Reply to Bethesda Track Club vs. Seven Locks Running Club

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My child has been with Bethesda Track Club for 3 years now but I am also very familiar with Seven Locks Running Club since they participate in many of the same track and xc meets.
The Seven Locks program is way more serious and intense and your child is more likely to run faster (at least in the short term) if that is your goal.  There are different philosophies on training at those young ages and you should pick the one that is better suited to your goals.
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I was forced to start early in the sport by my father. Not a pleasant experience. I would go with the most relaxed program for middle school. There is plenty of time to develop and get better.  I ran a 9:20 2 mile in 8th grade, but not a great thing, really. Too much pressure early. Did run a 4:06 mile as a senior, and ran D1 on scholarship in college. Never enjoyed it. College track was not an adjustment, but cross country was as I had so much speedwork poured into me at a young age the adjustment to 80 miles a week was brutal. I would have benefitted from a far more relaxed approach - running is not swimming. 
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Damn, I could have written the exact same thing. I started track at age 7 back in the early 80's.  Practices were brutal, every run was intense. Yeah, it produced good results but I hated it. When I got to my teens, I didn't want anything to do with running.  Started back up in my 20's and learned just have badly I was coached. Thankfully I learned how to train properly and have kept it up for decades.   With this in mind, I don't want to ruin my child for running.  We've been doing BTC for 3 years and he loves it.  Workouts are not crazy hard and easy running is mixed in.  He wants to go to every practice and meet, so I can't ask for anything else.  And you're absolutely right, it's not swimming.[/quote]

I had a different experience with starting late (9th grade).  The bottom line is that the most important thing for this age is to find a good coach. I was on multiple state championship teams for xc. I received multiple scholarships, including a partial D1. My coach has also won national coach of the year awards. He made running fun. It was never a grind. He even had easy days where we'd run to 7-11 (3.5 miles round trip) and get slurpees. Rival schools were slogging away with morning practices, etc.  He focused a lot on attitude. Yes, there were hard and there, but he tried to make all of those fun too. Sometimes he would stagger runners by ability for a mile repeat, so that anyone on the team technically had the chance of coming in first.  He turned casual runners into star athletes. He kicked off great runners with bad attitudes. He is still coaching and just won another state championship this year and has a runner who is headed to the Nike finals next month. It doesn't have to be a grind program to be a good program. Making it fun should be the most important thing right now. [/quote]

This is a great coach.

OP, another option you could consider is CYO track if you're Catholic. Also ... does your child's high school team definitely cut? A lot of high school track and XC programs are no-cut. (Now, that doesn't mean you get to go to every race.) I second keeping things easy at this age. [/quote]

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