasoning to identify strengths and weaknesses in their blueprints of track and

field success. However, these blueprints vary from institution to institution, because

track and field cultures are unique from university to university. This is due the fact each

university has their budget, facilities, missions, etc. that make each track and field culture

from the next.

The Interactive Model of Coaching Success can also illustrate the degree of

success. The 3-Demonsion of the Interaction Model Pyramid (Appendix F) demonstrates

what entities of coaching science, coaching philosophy and traditions and their

relationships thereof contribute most to their success as a coach. The coach can illustrate

their success by the height of the pyramid. The Interaction Model Pyramid can identify

the coach’s potential strengths and weaknesses and determine how they contribute to the

magnitude of individual and overall team success within their coaching culture year to

year. For example in Appendix Fa, a coach can best practice all three entities to lead

towards optimal success. Whereas in Appendix Fb, coaches primarily use the PSR where

they develop individual athletes successfully, but may lack in the others areas due to

underdeveloped relationships of TPR and STR that may contribute very little towards

success. Appendix Fd demonstrates minimal success due to underdeveloped practices of

coaching science, coaching philosophy and traditions.

Another way to apply coaching science, philosophy and traditions is to treat them

as the legs to a three-legged stool demonstrated in Appendix G. The goal is to sit and

remain stable on your stool within the track and field culture or coaching environment

(success). A coaching culture may have stronger foundations in science, philosophy, or

traditions (thicker legs) and remain stable for the time being. Over time, two things may

occur. The weaker foundations (thinner legs) may disrupt stability, or the chronic stress

of success is largely supported on one or two of the legs, it may cause one of the legs to

wear down or break.

On the other hand, some cultures or environments you place your stool in may

require a different preferred leg arrangement of the stool to be more stable. Some

environments may cause the science legs to be thicker than the philosophy and tradition

legs. But, the most important concept in the three-legged stool analogy is that all three

legs are needed in order to successfully sit on the seat.

Summary

Initially, this study focused on understanding why coaches implemented different

methodologies of training, philosophy, and traditions, how it impacts track and field

performance. However, there was a shift in context from performance towards looking

how the three entities influenced track and field success. The results from this study

demonstrated that there is an actual underlying blueprint of how to effectively coach and

manage athletes within in their respective track and field cultures. As one coach quoted,

“ There are a thousand roads to Rome,” insinuating that there is more than one blueprint

that exists to reach success, and that blueprint is specific within each track and field

university’s culture. The roles of traditions, coaching science and coaching philosophy

are very interwoven within this blueprint. The models discovered within this exploratory

study can act as important tools to evaluate coaching science, coaching philosophy, and

traditions to better understand strengths and weaknesses within their coaching success

blueprint. Therefore, coaches can then foster deeper-rooted traditions through recurrent

individual and team success.

APPENDIX A

INTERVIEW GUIDE

Thank you for being supportive and participating in this study. The purpose of

this study is to explore the different coaching methodologies, modes, and protocols used

by NCAA Division I track and field coaches to better understand the roles of traditions,

philosophy, and science of training and coaching athletes. This interview will be audio

recorded, and your answers will be kept confidential. Remember, you have the right to

withdraw from the study at any point. Also, you have received the informed consent

document via email to review. I am going to take you through five series of questions

regarding your experiences and knowledge within track and field. Before we start the

interview, do you have any questions regarding the study?

Part 1: Can you explain why you chose the track and field coaching

profession?

Please state you’re before we begin: Name

Gender

Age

How many years have you coached at a NCAA Division I level?

1. First, can you explain to me why your chose the track and field coaching profession?

a) Explain your past experiences within the sport of track and field?

b) Is there something that motivated you to pursue this line of work?

c) Have you gone through any experiences in life that pushed you towards this

profession?

Part 2: How would you describe some of your institution’s traditions?

Now that we went through why you chose your profession, how would you

describe your institutions traditions?

a. What does your institution have for traditions within the athletic

department and/or the track and field program?

b. Is track and field seen as a tradition at your university?

i. Why or why not?

c. Is there a track and field history of success?

i. Why or why not?

ii. How would you define success?

1. Coach

2. Athlete

3. Team

4. Athletic Department

d. How do you as a coach help support institutional traditions or track

and field traditions?

Part 3: Describe your coaching philosophy?

Since we have discussed institutional and track and field traditions, I’m

going to start asking you questions regarding your coaching philosophy.

1. How would you define your coaching philosophy?

a. Discuss the foundation of your coaching philosophy.

i. Explain how it is based on morals, personal expectations, or

previous experiences.

b. How does it change based on working with individual athletes versus

the whole team?

i. If yes, how?

ii. If no, why not?

c. Who helped you shape your coaching philosophy?

i. Describe these people

ii. Or, explain how it was shaped.

2. How is your coaching philosophy demonstrated to your athletes?

a. Discuss how you know that your athletes understand what your

coaching philosophy is?

3. Discuss some of the comments you may have received from your athletes or

other coaches about your coaching philosophy or style?

a. What are the effects?

b. How could it affect your philosophy as a whole?

4. How does your coaching philosophy impact how you live your life outside of

track and field coaching

Part 4: What is coaching science, and what is your science of coaching?

Thank you for discussing your coaching philosophy with me; next I’m going to

question you about coaching science.

1. In your own words, please define what the term coaching science means to

you.

a. What parts of science are incorporated in this definition?

2. When training athletes, what types of training methodologies do you insist on

using during the following seasons:

i. Off-season?

ii. In-season Indoor?

iii. In-season Outdoor?

iv. Post-season?

3. Where or who from did you learn these types of training methodologies?

a. What is the purpose of practicing them?

b. Describe how these training methodologies are successful.

c. To your knowledge, what research supports the purpose of these

training methodologies?

4. Can you describe how your knowledge of coaching science influences your

coaching philosophy or vice versa?

5. How would you rank the importance of coaching science, philosophy and

tradition? 1 being most important and 3 being least important.

a. Explain

Part 5: Wrap Up

To finish, I have a few final questions to wrap up this interview.

1. Could you please discuss how you incorporate these three ideas (traditions,

philosophy and science) to lead your team and staff towards success?

2. Would you say one stands out when looking at athlete and team success?

a. If Yes, which one and please explain.

b. If No, please elaborate how all three

3. Discuss your goals individually and professionally.

a. Where do you see yourself going with your track and field coaching

career?

Thank you for your time! I really appreciate your assistance to discuss

APPENDIX B

THEORY OF REASONED ACTION MODEL

(Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975)

APPENDIX C

THE EFFECTS OF TRADITION, PHILOSOPHY, AND SCIENCE OF

COACHING ON TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETES

STRENGTH

POWER

ENDURANCE

Coaching Science

Success Traditions

Coaching Philosophy

Athletes

APPENDIX D

PHILOSOPHY-SCIENCE RELATIONSHIP COMPONENTS

APPENDIX E

PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCE, AND TRADITION INTERACTIVE MODEL

OF COACHING SUCCESS

Coaching

Philosophy

Tradition Coaching

Science

Success

Tradition-Science

Relationship

APPENDIX F

INTERACTION PYRAMID MODEL OF COACHING SUCCESS

CS T

CS T S

T C

a.)

b.)

c.)

d.)

APPENDIX G

COACHING SUCCESS 3-LEGGED STOOL

Culture/ Environment

APPENDIX H

TRANSCRIPTION SUMMARY P1

I=Interviewer

P=Participant

I: First one could you just state your name age and how long you have been

coaching at a division I level

P: [P1] male 50… 20…. This is my 26th year

I: … Can you explain why you chose the track and field coaching profession

using some of your experiences maybe some motivators or just some experiences that

pushed you towards coaching

P: umm well that’s relatively easy I would think….I graduated here with an

education degree. . . And I started teaching … so I did that [at undergraduate university]

and at the completion of my student teaching… I did my student teaching in December

because I was on the track team. So I was a track athlete in college and...Um had some

degree of success and I went on to student teach in the fall because I didn’t want to

student teach in the spring and miss track season. So I deferred … and I started coaching

at … I student taught at [name of town] high school so then I started coaching right

away… I ….i coached basketball and then track at the high school and got paid while

while I sub… and I subbed 4-5 days a week in the school district. ummm and so at the

end of that time… I actually interview for an assistant coaching positions in track here…

[Previous coach] who was the head coach at that time it was women’s programs were

separate from men’s programs. So I interviewed to be the assistant women's coach but I

was only a half time position… I just couldn’t even though he offered me the job I

couldn’t do it for half time…. So I took a teaching job and I taught for a couple years…

the school that I taught in was not…. It was a rough place… I’ll say that…it was kind of

rough… and I was there for a month and I got subpoenaed to testify in a sex trial for two

people I never even met. The the… supposed whatever had happened years ago and my

role was to to be … to be a character witness against all of this guys’ friends that was

pressing charges against a female teacher all of his friends that were in my class that I

have gotten to know over the first month I was there and said that they had no character it

was not cool… soo I was eager to get out of that school district. And the positioned

opened here for a graduate assistant and I was planning on getting a master’s degree

anyways so… I came….. I don’t even know how i… [Previous coach] just gave me the

job I didn’t even… I think I read about it in the newspaper that I was going to be the

graduate assistant before he even told me. So I ended up coming back and starting my

grad degree and had already jumped ahead and it only took me a year to do my grad

degree so I was a graduate assistant for a year then got hired and I stayed … ummm. So

track had just been a big part of what I’ve done as a …….i had my first track meet when I

was in fourth grade. And my last track meet I was over thirty… so it’s been something

that I’ve always done and felt good about and enjoyed and so kept moving forward with

it and now here I am.

I: All righty um now we are kinda are going to switch it towards looking at

institutional traditions…. What does your institution have a traditions with in the athletic

department or the track and field department

P: ha! That’s a tough question… um… maybe you should clarify traditions…

maybe I don’t understand

I: um traditions can be anything from … um…. I know some of our traditions

were … we were….like PRS we would get to go pick lunch where ever we get to go… so

something that’s been kind of imp… it’s passed down year to year within your

department or..

P: well maybe that’s a problem… maybe we need some traditions… I don’t know

that we have anything that stands out in my head that says… um….. one of… I call.. I

guess we could call it a tradition is… ha when I think of tradition I think of family… and

one thing we push or I’ve always tried is the fact we are a family so … so we look at the

team as a family we talk about it as a family and uh… when were.. when we get together

and have team meetings we talk a lot about the values and the aspects of being a

family… that you don’t always liket your brothers and sisters that well but they are still

your family… you love them even if you don’t like them all the time. And and how to be

more disciplined and and how to hold each other accountable and all of those things….uh

as a family…. We have some traditions I guess in terms of our competition... We have a

big home meet that is relatively successful and brings in a lot of people. It’s called the

[meet name] and we have uh some Olympic… some former Olympic athletes that come

and speak and were friends of [former university Olympic coach] and [former university

Olympic coach] was my coach and and that’s where some of my family pressing on

family kind of stuff comes from because that was kind of the way he was when he was

my coach. So we … we have some traditions in that… the athletes get all dressed up and

come to a banquet and get to uh. Talk…. Listen to people talk about their experiences in

track and field at a very high level and every year that’s something they look forward

to… umm and just having a home meet of course idk if that’s really a tradition because

it’s the same meet all the time. But it brings in some people and teams that are good to

compete against and uh…… sooo…. We I don’t know if there’s anything I can think off

the top of my head that’s beyond that uhm…. Maybe we need some traditions… maybe

that would be good a good thing some motivators or something like that

I: right….. Is there any history of track and field success at [UNIVERSITY]?

P: uh... yes in the [specific decade]s… when [UNIVERSITY] was in DII….

[UNIVERSITY] moved to division I in [year]??? I’m pretty sure that’s right. As division

II we were national power more or less there’s … we hosted division II nationals here 3xs

in maybe 4-5 years and… placed as high as third place nationally…. And always had

some very good teams at that time… in our division I history… we have had some degree

of success in that we won…. In my ten years here we have won three conference titles

…uh… the first one being in [year] the second in [year] and the third in [year] but the

first two were men’s and the third one was a women’s… we also won a title when I was

the assistant women’s head coach in [year] in the women’s…. women’s track… umm we

won cross country once in [year] for men and uh… some of the… we’ve had some

success that way because we…. And we were fortunate because we were able to beat…

in each of those cases we were able to beat fully funded teams… when we are not… So

that’s…. so that’s kind of a…. something we look as a feather in our cap because we

aren’t fully funded and… and then most of the teams in our league are…. So so to be able

to beat them was a big deal…. Uhhh and we have had some individual successes uhm…

several kids…. Going to the regionals or whatever you want to call it now… first round

or the national championships… most recently [name of athlete] this past year as a

second team all American…. It’s been … it was probably nine years since we have had

an all American in track um… I would argue that track is probably the most successfully

of sports in some ways in terms of getting people to that level because we have ….there’s

no other way around it…. You’re either an all American or you’re not… and so … it’s

not voted on… it’s just if you do well enough and so… if you look downstairs and you

look at all the people listed as all Americans ours …. The track and field athletes are the

ones that ……. We’re competing against the whole nation… we are not …. I’m not to

uh… to say anything about football. It’s one double A football or … or FCS. We’re not

competing with [Different Divisions Schools] and…

I: there’s no different divisions….I mean there’s the conference teams but you’re

either in the west region or…or you’re in the east region

P: Right…. So I think some our kids that have gone on to be all Americans are

what I would say that are true All-Americans… we don’t have All-Americans in

basketball… because in basketball we have to play against… Everybody…… so in

football we have a lot but it’s narrowed to how many teams are in the FCS… 80??

Versus the 400 that we compete against in track. So I think that track is probably

arguably some of the best success here at [UNIVERSITY].

I: …… how would you define success? Either coaching success, athlete success,

team success….. How would you define success?

P: I think that the easiest word that I think of is when I think of when I think of

success is growth. It’s easy to quantify if we say winning a championship or winning a

title or being an all-American those are obviously successes in a lot of ways um…but for

us we have to… because we are not fully funded we try look at improvement as growth

as our success…. Um we don’t … were not going to compete for conference titles very

often, because we don’t have the money that is invested in either scholarships or facilities

or budgets or things like that compared to most of the other schools including…

[Engaged with a side conversation with interviewer]

[Side Conversation]

P: [Referring to universities with indoor track facilities] … they get to do all kinds

of stuff... and the kids… they don’t even practice outside… the sprinters and jumpers

never go outside for practice ever they just stay on the track till spring. So the resources

that some of the other schools have are very much different so… we can’t always

measure our successes in how good the team does and other things like that so we have to

find other ways to do it. We just … I try to look at improvement….uhhh each kid on the

team… their personal bests what they do to get better each time and some of the things

aren’t as easily quantifiable like work ethic and how hard they get after stuff and maybe

personal growth are they good people and the thing I always try to tell recruits and

recruits’ parents is when a parent sends their kid here…. I want to give them back in 4

years better than we got them…. I don’t want them to be the same… I want them to have

grown and improved as an athlete but also as a person and all that kind of stuff so… those

things are successful… and we have kids that graduate that’s a success…some of the kids

we do have … if they do graduate it will be a big success!......because some of them are

academically a little more challenged… and that’s the nature of well our school

population in general we have…. the standards have changed academically well in the

last 10 years …

[Side Conversation]

P: Soo it’s been a little rough on the university in some ways… but so that’s some

of the kind of things we measure on success.

I: How do you as coach kind of support institutional traditions.... as far as … you

discussed about family… could you elaborate on that…

P: my …. As coach from a personal standpoint … my wife and family are here all

the time…. We go to games… we were here last night for the basketball game…. We

come to volleyball games… we will probably be here tonight… we are very supportive…

we try to be… I think that it’s our role as staff members… myself as a staff member…

that we be supportive of the other programs… I want… because I hope I get their support

when it comes track season and so one of things I think has declined a little bit over the

last few years is the support amongst the peers in this department…. Everybody is a lot

more worried about their own stuff… I think that’s maybe why some of the traditions

don’t exist… because we don’t do some things together that we use to … uhm the staff is

really cohesive… as a team… that we encourage … we…we pick games women’s

basketball or volleyball or whatever…. And have the team go.... be loud and obnoxious

and be supportive. Make sure they wear their track stuff so that everybody knows that it’s

the track team being loud …. So there’s…. We’re… we buy into the tradition the name

[University Mascot]… and try to address and the mentality that goes with being a

[University Mascot]… one of the things that they did for our the… the… meeting for all

of the athletes that happened right before the day school started. They brought in a former

[University Mascot] to give them a speech… and so we play on that…. That’s one of our

biggest traditions is using the word [University Mascot]…. It’s not something that’s been

in women’s athletics for much longer than 10 years or so…

I: right

P: because it was [old University women’s mascot] for them…. And those people

never felt like there was no identity to that… and there are some of the older folks that

have been here for a long time that wanted to keep the tradition of [old University

women’s mascot] … but none of the current coaches are…. Or even athletes even

thought that there was any value to that name…. and so that’s one thing …. And at the

time [old University women’s mascot] became a name… there were not women in the

[University Mascot]s…. so we associate ourselves with the [University Mascot] tradition

a little bit… and so we promote that…um we some of the silly… I mean… even the

small things we do… getting shirts for the team that [represent our mascot] or and those

kinds of things because those are kind of the ties to the [mascot] background of the name

[University Mascot]…but the overall trying press the traditions of the [University

Mascot] mentality and being tough and all that kind of stuff is the kind of stuff we try to

relate to them and I think for the most part the team and the administration understands

that they kind go in the same way of that tradition…

I: okay….. cool… ummmm anything else you would like to add about

traditions….before we move on…

P: you know we probably need some more… it’s an interesting thing … I think

that we … maybe I don’t recognize some of the traditions that I’m I’m thinking about…

because I’m trying to think what traditions …. And then I just thought of one…. It’s kind

of obscure and weird but… we have the [Name of group supporters] have you ever heard

of the [Name of group supporters]? The [Name of group supporters] are kind of a strange

group of their military veterans… and we come from a very big population of military

veterans on our campus… we are one of the we w accept military veterans very easily

and we get them into school and stuff for them… which is a great thing … and so it’s the

veterans group… and in the olden days before there some… politically correct behavior

going on… they dress in cheerleader outfits and it was all men at the time…they got old

cheer leading outfits that they would wear… it looked like mop wigs raggedy Anne,

smear on huge amounts of lipstick and paint their cheeks red… and they would be these

hairy legged beefy guys running around… and they carried plungers everywhere… I have

no idea what significance of the plunger was these vets and it was a vets club and they

would drink out the plungers at tailgating or whatever… Now it’s toned down and they

don’t dress in cheerleading things anymore… but they still a lot of times will wear the red

wigs… and it’s men and women both that are in the vets club now because at that time

women weren’t’ in the military, and but the vets club is a big presence… it they are very

support in athletics and so they go to all the games.. well most of the games… they are

always a football… they are at a lot of basketball stuff… they don’t go to every game, but

they are at lots of athletic events… that’s the vets club… and they call themselves the

[Group Name]… but … but that’s a tradition that I never really. so there’s probably a lot

more traditions and I’m just not smart enough to think of them without knowing in

advance… should have told me earlier… and I would have thought of some more…

I: …Now we are kind gonna go and talk about coaching philosophy… how would

you define your coaching philosophy …

[Side Conversation]

P: I knew this question was coming…and this is… I don’t have a very good

answer for you…um… when I was your age… I had a more clear cut philosophy but

please don’t take offense to me saying this the wrong way because… when I was your

age I didn’t know that much…so I think my… as I talked to [other coach] about this

because she said yeah she’s going to ask you about your coaching philosophy… and I

thought about it… I don’t know HAVE nearly as a clear cut philosophy as I use to…

because the older I’ve gotten the more I have figured out that I don’t know….when I was

younger I thought I knew everything and it was easy to have a philosophy … and now

my philosophy is disjointed I think… I have little parts of philosophies that float around

that i… and how do I round all of those up and make one general statement … I have no

idea… umm… so my coaching philosophy has evolved into… essentially a big mess

now…it’s not as clear cut and defined as it would have been… if you would have asked

me this question 10 or 15 years ago… um so I have parts… one of the things I think

about in my coaching philosophy is…. Stolen from somebody else and I have no idea

who’s… surround yourself with good people…if I want to be successful as coach… I

need to get assistant coaches that are going to do a good job and that I can trust and count

on… and I need to get members of my team that are going to buy into the philosophy…

whatever that is… and the system that we use.. and they are going to work hard…and

develop as athletes… That’s a bight part of my philosophy… I subs… part of my

philosophy… here’s a whole another random thing…. I submit to the KISS principle….

Do you know the KISS principle? Keep it simple stupid…and in early in my career I use

to uh… overly complicate things… thinking that more was better and that soo much

attention to these tiny details….when were… and sometimes we overlooked the bigger

things that we needed to be doing to make us better…. I tried to keep it simple…and I

found that most of the people I work with especially as an athlete….work way better that

way… not trying to …were not coaching professional athletes… that have unlimited time

to dedicate to practices we are working with… college kids who could get two hours or

whatever or… an hour in between classes and we have to be able to keep it simple

enough to do the things they need to do to get better and… and it’s hard to do all the little

stuff all the time… ummm…. Let’s see… there’s …one of the…. Things in my

philosophy I try to promote is that I want emotional commitment from everybody I

coach… it’s something we talk to recruits about a lot… emotional commitment being… I

want them to be glad that they chose [UNIVERSITY] and I want them to feel a

responsibility representing that… I always tell them that I want them to bleed [school

colors]… and not [other school colors]. They need to understand what it means to be a

part of this team and the…I want them to be proud of that and I want them to always

know that they are representing us both… they are representing the school, the

administration… the coaches, their teammates… their family, themselves… as a

[UNIVERSITY] athlete…and so an emotional commitment is a way that I think that we

can best see them… it’s hard to measure but …..and you know when some kids get it….

And some kids don’t… um… I don’t think it’s really a tradition… it’s kind of dumb…

you don’t ever wear somebody else’s… don’t come to practice and wear a [Different

University’s] sweatshirt….and somebody will inevitably do that…. Once a year….

Somebody allways does… or a cap… or something like that….NO… if you … if that’s

what you want then go to school there… don’t come here… figure it out… ummm soo….

My philosophy… I think I think it’s very….. like I say… it’s not very smooth and

flowing… and I can’t just sit here and say… ‘Here’s my coaching philosophy’ and rattle

and read…. A paragraph....or two about how should it be and this is what I should think,

believe, and value… umm… there’s just so many little parts to it that I would be hard to

narrow them all down… I think… I don’t know if that’s good or bad or … but I do

attribute it to fact that I feel like the older I get…. The less I really know… I think I use

to think I knew more than I do now…I just think now…. I try to do the best I can and do

the best I can to keep everything going in one direction and it’s… so it’s I know… I

know that part of my philosophy is work to the best of your ability… work hard… that’s

everybody’s philosophy… that’s no unique…. That’s not unusual… most of the things…

I think most of the things in my philosophy aren’t really unusually… I haven’t come up

with anything that is truly unique… this is… that I’m the only one that thinks this…. It’s

all very standard and cliché things that people say… I’m sure as you have been doing

this…. I’m sure that people have been saying the same stuff... because it’s pretty natural.

I: …. Would you say it changes based on working with individual athletes versus

a whole team perspective

P: oh yeah… I think I has to… because the team dynamic and the individual

dynamics are very much different… our sport is certainly individually driven… umm I

like it… everybody says it all the time... ‘Track is an individual sport’…. It is and I

understand why people say that… but I don’t necessarily believe it all the time… I think

it's more of a team sport and others because you can't hide in track... or swimming.... in

the individual sports you’re not a good teammate or pulling your weight... it's obvious.

Whereas you’re in an 11 man offense in football …. And you’re not that… you’re the

11th guy that’s not that great of a player but there’s nobody else… they don’t have to

throw you the ball when you’re a wide receiver, they throw it to the other receiver all the

time… they just… you’re just out there to draw somebody off or whatever…. They cover

up for you for not being that good. Cause they always throw the ball somewhere else…

and track it doesn’t work that way… you have to… everybody is going to know if you’re

the one that’s not holding your weight or you’re not able to do what you’re supposed to

do… so I think that actually makes it more a …. In some ways… it makes more of a

team thing where you really have to do it… if if your… you … you have to understand

your role and responsibility of what you can do to make the team better… it… it’s just a

different kind of team… and so… working with an individual there’s so many different

personalities that you’re going to change the way….. I don’t coach this kid in the same

way I coach this kid… because this kid is um emotionally stable and… maybe a strong

athlete and can do this…. Where this kid emotionally not so stable and maybe just

beginning their career and development in some of the things they are doing… so where

this one I can say ‘do these things at practice’ …this kid I have to lead them and say

‘okay let’s learn how to do this’ … this kid I can send off by themselves… this kid can

never be by themselves.. uh… I …my general part of my philosophy I guess... one of the

things I try to do is … when you’re a freshman… I think for you …. When you’re a

senior… I shouldn’t even have to tell you what to do… you’re supposed to evolve and

understand what I want… and how I approach things as a coach… and you learn from

that… as a freshman I … I do… I tell you what do and when to do it and how to do it and

as a senior I’m hopefully just your cheerleader… and pat you on the back when you do

things well… and and… give you little tidbits of advice…I hope I don’t have to… I don’t

ever want to overcoach a senior…. If I’ve done my job right… uhhh… so you handle a

lot of kids differently that way… just from their maturity level and their knowledge of the

sport or their experiences all that kind of stuff… the team dynamic then… is kind of a…

there’s an ebb and flow to that too depending on the … the overall makeup of the team

and how they interact and how… um they … they do things… the team that we have

right now … I feel is like a little bit self-centered maybe is a good word?... so they don’t

see the big picture as well as I would like them to see….Where I’ve had teams that are

very … the first couple teams I’ve coached as a head coach were very team… they did

everything with each other, for each other all the time… they would… they had…they

had the [University Mascot] mentality of never… nobody ever gets left behind kind of

thing. That … that was… boy they picked up everybody all the time… this team is

more… it’s a little bit more immature… in some ways… and they are more about

complaining and bitching and whatever. ‘They’re not doing the whole workout right…

and they cut something off the end’… really?!? How… what are ya… twelve? Are you

tattling on your friends? So uh… the mentality... Is …is different so you have to a… it

depends on me to some extent… I have to have my opinion on... And it’s an opinion…

what I think the team is like and how to address the team and handle the team in that

way… but it’s significantly different from how I handle each individual, because each …

when you break them away from the team… you get people in a group… this is

something from …this is from a movie… sorry it’s a bad quote…an individual is

relatively intelligent and can process and do things… a group of people is a dumb

panicky animal… and so… you get a group of people together and they feed off of each

other… you separate one of them out…and you can have a rational conversation… and

they are going to get it… and you can work with them… so sometimes when you put

people in a group the dynamic changes the individual a lot. And so… it you… the…

working with a group and the individual is significantly different… because from that

basic aspect I think.

I: Kinda going back to your coaching philosophy a little bit… who helped you

shape your coaching philosophy?

P: …. I would say there are four people that had the most influence on my

philosophy… I guess 5 sorry 5… umm my parents who were both coaches… um my dad

was a pretty successful coach… he was also a … later in his career he became a principle

and so I learned some of the ways that how to do things from in terms of his organization

and his discipline … he went to… he was a principle of a small school so he was… the

when you got in trouble you need to go to the principal’s office… he was that guy and

that was back in the days when he had a paddle hanging behind his door…my mom was a

good coach… and everybody loved my mother… she was a teacher and coach… and all

of the girls she coached were very loyal and things like that… and then when I went to

coll… but then when I was in high school… um… the coach that I had… and he was the

same coach for every sport I played because it was a very small school but… I played

football basketball and track. He was the head coach for all of them. So… he had a big

impact on me… and everybody else…. Because he was ha… he was well wel… revered

in our town… our football team was very good … so we were a football town… and we

were always really good… and everybody loved that guy… and all the kids worshiped

him… and wanted to bet like him… and and soo… he was a big part… between my mom

and … my mom coached at the high school and taught at the high school and and then

then that guy… uhh I had them for class, the taught physical education… they both

taught physical education… so I would have them for class and and they were so

respected and like by people that it was easy to want to be that… so I was … I became a

PE teacher. I went through kinesiology to be like them. And then I got to college… and

[a previous coach] was … his mannerisms I think were a big part of … of the way I shape

myself and the family dynamics and things like that….He was a pretty low key guy…

supper successful… he was an Olympic gold medalist in two different Olympics and …

and he was… but he was very humble… you would never know… he didn’t walk around

like… he was not cocky… and ‘I’m an Olympian’ or anything like that you would never

know if you didn’t …if you didn’t know his history, he certainly wouldn’t tell you about

it… and just his attitude and approach and his demeanor I think is probably a factor that

affected me more than anything… and then [another coach]… who was my boss for 10

years… you know how how can you not be with someone for 10 year and not learn about

a lot of stuff... and … but … from [previous coach] I learned some good things too but I

also learned some things not to do… probably more so from him things I didn’t wanted to

be when I was a head coach… and some things that I did want to be too…. But it... it’s...

My first experience as an employee working in the field so I learn some of those... both

of those things from him... and um… so I I’ve been pretty lucky to have 5 people who

were pretty influential… and kind of steered me to where I am now…

I: mmmk… have you had any comments…. Discuss some of the comments that

you maybe have received from some of your athletes or other coaches about your

coaching style or your coaching philosophy…

P: oh goodness…. More often than not been pretty positive because they don’t tell

you the negative stuff…umm…. My …I’ve just like every coach... you have 20 new

people every year... you have 80 kids on your team… Another 20 that are new some of

them survive for 4 years and some of them don't…and I’ve have a lot…. I get cards and

letters and emails and stuff like that all the time from people that… haha... I have a … I

got a letter from a kid that I coach…he was on the team for a year… he walked on to the

team as freshman... and I got it two years ago… when I was at [a different university]…

and it took a minute to think about who he was… I saw it and I’m like … and I kind I’m

like I kind a remember this and he’s writes this huge letter thanking me for the experience

and he only did it for a year… and what an influence I had on him and this kind of stuff

and how I how I took a chance on him and I gave him an opportunity and I treated him

like he was the best athlete on the team or whatever… I treated him just like I did

everybody else… I didn’t… your just not some walk on kid or whatever… and how

much he appreciated that… and I’m thinking wow… I didn’t have any idea about any of

that stuff. And I barely remember him… soo… there’s been those… been lots of those

things…. And some of the kids that I’ve coached over the years… have been very loyal

and I had a guy who graduated… 10 years ago or so [describes former athlete and the

athlete’s profession]… he came back… for to visit and but he’s been there for 10 years I

think… I think this is his tenth year… and he came all the way up here to see me… just

to hang out for a day… got a hotel room… and hung out… I would I have let him stay at

the house I have an extra bed… but he brought his girlfriend from [country] to meet

me… he wanted her to meet me and he wanted to show her around campus… and but… I

mean… I’ve been fortunate to build some of those relationships with kids after they get

out here and … so it’s for the most part been positive… occasionally there’s one that’s

not so much and and kinda one of the things I remember… ha this is silly..[Side story]

[Came upon critiques of his coaching] There was two or three people that said the same

thing… and it was negative and I was like uh… interesting and the comment was... that I

had the approach of do it because I say so and don’t ask me any questions… I’m like well

hmmmmm okay… interesting…I guess I kinda am like that sometimes… so I hopefully

took that and now I’m not so… I hope I’m as much that way… because I’m like wow

three people said that and that was my just do it what I said attitude...and maybe I

shouldn’t be that way… I try to be a little more approachable and explain things a little

better…so hopefully I’m a better coach because I read that stuff. Um… but I don’t

know… so that was an example of a negative … that. I’m sure there is plenty of

negatives… they just don’t usually tell you when it’s negative

I: …. How does your coaching philosophy impact how you live life outside of

track and field?

P: ….. I think it’s important for anybody to…. You can’t be one way in one part

of your life and one way in another… that’s one of things I tell the athletes on the team…

you can’t be disciplined when it comes to track and then be a mess when it comes to your

academics… you’re either a discipline person or you’re not… and if you want to be

better at track and then you have to be better at that stuff too and what other aspects of

your life… um I feel like it’s the same way as a coach… so… I try to uh… adhere my

philosophy I guess without being overly conscious of it and say ‘I have to’, but set a good

example … do the right stuff… I don’t… I mean I’m not going to show up to a basketball

game after I went to buffalo wild wings and had 4-5 beers….with dinner… and then

come to the game and be an idiot… I wouldn’t expect the students on my team to do

that… and so why would I do that… umm… I …. Not gunna drive drunk… I… don’t…

or I’m not going to skip practice…. Or blow it off or not communicate with them… you

know… all those kind of things I expect them to do… those are silly, but I try to as… I

try to be disciplined and organized and I try to … do the things that I expect them to do…

and be the… so I need to be the kind of person that I ask them to be… and hopefully I do

that… I don’t know that I’m always successful, but I think I do pretty well…um…. So

surround yourself with good people… I’m very careful who I pick as my friends and I

was careful who I picked as my wife… I was a single guy for a long time…because I

couldn’t find the one that was the right one for me… and I try to raise my kids the same

way… with that they’re that they are fairly well disciplined … you can’t always tell by

looking at them… [Described his children and their personalities] so… but I try to raise

my kids that way… and um… and I bring my… I merge the two as often as I can… my

wife and family are around the team a lot and so that…. And I do that a)because I want

them to be around me… but b) I want …I want the kids on the kids on the team to see my

family around me because… I think that’s an important part of what we are doing… and

they need to uh... they need to see me being a good day… I want them to see me being a

good dad… and a good husband… and so hopefully my philosophy… not a… is…is…all

the things that we talked about not a coaching philosophy but a hopefully they are

basically personal things as well …

I: mmmk……anything else you would like to add about your coaching

philosophy….before we move on….

P: OH GOD NO…

I: …. In your own words can you define what coaching science means to….

P: Coaching Science??

I: … Coaching science. There’s no text book definition… no right or wrong

answer…

P: I look at … when i…when you say coaching science I look at…. As from a …

I guess the… physical and technical stand point… we are taking out the emotional

component… we are taking out the psychological component… I look at science … in

my mind as this how the much… muscles function… this is how energy systems work…

this is how technical development applies… this is how your … this is where your arm

should be when you’re throwing the shot put… this is where your foot should be when

you hit the board during take-off… these are the proven ways of attaining better per…

physical performance…. So... that’s kind of how I look at it… I … when you say science

to me… I don’t think about um… arousal levels. And...and emotional components and

that kind of stuff… I’m thinking strictly of the black and white, cut and dried kinda these

are the ways to get better… and this is how we are going to move forward and … these

kind of workouts are better for you for these reasons… and um… this is how we

replenish energy stores… and using ATP to do this… or that… and the other thing…

that’s my idea of what coaching science is…

I: mmmk …. When you train your athletes … what types of training

methodologies do you insist on using during say… outdoor, indoor seasons, off-

seasons….

P: Training methodologies… I don’t know how to answer that question… what…

maybe you need to give me a little ….

I: so as far as methodologies …like how do you go about programming for the

kids for a season…

P: well I do a yearly training program … soo I I um… I a lot of the stuff that I

do… comes from USA Track and Field back in the old days… which is probably still

similar, but USA Track and Field Coaching Association stuff is different now um… now

its… there is kind of two groups…There is USATF & there’s USTCCA or whatever that

is coaching association body and this is USA Track and Field. So… before USA Track

and Field had level I, II, II coaching education… they still do… um… that was very

popular and that was where you went to to figure out stuff… versus now … the … the big

heads of that group, the smart guys in that group moved over to this group... and now this

is …. A little less popular and this is becoming more popular… um… same general

philosophy, because now all those guys are here…

I: yeahh

P: so I started with USA Track and Field…uh… learned my… um how to develop

cycles and all that kind of stuff… whether it’s good lord… meesocycles, mesocycles,

microcycles and all that kind of stuff… those are all things that I implement at um... I’m

not as meticulous with it as I use to be…. To some extent... because I’ve done it for such

a long time… and I can refer back to so I I don’t break it down and don’t call it my big

macro cycle …. this is my years training plan… Same thing…. So … I set everything up

in a year training plan… and I do it in blocks primarily, so I do essentially the first

semester as the first block because we are doing a lot of conditioning stuff… prep-

work… and stuff and then I and then your followed by a long break… indoor… an indoor

block of training and an outdoor block of training…and I set those things up in advance

with a pattern in mind…. With recovery weeks and whenever I’m trying to have heavier

loads and lighter loads… and all that kind of stuff… and I try to draw that out according

to using a little bit of the landscape of the calendar where if we are gonna have…. If

there’s a break thanksgiving break… is an off load week because they are going

home….they are not going to be here and I can’t control what they are doing… and I

don’t trust that they are going to do it right anyways… soo I always make that a down

week and things like that… um… so I try to set I up in cycles that I want to be and then

but then I still end up manipulating those things so then I’ll get to do…and we will be

half way through indoor season and I’m looking at this is what we are supposed to do for

next week for the work out… and we may not do that… by the time we get to it… I may

have to tweak it or change it for 1) we have facility concerns that you never… you might

not get to practice that day… that wasn’t in my plan originally… or um… or we just had

a meet on Saturday and … it didn’t go very well and I’m looking a doing this uhhh and I

think we need to do this after getting some feedback… sooo you have to be…I have to be

willing to change and adapt and analyze what we are doing in the plan to hopefully

account for variables you can see when your designing … so some coaches…. Do yearly

training plans and lay it all out… and some coaches do it week to week or day to day…

and… I I I’m not that I guess I don’t like doing it that way… I think that’s one of the

lessons I learned from [previous coach]… is he would walk to practice … he would be

walking from [the office] to the track deciding what they were going to do for practice…

and I just ca…and I’m …it drove me crazy cause I just want to have more on paper than

that… and I want to know … soo… the kids all kind of understand what we are kind of

doing what we are doing and they can ask in advance what the work out gonna be… I

usually don’t tell them… because I don’t like them to know…because they stress about it

too much…. But they… they… but they understand the rhythm of it too so there’s… days

where we do certain types of things where for the sprinters types um… Monday’s a

bigger volume day… where they are doing more um… gross motor movement kind of

skills, we’re just going to go out and run hard and then Tuesday might be more of a

technical development um… neurological kind of… this is… we are doing speed, starts,

and those kind of things in there where its … it’s all running they are all runners, but it’s

different… we are asking their bodies to different things and use different energy

systems… and all that kind of stuff... and trying to a have some variations ….so they….

They generally know the the… know the ups and downs… they know what days are

going to be harder … what they call harder… what they call “harder” to me … it’s not.

They are all hard if they are doing it right… but where there are going to feel more

exhausted at the end of a workout… they know what days those are… and what days our

other ones are on… and things like that, but they don’t know what they are gonna get

until they get there generally…

I: … so what are some of the things you focus on then… like what like… what’s a

big thing you’re going to focus on right before indoor season or during indoor season…

or…. Outdoor season…

P: ahhhh during …. During indoor season… we still focus a great deal on… for

lack of a better term… strength… I’m talking primarily about… the the athletes that I

coach…. So we have… I look at it as… a pyramid… with four parts… and using very

general ah vague terms… the bottom of the pyramid is strength development… the

middle parts of the pyramid are… speed endurance… there’s generally two parts of speed

endurance… there’s absolute speed stuff on the top… we are trying to build our pyramid

in a certain way... and so indoor training for us because we don’t have a very good

facility is… for lack of a better term… is dumbed down a little bit we… do ….. We do

some bigger gross motor movement things… we work… we can’t do a lot of speed

development in here… we can’t put spikes on… it’s kind of hard to do some of the things

we want… I would normally if I had a different facility… not… we don’t … we have a

what I call a mini peak for indoor conference championships… we don’t really lay off

and try to set them to be really good, because I don’t think they are going to be that good.

We try to save all of our energy to be better at the outdoor season where we can go

outside…. And level the playing field with everybody else… so we’re… during the fall

training…. And and into… competition phase… we’re… early on we’re working on um

strength… and more speed endurance kind of thing too … whereas second semester we

try to develop some speed components and and and technical development a lot more…

understanding that indoors it’s going to be a little bit more less than that of during the

outdoor season… just …. And like I say is mostly because of our facilities… we have to

do the same… when I was at [different university]… it was a little different because we

had an indoor track and we could do things differently and be more aggressive… with

our training…so I guess I look at it as … i… one o the things that I keep in my training

…in my year training plan is I have a volume and intensities chart… and so the volume is

… stays a little higher during our… from fall training in the indoor season than it does for

some programs because the intensity level… we have a hard time managing the intensity

level in our building. Eventually the volume starts to drop off when the intensity level

goes up… and they intersect… and they go the other direction… so during outdoor

season… the volume is less but the intensity level is much higher… and uh… we just

can’t do that indoors all the time…

I: okay… where did you kind of learn about your training methodologies?

P: Most of it is USA Track and Field… um…that’s… I went through the coaching

education curriculum… I’ve been a level II certified coach which… um. It’s a level I is a

very basic… level II is more a of an event selection…

I: okay

P: so… I’m a jum… I’ve got level II certified in the jumps… because that’s

mostly because I picked either sprints or jumps but the the guy that was the jumps coach

is the guy…. He’s the chair of the education program… now he’s the chair in the other

education program of the other group…

I: okay

P: but he was there at the time… but he was he’s one of the undeniably one of the

best coaches in in our country… and unbelievable success levels… he’s just… he knows

his stuff like anybody’s business it’s crazy how good he is… so…

I: mmmhmmm

P: I learned a lot from that… now before I did all of that stuff… that was at the

early part when I became a head coach… but before that it was more of a … it was a lot

of trial and error in there…. And learning things from my own coac…my own athletic

background… [previous coach]’s a resource when I became a assistant coach…. And

kind of the way he patterned his stuff… and I don’t know where he learned his … but …

um... and just doing a lot of research and getting into the books and things… but most of

the things even as… I was still in the right veins of things even when I started the USA

Track and Field stuff... when I went to the education program thing… I didn’t do … I set

my programs up basically mirroring them… even before … just because I have

researched and spent a lot of time … I spent a lot of time in the library when I started

coaching… just learning stuff… I coached the throwers for a long time…. When I started

my first day I stepped on campus I was the sprints coach and the throws coach… and I

coached the throwers for a long time… but I didn’t throw… biggest reason I worked with

the throwers is because I… the throwers were my best friends and I hung around with

them all the time and I was always watching them throw and just hanging around …so I

kind of picked up some stuff but man I… had to go to school when I started coaching the

throwers…I had to keep …I was just trying to keep ahead of the kids and learn so that my

first year… or two …. I was not a very good coach in the throws because … I was…

learning so much about it at the time… and getting experience and where hopefully

now… be… I’m a lot better, and my eye is different… and you just do things over a

period of time and you learn some stuff and so… that’s kinda how I …

I:... can you describe how your knowledge of coaching science influences your

coaching philosophy or vice versa? Would you say one affects the other more?

P: uhhhh I would say my …. I don’t know… I think my knowledge of science

probably affects my philosophy a little bit more… because … for the things that we do…

in track and field specifically it’s so much is based on what other sports would call

conditioning and training… and whatever… we don’t worry about too much what …

play we are going run… and offense and defense. We’re just doing a volume of work

so… I try… so my philosophy kind of has to mirror my knowledge of sports science to

… because we are trying to develop kids in a specific way physically and if my…if I

go… a different direction with my philosophy then that won’t out very well… so… if the

philosophy is to work to the best of your ability ….well then I provide…. I do that

because… the way things are set… if they don’t … they are not going to get very

good…. Not granted I think that’s probably no matter what …. I don’t care who you talk

about or what… I don’t care what philosophy is that’s probably true, but if you … we set

… I set up certain weeks to be harder than others…um… heavier loads than others… and

things like that if they’re if they… if that doesn’t match my philosophy… and all I do…

and if go out there every day and say okay every day is grinding it out hard work… they

are eventually going to burn or get hurt or something like that so… I have to… my

philosophy of understanding the sport science of it… and what day should be harder…

what day should be easier and things like that and then make sure they understand that

within my philosophy and kind of comes back to the do what I tell ya to do thing…

because they … sometimes I have to make them back off ….they will want to be too

aggressive and then I will say… no today’s work out you are working at a percentage of

what you think your maximum is…. Granted it’s hard to measure but we are going to do

this work out and it’s going to be 75% and what does that mean … well that means

you’re not going as hard as you can because your body needs recovery… so today … for

example in practice… is a recovery day for us… we have 6 days of practice this week

and so they are gonna … they need a recovery day to make sure that they’re legs don’t

fall of… and I can’t let them get in there and start racing each other either.... or

something dumb… it don’t happen that much with my group… but distance kids are

famous for it. Cross country athletes are… it’s the guy that… it’s terrible to say… but

the guys that are least talented on recovery days or easier days will push… because that’s

the only day they get to be in the front of the group… so then they.. so then all of a

sudden it becomes a big race and then the other guys get mad because the group of guys

that aren’t that good are up in the front and then they start… then the next thing you

know the pace the pace is build and then it’s not recovery anymore… but… so they have

to understand the philosophy and you have to understand the science and then implement

your philosophy around the science so then they are doing the right stuff at practice...

I: …. Um if you could rank coaching science, coaching philosophy, and tradition

in um order of importance with one being most important how would you rank them? On

a scale of one to three… one being most important… coaching science, philosophy and

tradition.

P: well you know tradition is probably going to be third… sorry… It’s probably

not … its… its…. I think…. The… uh… I would give the edge to ….. Being number one

is…… I would give the edge to philosophy but not by much… they’re vvvvery close

together… um and tradition I think… they are all should be pretty high… but when you

say there’s only three of them ... somebody’s gotta be last but. um… a tradition to me is a

little bit more of an emotional um... connection somehow to the sport… in our case and

… traditions change from placed to place to place and it does mean you can’t be a good

athlete …. Tradition is maybe more of a tool for motivation than it is anything else I

think… and so… if … I th… I think my philosophy and my sports science are so closely

connected… that I can give somebody a work out, you can give somebody a work out…

anybody can give a work out… that’s very well grounded in science, but if you can’t get

the kids to do it the way you want to do it… it’s not going to matter.. so you philosophy

has to be a big part of that… and that’s where the tradition comes in… that’s why they

are all tied so closely together it’s like you could put them on a circle and put three points

on a circle and spin the circle and one of them is going to come to the top ….and maybe

it doesn’t matter the traditions is a part of the emotional investment that I think is really

important… and the sport science is making sure you’re doing the right stuff physically

that are going to allow people to get to where they want to be… and they …the

philosophy stuff is applied… is both… is how you get them to do it… how do you get

them to… my philosophy is what’s going to get them… to get the athletes on the team to

do what I want them to do… as an athlete… so I think it’s really hard to separate them…

I guess I would go that way … philosophy first… science second and tradition third.

I: how can you incorporate the three ideas in towards leading to team and

sac…staff success?

P: well just kind of like I said… they are all in a circle and you just spin it…

whatever you’re going to get is…they are all so tied together… and in every way you

have to components of all three of them to be successful… so… ummm I hopefully …

we try to incorporate by communication and making sure everybody is on the same

page… and understanding what we are doing and… so they understand my philosophy,

they understand our training protocols and they understand our traditions and that they

can pull off any one of those three at any time… to help them… develop.. sometimes you

rely… we rely more on one or the other um… we always know science it’s a big part of

it… because we want to do the right stuff but if we try to invest that emotional

commitment that’s where the philosophy and the traditions come in… is to influence you

how you do your work… and um… and every coach at some point gunna be a little bit of

a cheerleader and that ties the philosophy and the traditions in there as well… getting

everybody moving forward is a difficult task and and… and being able to pull on the

three different topics there …I think makes this just …its three tools that you can use…

I:... would you say stands out more when look at athlete success versus team

success?

P: I think looking at athlete success probably is more of the … I would say that’s

more of the science dynamic… where the team success is more… can be more about the

tradition and the philosophy is equally both… but the team dynamic… that’s where

you… that’s where the cheerleader comes out and that’s where the enthusiasm and the

pep talks and all those kind of things. Where they talk about being a [University Mascot]

and what it means to be a part of this team and how you need to bleed [University

Colors]… and all of those things … those are all the traditional things that we… use as

tools to motivate …. So traditions are a big part of the motivation that tends to come in

the team environment a little bit more than it does with the individual I don’t … I don’t

have to go… I….I’m sure I do sometimes… but it’s not about pumping up the individual

all the time… it’s about pumping up the team... so… that’s where I think it’s more about

tradition… and then and then it’s more about the science when we are talking about…

when I’m working with an individual when it’s about… allright make sure you put your

foot here… and you’re not lifting your knee hard enough… your arms are not coming

through this way… let’s think about these things as an individual… and how that applies

and that’s the sports science part

I: … last question… can you just discuss some your goals individually and

professionally just going on in your coaching career?

P: uhhh… my goals are to be better that’s very broad… I want to bet a better

coach, I want to be a better a husband, I want to be a better father. I don’t know if I’m

terrible at any of them… right hopefully I’m not terrible at them I don’t know, but I want

to be better at those things… all of those things… umm being better is sometimes easily

measured sometimes not I want our team to have more success in the tangible ways of

like conference placing, individual placing all those kind of things… I… we need to get

better that way… we...we need to be better as recruiters… that’s going to have an

impact… we didn’t have a great recruiting year last year… and the four years I was gone

… five years I was gone… there wasn’t much recruiting going on at all... so we’re… so

we have to better that way to help our team improve um… I … but I… I try to not stand

still. I want to always keep pushing forward and try to be better… sometimes that’s little

steps… sometimes that’s bigger steps… ummm I’m trying …. I’m trying in my

professional life right now, because I’m … when I came back here there was a different

balance between… well when I left I was single… I was engaged, but I hadn’t even been

married yet… when I came back I’m married with two kids… so balancing my personal

life and family life with my professional life and I’m trying to find a better balance and

… do a better job of my job… ummm by investing a little bit more time and effort into

some things that kind of part of the reason why we maybe didn’t have as good of a

recruiting year last year as we should have was because… I didn’t spend as much at it as

I would have … that I would have five or six years ago…when I was single and didn’t

have anything else to do…. So… um. Now I’m making a bigger push of trying to manage

my time better so that I can still be a good father and husband and… and but do better at

some of the things… I still go to practice the same amount of time… but it’s the things

outside of practice that I need to you know to be efficient at… to get my stuff done in the

office… be more efficient, use my time wisely so I... don’t have to spend as much time

there and can do other things either going to practice or going home or whatever… so…

yeahhh….just be better. That’s… I don’t know if that’s a good answer or not….

APPENDIX I

TRANSCRIPTION SUMMARY P2

I=Interviewer

P=Participant

I: First question… can you just state your name, gender, age and how many years

you have coached at a Division I level?

P: k…. [P2]… uh 36… I’ve coached for I think for 14….. I think 14 years at

division I…

I: How long have you been at [Your University]?

P: ah… this is my eighth year….

I: …Can you explain why you chose your track and field coaching profession?

You can use any experiences… motivators… or experiences in life towards the coaching

profession…

P: I think the biggest influence is pry my high school coach… umm he instilled a

great passion for track and field with me….ummm and the excitement… and a curing

nature towards his athletes that made me want to…. Uh… give that same umm… feeling

back to so some other people that gave me that…ummm and I’ve always had a love for

the sport and a uh interest in the human body…. And how it functions…

I: Is there anything that motivated you to become a coach? Or an personal

experiences

P: Welll… when you have successes in track and field um…. You really gain a

big love for the sport uh… when you have a great amount of success… um whether if

that be on the high school, national level… and or collegiate national level…

I: Were you any of those?

P: uhhh high school… quite successful… college a little less but I did compete in

the USA championships in the Javelin too…

I: okay… all righty… no that we know a little bit about yourself…. Ah... We’re

kinda go through um… your institutions traditions… What does your institution have for

traditions within the athletic department or within the track and field program in general?

P: Well … we have a great winning success here… um… our ladies have won

roughly don’t quote me on this… or I can always change it later… umm 12 of the last 17

or 19 championships… or somewhere in there….uhhh indoor and outdoor… and our

guys have won … like 36 in the last 42 indoor and outdoor championships…. Uhhh we

also do a what we call a Track Phi… it’s like a track and field sorority and fraternity for

our kids to try promote leadership amongst them…. And to get them …. Knowledge of

records, [UNIVERSITY] history… uh to get more motivated to try succeed at the sport

they have chosen.

I: …. Is track and field seen as a tradition at your university?

P: uhhh… besides winning or I … I don’t know what your….

I: umm as far as um… recruiting individuals coming there as a track… as a

tradition do you kind of promote that at your institution that track and field is a tradition

within your athletic department?

P: We do… we host the [name of big meet] …track and field championships

every year… soo… they come and run on our blue track… and their like ‘yeah… I love

the blue track.’ So that’s a big deal…. And that’s our school color… and but a lot of it

we’ve you know really push our winning tradition and family atmosphere that we you

know… foster here.

I: okay… How you uhhhh go ahead and define success…. As a coach, as athlete,

as a team… How would you define success? If you have different definitions… you can

also state those too…

P: … I guess success as a coach to me is 1.) of course is… it’s hard not to see

winning championships is being success… umm that’s like an obvious one to outsiders…

ummmm… but more importantly it’s seeing each of your kids re... achieving it to a high

level… whatever their level is… I may have a walk on kid that never is going to be a

national qualifier, but to see them get on the conference roster or to place at conference is

something that they never thought they could do before…. That’s success…. Or … I’ve

had young ladies or men that ummm…. Not… have terrible home lives … and they

gained a family… by being a part of the team. Um… uhhh… you know like just helping

people and the success … and athletes I’m sure athletes they would view it differently…

they probably will base it on the numbers… you know track and field tape measure or the

clock don’t lie haha….So…. You know to see that number increase… or see their weight

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room number improve um… I think that’s a big success for them… I don’t think they see

the mental battles that they succeed as much as the coach does… So we try to instill that

in they kids… like I have a young lady that just gets WOUND UP tight for meets… you

know warm-up so relaxed… and get in a meet and… kind of basically inhibit her

throwing because she has gotten so wound up …and the success for me for this young

lady is gonna be seeing if I can get her to calm down when it’s time to compete so she

can allow herself to get the better mark.

I: …. How do you as a coach support institutional traditions … or track and field

traditions?

P: Well I think one when you’re talking about the institution…one....you have to

look outside of the legacy… you have support the people across campus for them to want

to support the…. Track program or the athletic department in general. When you’re

talking about the athletic department you need to go to other sports’ events… cheer on

their kids… get involved with groups whether if it would be the Student Athletic

Committee organization… or Fellowship of Christian Athletes umm… so you can have

an interaction with your teams outside of your own… ummm on your staff you do need

to have gatherings outside of your office where you can foster um… relationships that

just don’t involve just your sport. You have to have more to your life than just…. Your

job… ummmm and of course on your team your trying to foster that relationship with the

event areas. Track and field is a very diverse sport where you have distance runners and

sprinters and jumpers and throwers. You’re not always practicing at the same time or the

same location. You gotta get the kids to start caring about each other during the season.

Our Track Phi helps with that. Ummm we do um try have like …like competitor of the

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meet uh performance of the meet of both genders, field event, running event um so that

people can be like ‘oh…soo that’s who that is that ran really well for us….But I never see

them.’ Or they… ‘Oh… well that’s one of the throwers… I saw someone big…’ hahaha

‘I knew it was a thrower… and now I know their name’…

I: … anything else that you would like to add as far as traditions go?

P: … I mean we have our team meetings before ummm our championships… at

the meet some of the kids get together, the guys go in the weight room and they give each

other rah rah speeches and our seniors get up and you know talk about their personal

views… when they came in as freshmen there was probably 20 of them… and when

they’re seniors there’s 5 left that really, really care about the sport…and that are still

driven and passionate… um and the ladies… they like exchange gifts and posters to kind

of get them pumped up so there’s a little bit of a difference between men and women on

some of their traditions…

I: … We’re gunna kinda switch gears here from talking about traditions… we are

going to into coaching philosophy. How would you define your coaching philosophy?

P: … I guess… I guess it comes down to a lot about the kids. There are so many

different levels of athletes that you can get depending upon where you coach... Like when

I was at [a different University] we would get some complete freaks of nature… that you

didn’t have to necessarily much with or you could do CRAZY work outs and they

wouldn’t get injured… and you could be a mid-major school where one … you’re getting

kids on little scholarships because they love the sport, but if you train them really really

hard, they’re gonna break. And so you have to find a balance between… training hard

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and making them improve and training too hard and breaking them. Umm… but then it’s

also just getting to them and to their heart, and their mind …ummmm so that they know

that it’s not that coach cares about what I do thing… she cares about who I am… ummm

so I guess some of my philosophy is just kind of getting to know the kids a bit and the

more that we interact and get along… the better they are going to perform, but it takes a

lot of hard work, but hard work can be fun.

… How would you say it might be based off some personal expectations or

morals or previous experiences? Does that apply to your coaching philosophy?

P: Yeah…. I mean… there’s a lot of values that my parents have instilled in me

and um you know where whether if it’d be just as simple as a job worth doing is a job

worth doing well… and so … what other aspects …whatever aspects of coaching you’re

talking about whether if it would be doing your paper work or doing your practice logs or

going out to practice or… throwing with the kids… or getting them to throw… if it’s

worth doing… it’s worth doing well and trying to get your kids to go not half way on

anything… is something I definitely try to instill in them… um there’s definitely a right

and wrong … it’s easy to do sometimes things the wrong way…. ummm or maybe or

illegally and you just really have to take the moral and ethical high road…um…. And that

may preclude you from being in certain programs, but if you are a truly a person of

character… ummm you don’t need to be at that level or that institution… ummm to have

to light that faction.

I: …. who else …might have helped you shaped your coaching philosophy?

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P: Um… my high school coach....umm… I had uh four or five different college

coaches in my career it’s kind of crazy… umm… they all have given me some type of

knowledge or motivation… to do what I do, and be able to fact am… ummmm also like

strength coaches that I’ve been involved with… um my current boss he is a great mentor

when it comes to try develop a team… an entire team… cause [UNIVERSITY]’s track

and field is about a team effort. We have throwers we have distance runners we have

jumpers we have throwers… where some programs put all of their scholarship money

into like distance or they put it all in to the sprints… because their head coach is a

sprinter. But he really and truly cares about a team…

I: … how does your coaching philosophy change based on working with

individual athletes versus a whole team perspective?

P: well…. when you have an individual practice… it’s kind of nice… you… can

get more into the nitty gritty of … of their issues and then give them a greater knowledge

to … feel… or see… what they are doing when they look at their video so that individual

time with them to go over video um… and get a little bit more in-depth with them is

definitely crucial…ummm this year having a volunteer coach helping me out… haha is

really good… because we get a lot of drills done… um one of my former athletes… he

graduated last year and so like hammer he does drills and I do throwing and they go do

drills in between so they are always doing something… and I have a feeling that they are

going to be a lot better this year… what was the rest of the question…

I: … individual coaching philosophy versus whole team perspective of coaching

philosophy…

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P: yeah I think I get too rooted on like team because I have large groups of kids

that come out… we only have our facilities for a constricted amount of time that we can

have… we have our facility from 2-6 which is a lot compared to some schools… umm

but I have to have all my throwers come but… one kid may be more of a discus thrower

than a shot putter soo…. It’s sometimes hard for me to like have them throwing into a

tarp behind me and have that person get a lot of attention when I need to focus on the

shot putters because they are indoors… and so like early on in the semester everybody

throws everything just so that they have a better broad knowledge of all the events and

then… as the season goes… I hope to get more individual work with them to clean them

up in their primary events….

I: … How would you say your coaching philosophy is demonstrated to your

athletes?

P: Hmmm…

I: How do you know what your coach’s… or… how do you know when your

athletes understand your coaching philosophy?

P: I kind of have individual meetings with them… but I don’t know if they always

get the coaching philosophy …. And ummm… I think they understand what I want to get

out of them… like um… hard work… ummm being on top of things… at practice like a

job worth doing is a job worth doing well… because I like try … like if they’re not doing

it right… then I need to get it done right. Ummm… It’s like whether if it would be asking

them to give me their class schedules or respond, because we need them to work the

football game… because my kids know that I .. I demand or … require that they respond

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and give me an answer right away… and it’s not an excuse to like not follow through on

things…. They do that at practice… they follow through on taking their how many reps

of the throws they needed to do… or taking care of their drills, so I think they kind of get

it but I don’t… I think they could probably sit down and even talk about the things we’ve

talked about.

I: … can you discuss some of the comments that you may have received from

some of your athletes or other coaches about your coaching philosophy or coaching

style….

P: mmmmm…. IIII….ahhhhh… kind of like how I demand them to respond or

take care of things… sometimes they are like… are they intimidated to respond to you or

do they know that they just need to take care of this. That would be…. Kind of… sort of

a criticism… but at the same time it’s like… I want… I also want to know how to get my

kids doing what your kids are doing, but….Is it really out of fear or is it out of if they

really want to?…and I hope mostly that it’s because they really want to …. Umm and not

‘oh my gosh what’s coach gonna do ….Am I going to have to clean the shed because I

didn’t do… whatever’? … I guess that would be some of the things… some of the other

coaches try to figure out how to uh… how to develop their philosophy or how to get their

kids to do something and I’ll ask them about what they do… because I’ll be like ‘your

kids do that sooo great…. Like my kids don’t … like how did you do that?’….

I: …. How does your coaching philosophy impact how you live life outside of

your track and field profession?

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P: ooooo….. Unfortunately… probably my …. High demands of myself so like a

job worth doing is a job worth doing right and … basically ummm probably doesn’t give

me the life balance that one would hope for… hahaha. That’s a biggen… that’s a biggest

challenge… ‘cause it’s never done… you can always do more work… you can always

watch more videos… and listen to other coaches or find out a new way of getting your

kids to do something… umm you can always try to raise more money ‘cause you need to

‘cause your budget doesn’t cover it……ohh sooo I think that it’s harmful at the same

time … you know like because of my personality…. To have a type A personality of

getting things done is not always the best way… my boss always tries to get me to do that

too… but you also have to have people around you or the staff to help you balance those

things and unfortunately I’m in the situation where we’ve well after this year we’ll have

lost three coaches so… just distributing that much more work over the remaining

people… and so…. Kind of an environmental issue as well…

I: … anything else you would like to add as far as coaching philosophy goes…

before we move on…

P: mmmmm noooo…

I: … so the next thing we are gonna kinda talk about is… coaching science…

um… your own words… there’s no text book definition…. Can you define what the term

coaching science means to you?

P: I guess coaching science would be… ummm… improving athletic performance

ummm to the understanding of the physiology and the biomechanics of movement.

I: Can you kind of elaborate why you chose that definition?

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P: Yeah… I mean… from my event area specifically technique is sooooo

important sooo understanding biomechanically what is happening throughout the throw

and being able to get your body to do that is vital. And physiologically ummm I don’t

want my kids running a bunch of distance races you know … or running a long ways

cause our event lasts… talking javelin maybe tops 5 to 10 seconds depending upon how

long they hang out at the back of the run way…and maybe a second to a second and a

half… so a lot of our speed work umm would be short distances… uhhh… explosive

medball weightlifting… ummm cause you need to train your body in the right

physiological sense… umm to perform better… the right energy systems and I guess

that’s why I would kind of define that it’s always trying to improve your distance or

perf… or improve your performance … and and you have to use biomechanics and

physiology to do that…

I: … when training athletes … what type of methodologies do you insist on using

say during the offseason… indoor season… outdoor season… post season… what do you

like to focus on during those times?

P: ummm offseason… fall we work on a lot of conditioning so that we can do… a

lot of reps because I feel like with a lot of reps you can actually improve your technique

and be more consistent so then to meet NCAA requirements since its only 8 hours of

training doesn’t give you much time to do anything else… um… during that time frame

they will only allow you two hours of technical work during the entire week… soo

really…. We’re pushing medballs and weights and running doing a little bit of stadiums

things like that to get ourselves ready for … the 20 hour rule which would be in-season

training and that’s where we get to start throwing a lot of of throws… ummm and

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working on even more technique… ummm as we get to more of a competition in-season

the number of reps decrease but they are higher quality and they sometimes they throw

light weighted implements regular weighted where as in the fall you get a lot of the heavy

and regular um… so you have to kind of mix it up so that they are they can do a lot of

work... I think that covered all the questions… but let me know if I missed some of the

questions…

I: ummm post season…

P: post-season? Post-season is really just a time for them to kinda get a love back

for the sport… um track and field is a very long season we start about a week into classes

and we got to the middle of June if you’re a highly successful athlete…. Sooooo ummm I

give them about a month of just doing their own thing … before giving them serious

weights and a little bit of conditioning to over the summer that’s the big thing so you can

get stronger over the summer and throw because you actually and enjoy it and not

because coach is telling you you have to get so many reps in and get so much work

done…

I: … um where did you learn your type of training methodologies? How do you

know how to plan…program… when works where and what and how?

P: Tudor Bompa… being the big physiologi…physiology guy and um

periodization guy… my coaches gave me books to read umm I read all of that… I’ve

asked some coaches how to like… how they do their stuff… then a lot of it trial and

error, but I would say my educational background and the books I’ve read and my

coaches have been the biggest influences there…

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I: okay…. Okay… all right… next one … how… can you describe how your

knowledge of coaching science influences your coaching philosophy or vice versa… does

one affect the other one?

P: well I definitely think that my educational background and learning about the

body and how it works has definitely influenced my philosophy… um when it comes to

… umm the actual training cause if I didn’t have that background I wouldn’t know …

how to … manipulate you know… my athletes to just sprinting you know I could’ve just

ben a person that’s been like ‘you know we need to be more fit we are little heavy and

run a bunch of miles and get my get their weight down…’ when in actuality they need to

be strong and fast… and doing footwork drills and speed ladders and oh god… change of

direction and being able to go backwards… definitely I think that’s been a big part…

I: … if you could rank the order of importance of coaching science, philosophy,

and traditions… with 1 being the most important how would you rank them? 1 through 3.

P: Traditions third… coaching science number one…

I: … And can you explain?

P: um if you don’t know how to train your athletes scientifically they’re not going

to improve… umm and then your philosophy is based on that… sooo that kind of goes in

there and then traditions yet it’s a nice thing to have, but you also start to grow that with

your coaching philosophy and how you handle things… you get a repu… reputation in

your area based on what you do with your athletes so I think that is kind of a result of the

other two.

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I: … is there anything else you would like to add about coaching science?

Anything um… would you say may some of … your… or where did you… let me

rephrase this… to your knowledge what research supports some of your training

methodologies?

P: ummm a lot of the research I read in umm with my strength and conditioning

background, because I’m certified there… sooo various readings… so Tudor Bompa…

has been a big big big help when like learning how to periodize for a double peak for

track and field like we have to be at our best for two conference championships which is

hard umm you know … even just your general exercise physiology classes that’ve had in

my masters and my undergraduate degree they were just really important… I mean I

wouldn’t have known as much without the reading that I do…and I think you just

constantly have to like try to keep yourself up to date, online, in the classroom, in books,

and without that you’re going to kind of stay stagnant…

I: … How could you incorporate these three ideas of traditions, philosophy and

science to lead your team and staff toward success?

P: oh… I think developing a like a more solid philosophy would be beneficial and

not just kind of going by all…all of the science ….all the time… umm but I think it’s

very important … could you repeat the question one more time? I’m sorry…

I: ahh discuss how you incorporate the three ideas of traditions, philosophy and

science to lead your team and staff toward success?

P: Well continuing on with what I was saying… your philosophy will help you

get a staff that has a similar philosophy around you. Ummm or a philosophy that is

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beneficial to that event area… and that will develop the tradition… umm in your

institution… because um coaching here you… you want the people that are good faith…

um work hard… umm I don’t know … care a lot about their athletes …and you’re not

going to take someone that doesn’t have any knowledge base… so your philosophy and

your background there umm you want those people around your kids ‘cause they are

knowledgeable, they’ll make them improve, they’ll have a great time… you’ll have more

of a tradition… you’ll have more support coming from your alumni when comes time for

donor relations ummm… and I’m missing one part of your question still…..yeah… I

think that I mean you’ve gotta surround yourself with good people to make…you know

championships happen… and I think we do that here… and it’s hard to keep that when

you have external things dictating your program… budget or other things

I: … Would you stay… say one stands out more than the other when looking at

the athlete success versus team success?

P: I think if your kids succeeding you’re going to have team success… sooo

ummm and you’re if you’re just starting up of a program from somewhere you gotta get a

couple kids succeeding really well so you can get people interested and and then the more

kids you get performing well and competing… you’ll have those team championships

and you’ll have a greater tradition and a lifelong program….

I: Which one of the three ideas would stand out better with team success versus

athlete success?... so traditions, philosophy, and science which one would you say is

more associated with team success versus athlete success?

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P: mmmmm…. Oooooo…. I think if you’re… I think the reason why you kids

succeed is because of your knowledge ummm and your philosophy, but your team

success becomes or relies on the tradition a little more... ‘cause I don’t think the kids see

the bigger picture…. They just …. They see what coach is having them do uhh day to day

and their improvements that they have with the technical work… umm but when it comes

down to the team championship times… it’s your team rallying together and performing

well… so that tradition that helps your team win those successes and win the

championships.

I: okay…. All right the last question! Uh… discuss some of your goals

individually and professionally. Where do you see yourself going with your ah… track

and field profession?

P: Well… a goal would be… right now I’m associate head coach which I pretty

much do all the budgetary stuff just like a normal head coach here… but I wouldn’t mind

being a head coach one day… there’s only like a slight problem… I’m pretty sure that

there has never been a female, division I, throwing coach be a head coach…. To do that

would be pretty impressive… umm staying in it long enough to do that… hahahahaha so

what was the other part of that question?

I: uhhh individual goals and professional goals …

P: so an individual goal just keep seeing my kids improve, because and building

those relationships with them, because I’ve got an amazingly fun group of kids that really

work hard and the harder they work… the harder I work for them… and the more success

that we have… the team that I’ve had throughout my career umm that have bonded like

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that has been the most successful and hopefully what I need to help change the culture

here in my area… even more than we have in the last seven years….

I: All righty… Is there anything else you would like to add?

P: ahhhh I don’t think so…

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APPENDIX J

TRANSCRIPTION SUMMARY P3

I=Interviewer

P=Participant

I: First off, could you just state your name, gender, age and how many years

you’ve been coaching at a division I level?

P: [P3]…. 62… we’ve been coaching at division I level since 2000 and 5 (2005)

is when we made the transition into division I. I’ve been coaching since at the collegiate

level uh… since the fall of 1976.

I: …First question can you kind of explain to me why you chose the track and

field coaching profession?

P:hoho… good question… because I actually uhh student elementary Phy Ed with

the aspirations of coaching at the junior high level…. Believe it or not…. And I actually

student taught at under an individual that was going to… move actually move into his

area guidance and counselling and moving to a brand new middle school in [name of

town]…. I got sidetracked in that the… they had delays in construction in….hiring had

had the opportunity to go to [a University] on the interim for one year…Annd… one year

turned into three… and umm an individual I coached with at [former university]…

although not a track coach ummm I went to [UNIVERSITY] as head men’s and assistant

women’s track coach and men’s and women’s cross country coach and assistant football

believe it or not…and he in influenced me to apply for the vacant position at [Current

University]…. Ummm at that time I was thinking that maybe this was a really good

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idea… and and he was really the person that umm believe it or not was… probably the

main reason that I got hired… sooo except his uhh his recommendation to the athletic

director at [Current University] was… ‘Hire the guy and get him out of my house’ [Side

Conversation]… And I was living with them at the time… soo so… that’s how I ended

up at [Current University] after 3 years of [former University] which was a division III

school at that time…

I: uhh can you explain some of your past experiences within the sport of track and

field … is there something that motivated you … umm did you participate in track and

field… haha

P: past experiences… I guess ummm I guess you’d have to say ummm you know

obviously …the highlights obviously would be athletes and teams in the conference

championships uhh various national competing in national cross country ummm indoor

and national outdoor and then Olympic trials umm we were the first umm division school

to host the division II national indoor championships uhhh back in a… [year] at

[UNIVERSITY]so we were the big inaugural institution to host the indoor national

championships in division II and that was… that was pretty cool..ummm you know if you

want us… are you talking highlights?

I: I’m talking about… like your personal life… did you like participate in track

and field or did you….. or when were you exposed to track and field

P: I ran in high school, I ran in college….and you know had some great mentors

both at the high school and at the collegiate level… and you know we had quite of bit of

the team success…. Some individuals were All-Americans and…a few times when I was

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a collegiate… and uh… you know but again I I initially graduated from college I was… I

was all set to be an elementary phys. ed. teacher…. I coached junior high track and field I

guess I got side tracked … and I … you know I’m glad I did… I went to a lot of pretty

cool events that and things so … had some pretty unique athletes through the years so…

I: … the next series of questions we are going to kinda go through umm of your

institution’s traditions … umm what does your institution have as far as traditions go…

within the athletic department, and/or the track and field program?

P: well … institution wise… umm I believe we were the first uh… division II

institution to umm institute full-fledged academic enhancement program. Uhhh I

remember being on the committee and we visited a couple of division I institutions and

we put in academic enhancement … umm I think we were one of the first division

institutions that conducted uh… internal drug testing other… other than what was done

by the NCAA….umm you know… as far as traditions umm you know the team-makers

which is the fundraising organization umm which was a big deal for you know students

to be able to fulfill your athletic scholarship budget … uhhhh I think a tradition obviously

of a winning culture…um you know many of the teams were conference champions, and

represented in various national champions where that’s umm individuals or team … so …

I think that was kind of the … but the culture was… was …. You know basically a

winning tradition…. And … although not everybody won all the time…. It was it was not

uncommon for [UNIVERSITY] for most sports to be if not the the leader in the

conference… they were definitely conference contenders… you know all of the

sports….you know I think all of the sports I think at some point in time you know

through a growth period and thing so…. But even even to this day… umm as we’ve

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transitioned into division I in particularly at the conference level…. Has experienced a

great deal of success and things… and then obviously some programs do better at the

national level than others… but… so…

I: So… would you say there’s a track and field …. Is track and field seen as

tradition at [UNIVERSITY]?

P: yeah… you know ….even stemming back from our old [former conference]

days and certainly into our [school conference] days the you know the number of

conference championships… individual championships and… you know I would

certainly say we probably had as many…. Division I All-Americans or at least as many

kids competing in the national cham… [Side conversation about the number of athletes

from University to compete at the NCAA’s]

I: …. how would you define success? …. Whether if it’s you looking at I from a

coaching perspective… athlete perspective… or team perspective…

P: Oh okay… say that last part again…

I: Um whether it’s from a coaching perspective… or the athlete’s perspective….

Or a overall team perspective… if you have definitions you can kind of…. For different

ones for each or just have one definition for success…

P: I would probably define that a lot different these days from when I first started

coaching. When you first start coaching you make your success by team titles….

Individual titles… and All-Americans and … you know and obviously you know in this

day and age and our society…. You know okay in athletics what success… well winning

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is success…. But along with that I think you have to balance between their athletics, their

academics and then their social which all turns into the ultimate and that’s their

professional lives…you know I think it can be more classic than today when you know a

guy that I would regard that is one of the top all around athletes that I’ve ever had the

opportunity to be around … stops back and and uh… and both him and his wife are...

have finished degrees in podiatry and they are expecting a baby and in January and you

know you…. You see the success that they have on the track and in the field as an athlete

and then a certain level of success in the class room and that leads to a strong

professional you know… and for some of them a family life…. And so for me … granted

it’s great to be able to go and win your conference meet and get kids to the NCAA’s and

things… it’s when they come back during homecoming week or some other week with

family and told… and your like yeah okay… yeah yeah… we’re we’re doing it the right

way… and and you know I guess I try to instill upon them that … it’s academics and that

the big social part of it… and preparing for your professional life…. But along the way…

we are going to do it the right way. You know we’re we’re gunna act in a professional

manner and do do things the correct way … you know and if they don’t buy into that…..

That’s just…. They’re not around very long. I’m very… I’m very intolerant of ummm

bad behavior ummm I tell em… our number 2 rule… our number 2 team rule for our

team is go to class… if you don’t go to class, don’t come to practice because I will get rid

of you. And it’s it’s a one strike rule… I get a professor that calls me and you’re …

you’re screwing up and failing in class because you’re not coming… you’re done. And

I’m not…and I’m done… and I tell ya what … I haven’t had any problems now for about

30 years…. ya… and because you know there’s no gray area there… they’re not

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interested in going to class they’re out… and I know that’s kind of a bold statement but I

just… you know I… I want to be with the guys that wanna ….. not not with the ones that

are… you know … and and you know… although I can’t say anymore that uh… you

know ‘hey.. you’ve got to rely on your your education, cause you’re not going to make a

living off of this running part’…. Well I’ve actually have had some kids doing pretty well

… Believe it or not their… I’ve got a kid right now that’s on a pretty big Nike contract

and he just teaches part time to keep him busy for the next race….you know … the trials

go… well he’ll be back in the Olympics again… but you know ultimately … it’s it’s what

they’re doing in the class room soo… call me old fashion… I don’t care

I: … How do you as co…coach help support your institutions traditions? And/or

Track and field traditions?

P: … well I think the thing is … is that the biggest part is if you want to be good

at this … you gotta work at it… and you know like I’m I’m in the car gotta run down to

Lawrence, Kansas for the NCAA regionals tomorrow and then I’ll catch a volleyball

match at [City, State]. Our daughter plays for [a university]…[Side conversation] then by

Saturday afternoon I’ll be on a home visit in [a state]… by Sunday night I’ll be at a home

visit in [a different state]… You gotta work at it…ummm you know you gotta recruit..

you know recruiting is life blood of your program ummm you know obviously coach…

I’ve gotten into fundraising a lot more than I think a lot more than was expected, but

that’s because I’ve been here a long time…. You know we… we when classes started last

a year ago… last fall… our sports information director was giving me crap because he

says ‘you know [P3] you’ve been here two years longer than the other 13 head coaches

here put together’…. that’s a scary thought… That is a scary thought…. You know but

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but… it’s a skewed statistic too, because our head football coach was in his first year…

both men and women’s basketball were in their first year… and head women’s track was

in his first year… there’s a couple others that were in their second or third year … well

you’ve been here 36 years… you know… yeah you’re going to sit over top of them… but

some of them are seasoned veterans too… because they have been a long time assistant

coaches …. so it’s it’s not like they’re they’re kids by any stretch to the imagination… so

so … and then I think the other thing about the success of the program is putting together

a staff where all of you need to be different… there’s six of us full time… We’re all

uniquely different in one way or another… and those 5 were wayyyy better athletes than I

ever thought of being… Seriously… we’ve got a recurrent assistant that is already

qualified for the uhhh Olympics next summer in Rio… we have a young man was rank

number one or number two for fives year in the United States in his event… umm he’s a

former … US….US Olympic Training Center coach…and he’s been offered 7 major

division I jobs in the last year without applying…. and a whether from loyalty… or just

being stupid… he decided to stay with us….sooo another another that just got done

competing professionally for six or seven years decided to uh… you know go down with

his professional life so he’s been coaching… he’s in his third year… uhh a brand new one

from last year that uh… that’s representing the United States in international

competition… and then uh.. umm antother assistant now women’s head coach… that is a

multiple All-American and and … uh… made the US uh… Junior National Team that

competed internationally… so it’s quite a group… you gotta have good help… if you

don’t have good help you’re not going to be very good at this sport.

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I: … anything else you would like to add as far as traditions go…. Before we

move on?

P: well traditions…ummm I I think that kind of sums things up you know … I

think that you know … granted just because your program is successful from year to the

next doesn’t mean next year you’re going to be successful. I’m each team each year takes

on a little bit of a different personality since by the seniors that graduate and move on… I

think there’s certain amount of ownership… that’s since we come from a successful

program kids need to be aware of the fact that it takes more than just being a part of great

tradition… you know you’ve gotta work at it… and when that bar gets set that high…. I I

think most of them buy into the fact that you know they they need to work at it hard to

help maintain that… and you know in sports there’s no guarantee that’s why you practice

that’s why you play… annnd… you know… and from a coaching stand point… you

know I guess refer back to legendary [coach]… defending division I basketball

champions where coached at [a University]… he defined on a radio show the definition

of a coach… is some smart enough to do it and dumb enough to think it matters… haha

sometimes you have to keep all that stuff in your perspective and that … you know I’m

not the brightest person in the world… or any stretch of the imagination… and things

but… I think if you surround yourself with good people coaches and athletes… and and

trainers and stuff… I’ve been very fortunate that there’s been some really really fantastic

assistant coaches … your only as good as your staff… your only as good as your athletes

and uh… we’ve we’ve been very fortunate and have had a lot of gold… a lot of gold…

and uh… you know it’s fun being a part of a winning tradition but there’s a lot of behind

the scenes stuff that takes place you know… you get a kid… you know we’ve recruited a

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lot of blue chip athletes, but it’s amazing the number of athletes that were … you know

the true walk on kids that shows up at your door and then all of the sudden ends up being

… I remember… like the kid ….my wife was our jumps coach… we met in ‘[year]…

you know we actually met at the ‘[year] National outdoor championships…we had a

sensational decathlete… and the next spring we send him and my grad assistant and the

javelin thrower down to Angelo state and … that kid ended up qualifying for the

Olympic trials… and and the former head coach at [a university]… now my wife we…

spent quite of bit of time together in the Olympic trials… and she was our jump coach…

well she was coaching females in [State]… at the collegiate level… that were as good as

some of the male athletes at our conference…[Side conversation] well you know we we

got together for the Olympic trials and one thing led to another… now all these years

later we are married… but … I coming home from practice one day and it was just the

beginning of the year….you know she was just coming to our jump practice… and I went

home and I said… I got good news and bad news… she said well what’s the good

news…I said I got you a 6’5 high jumper… what’s the bad news… I said that’s how tall

is… he only jumps 5’10… well her very first day of working with him… she said just

remember the name… he ended up being fourth in the national meet and jumped 7’, so

you know sometimes… it’s finding that diamond in the ruff… and and. I could count tons

of these guys that could barely walk and breathe in high school and all of a sudden…

yea…you know sometimes recruiting is not an exact science… so… you know… I don’t

know… gotta be doing something right… or maybe it’s just the water…

I:… we are now kinda go through and talk about coaching philosophy a little

bit… how would you define your coaching philosophy?

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P: how would I define coaching philosophy….

I: Yourrrr coaching philosophy…

P: umm well basically… umm we’re going to do I the right way… and how do

you define the right way… you’re going to do it with pride… your going do to it with

dignity…and … you’re you’re accountable… umm we do not run a dictatorship… we we

do not run a slave camp… we have a a very capable coaching staff that’s got a… got a…

uh very very strong support group… being athletic training and sports medicine… and

strength training… uhh my wife happens to be a sport pysch just in case you never

know…some days… you might need that … ummm and I think the the best part of it is

that when you talk about a head coach… you need to let your assistant coaches coach…

and stay out of their way… uhh if you hire the right people… the worst thing you could

do… is is try to undermine what they are doing… and feel very confident in that … I

don’t need to… now it isn’t always that way… once in a while you get a assistant coach

that … that either through… them developing their philosophy or you get some young

kid and stuff… we’re not a rah rah bunch… uhhh you know we’re uh… we’re a pretty no

nonsense crew…and… you know that’s kind of the …. Work hard train hard… and

whatever happens ….happens… I don’t think I’ve ever had a kid that performed poorly

on purpose and you know… I think that they need to know that not only you are

coachable, but know we have your back… you know they are accountable, but if you’re

going to get into talking about team rules and things like that … later then I won’t expand

on that…

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I: How could your coaching philosophy maybe be based on some personal

morals… personal expectations… previous experiences things like that…

P: oh….all right… number one… never talk a kid out of not quitting… because

once they come to you… they are done… I mean if they…they come into you… and and

uhh there disgruntle… they’re having trouble making ends meet as far as time… it it

probably has nothing to do with that… they are tired… they are tired of the sport… they

are tired of the activity… they they didn’t enjoy it from the get go… and probably

haven’t for since the time they left high school… so…. So… one thing… I don’t talk kids

out of quitting…ummm a second… a second part of that would be that … you know…

you you have have to stick to your guns… rules are rules…… and rules apply to

everybody and not just a chosen few… and …. If somebody is out of line… then… they

need to face the consequences… and it’s pretty cut and dry… that’s pretty cut and dry for

us… and in the same right… umm it’s like cross country… there’s only one champion,

but you are only as good as your feet and so… seventh man is just as important as your

first man… and every once in a while that seventh man…. Becomes one of your top

guys… also … you haven’t … you know I’ll tell you right right flat out right now… that

that two the most favorite kids had on the team… I don’t coach either one of them… if

we have ten guys at our cross country team meet… he’d be number ten… if we had 30

guys… he’d be number 30… if we had two he’d be number two… you know… he’s

always going to be the bottom beater in that sport… I wouldn’t trade the kid for the

world… the other one is a kid that I recruited who was homeless at the time… and

although I don’t get the chance to coach him directly… I do get a chance to mentor

him…it’s kind of neat how… certain kids take their mentoring better than others… but it

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but it’s also like… you know in our sport the unique part is that no no two kids are the

same… and so in some cases you don’t have to worry about coaching them the same…as

a matter of fact… sometimes I think you get yourself in trouble by doing exactly the

same thing with every one of them…which which I think I find it hard to do if you were

coaching a bunch of quarterbacks… right… so again that’s a philosophical thing…

ummm I’m I’m very easy going… I don’t get… I don’t get overly revved up… I never

come to practice crabby… ummm and unless they give me a really good reason to be…

and and takes a pretty good reason to… and you know… I’m not afraid to put my foot

down…. And lay the law down … but at the same rate the kids know that it’s it’s not

personal… and that… you know… hey they make mistakes and I’ve made mistakes in

my life, but the biggest thing is if they do screw up… and I don’t know about it… I better

find out about it from you… and not somebody else…. Period… that’s automatic

suspension… Period… and and there’s… I don’t even blink about it… they they gotta be

accountable… but I understand they make mistakes… if they made a mistake, I need to

know about it mainly, because ‘cause eventually someone across campus is going to find

… because that’s the way the system works… I want to be able to tell my AD that I got a

kid that screwed up… this is what we are doing about it… before he comes to me and

says hey… you got a kid that you know… got in trouble downtown… got in trouble with

a business… or got caught with a minor… okay kids you know.. kids kids will party…

kids will drink… I I won’t push my values on them ‘cause I don’t… I don’t… I’m

sober… [side conversation]

I: …. How… how does your coaching philosophy change working with individual

athletes versus a whole team?

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P: ohhhh how much does it change… In the last 25 years not a whole lot…

I: but when you’re looking coaching an individual athlete… say like a thrower,

jumper, or whoever versus the whole…whole team…

P: well I don’t coach field events…

I: right … yeah yeah I know I’m just saying

P: hey there’s the biggest change… it takes smart people to coach field events… I

haven’t coached a field event athlete in … I would say at least 25 years…and it’s mainly

because when we first started our staff was the head’s women’s coach, myself and a grad

assistant… so we coached everything… well as your program has grown you’ve got your

head women’s, head men’s and a full time assistant and grad assistant… well now there’s

a head men and women’s and four full time assistants and then and then some volunteer

assistants… we’ve got a geriatric that works with us that good friend of mine that would

be for nine years… but he’s … of course he’s the only person older than me on the

staff… and then we got a couple of volunteers you know one in which is this Nike guy…

you know that competes nationally and internationally… and he helps [coach C] out…

umm so… you know we got a pretty good bunch… as far as coaching philosophy…I

think one umm one I don’t recruit the same way I use to… umm I don’t recruit high risk

students… period… I just I I don’t I don’t feel like my job is to depend on our one loss

record… of course we’ve been pretty successful and as little as a lot of people follow

track… you know as long as your good … at least or once in a while… your AD

probably follows us pretty closely … you know know… we’re always… you know I

think with what we’re doing… I think we’re always going to be super competitive you

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know… you may not win all the time… but we’re going to have kids that win

individually… and some kids that advance on… and things… so… you you know… the

problem with today… academically is we’re back to there’s a lot of kids that are

majoring in eligibility … that’s an NCAA study that’s been done… not done by… I I

can’t tell you exactly who did the study… Years ago… you know … you can recruit

about anybody and everybody… and… heck when I first coached… I think you could

wrestle for at least two years without passing class… depending on when wrestling

season was… you could when you could start and drop out… and the semester didn’t

count against you…. Well once you start it, now days, and semesters count against you…

so you… you would just have to major in eligibility just in anything and everything…

well then they went to that you have to have a certain GPA and whatever… and of course

now you have to have percentages towards degrees… now we’re back to majoring in

eligibility… [Side conversation] It’s kind of nice just coaching track because I can kick

you off the team just for not going to class… [Side Conversation]

I: Who helped you shape your coaching philosophy?

P: It may go clear back to high school… with the high school coach… then

certainly my collegiate coach… would would probably be… would rank right up there..

and then again…out of college… long hair, back in the [decade]’s … with my long hair

and stuff… I go to [former university]… a [religious], liberal arts school… [Side

Conversation] who was the biggest influence of my coaching career… was a long haired,

first year college coach… around five other gentlemen… there at [former university] a

total of 123 years (coaching)… that was my mentors… and the two most influential were

[coach A] and [coach B] … [coach A] had been there for 43 years… [coach B] had been

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there for 42 years… that’s… that’s the people that helped shape what… you know what

what we are trying to do these days…

I: How is your coaching philosophy demonstrated in your athletes?

P: ohhh how is the coaching philosophy demonstrated in our athletes….. ummmm

…uhhh team rule number 1 no whining… and team rule number 3 be polite… and …

they have to buy into that...so… I think their polite…I…. they don’t complain about

much… you know don’t come to me and tell me how nasty the weather is outside…. I’ve

got a window… I can see… you know… and uh… the meet is on a all-weather track…

they’re not going to cancel the meet… you know … I can remember…. I think the classic

to that is years ago… one of the last years we were in our conference and we were

scheduled to host a conference meet… back then it was a two day meet… uhhh and we’re

starting on Friday… and we had about as bad as spring weather you could have…. We

got forty-some mile an hour winds…. And driving rain… and that was back before cell-

phones….and we walk into the pre-meet coaches meeting… with the officials and stuff…

and we start conducting the meeting and somebody raises their hand and says… are are

we going to go today? And I said yeah we’re ready to go… and they said can we vote on

this… well I kind of new that was going to happen see… it’s not only going to be shitty

for the athletes, but also horrible for the officials… they’re going to hate my ass…

making them standing out there in that driving rain… I mean I don’t care what kind of

gear you’ve got your going to be cold and wet…. So the voted on it… and and of course

the rule that we would run the 10,000 and throw the hammer… because there’s a lot of

field events you know… it’s hard to get them all done… you know what you can throw

the hammer…

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[Side story]

P: this… baby is over… you know I… so… umm the other thing I would say… is

that the philosophical thing is that… I tell them I said… I don’t expect you to be you

know best of friends all of you … because you have freshman through seniors… that you

know now days your groups are so segmented… because you have some groups

practicing at 8 in the morning… and some at noon and some at … 2 and some at 4… I

said… when we’re at practice and out on the road and stuff… we’re in this together… as

for what you do on your own time… as far as team… that’s entirely up to you… and

things… they’re pretty closely knit… a close knit bunch.

I: Could you discuss some of the comments that you may have received from

some of your athletes… or other coaches about your coaching philosophy or your style?

P: ‘You’re crazy’….well alumns… I think I think appreciated that your always

there… umm they have a positive experience that uh… you know you try to keep their

families engaged whenever possible… umm the fact that uh… I I think biggest one is that

they understand that you give a shit… you know you hear about them more than just an

athlete and and you know that your … you’re your never in a bad mood… you never

down on them… you know … they don’t always have great days… they don’t… some of

them have a bad day… and you’re there to support them… and … I think that would be

probably the biggest things…

I: … and how does your coaching philosophy impact the way you live life outside

of track and field?

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P: We’re extremely family oriented… always have been… umm my two children

grew up around the track program umm if you were to ask them who their heroes were…

you know who they wanted to be … and and and they’ll both say their parents … because

they have they at the right things …. Either their high school senior nights or close to

their college senior nights…they they both played …. [Daughter 1] played collegiate

volleyball, but she’s been out of school for a while… and but our own athletes… and

they were male…..and and even… and and not surprising because… race had nothing to

do with it… in both of them the people that they looked up to… and [Daughter 1] (our

oldest daughter) was our starting quarterback and he’s he was a like…he was a multiple

an All-American decathlete… and he’s a doctor today… and when [Daughter 1] was just

a little bit littler… she kind of idolized him… and and they quite as a matter of fact I

know … him and his wife…they don’t really live that close to [city], but they did drive to

town when she did have her graduation open house… and ya want to see a kid tear up…

that’s all it took…. that’s all it took… you know soo… you know an and now day’s they

are separated by a thousand miles and …it’s like… It had quite an influence on them…

and with [Daughter 2]… same thing… and as a matter of fact…. Her guy was actually

our school record holder in 100… he use to introduce his …her… as his little sister… and

we would go on road trips… and the kids went everywhere with us… [Daughter 2]

actually sat in probably half a dozen home recruiting visits… so… we would be down at

the University of [State] indoors and I would drive separately instead of going home on

the bus with her mom and her older sister… she would want to come with me… [Side

Conversation]

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I: Anything else you want to add about coaching philosophy before we move on?

…

P: man… yeah I keep going back to the thing… you always got to be positive

about uhh you know structure… kids like structure… they like to know… about practice

about… team travel…uh… about where they stand… umm you know … because in your

roster… at least for us… a roster is going to be bigger than what we can take… to certain

meets at the conference and things… uhhh...you know being the head coach… I think

that you have to take the responsibility of not throwing your assistants under the bus and

that well okay… you didn’t make the conference team… because your event coach didn’t

think that… you know I tell the assistant coaches… and I get a lot of input in from them

and things… but when we talk to the team about decisions that are made… whether who

does or doesn’t get scholarship or who does or doesn’t get scholarship increases… or

who does or doesn’t travel or who does or doesn’t make the conference team… trust

me… I say if you have an issue you need to discuss that with me… umm you know …

and but also … I I a coaching philosophy about you know … a biggie… I can’t believe I

didn’t mention it’s just that… you what know guys… we’re we’re a team…and in this

day and age… you have to understand that some people maybe even you make a bad

decision… but if you have a teammate… who makes bad desicisionS…. And you feel

that it’s detrimental to him and or the team… you need to need to do something about

it… and I’m not expecting you to be a rat…okay… I don’t… I’m not into that… either

you need to or you and a couple teammates need to sit his ass down… and have a

discussion about it… and if that doesn’t work… or you’re not capable of doing that ….

Then you’ve gotta man up and come and see me…. Because what’s goig to happen… it’s

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going to end up blowing up in in our face… and you you know… maybe that guy is….

Maybe they need some help… you know the kid that’s the kid that’s sliding through the

cracks academically now there’s usually…. Enough systems in place these days where

you can catch them… but not always… You know the the the alcohol… is one thing…

you know drugs is obviously another… sometimes there’s combinations of

stuff…unfortunately… I’ve seen a lot of kids piss away their…college days by… just …

well their social life has become their number one priority…. you know and it and it’s

unfortunate, because at some point in time… yeah… in time… some of them grow up a

little early, some of them never really do….and and I’ll be damned if I’m going to be in

charge of a program… for example hazing… and binge drinking… and partying and

things… you know do kids do it… yeah they are… I don’t care what you do… what you

say… that they’re still going to find ways to do it… I’ll be damned if I’m going to be in

charge of a program where a youngster comes in as a part of your program and they feel

the only way that they can be accepted is that they get involved in that… even if that’s

against their beliefs… you know… and … that’s just thing that you make a stand on …

and kind of go from there…. Now… have I had kids that have partied too much… yup…

do I have a couple kids right now that…..What I was talking about was what you would

say in the old days…and what you say this… these days… and again… in the old days…

is like you guys got to be accountable… and you know it’s okay to scratch your ass you

just can’t be tearing a hole in it …. You kind of got to watch out for each other… and

things … well in our last meeting… I said ‘I’ll be damned if I’m gonna stand here… and

let anyone of you... stand in front of either mine…. Or assistant coaches’ job security.’

Because in this day and age… when when you have a student-athlete that gets into that

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much trouble… It isn’t the student-athlete that they just slap… it’s the people in charge…

it’s not… I told them flat out… I’m old enough… I can retire tomorrow… I could retire

tomorrow and wouldn’t have to blink an eye about it… but I love what I do… but I

turned and pointed to one of the young assistant coaches expecting their first born in

February… I said for him that’s not the case and I know how much he loves doing what

he’s doing… all right… then I flat said don’t give me a reason to cut you, because I

won’t blink an eye if I need to do it… now… I’m not talking… I’m not saying that in that

group… say there’s 60 people… I’m not talking to 59… but the upper classmen know

I’m telling the same thing to every one of them… I’m not just going to you know… you

know pull of these guys aside, because I think that they’re maybe screwing up… they are

all going to hear it… They’re they’re all gonna hear it… you know it’s kind of like my

dad’s philosophy… ‘Locks keep honest people honest’ that’s all about temptation…

sooo…

I: … sooo… since we just got done talking about coaching philosophy… we’re

gunna kinda go in and dive in with… coaching science… in your own words… could you

define what the term coaching science means to you?

P: Coaching science… well well the unique thing about coaching science is that

… track and field is all about science… when you talk about tuhh training and strength

training and … cross training… and whatever… that you you know that there has been

so much development in the sport of track and field …. When you talk about weight

training as an example… I mean hell we were doing stuff in our sport long before some

of these other people thought about it… and of course… our sport there’s so much

involved in physics you know biomechanics ummm and unfortunately chemistry if you

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get involved with drug testing… That’s the other side of things… but you know track and

field because it’s such a unique sport in that it it has so many different unique properties

to … that makes the difference between the pole vaulter and a triple jumper… all right

and in pole vaulting and triple jumping are probably two of the most unnatural acts… and

you know and somebody said what’s the hardest sport… you they say that hitting a

baseball and whatever… haha let me tell you what… a hell of a lot more people can hit a

baseball than can pole vault. I don’t care what argument that you give us… I mean… and

the other part is… is that… track and field is judged on a tape measure and stop watch…

it’s it’s measurable… where a lot of sports you know like cross country they say

everything else is just a game… cross country isn’t really a true sport… ahh well then

there’s cross country skiing and things like that… the other part of it is…is above

everything else… my sport is your sport’s punishment…just name another sport where a

kid gets in trouble or doesn’t make a free-throw… or does something stupid… or gets a

penalty… and their punishment isn’t running…so what do I do with mine… [Side Story]

And again your sport is my sport’s punishment… and that’s the truth… why do people

hate to run… [Side Story]. Running is associate with punishment… that’s what most

people associate running with… so… I don’t if that really answered the question or not…

I: umm when training your athletes what types of training methodologies do you

insist on using during the different seasons… say like off-season, in-season indoor,…

outdoor…

P: well … you know right wrong or indifferent it’s a year round training… and

you’re you’re going with different cycles… unfortunately the NCAA puts a little bit of

common sense in it during our non-traditional season once the school starts…then you’re

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in what they call non-traditional season… and you can only have 8 hours of contact a

week… which means face-to-face …in you know actual… so that’s when the coaches are

present and they are either doing weight training or they’re actually running or throwing

or jumping…. 8 hours a week. And then we go to 20 hours okay… so it is a very

regimented … okay… program that you’re going through different cycles of training…

that you… you know you’re going to start with your base and then from a base you get

into general physical condition… then you start working on technique…. Umm you

know… then refining techniques in the field events like the throws… the throws are

obviously are very technical… very very technical… in particually in men, because the

weights are heavier… umm and then of course… then we go to the… In the NCAA rule

book it says that voluntary summer workouts…

[Side Conversation]

P: So when you talk about the training… obviously the training has to go through

cycles throughout the year… and and when we do have voluntary summer workouts…

now we greatly encourage the kids to do so…

[Side Conversation]

I: Where did you learn about these different types of training methodologies?

P: ummm the different types of training methodologies… ahhh obviously through

clinics… ummm through… um… various assistant coaches… uhh particularly a couple

of the currents because of their backgrounds… umm you you know [coach C] for

example because [coach C] was a member of US Olympic Training Center in

[location]… they you know a matter of fact he’s the first coach on our staff that I think

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intimidates our weight training people…He’s beyond that… you know some of these

people are relatively young and their developing…And they read the shit out of books…

where this guy is just … he just got back from uh… he was the [event] coach for the

world university games this summer in [country]… and uh…he’s ohhh two summer’s

prior to that and he was picked by basically by US Olympic training staff to go and

conduct clinics and stuff across the… various parts across the country… and this is… this

the top of the line stuff… you know… I I I refer to him quite a bit… there’s a local

exercise physiology guy that was a track athlete umm and for a number of years he ran

the uhh uhhh exercise physiology division… [a training facility]… and I’ve spent some

time with him… uhhhh um I think some part of it is development on your own…

philosophy… some things look …. Sometimes are learn by doing…. you know… umm I

I would definitely say of the six of us I’m probably by far the most conservative… I think

that uhhh particularly [coach C]...who was the… one the Olympic Training Center

coaches and [coach D] who himself is a world class athlete… 7’8” high jumper… and

[coach E] who is a two hundred… seventy-nine … two hundred… two hundred seventy-

two foot javelin thrower… I think they’re a little bit more… well significantly more

aggressive...with their training I mean …. I think that’s what makes us a good staff

because we are all uniquely a little different…and and I I don’t think that anybody on our

staff… uhhh doesn’t seek out advice … you know or asking someone else’s opinion on

how they would handle a certain situation… or a… certain athlete…. And and things

[Side Conversation]

P: so… you know a little bit of our internal staff that’s extremely

knowledgeable… you know… [athlete] competed six … six or I can’t remember six or

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seven years as a professional distance runner for Reebok… you know they bring a wealth

of knowledge… thing… things you rely on your staff… just a little bit… and hell I don’t

even coach the hard events…

I: … how can you describe your knowledge of coaching science how it influences

you’re coaching philosophy or vice versa… Does one affect the other more?

P: okay about how coaching…

I: how coaching science affect philosophy or coaching philosophy affects

science….which would you say…

P: ohhh boy… I guess …. I guess personally the coaching science aspect of it

probably doesn’t affect my coaching as it does maybe some of the others… maybe in a

little bit more of the technical event areas… umm the other thing is… is that I have we’re

very fortunate that we have a strength staff… umm and that strength staff ….

[Side Conversation]

P: … you know that science aspect of it… you can think from um … um uhh

physiology and you know training your methods of how overuse… use and misuse…

versus… like a distance kid… why the hell does a distance runner the morning of meet

get out of bed and go for a run …and then go eat breakfast… take a nap… get up… go to

the course warm-up… and then race… and then run again when they get done… who the

hell thought of that…. Well that’s because science tells us that in a well-trained

distance… that’s the best way to perceive for them to having success… but if you take a

not trained kid and do that… their done when they get done with the morning run they

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ain’t going to be able to warm-up because their shot… so… yeah… so so from the

scientific approach I think being a thrower that might do some light lifting in the morning

of a competition… [Side Conversation] [Pertaining to throwers in conference

competition] out of those four events there’s one hundred and fifty odd points… his kids’

scored… hundred twenty to hundred fifty some points…… you know is it is it that… you

know they didn’t start getting into well how big is… how big is the sport psychology part

of it… I don’t care how good of an athlete you have … you know… anybody can be an

All-American on Tuesday… the problem is the meets on Saturday… and you know it’s

finding that… granted you have to have great athletes… particularly in the throws… I

mean… [Side Conversation]

I: So what do you think has the biggest impact…for you the science then or the

philosophy? ... You’ve been kind of been going back and forth a little bit…

P: ohhh I would say it’s about 50-50…I mean I think you would have to be naive

to think that science isn’t involved… yeah yeah [Side Conversation]

I: all righty… how would you rank in order of importance coaching science, the

philosophy, and traditions with one being the most important or 3 being… and 3 being

the least important… So which one is the most important as far as … if you could rank

coaching science, philosophy and traditions…one through three?

P: ohhh boy… I’ll say science, then… science, philosophy and the last is

traditions… you know… you don’t win stuff just because… you know… granted one of

the best senior speeches I’ve ever heard said was ‘sometimes you win because your

better, but sometimes you win because you want it more’… well you know guess what…

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in sports just because you want it… doesn’t mean… you have to earn it… and and

sometimes you gotta get a break now and then too… you know… which doesn’t always

happen…

I: Why would you go with science 1 and philosophy 2?

P: ohhhh one because I I the sport of track and field is sooo science related…it’s

about you know it’s about physics… the take away in in like in the throwing events… it’s

a lot about physics…ahh you know philosophy… you know you gotta work hard train

hard and all that stuff… sometimes that doesn’t hold true for ya….

I: … could you discuss how you could incorporate the ideas of traditions...

philosophy… and science to lead your team and staff towards success?... All three of

them…. How could they help?

P: well I think one would with tradition you know we’ve actually had quite of bit

of success in in track and field on both the men and women’s side here… and I think

kids… they come in and they look at banners and youngsters are around and a lot of

upper classmen that have a lot of success and things and I you know…and I’ll be very

honest when they start to see them out.. year in and year out one of their goals is… is

to… you know to… you know win the conference meet as an example… and … when

that exists as a goal… I mean… my wife is a sports psychologists…I mean people have

to have goals…And they … you know… whether they’re written down or whatever…

when we do team goals… we do individual goals… and things like that… that you know

from that standpoint ummm… from a scientific standpoint… obviously with the type of

staff we have… this isn’t a fly by night… you know just go out and run hard… turn

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left… you know type thing. I think we’re trying to use the right methodology of training

um and… and philosophy is that… umm I think we we we train towards that in the end…

trying to you know peak towards …you know a championship season. You know we’re

trying to… you know put kids in a competitive environment during the course of the

season… you know we’re very fortunate that our administration when they made the

decision to go to division I … that they’re gonna allow us to be able to do that… they

have a tight budget where we can take kids to … meet where their… you know… really

challenged and you know… we have pretty nice schedule for outdoors… you know for

indoors when when you have your own facility it’s kind of nice… and you there’s some

very good meets… at [lists universities] and things… you know hurt a little bit for close

proximity competition… you know it’s really deemed unless we get together with [closer

proximity schools] is an example… you know if we had a meet like that… you know…

you know then… I don’t think we are the best of buddies… haha. One of my coaches that

I’ve had for many years… had told me this… ‘You’re not in this to make friends’ haha. I

guess… that’s that’s…obviously that’s the scientific approach… that we have very very

knowledgable track staff ummm from a philosophical type point… I mean… Hey we…

we want to compete to win…. We want to win the conference… and uh you know…

from yeah so… if that makes any sense…

I: Which would stand out more when you’re looking at athlete versus team

success… between the traditions… philosophy and the science…

P: Well… the thing is… if you get enough of those individuals… to have

individual success … then your team does fine… as a matter of fact they do more than

fine… umm being an individual sport… umm I don’t think that there’s any team in the

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conference that doesn’t have quality individuals… it’s just having enough of them…. and

you know the other thing is… that I I think you know sometimes track ends up being a

brush fire… in that… somebody does something really big then it just kind of carries on

through you know the rest of the team… then also knowing that you know you can… you

can have an individual that maybe doesn’t have the best day… but your team can still be

successful…. Because other people pick up the slack…[Side Story] I think the kids buy

in to your philosophy in that hey… they ain’t going to change it… it’s going to start the

same damn time… and it’s going to end at the same damn end time… and and you you

can’t let that stuff get to you …. Its’ not the day you start talking about that… I think …

you know… you need to ingrain it into your kids… hey it’s nice to have an indoor

track… but every time the weather is a little bit in climate…you can’t go running into

your indoor track… you gunna have… meets where the weather is shitty outside… [Side

conversation] you know it’s nice to stand in a dry circle but that’s not realistic…it’s not

realistic… being out there on the days where its’ really crappy and things… then let

alone… you have some guys all of a sudden do really well… it’ kind of snowballs…

from there… [Side conversation]

I: So would you say… science… coaching science affects athlete success more

or… traditions affect athlete success more or philosophy or… versus team success…

which one kind of plays a role in that…

P: well I ‘d be lying to you if I didn’t tthink they played a major role…. and uhh

you know I’ve had… I’ve had who go to the conference meet and piss down their leg and

had kids go to the conference meet that umm you know as an example you only can only

compete with so many and I know there’s been times where in our conference the old

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[conference] as an example our 30th pick to go to the conference meet… the last guy we

took won an event… won an event we had had another kid that we took one year and was

in a new event …. He was a senior he had trouble making the team… we put we put him

in the 400 hurdles… we put him in the 400 hurdles and had one opportunity to run that

event prior to the conference meet… he ran it at an open in [at a university]… he actually

tripped over the 9th hurdle and biffed it… got up and finished …. And I walked up to him

after the race… and he was in tears and whatever… and I looked at him and say…. You

just made the conference team… he looked at me like I was nuts… a week later he won

the conference meet in the 400 hurdles…so… you know some things …. Some…. You

you know you can’t train guts … you can’t train heart… you know… and sometimes guts

and heart have bullshit to do with the science…. you you know it… so… but… it it is a

very scientific approach… and we’re a very scientific sport…. And if people don’t think

it is… they’re crazy…. So… I think if you blend in that the science part of it… train

your kids right… you know… but have have the right philosophy about it… and then you

know… there is something about tradition… haha. You know like [coach] said…

sometimes you win because you’re better… sometimes you win because you want it

more… well that’s tradition…. That is that is… tradition… you know when you get

down to to the very end you’re not… you know… I could give examples where the where

the… then all of a sudden wow…and you know what’s the classic example of that… in

the conference championship meet where the 4x1 was just contested early on day day the

last day of the meet …and all you’ve got warmed up is your four sprinters… and a kid

that just won the triple jump… and he’d never run a short relay in his entire life… and

he’s a and he’s a… he’s a junior in college and your anchor leg.. or no… you’re third leg

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on your 4x1 is also your great decathlete who just has a floating rib… and just landed

funny in the high jump pit… can’t stand up… and your two minutes away from running

the finals of the 4x1 ….that’s and a fifth year senior walks over to us and says … say

coach hey [name of athlete] is warmed up… we’ll do a switch we will have him do the

anchor and I’ll run third and have Andy give me thirty steps and we’ll be fine… and I

look at them and say that sounds good…. what coach in their right mind would look at an

athlete like that and say… hey that sounds good to me…but when you have kids like that

…I’ll make a long story short… not only did they win… they set the conference

record…. so…. Sometimes just trusting in your kids and that’s tradition… that’s … you

know in a in a if you’re as a coach… if you’re in panic mode … and and whatever

happens… I’m sure was shitting bricks the whole entire time… I’ll be honest… you

know and and you weren’t a sprinter… in the relay sports you know they put a big piece

of tape on the ground and… he’s got a piece of tape that’s about… one inch by one

inch… I can’t see that far…and I walk up and say, [athlete’s name] how’s your mark…

fine coach… and I’m like okay….okay so the worst thing you can do in those cases... is

doubt your kids… so sometimes you gotta let them…but then there’s a reason both of

those kids ended up being NCAA post-grad scholars too…so that’s the untold part… part

of that story is both of those athletes as matter of fact they both won it in the same year…

along with the third teammate…which is … which is an NCAA record…three athlete’s in

the same sport… from the same school…so… you want to talk about success…. just

recruit smart kids… that’s philosophy……

I: … all right last question… discuss some of your goals individually and

professionally as you kinda continue on in your coaching career?

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P: ohhh goals… trying to give back… you know I haven’t … more and more of

our alumns… that’s something we’ve worked at… you know ummm unlike some of the

other places around the country… my alumns…. Built that … new facility we’re

in…ummm we raised all the money… built that facility… that’s part of it… another part

is having them… you know in this day and age…. It’s it escalading school and

institutional costs… bout having more alumns…. Giving back by becoming a you know a

donor’s endowment… and donors… I’m actually on my way to pick up one now… that

to take him to the NCAA Regional cross country meet…he didn’t even came to [our

university] but… he’s the adopted uncle of my youngest daughter… and he’s a big

booster… a big close personal friend…and uh… we’re just getting more alumns involved

and ummm… you know doing doing things the right way… you know I mean sure we

like to win, but you know I guess…that that… I mean hey it’s fun to win… you know

when you get on the bus or get on a plane… and head back home… or … you host a

meet… and things all over… and and uh…your team is the one that had that… that’s

pretty cool feeling… you know… but should that be the only thing… no… no and and

the longer you coach… you you know… if you’re kids give you their best effort

possible… then it’s okay…you know you’re going to get some bad breaks… you know

you know we’ve had some bad breaks… haha… it’s scary to think of how many of our

good kids couldn’t make the trip with us last year to… the conference meet… it’s just

scary…

[Side conversation]

I: anything else that you would like to add… as far as everything goes… anything

you thought of or …

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P: ummm great sport… no body said we couldn’t have fun… and that’s kind of

been one of our mottos for a long time… no body said we couldn’t have fun… you know

no body said we can’t have a little fun along the way… and and uh things…I… it’s

interesting being around so many different personalities… you know… you know the

type of kid you’ve got to be getting serious with all the time… they type of kid that …

you have be I mean… they need to know to the almost to the minute when things start

and things… versus the kid that…. You know they basically… they need to know when

the bus leaves… or when the plane leaves and …meet schedule and you know give me

my meal money and just stay the hell out of the way… you know so… they’re all

uniquely different… but they’re all brought up a little uniquely different too you know

and I and I and I would classify that in you know when looking back at recent years…

you know I think one kid that is still on the team…. And he was homeless his senior year

I’m not shitting… the kid was homeless his senior year… versus another one of my kids

they have 17 children in their family…P: ….17…..and no multiples…. [Side story]…

sooo no I haven’t done everything right… made plenty of mistakes… you know…um…

I’ve tried to a lot less of the… saying things I would later regret… I think that I’ve done a

better job of that… you know sometimes that’s the things left unsaid… ummm and

things, but yet… you know when I think it’s time to put your foot down… or sometimes

it’s been … hey guys maybe I wasn’t quite getting through to you…hahahaha but all

right… you know… and and the thing is when you’re the head coach… you have to

accept the responsibility…. And and the thing right now for me is… that when things are

going right… it’s the kids and the assistants… but if something goes wrong… come see

me…come see me…I’ll I’ll take the hit with it… I’ll take the blame for this. I’ll answer

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the… I’ll answer the hard questions when it comes to if something isn’t going right…

you know and the other part is… when the day comes when I’m not having fun doing this

anymore… I’ll just turn around and walk away with a smile… and say… it’s been

great… but it’s somebody else’s turn…

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APPENDIX K

TRANSCRIPTION SUMMARY P4

I=Interviewer

P=Participant

I: …first could you state your name, gender, age, and how many years you have

been coaching at a Division I level?

P: uh yeah sure… My name is [P4], uh…I’m a male… uhh I’m 38 years old

….uhh I’ve been coaching I guess … let’s see… at the Division I level for 15 years and

18 years overall.

I: Okay… all right… then can you just explain why you chose the track and field

coaching profession?

P: I I was a… Track athlete in high school and then college…uh and it’s just …. I

really enjoyed it … I tried sport administration a little bit uhhh I coached high school my

first couple of years … but then decided that I really would rather coach the collegiate

level…. And it turned out to be more of a career than it sort of a… you know …a 3

months out of the year sort of a thing. And yeah… Just like it…It’s definitely not for the

money...

I: … Is there something that motivated you in particular… some of your past

experiences as far as you being an athlete… kind of pushed you towards …. Towards the

profession?

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P: ummm I guess uhh…you know I just wanted to continue in the sport ummm…

and you know just really enjoyed it and uhh…. You know I found what what I first did

start coaching I spose that found I just liked working with the athletes …. Seeing them

improve and uhh.. You know … had about as much fun you know watching my athletes

get better and through performances as I did for myself so…. So you know… just uh boy

what a way to make a living….So yeah…

I: … All right what the next question is why does your institution have as far as

traditions within the athletic department and/or the track and field program?

P:ummm… I coach at [UNIVERSITY]…uh basketball is a pretty big deal…umm

so uh… won the state title the year I was born in [year] and then that’s uh.. You know

sort of a big deal....ahhh and you know there’s a lot of truths in there … in the terms of

athletics ….um or the athletics department… ummm but in terms of track and field…

there’s actually a pretty rich history. Ahhh you know… [UNIVERSITY] track and field

was really strong at a national level uh… lots of Olympians and that stuff … you know in

the [decade]s, [decade]s, [decade]s, and into the early ‘[decade]s… ummm and uhh… but

it’s sort have came to an end. They dropped football… they dropped track… for a few

years…Never brou… Never brought football back, but eventually brought track

back…just at kind of a lower level… so its sort… sort of been rebuilding since you know

like [year] and so….We’re….. we’re you know …I feel that we are getting better and …

little better…been trying to build up the traditions… so there’s some really cool traditions

and some really…Olympic gold medalists… silver medalist… I mean really high level

you know… but uhhh yeah… when they dropped it that kind of made it hard to get back

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to that…. We’re still only like partially you know … half funded in scholarships and stuff

like that…

I: … so would you say track and field right now is it currently seen as a tradition

at your university?

P: yeah I mean… we we…. I think we are getting back to where there starting

recognize that …. Last year we had our best since like [year] we were second in both the

men’s and women’s indoors and outdoors at the [school conference] soo… that started to

bring some more attention and an All-American high jumper indoor and outdoor… and

so there’s some stuff like that… that’s been kind of bringing that attention back… and we

use social media a lot… to uh… you know throwback Thursday pictures of ….You

know…. Uhh… you know this guy was a you know a gold medalist in you know … the

you know the 100 in [year] you know… that that kind of stuff… umm so… ummm…

you know just to help build that tradition and recognize that … ‘hey track is it’s it’s been

pretty successful’.

I: With that being said how would you define success?

P: ummm I think that you can define it a couple different ways… I mean … an

individual athlete level… you know I think the success can be defined you know just

as… ahhh as an individual you know one person’s success might be getting that PR, for

another person success might be winning a conference championship…. So on and so

forth… so… you know a sport like ours… where uhh everything is so individual umm

you know I think that there’s a lot of ways you can look at it… you know the team aspect

uhh… for us… uh success is placing high at the [school conference] and trying to win

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[school conference] titles ummm you so there’s…. I think you can define it a lot of

ways… And we do…. Define it in a lot of ways.

I: … and how is you as a coach… how would you define success you talked about

the athletes and the team… how would you as a coach kind of see success?

P: umm I think for myself …uh… it’s uh…. Umm a little bit of all those things

that the athletes continue to improve… get better… graduate… uhhh so that the team

does well uhhh represents the university well…. Um… and that we make the most of the

resources that we have … which some ways are you know we have good resources in

other ways they are little more limited… sooo umm… I think… I think that that’s kind of

how I would define it.... myself

I: okay…. How do you a as a coach help support institutional track and field

traditions?

P: How do I support the institutional traditions? I think… uhhh you know … I

think… well I think we sort of in my time here uhhh I don’t know if we had real strong

traditions ummm but I think there have been you know a few things that we’ve created I

you know.. I’m just trying to think of … my first three years when I was at [former

university]… I was an assistant and and it was a little more of a you know uhhh just

practice… go to meets and you know there wasn’t a lot extra … whereas now… you

know I kind of feel like we’re we’re we try to talk a little bit about more of the tradition

and history and … umm you know and giving back to that… you know ahh you know

those successful teams and … and building our team… so I think we’re you know … I

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don’t… there’s nothing else that that I could say to you that’s like ‘ahhh this has been a

tradition for years’….but I think we’re trying to build that back…

I: okay… Alright… Is there anything else that you in general want to add about

traditions?

P: ahhh no...you know… I mean I think I think traditions are something that you

do need to you know as a coach you know continue from year-to-year… because uhhh

they are something that could be forgotten pretty quickly. uhhh… and you know

especially with our current culture…uhhh so … like instant access …. Social media …

it’s uh… I think a lot of times that kind of stuff kind of gets lost …Because it’s what’s

happening right now…

I:... now that we kinda covered a little bit about traditions and we’re going to go

in and kinda dive into coaching philosophy. How would you define your coaching

philosophy?

P: oh... um…. I think ahh… I think my philosophy is you know is mostly about…

uh… the development of the individual. Um… you know….. Especially…….. you know

it's more of an individual sport so each individual needs to do their part for themselves

and then the team part comes together comes together … so we… we talk about team

ummm and uhhhh and that it’s sort of a motivator you you rah rah.. you know uh… do

that extra rep at practice… and put that extra effort so that the team….uhhh but

ultimately the individual … it’s the individual that has to tow the line or step into the ring

or … you know down the run way… umm so… soo.. that’s I think is always been a …

like maybe that’s something that’s a little bit different about track and field as for maybe

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some of the fall sports….ummm but uh… so I think you know individual philosophy is

mostly about improving the individual and building the individual ahh to bring it together

for the team.

I: … and how would you explain… can you explain how it may be based on some

morals, personal expectations, or previous experiences… Do those factor into your

coaching philosophy?

P: ummmm oh ahh yeah… I mean I guess uhhh you know ahhh you know that …

in terms of that stuff I mean I think it’s … it’s about the effort and doing things the right

way everyday umm you know and not cutting the corners uhhh you know …. Taking care

of your bodies… ummm you know I think… you know all that goes out… also into the

the philosophy of just you know working hard and and ready to bring it every day… and

and having that that sort of a mentality to ummm you know to to your training and then

carrying that over into just just school ah… and how you live your life. You know not

ummm not looking for the easy way out cause if you are… you’re definitely in the wrong

sport… ahhh sooo I I think sometimes… I you know… I kind of … you know maybe

don’t think of that so much because just about every kid that we have come through… I

mean they are very self-motivated…like I don’t have to do a lot of like ‘ohhhh let’s get

ready for practice today’ because you know if you’re at that level doing track and field

your pretty… your probably are pretty self-motivated… so umm so sometimes I have to

remind myself that not everybody is… hahaha

I: … how would you say… ummm your coahing philosophy… does it change

working with individual athletes versus the whole team?

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P: yeah… I mean… I think I approach it…. Uhh different ways… umm you know

I … and and… I coach men and women… I think even… kind of the way coach the

men’s team and the women’s team you know are a little bit different… umm you know

most of it is the same, but it is probably a little bit of differences there…. Uh… but uhhh

yeah... I think … on the individual level um… you know …. You can you can be a little

more… you know… personal with you know maybe building that relationship and and

things like that… individually ummm… so but when you’re dealing with team and a lot

of personalities, you have to use maybe broader brushstrokes I guess…

I: …. Who helped you shape your coaching philosophy?

P: ummm my uhh… definitely you know a lot of the coaches that coached me.

My high school coach, my college coach… were two pretty good influences ummm…

you know I think in in high school I didn’t uhh… high school was fine I was successful

umm and it was okay, but I don’t think I really enjoyed the high school as much as I

really enjoyed college. Umm… it was just sort of different … different atmospheres

maybe, but we’re successful in high school and I really respected my high school coach.

So I think as I got into coaching… you know some of the stuff that either the way he

approached things…I you know was like… ‘Wow that’s pretty good I never thought of it

at the time’ ummm…. And same thing you know with my college coach… my college

coach is really helpful and so… helping me with getting my foot in the door and giving

me adivice… ahh and as I got into coaching… my first few years um I coached at the

University of [state] in [city] and I actually had three head coaches my three years

there…. And so each one of those guys was you know I’ve learned a bit from, but

probably the main one was [coach A] he coached there one of the years and uh… I

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learned about a lot not just about administering you know … a lot of stuff you know I use

as being a head coach now… I learned from him. Ummm soo… there have been a

number of guys along the way that uhh… you know that helped out and you you know

when you get to meet other friends you get to pick up little things here and there. So… I

think I think it’s always something that you know the people you surround yourself

with… you can learn learn learn from…and current staff who have been together uh…

for my throws coach and I started at the same time so we’ve been together for about

twelve year ahhh… my coaches that been around for 9 years so … you know we’ve been

around for a while…

I: …. How is your coaching philosophy demonstrated to your athletes?

P: ummm… probably just just in ahhh just in what I do every day. I try to uhhh I

guess walk the walk and talk the talk… um you know I try to uhh you know I talked

about you know just being prepared and and bring the intensity every day. I try to bring

that and through my coaching and ahhh and hopefully that rubs off. I think a lot of time

umm you know teams you are reflections of their coaches and umm you know I, I hope

I’m doing a good job. I hope that is the case.

I: …. Could you ahhh discuss some of the comments that you maybe have

received from some of your athletes or other coaches about your coaching philosophy or

style?

P: ummm yeah… I I I guess it’s always been positive. I I’ve never ahhh really

had had to address critical things or things that I’ve done critically… so … I guess I’ve

always felt like I have been doing something right …ahhh you know I … build good

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relationships with all my former athletes and umm you know they come back around and

you know when they are coming into town and they stop by and visit ummm …yeahh

so… I’ve made… and you know every now and then you get somebody that maybe if

you really made a positive impact umm… you know and that’s always always special. I

think you know as you coach along you’re going to have that… wheres you know some

people kind of come through the program and and its fine and and ummm and then others

you know you really clicked with or maybe something was really not working well and

you were kind of in the right place at the right time to help that person out so…. Had a

few of those over the years as well those are always very rewarding….

I: ... How would you say your coaching philosophy impacts how you live life

outside outside of track and field?

P: ummm yeah I guess I think I don’t think there’s … really I do anything thing

different… I mean I think approach just my life in general ah you know I try to be ahh a

good husband, a good father, a good brother, good coach, good friend, good son… haha

to my parents and my brother… yeah… um… I think it’s just I’ve always just try to do

thing the right way so I never got into trouble or anything like that … it it’s ahhh you

know I think I think my coaching philosophy has sort have grown out of my general

philosophy.

I: … Is there anything else that you want to contribute as far as your coaching

philosophy goes?

P: ahhhh I don’t think so.

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I: …. the next part we’re gunna kinda talk about is … science of coaching…

could you define in your own words what the term coaching science means to you?

P: oh… I mean I think that’s just taking the uhh the available knowledge out there

and applying it to your coaching style… uhhh I guess that’s how I would define it…

I: okay… and why would you say that?

P: ummm well I mean I guess if you’re you know ahhh I guess I think of the

science of coaching as the uhh you know just all the you know different techniques that

could be actual uhhh umm you know a physical tehniques that could be mental

techniques … that could be just ummm the different ways you know throughout the

athletic coaching that you could uhh that people have figured out the good ways to do

things and the proper ways uhh you know and apply it to how the body works so….or

how people act mentally and… it’s just that there’s a whooollle lot of it’s just the

abundant knowledge there is out there and experience and try to take all of that and use

it…

I: ….. when you’re looking to train your athletes what types training

methodologies do you insist on using during say… off-season… indoor season… outdoor

season… postseason… how… wwhat do you focus on during those times?

P: ummm let’s see so… I guess we will start say like in… summer … summer

time… ummm we can’t work with the athletes directly so it’s usually ahhh a little more

like working on general strength kind of stuff… other weightroom kind of stuff uhh and

depending on the event area ummm maybe some of the runners just run three miles…

maybe some of the runners or the jumpers… you know or hept or do other conditioning

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workouts that are more geared towards jumping rather than sprinting hard and things like

that so…. I i…summer summer is more just like general…. Becoming a better athlete

ummm you know and then we get into the fall season before the actual competition starts

uhhh you know it’s just prepping the athlete for the upcoming season so it’s a little bit of

a transition from summer that sort of similar stronger better faster uhhh in general ….

And prepping them uhhh more specifically for their events… and again once you get into

the season… then it’s you know a lot of about event work uhhh you know technique…

umm you know with jump throwing jumping whatever… umm honing techniques ummm

and uhh yeah… and that basically kind of carries through and then obviously amongst all

of that is you know a lot of cycling of training loads ummm you know lifting weights and

running ahhhh and what have you….so based on the bench individual events sooo it’s

uhh… track is very…. Uhhh you know non-specific because there are so much different

things you know… you know obviously. Your pole vaulters need to do totally different

stuff than the hammer thrower….

I: … where did you learn about your different types of training methodologies…

or who did you learn them from?

P: ummm I went through… uhhh the… USATF coaches education… ummm so I

went through it before it kind of splintered off from the USATF then that group went to a

different association and now there is two of them… and I don’t know but … so I went

through yeah… sort of that school and ummm yeah…. A lot and then from there… umm

you know kinda got introduced to a lot of different coaches you know… different clinics

ummm … Every year I go to the coaches’ association and I get to sit in on… the little

presentations groups that coaches give and usually pick up some tips… I think over the

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years that the more I sit at that stuff and listen to that stuff… like the more it’s it’s like

‘okay... yeah that’s what I do…’ and it works well… hahaha sooo … but ummm yeah

that I would say that was my my first realllll education was the going through the USATF

coaching education.

I: okay… how can you describe you knowledge of coaching…. How it

influences… okay … let me rephrase that …. How is your knowledge of coaching

science how could it influence your coaching philosophy or vice versa?...Does one affect

the other more? Between coaching science and coaching philosophy?

P: it’s probably uhhhh they probably both affect each other…. Ummm so I think

it’s it’s about taking the knowledge of the best way to train and and different … different

technique stuff and … you know applying it… figuring out what works for your

individual philosophy… because there’s been stuff… I couldn’t give you an example off

the top of my head , but ummm you know there are things over the years that I’m like ‘oh

I heard about this and I’ll try it out’… and that just doesn’t like work for me and not how

I like to do things soo….ummm you know I think it’s you know … probably go through a

little trial and error and then as the longer you coach, you kind of find the things that you

like and really see the ones for you… and and then you settle in on those.

I: … How would you rank… in order of importance the coaching science....

coaching philosophy… and traditions, ranking them 1 through 3 with 1 being the most

important?

P: oh… ummm probably the philosophy first, um and the science and then the

traditions. Umm I think you know…. Settting up your philosophy of … kind of guides

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everything else ahh ultimately you know you want to be true to yourself uh…. Use the

science to … you know to uh be better perform to what your philosophy of training is…

and that…. The tradition is uh…. You know that is … just another kind of a …. Part of

the …. I look at that as part of the wheel of the philosophy that helps create success.

I: … Could you discuss how you can incorporate the ideas… so the traditions,

philosophy, and science… how could those three ideas help lead your team and staff

towards success?

P: oh well… I mean I guess uhhh ideally kind of go together I mean… uhh you

know as you build you philosophy … umm kind of like we said before… as you build

that you utilize the differ things you would learn which I would consider the the science

portion… ahhh and uhhh and and use the you know the ideas of traditions uhhh as a kind

of as motivating factor in and uh…. Just how uhhh it sort of funnels the focus of the team

you know in the direction you would like to go…. So…

I: …. When we are looking at athlete success and we are looking at team

success… would you say traditions, philosophy, or science has a bigger effect on one of

those than the other… so if I’m looking at athlete is traditions gunna have a bigger effect

on my success or is it the philosophy or the science? And then the team’s perspective….

P: right… I I think for the individual athlete the ummm is probably more… of

you know just the kind of the coach’s philosophy and then how they use the science…..

that… I kinda …. I think of the tradition stuff a little bit more of a … when you’re talking

about the whole team being… building traditions… you know and i…. even on smaller

groups you know you could… certain teams you could have a strong tradition in a certain

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event area and you want to sort of cultivate that and…and sort of cultivate that pride and

keep that going… umm you know sooo … I … but I think, I think generally that

traditions is more of a group thing… sooo whether that be trickle of the event group

areas or just group areas uh… rather than the individual.

I: … Can you discuss some of your goals individually and professionally going on

in your coaching career?

P: ummm I mean I think individually uhhh you know there’s always you wanna

… you wanna be a winner… soo you know trying to win key titles is uhh …. Trying to

you know get more kids to… nationals and All-Americans… uh you know individual

champs… I think think that kind of stuff…. Ummm soooo and and and then … year in

and year out if you sort of get the feeling of what kind of team you will have and what

kind of kids you have you …. You kind of hone in on them ‘okay this year… you’ll do

this’ ummm…. You know but I think just for the grand scheme of things you know those

types of things that I think I would like to do… umm you know I feel like you know

pretty much year in and year out you get successful on the level of you know improving

the athletes I coach… and and that’s going on… so it’s a really good thing for their lives

soo you know what I I’m happy with that… umm but also to get to get those you know

get those little banners up and

I: …. Is there anything else you’d like to add in general about umm either

traditions, philosophy or science?

P: ahhh I don’t think so…

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APPENDIX L

TRANSCRIPTION SUMMARY P5

I=Interviewer

P=Participant

I: um before we start, I would like for you to state your name gender, age, and

years of coaching at a division I level.

P: My name is [P5] , uh I’m a male… 31 yrs of age…6 years of that I have spent

uh coaching division I track field in the throws events here at [UNIVERSITY].

I: … Could you explain to my why you chose the track and field coaching

profession?

P: Um… Yeah, I I I… I kind of always grew up around coaching. My dad was

coach… his dad was a coach….um those were just kind of the people I just grew up

around. So, I guess it’s just one of those situations where the apple didn’t fall far from

the tree…Um you know it kind of the way most farmers grew up on a farm you know… I

suppose…I grew up around coaches and …. and had brothers that have both coached…..

um track and field basketball football… So we have always been kind of around it….

And track was a big passion of mine… It was… you know it was not my first love in

sports, but it definitely became the biggest passion that I had for sports. Ummm… and

when I got to the college level… and got out there and started seeing who was going to

go on from there as far as competition. I realized that it wasn’t going to be me. Haha I

found out then that I wasn’t going to be the guy throwing the discuss 230ft or the shot put

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70ft and I thought if I was going to stay in the sport it was going to be by coaching people

like that.

I: ... Are there any personal experiences that you have had within the sport that

really motivated you to pursue coaching? Like a moment in time….that you were just

like okay I’m going to coach. Just the fact that…

P: Yeah…umm…. Well... I was fortunate enough as what… a 14 yr old 15 yr old

um to go out to Iron Wood Throws Camp, which is a big national throws camp up on the

west coast. And… At that time it was basically the only opportunity any, you know,

middle school high school kids had to uh to work with… with the you know coaches that

really knew the sport inside and out… and when I went out there I met some great people

and some great role models… and when I finished up my my prep career when… when I

got out of high school… I actually got invited to come out there and… and help do some

coaching… And it was just one of those things that just felt really natural. I mean I I…

really enjoyed doing it right of the bat… I loved the reactions I got from people that I

helped…and I just felt like man… if you could uh… If you could find a way to make a

living doing this…. I might find a way that I may never have to work a day in my life.

That’s everybody’s goal right?? I think it’s more of a pursuit of laziness in a

way…because it was a way to avoid work…I mean I don’t know how motivational or

inspirational that is but there’s a lot of truth in it….

I: …We are kinda going to go in and talk a little bit about traditions… How does

[UNIVERSITY]’s traditions the department… and/or the Athle… or the track and field

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program? Are there any track and field traditions at [UNIVERSITY]? I guess would be a

better question first….

P: What was that?

I: A better question first would be are there any track and field traditions at

[UNIVERSITY]?

P: Well… you know that’s…that’s kind of a tough one to answer… um just

because so much has changed here with the school making the switch to.. from division II

to division I…Um…And…Basically… I came in on the forefront of that you know…uh

[UNIVERISTY] was only division I eligible for you know for about a year when I got

here. Umm… and before that in my area…. Um…. You know … the big tradition I

guess with with the throws events… those guys were most multiple sport guys…. Just

recently…. A couple weekends ago [Former athlete] who was an All-American javelin

thrower here for the [school mascot] in the [decade]’s… he’s actually the throws coach at

the University of [state]…Um…. He just got inducted into the [state] Hall of Fame… so

he was back a couple weeks ago… and I was fortunate that I get to spend some time with

him… And of course all of his buddies came back to so see him… everybody that was

still around in [state] anyway… And you know out of the 6, 7, 8 guys that were there that

were throwers and this goes beyond that too when you talk about the sprinters that were

on the team and jumpers that were on the team that came back to see him as well… There

wasn’t one of them that didn’t play football… And… now with the current state of

sports… and…. Kind of the rules that have been placed by the NCAA as far as the way

scholarships work… and you’re not able to join…conjoin scholarship money between

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programs… that has all kind of gone away… So… We’re we’re in a way really having to

create a tradition here now… more so than follow one… And… That would kind of go

along with the facilities here as well, you know… we are just getting into now being able

to host meets and have a place to train and really be a team for the first time. So… And…

and in all honesty… I’m probably the worst guy in the world to talk about traditions…

hahaha. You know, I’m a young coach… and things have been different here … and

And… in some really big ways in just the hand full of years I have been here. So…as far

as tradition goes well that’s that’s one we are having to create…

I: Okay…. Is there a track and field history of success at [UNIVERSITY]?

P: Absolutely… Well that kind of goes back to the [Former Coach A] days… that

that would be like way back. Um… in… in the [decade]’s and he was the guy who

coached everything. Um… but they had a track team that they were winning year in and

year out with conference titles. And, you know that went through uh… [Former Coach

A] went in to being coach [Former Coach B] time… and and …Coach [Former Coach B]

was another guy who was just a track coach. But at that point he coached all the events.

There wasn’t any other full time staff member with coach [Former Coach B]…He was

THE track coach Um…Even then… they were beating the [university A]’s and the

[university B]’s year in and year out… um… and recently it… it’s gotten harder uh…

adapting to the DI world. Um… we really haven’t made that transition quite as well as

those other teams… um but again if you look at the athletic body as a whole. You kind of

look at the whole thing as one organism… and the [school mascot] have won the

commissioners cup every year for being the best athletic program, all around athletic

program in the ….[school conference]. Um… the thing that we are struggling with as far

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as track is trying to find a way to really match those other schools finances because they

won’t carry as many sports as we do. And… we try to uh… try to uh make sure we have

as many opportunities here as possible for everybody, and sometimes you know… that…

that spreads the butter pretty thin for some of us. Uh…Now things have been getting

better in that sense… uh… but we even have some catching up to do… but yeah… the

[school mascot] were tough… They were really tough all the way up to you know, from

the start of the [Former conference A]… all the way up to the [former conference B] to

you know the creation of the [current school conference] and then then they’ve been

tough you know and been in the top three teams every year… uhhh but making that

transition back into uh being conference… you know contending for the conference title

year in and year out like when we use to… that’s something we’re… we’re trying to

figure out how to do. Hahaha. But uh… you know at one point… the tradition here was

almost an expectation…the track team… we were going to be in the fight for it every

year.

I: All right… How would you define success?... You being kind of a coach

looking at your athletes and versus a team perspective…How do you define success

yourself?

P: Well… The big thing is you know improvement. Uh… that that’s one of the

… the biggest things I always look at. Um you know we being the school we are …

we’re not probably not going to get that All-American coming out of high school you

know …The person that has a full ride at [Other university] probably ain’t coming to

us…um you know unless …If they grew up here they don’t want to move away from

home. Um…you know the truth is more often than not we have to develop athletes… and

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to me that’s the big measure of success. Are you helping your athletes improve? Just like

uh… well uh… a teacher can help people learn information… but they really can’t make

somebody smarter You know what I mean? And, [Interviewer] That’s kind of the

standard for me. Are we improving? Because if you can get your athletes to improve, it

has that snow ball effect. Because they become more passionate about it and they want it

more. and they are willing to work a little bit harder. Then that turns into more success

for them. And that that effect, you know, carries on not only for themselves, but their

their uh uh teammates in throws and their teammates all over the track team. so the big

thing is are we improving?

I: … And… how do you as a coach kind of help support your traditions uh within

track and field?

P:Well you know the the the throws have always been a big part of the program

here. Um you know we it it’s tough sometimes to find you know the prototypical sprinter

in this area.That that person that is going to run a 10 flat hundred….you usually find them

south somewhere where they are running outside year round. You know, in in the

throws… it’s it’s a lot easier to find strong hard working farm kids. Annd… and that’s

always been kind of a back bone of the team. And you know you got to experience it

yourself, and you know a lot of the time we would go to the conference meet… and the

[school mascot] are winning through the first day or the first two days of the meet

because of the field events…And… I I think that’s where we find our place is that … we

we try to go out there and get the ball rolling. Um … we have always been a really strong

starting place for our team going into a conference championship. And uh…with the

throws area… our throwers have been multifaceted… we haven’t had a lot of people just

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be a one even thrower….you know, most people throw the shot, the disc, the hammer.

Well at least two events. It’s very seldom we see people throw in one event. and … sooo

in the throws, you know in the indoor season you know that means almost everyone is

doing two throws… and when everybody gets outside they usually add a third event. So

that’s another place… I believe that the throwers have been a strength for for the for the

team so then we have a tradition there. We have helped out in multiple ways. uh… rather

than being more specialized.

I: …. Um kind of switching gears here a little bit we’re going to start talking a

little bit about coaching philosophy. To start what is your coaching philosophy?

P: well you know…. I I I tell everybody… I I I try to address it as… as a teacher

would… Essentially I’m teaching track class in my mind… because… haha well… I’m

going to lay this one here on you [Interviewer]... because you might run into it along the

line yourself … You can … you can teach anyone the ideas and concepts of …of the

throws and have them repeat it right back to you and go ‘yup yup, I’ve got it’, haha…It’s

very difficult to teach a feeling…of how it should feel. And … and it… it’s really a feel

sport. Um… and you never quite know if they got that or not…You …. You know… I’ve

tried to address it as being a teacher because man there’s been a lot of times within the

first in 3 to 5 years or whatever of coaching when I would go home pretty damn

frustrated. I can’t … I just don’t understand why this kid can’t do that or why she can’t

do this… and I would be really be really upset because in my mind it would almost be

like I was throwing for them or something, you know.. And…you know I eventually had

a conversation with another coach where he says kind of like, ‘You know [P5], they are

never going to be you and you can’t teach them to do that’ and I was like ‘Dad your

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right’ and I think right then and there my blood pressure just dropped about 20 points…I

would get so frustrated… you know you know you think about it nobody thinks because

a professor fails a kid in his class that they are bad teacher…that’s going to happen….

Uhh they are going to have about as many people probably that that uhh you know

ceased… ceased in investments and go into a different field and don’t have anything to

do with that class ever again say when the semester ends… and they are going to have

people that are inspired by class and continue it and make it a lifelong thing. And once

I’ve kind of learned that, you know I can only do what I can do and at the end of the day

they are going to have to…. You know my thought is that I’m always going to match you

work… Whatever you’re willing to put in, I’m going to match it. You’re not going to out

work me. You’re not going to out learn me. You’re not going to get ahead of me. But you

can’t put heart into them. And sometimes… sometimes you just miss the ball on that one

when you bring a kid in. um but it does happen. So I try to approach it… and I try to tell

all my athletes now too… I tell them ‘I’m never going to claim your success. Anything

you do you earned it. But, at the same time I’m never going to take the blame either.’…If

you’ve failed, it’s because you failed. If you win, it’s because you won. And and you you

do what you can for the kid you teach them as much as you can… but at the end of the

day their throw is going to be their throw.

I: …So how how would say some of your personal um expectations…. Morals…

um…. Previous experiences kind of feed into your coaching philosophy?

P: Ummm… you know … I … I… I think that does… have really a lot of gravity

on the way I coach was the way I was brought up… um some positive and some

negative… um… and and you you know the the experiences that I had as an athlete… uh

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one thing that I feel like… and I think I even talked about it while you were here was that

we worked our asses off Monday through Friday and then Saturday you go and you take

the test… Like I I’m not going to bug you much unless you come looking to me for

help… Like if you come ask me ‘hey coach what did you see on that’ I’m going to let

you know but… for the most part on Saturdays I want the kids to go out and compete… I

don’t want to sit there and and and you know give them 50 things to think about because

my own personal experience, I did not need to have anyone tell me Saturday morning

‘Now, [P5] this is important’…‘You gotta try hard today’. Hahaha. My heart was in it. I

knew that it was important. I needed someone to tell me ‘[P5] calm down down man’

haha… ‘get your head out of that garbage can and quit puking, just calm down’ you

know I was more of that guy than the guy that needed somebody to go ‘All right you

gotta get up’ you know rather than screaming yelling and hollering in my face… you

know that made me over stimulated and I was worthless that day. You know my own

personal experiences really reflect that you know if I see somebody’s really you know

tightening up at a meet… I’ll go over tell them a joke before I tell them a cue…Just to

loosen them up… you know…I I found for a lot more kids that was effective than going

‘All you’ve gotta do is get this and get to that spot and turn there and do this’ like that

was too much for them. I’m better to up and say ‘[Athlete], knock knock’ and tell her a

joke. Than to give her more stuff to think about you know. Then also you know kind of I

I have a great relationship with my dad… um he was my coach in everything… and that

really affected the way way I coach um… I think there was was a lot more good in that

then dad… uhhh however, I wasn’t 100% positive… but I had a lot easier time with him

as my coach than he had with his dad as a coach. Haha…I think we all kind of uh… all

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calmed down a little bit generation to generation in the Long family… hahahaha. So there

was a lot of times you know we would head back home on a Saturday from a track meet

or Friday night after a football game and we just hated each other… and… and that was

really tough …. And … as a track athlete you know how it is… your support system isn’t

[NFL Football Player]’s support system… you know you’re not going out there in front

of 16-17 thousand people screaming your name… you’ve got your coach, you’ve got

your teammates and you’ve got your family. Sooo… if the relationship between coach

and athlete is a bad one that puts a lot of weight on how their total experience for track

and field is going to be. And track’s not in the spot where we can have people graduating

from college hating track. Hahahah. We need people walking away loving track…and

want to come back to alumni meets… and want to uh you know when their kids are

getting into sports we want them to do track. So you know… am I the perfect guy

absolutely not… is is every day going to be an easy day… absolutely not… uhh I suppose

I butt heads with everybody from time to time… but you know I try to make sure that I

do the best I can… When my athletes leave…they have a positive experience that they

had…. you know …. When I was younger and I was getting coached by my dad that was

really difficult sometimes… most of the times it was great… uhhh and he’s still the guy

when the meet gets over whether if it was a good day or a bad day… I’d call him up to

tell him how good it was and call him up and ask him ‘what the hell do I do I’m screwing

these kids up’… you know he’s the first guy I call. You know I kind of want that going

forward too, but when uh… like this year [Former Athlete A] one of my guys I coached

at [Former university] …. He got a job at the University of [state]… He calls me up

saying ‘you know coach I’m interviewing for this… uh… can you give me a reference

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letter’ ‘Absolutely man….’ I said ‘that’s great’… he said ‘if I get it your coming down

for [big celebration]… I want you to come down’ haha you know that’s what I want all

my athletes to feel. When they leave… that they had a good time here. They had success

here… They’ve they’ve…well no matter where they go… they still have a place here.

I: … um I know your mentioning a lot about your dad being a big mentor in your

coaching philosophy that’s really help helped shape your coaching philosophy?

P: Uhh… Coach [Coach C]…. Uhh a person I started working with…um again at

iron wood throws camp when I was 14 years old. Um you know my dad believed in me

but everybody’s dad’s gotta believe in them. HAHAHAAH [Side Conversation]

P: and … Coach [Coach C] was the 3rd person outside of my household that you

know and and the guy was an amazing athlete of his own right… had coached some

people that were world class… you know he knew… how to be good and he knew what

you had to have to be good. He was the first guy that made me really believe that I I can

be good. Like I can do this thing… and I still and keep in touch with coach and talk to

him a lot too. Um so I would say after my dad it’s coach [Coach C], um… [Coach D]…

at [State] State University… Umm I just feel like that guy is just like a constant

professional… that dude is a pro… And every time I’m around him I still get nervous

around him… and oh shit I’ve known him for 11 years now, but I still get nervous around

him… because I wonder what [Coach D] thinks of me… I wonder if [Coach D] thinks

I’m doing a good job you know… and and I’m always trying to sneak over and see what

he is doing, what he is telling his athletes, what he’s having them do and it’s one of those

kinds of things… um the guy has just built a career on winning…and all all the people I

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remember him coaching have just been unreal.. and not one of them did I know outside of

high school really they are all athletes that [Coach D] really you know really like what I

said there with coach [Coach C]… he instilled this fire in all of these people ‘Man you

can do this and you can be great’ and and he’s got them there… so… that guy is probably

like the best coach in the country… and I’ve been fortunate enough to spend… spend a

lot of time with him you know. So I would say those are probably the three guys that

whenever I’m wonder and whenever I have that thought in my head… how am I going to

handle this situation… those are the three guys that I’m trying to pretend to be…

Hahahaha

I: … Um kind of bringing it back to athletes a little bit…. Um do you believe…

or does your philosophy change working with individual athletes versus a whole team?

P: Well… you… definitely have to know your athletes… and what they do…

um… and it is a thing where I I feel what’s good for the individual in our sport is good

for the team… cause there’s no fight in it for playing time or…or who is getting the ball

enough or anything like that. We all get our three opportunities based on how well you

did you may get three more… it’s it’s all individual and at the end of the day… they all

add up to points.. and and… find out how we did as team…soo… my my approach is… it

is probably more individualistic… you know it it is as far as that’s really where the

challenge comes in you know … every year when we start I definitely want to evolve a

team dynamic… it doesn’t matter if you’re a 5 year senior or you never touched a

hammer before we’re all going to be out there doing the same drills. That that’s where we

are going to start every September…. And you know you you you’ve been one of my

athletes you you know this first hand…. that my seniors teach the underclassmen …I I

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think there’s a lot of value in that too… I feel like if you can coach it…. You can you

know you can improve your own throw by explaining your way through to other

people…so…..I like to build those those bonds amongst teammates through things like

that…. We’re all going to start at point A every year …. Where you take it from there and

how far down the road you get is up to you as an individual…. And up to me as a coach

on how well I get to you know figure out how to push your buttons….You know and ….

Motivate you to figure out you know… do you as a person have what you need from me?

ummm … but yeah we’ve always start out… we’re all here together…. We’re starting…

you know we’re all jumping in the boat together….you know eventually…. It becomes a

more individualized thing as the year goes on…

I: ….umm how would you say your coaching philosophy is demonstrated to your

athletes? ….

P: ummm you know I I I again…. As far as taking to uh…. A professor type

role… I think spend a lot more time now umm than I did maybe than the first you know I

guess again the first five years of of coaching ummm just talking about concepts…. Like

really trying to find out ‘Do you understand what we’re what we’re trying go for…?’ ….

‘Do you understand the concepts of the hammer?’ you know and …and what’s going on

in that circle… um whereas before you know when I first started you I I was really

fortunate just to have some freak athletes… hahahaha you know I was really really

lucky… you know [Former Athlete B] was going to throw far no matter what… [Former

Athlete A] was going to throw far no matter what….and I was really fortunate to walk in

ass-backwards and have these two people on my team right away. And… again I I was

around the sport at a very young age and and studied the sport ummm from about age 11

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is when I started watching video…. ummm so I definitely got that background … but I

also you know …. I I think I I have more a kind of a cookie cutter approach in the

beginning … where it was like this what worked for me…. This is magic… just say the

magic chant and do the magic dance and we’re all going to be fine… and you know so….

It really at the beginning to do you know 25 of these and then you go over and you do

fifty of these and then you go over and you finish with 20 of those… and instead of

taking the time to say ‘Hey do you know what you’re trying with that?’ Hahahaha…and

and now we we spend a lot more time you know I’m… It really turning into very

experienced program here… and now I don’t have to do that like I used to have to do…

Whereas before it was kind of a squeeze on time where I had to this that and the other ….

We kind of have to have to move on to the next thing…Now I have a lot more time with

with the strength program we have taking care of end of things I I’ve got a lot more time

to really sit down and when the kind of have that disheveled look in their eye and I notice

that more often now…. you know they they don’t slip away and and get away from me

before I can pick up on that… and then… you know I take the time to just go over there

and sit with them and hey let’s talk about this for 15 minutes and like and like steal a

quarter of their practice … like a little chunk of our practice today…. That’s a lot better

than going through the next three months and you really not grabbing on the concepts…

so…. I take a lot more time now instead of just being a slave to the numbers to the drills

to to really you know say ‘Hey do we kind of get how this is supposed to feel?’…‘Who

are you watching right now?’, ‘Who are you studying?’, ‘Are you doing your homework

at home?’ ‘Okay you are watching this person, well they do this really well and this is

what they are trying to do…. And can you feel that?’ ‘Do you understand why they are

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doing that thing?’…‘What are they trying to emulate?’ and so that’s the part of the things

that has changed a great deal… in the way I approach it day to day.

I: … um have you ever had athletes or other coaches comment you on your

coaching philosophy? .... Just comments you on your coaching philosophy… just in

general about anything.

P: ummm yeah you know I I suppose I have ….umm… but again I tell them all

when they do …. Hey man I’m a thief…. Hahaha you know there’s not one thing that

I’ve regurgitated that’s probably original…. Through the entire time I’ve been coaching

you know… It’s just something that I’ve picked up from somebody else that works for

one of my people… and so I kept it…. And…so you know that’s I I think that some

comment to me just like I made it to the guy that that I found that thing out from …. You

know…. right… so I guess you know I have had comments, but I really never note that

stuff…because I’ve never really felt like you know … I learned anything through that…

It’s always been well yeah… that’s the thing well you know that’s what [Coach E] taught

me… or that’s the thing that uh… [Coach F] taught or whoever it was… so… I I guess I

just never really … never really worried about anything like that… ‘cause it’s never

really felt like I’ve owned it… I guess the number one thing … the coolest thing that

anybody has probably told me as a coach was… [Coach G] at [University G] and he said,

‘Man there’s something about you that that you’re your kids…You just have a calming

effect on them. You can just see it happening when you go over and talk to them.’ And I

think that’s the probably the coolest thing that’s somebody has said about about watching

me coach ‘cause he’s a great guy… great great coach… great shoeman…. Umm but he

doesn’t know anything about the throws … you know… hahahaha. He doesn’t know any

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more about the throws than I know about distance running… so…. So… for him to say

that to me was like that was really a personal thing. So I really thought that was really

cool that’s probably the biggest compliment that anybody has given me.

I: ... Umm kind of kind of one of the last questions about coaching philosophy

how does your coaching philosophy impact the way you live life outside of track and

field.

P: well…. I I’d say the biggest thing that I have learned through coaching ummm

and and its probably more a a life thing that I took into coaching …was just stay in the

moment. Umm… you know and again I think I use to get bogged down things where I

rarely became a slave to the numbers and and I I was that way from an early age you

know… I put that goal out there that’s in five years…. I want to be throwing this… well

in order to do that … I gotta be taking this many throws a year… and I got be squattin’

this much weight… and I gotta be benchin’ this much weight… and I gotta be cleaning

this much weight… and …. You know, if your somebody that has lofty goals like that,

and your looking that far out a head…. It’s a good idea to have that….you know it’s a

good thing to have that, but when it owns ya… you know you think about every bad day

you’re going to have in the next five years… and your just looking at that stack of days of

what your focus is on… it it becomes this monstrous power…

I: right….

P: and it can really just get you down… umm so that was one of the things that

[Coach C] really instilled on me, but he said ‘You really just need to stay in the now’.

And…you know sometimes… you know you you might have you know a a plan to to go

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see somebody at Christmas and the flight gets cancelled and you gotta figure out

something else… ‘cause that’s the way it is…umm… it’s the same way coaching…

sometimes you go in and and talk to somebody and their back is sore you got to adjust

or… you know their… girlfriend just broke up with them and they’re just in a bad way

and you got to figure out something else to do that day or whatever it is to be a brilliant

day… ummm if you let those things just… ‘cause I really love them… and you.. I don’t

think you really probably realize how neurotic I was… haha. It was bad… and then I

would go home and I would go ‘GOD, WE WERE THREE REPS SHORT! THERE

GOES THE WEEK!’… hahahahahaha ‘WE ARE NOT GOING TO BE SHIT UNTILL

THE MACROCYCLE MAN! THIS IS HORRIBLE!’…That stuff just drove me nuts and

and it got in my way… ummm … so you know that’s that’s probably one of the things it

was a life lesson that I took into coaching…

I: … so now umm we’re gonna kinda different direction… We’re going to look

more at coaching science umm…. In your own words, could you just define what the

term coaching science means to you?

P: The biggest thing is is organizing you’re learning you know there’s there’s a lot

of different concepts out there …. There’s a lot of different theories and you it’s kind of

the there’s a thousand roads to Rome right…and over the course of a career and not only

can more than one be right…. Every one of them can be right… cause you’re probably

gunna… if you have a successful career… the more successful you coach…. The more

successful you train ….the more athletes you end up working with…. So might end up

taking a thousand roads to Rome…..hahaha…and … you know I I think that’s to me the

biggest thing is that uh… for a coach ….and and their knowledge… their science of of

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training is not … necessarily… you know how great their one idea is…. it’s how

expansive do all they’re ideas reach… you know how how many people have they come

across…. How many uh… how many training ideas have they tried… because you’re

going to work with with a lot of people over the course of your career and and then

individuals you know they’re all kind of different you kind of have to come up with with

new methods for for a lot of them. Umm so that that’s the science of it to me is kind of

like expand your horizons, finding a lot of different methods. And then being able to

recognize what the individual needs, and applying those methods to to your athletes.

I: … In terms of science, are there certain principles that you like to use to help

your athletes be successful?

P: Certain principles I like to use? Well…. you know everything that I do is pretty

general. It it really is. Ummm… because I I I still start everybody that I start with comes

in here at 18 and leaves at 22. You know and then and then you start over and…. You

know as you go along you realize that you learn more as your training gets better, but

essentially you’re still coaching that same group. Ummm… and I think sometimes

coaches kind of over… get over complicate things in in that regard… umm where they

think you know … you get a more talented athlete in or whatever you know… they they

or they just have been around for more years or whatever it is… they feel like their their

training …now they have to be training somebody on their you know on their fifteenth

year of of their training age but it’s really never the case for us. Uummm for throws….

Most kids don’t never even had a shot put or discus coach… that’s kind of few and far

between and and it it’s lucky if it’s been done for both of them. And you know… 99%

are coming in here and it’s the first time they have ever seen the hammer… they don’t

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even know what it is… they they didn’t know it existed… so…. There’s they’re still

always starting from point A. So, I I wouldn’t say that my concepts are the most

complicated. Umm… you know I believe in in volume training in in the fall and that

we’re getting in as much repetition as possible as much drill work as possible. We’re

trying to get some long in the fall and in the the spring semester… we just go … we’re in

a more of a maintenance phase we’re trying to train for power and this … it’s really

general stuff. Umm…. And I don’t think you really build beyond that until you’re

working with somebody that’s that’s trying to make they’re second Olympic games at

age 27 and you know that’s… that really gets more complicated with that.

I: … umm are there certain training methodologies that you insist on using… I

know you just kind of discussed that you higher volume in the fall umm… looking at off-

season, in-season indoor, in-season outdoor, post-season…are there certain

methodologies you really like to focus on during those seasons?

P: ummmm… you know…. Haha ….. again I I uh… I want to create strength

phase, athleticism to to learn throwing…. In the fall..and then I just… I want to go out

and compete in the spring. Most of the stuff that we do … you know as far as the as as

far as the training really goes into the weight room. I almost kind of have it taken care of

for me now. I’m kind of a a spoiled brat now…. I don’t even have to worry about that

stuff anymore…. Hahaha…..

I: … ummm could you describe how your knowledge of coaching science

influences your coaching philosophy or vice versa?

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P: ummm… yeah I was was thinking in general it it’s… just making sure that

uh… you continue you’re learning um… there they’re always should be new training

methods out there…. And the big thing and I I know you all about it… because you’re

you’re a junky for this sort of stuff…but the big … that … the new idea is the triphasic

training, you know the Cal Dietz stuff [Side Conversation] … I know that like became

the craze like last spring… I was like all right I’ve got to get into this thing… and then I

started reading into it…. Well it was all stuff that I have already been doing with Coach

[Coach C] like in 2006. So… to to me it was like a you know it was already 10 years old.

And you know sometimes you go through that stuff you find something that that you

know that’s 50 years old. You know it’s like now now it’s plyometrics…. Well yeah you

know, our grandfather was out there and they called it Calisthenics…. It’s one of those

things it’s like the more things change the more things stay the same. Um…but I can’t

say that the science of it… it’s how you you organize it…. and and the fact you you got

to still be looking for those new ideas cause each… if you go a year without picking

anything up …. You know that’s really surprising… I think I think a guy would

accidently pick something up every year… whether you know …if you’re just going to

work and and running into people. You’re you’re going to pick something

accidently…hahaha even if… you’re not trying to… Ummmm… but the biggest thing is

you know… Coach Bondarchuk…. Uhhhh Russian coach… that everybody talks about…

ramps and raves about… I think he had a great quote when he said, you know ‘The data

is your friend, and science is your friend’…you you gotta just make sure you’re keeping

track of everything and the better you are at organizing all of that data, I think that’s

really the science of it. And that’s why you know… now I I I wasn’t as good about this

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when you were here as I am now… now I’m like… you know I I tell everybody you

have to have a throwing drill… and and if I don’t see them you know …. If we go a

couple and I haven’t seen them pull the thing out … then I’m like where is it man… what

are ya…. because I can always tell you know I’ll tell [Athlete 1] a cue that works for

her… but it doesn’t work for [Athlete 2]… you know and the one that works for [Athlete

2] doesn’t work for [Athlete 3]… and the one that works… and on down the line… but if

they got those ideas logged… and you know I I have those ideas you know logged…

then I think we’re missing the center… you know three months ago you were just killing

the thing… what the hell were we doing back then… and then we can go back and find…

oh we were doing this drill we need to get back to that…so…. I a again I think that’s it’s

definitely an individual sport…. ummm and you gotta train it that way. That everything is

a new phase and and… you have to kind of make sure they’re on top of logging all of that

data …. And it essentially becomes a giant amount… and that’s why I I try to get my

athletes to help me with it now… and made them a little more accountable on it… umm

but I think you know the people that are really good at organizing all that those… are the

ones that are usually really good coaches.

I: … um kind of the last thing about trying to tie everything in together… Um if

you could rank in order of importance so 1 being the most important um… which one of

coaching science, philosophy and traditions… how would you rank those 1 through 3?

P: I I would say… uhhh philosophy is out in front… um… head shoulders knees

and toes… and and… cause I feel like that is where you make the strongest connections.

Um again the science is your friend… it’s very useful ummm you need to have it…

ummm but at the same time… there’s a billion different ways you can do it… you

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know… as far as beyond that there’s a lot of different philosophies too… but umm you

know I I feel like the philosophies of it they build the strongest bonds between you and

your athletes.. I I think that’s where you really some them uhhh that you that you care

about them. And that you’re taking the time to uh… to kind of forge that bond with

them… now I’m going to tell ya that the hall of fame thing last year with with

[UNIVERSITY Coach]… he always speaks at the beginning of the year and you know …

when he was talking he said… you gotta you gotta love your athletes… and you gotta

make sure that you love them and you gotta make sure they know that you love em… and

… you know that’s the strongest bond there… If you’ve got that with them… they’re

going to believe in you other stuff… they’re going to believe in your science… if you

don’t have that with them… their going to find doubts in ya… haha… If they don’t like

ya… they’re going to find doubts in you… so I feel like the philosophy is of that… and

we gotta be together on this… and we gotta be on the same page as … I I think that’s the

most important thing… I’d say tradition… for me personally… is three… because ours

doesn’t go back that far. Hahaha…. hahaha so it’s a third… hahahaha…it will be

interesting to see what the rest of your coaches say… it would be kind of cool to hear

how they answer these questions…. But yeah for a young a D1 team… I sure as hell hope

its third [Interviewer]… hahahaha.

I: …. Um this is just to kind of wrap things up you just have three questions left…

how could you um … could you discuss how you could incorporate these three ideas to

lead your team towards succ…. Towards success? The ideas of

traditions…philosophy…how could you use these ideas to lead your team and staff

towards success

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P: ahhh… that’s a that’s a good question… that’s what I’m trying to find out…

[Side conversation] you know I think those are … those are all you know galvanizing

concepts…. A again I I I think the philosophy to me in my mind at least the way I I see

philosophy I think that’s where uhh the caring comes in and you the … the uhh… you

know know knowing that you guys have that bond together… and that you’re out to

accomplish the same… thing… I I’d say that’s that’s the philosophy thing to me…

ummm and I I think that’s where things start umm that’s where we gotta start from to get

athletes to want to come here to work with us. So to me it has to start there… they’ve got

to believe in you they’ve got to believe in in you as a person when they need ya… they

gotta you know… ‘cause they gotta feel welcome here… they’ve gotta feel like your

somebody kind of like minded to wanna come work with ya… ummm and then those

other things… kind of fall into place from there… I think the science of it again is very

important cause you have to have that you know …. You sit down at the beginning of the

year and and talk about what you wanna do …. Where you wanna ultimately go to… and

where you ultimately wanna accomplish… and you gotta you gotta make uhh a path to

get there… and find out you know how will this athlete improves… what’s the best thing

for them… and that’s where the science of that comes in… is building them the best road

to get to that goal… and then from there you know… that that’s where… you can build a

tradition… you if you can get the people to believe in those first two things… that that

you know… you … if they believe in your philosophy and they want to come work with

ya… and then you show them success… then you build a tradition through that… I don’t

think if you don’t have the first two… I don’t think that there would ever be a tradition to

speak of… that certain doesn’t come first right… so… I I think you you know …. There

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again once you get the three of them going that’s a pretty deadly you know three headed

snake… and that that’s pretty hard to kill once you have all of them going… you know

I’m finding out it’s going to take some time… ummm… you know I’ve always wanted to

be a coach from the time I was about 18 and when I started doing it… I realized that you

know… this is going to be something that I think is for me… I wanted to it on the D1

level… and then I got here I I probably kind of realized that Jesus I don’t know if I’m

ready for this… hahaha… I’m being totally honest … because again I came in to being at

this level from a dinky school in [state] and this is not a little dinky school… had some

people that were getting to the US Championships and I just thought that shit this is

easy…

I: hahahaha. Anybody can do that….you know… Where’s my fricken PAYCHECK?!?!

and then I got here and and now I’ve been kind of asked to build a D1 program and …

we’re going up against the [University C]s and the [University D]s, and the [University

E]s and the [University G]s, and the [University F]s… and I’m realizing man…

somebody worked awfully hard to build those traditions… ummm and I and i… realized

man it’s going to take me some time… but…I I love doing it… [Side Conversation]…

and … the people I’ve got to work with… I mean I I really I get frustrated somedays…

but I also go home and I’ll bitch to my dad about it… and and he’ll be like what else are

you going to do… and and then there I think there really isn’t anything else I want to

do… hahahaha

I: …. Would you say um one of them stands out more when you’re looking at

athlete versus team success?

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P: Does one of them stands out more? ummm… you know… that that’s one of

things I never from high school on was... a high school athlete, college athlete, uh NAIA

coach… ummm D1 coach… I’ve never won a conference title… I’ve never been on a

time that won a title… and whenever that comes… you you know… I’ll let you know

how that feels…I cant wait… I can image that it’s going to be uhh… an amazing day…

it’s it’s definitely up there for me right on par with within you know goals that I have of

coaching individuals…. In order to you know as far as importance for or you know how

exciting I would feel like it would be… but I’ve never… you know I’ve never

experienced that first hand ever… you know and uh… it’s kind of a sore spot for me…

umm and I’m really hoping for to remedy that one… and and on that day I’ll let you

know how that feels… but… haha... you always want your athletes having individual

success… no matter what, because you know they they come to work they’re ass off you

everyday… and another great lesson that Coach [Coach C] umm had taught me when

when I was worried you know we were going to a meet one time and they had this big

hammer meet down in [University K]… [Side Story] but…. I was soo nervous just to

uh… [University H] was there… [University H] was like this small school looking

thing… umm [University E] was there [University I] was there… umm there’s was some

big time time programs there… umm and it was the only meet that year that I got to

throw in… so… when my my training was really good, but I hadn’t competed at all… so

there I was doing my thing over at the garbage can and puking my guts out… and… and

there you know Coach [Coach C] comes over to settle me down and I’m like these guys

are here... shit there’s [Athlete 5] and [Athlete 6]…. Omg coach I’m freaking out… he’s

like ‘[P5] you can’t control if they go home or if they stay… you can only worry about

186

what you can control’… and you know that was a great lesson for me then and there for

my training and again for my coaching um…. But he’s like yeah you can only worry

about what you have within your control and you know my athletes really come and work

hard for me and we’ve had a lot of success, but you know would I love to be on a

conference championship team… absolutely… umm I think that would be great… but I

can’t take control what the other event groups are going to do… and.. I’m I’m not

certainly not going to let it get in the way of the success among my athletes… soo to me

totally… again what’s good for the team is good for the individual… and what’s good for

the individual is good the team… Cause I’ve got a guy that goes out there or a girl that

goes out there… and scores us ten points or eight points… or whatever that’s great for the

team… so… I try not to get too overwhelmed by the team thing… even in the back of my

mind… I’m like man if I leave this crew without winning a team title … holy smokes you

know… but uh… I mean… the individual importance I think you know that’s what

they’re they’re probably uh… even without winning a team title they are going to leave

here with some great experiences from that see you gotta take care of that first and if

everybody is taking care of that the team thing should take care of itself right?

I: … Finally could you discuss some of your goals individually and

professionally? Where do you see yourself going with your track and field career?

P: Well I’m really excited about what we got going on here… umm again the the

new building that we have is just such a monolithic change I mean just gigantic… and

you know I being a [state] guy umm you know wanting you when I was an athlete myself

to compete against the the best in the country and and doing it for [state]. That’s kind of

followed me here where I I feel like you know we gotta great staff and now we got a

187

place to train that really nobody is going to be able to top I really feel like we can do

some really special things here… and having a chance to do that with [state] kids is really

important to me.That’s that’s who I am… that’s where I came from… and to feed of that

opportunity. You know when I was in in high school [Interviewer] I don’t know if you

this umm I never got… I was I was 8th in the country in the shot put like 17th in the

country in the discus… I got letters from [UNIVERSITY] and [University A] actually

both team come and watch me at meets and recruit me… I never got one letter from

either school for track and field… I didn’t get recruited in the state of [state]as a high

school All-American… I didn’t get recruited in the state of [state] to come throw… and

and you you know…as at that time… neither one of those schools had a full time throws

coach. you know I I thought they were kind of kicking dirt on me at the time… I kind of

took it personally…what the hell man. Are you even going to talk to me? Ummm but

they are were really ‘Well we can’t really offer you an opportunity here’… and now I feel

like we’re in a place we can offer anybody… anybody in the world a great opportunity…

and the fact that we can do it for [state] kids for the first time is a huge thing… so I I have

a lot of… I want to stay here and put together a top notch program at [UNIVERSITY]…

umm I want to win a team title at [UNIVERSITY]… and you know it’s kind of always

been in in a thought in my mind till I do those things I I don’t really want to move on

umm you know again there’s the reality of that we are all on one year contracts.

Sometimes things happen, sometimes opportunities come up that you can’t pass up.

Sometimes… sometimes you get fired… hahahaha. you know don’t know what it’s going

to be but uh… and my goals is to build something here before I really look elsewhere.

Ultimately, you know I could see myself… [Side Story] umm…. I could see myself uh…

188

I I love to go back home…at some point in my career, but I could see myself moving up

to maybe a little bigger mid major school. Ummm… if it were in a place that I fell in love

with… umm but I well… I I got really no thoughts on wanting to a power five type

program…umm that just doesn’t attract me at all. It it does a little more now that I talked

to Coach [Coach E]. After I talked to [Coach F] I found what his salary is and I was like

Oh My God…. Hahahaha. But you know you know at the same time… that’s a guy that’s

he’s been coaching for over… you know he’s been coaching for damn near as long as

I’ve been alive… and he’s had amazing enough stuff he’s a he’s a doing an amazing

job… but deals with… he told me… he’s like ‘I really can’t go to another program

now… I go to another program… it’s it’s such a hit…. It’s a complete lifestyle change…

and huge step down… I really’ … he almost described in a way where he felt like he’s

kind of trapped by the job… umm and and he also told me he said….uhhh you know you

kind of have to laugh because he talks about going to uh one one of the guys talked …

acted like he never went back to [Track Meet] anymore… when you bring 4 kids up to

[Track Meet] and he said, ‘Nahh it’s just too cold of a meet… ‘cause we’ve competed

there… we love competing in [City], because it’s a neutral site…’… and I started

laughing ‘cause he’s obviously talking about [University F] right… Hates competing at

nationals…every year… [Side Conversation]… got second in the nation… he said, “I

came back and our AD was in our office and was like ‘what happened guys? Like what

when wrong?’”…… YOU GOT SECOND IN THE COUNTRY!!!! HAHAHA…WHAT

WENT WRONG? You know… that’s that’s amazing and I don’t know if I’d ever want to

deal with something like that… cause I I feel like that creates you know [Coach E] is a

great guy… heard nothing but good things… well but at the same time… you know

189

everybody on his team is like [From a different country]you know… He’s gotta he’s

gotta [Coach E] gets over and flies out [City], [State] to go over to [a different] and start

recruiting…and he’s gotta bring those kids in because he’s got to win… and sometimes

that leads to people doing some pretty sketchy things too… but uh… I just never want to

deal with that crap… so… Is it important to me to love it? Absolutely. Do I love it that

much? No I ain’t that guy…

190

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