Upload a Photo Upload a Video Add a News article Write a Blog Add a Comment
Blog Feed News Feed Video Feed All Feeds

Folders

 

 

Vince Anderson Gives Insight on Working With Athletes and Running Team - LSU Alumni Gold 2014

Published by
DyeStatCOLLEGE.com   Apr 16th 2014, 5:12pm
Comments

I have never blogged before, so I think it is important  for me to define the terms of my responsibility, in my opinion.

I think it is my responsibility to entertain, inform and opine in a truthful way, regarding my work specifically and track and field generally.

Many of my core philosophies have been formed by watching amazing practitioners do things in a righteous way. Some of my core philosophies had been formed in a reactionary way, by watching not-so-amazing practitioners do things poorly, or without coherent policy of any sort.

In the course of my dispatches, I might occasionally offer an opinion of our team’s performance or my group’s performance qualitatively.

I use a simple scale: great, very good, good, average, or poor.

‘Very good’ and ‘good’ are not the same.

 

With this in mind, I have an observation: it is important to note that in 35 years of immersion in the track world, I have read hundreds of post-meet press releases, assessments and quotations, mostly written by SIDs. No team, in my vast reading experience, has ever declared their performance to be average or poor. That is not to say someone has not admitted as much. I am simply saying I have never seen a written account admitting as much.

 

When I speak to my fellow coaches and we coaches speak to our team, we try to be very clear about how we did. When we get our asses kicked, we call it that. At Texas A&M, we are still licking our collective wounds over an ass-kicking we received at the hands of LSU in Albuquerque in 2006 (or was it 2007?) ! It is good for a team – coaches, athletes, staff -- to know the truth about their performance individually and collectively. Good things happen to teams that assess their own performance in realistic terms.

I will try to honor this premise.

 

About this week: We will take two buses full of athletes to the annual LSU alumni Gold meet, which is approximately a 6 hour drive from our College Station campus. We strategically choose to take buses to LSU, because it allows us to travel many more competitors than we would if we flew. The relative proximity of Baton Rouge allows us an option that we do not have at more distant destinations like the Penn Relays or Sun Angel, where fly we must. When we fly, we normally travel about 54-60 athletes, split evenly between males and females.   We have competed as many as 94 athletes at home meets and travel venues we bus to such as Austin, San Antonio, Baton Rouge, Houston, etc. As coaches, we philosophically love to “play a deep bench” and compete as many ready athletes as possible. By design, that is why our schedule reflects a balance of flying meets and driving meets.

 

LSU: The Alumni Gold meet is staged at venerable Bernie Moore stadium, hallowed track and field ground, and we love to compete there and be part of the history of the place. To compete at LSU is to require preparedness because they are such a worthy opponent each and every year. We are so very proud of our team performances head-to-head against LSU, especially since 2007, when Texas A&M started to compete honorably (the record shows even valiantly) there. Sprinting against great sprint teams is a necessary pursuit for us because it requires a focused discipline and precise technical execution. If we handle our business in such a crucible, it makes us a much better team for the target meets ahead.

 

This will be week 2 of ‘mid-season’, so training and training objectives are now very sharp, intense and race-specific. We are doing very little generic activity.We just returned from Phoenix yesterday so training was centered around body-weight circuits (2 x 6 minute circuits) and strength training. We will spend TU, Wed, and TH on exchanges, acceleration and maximal speed development, and one extensive tempo session (400 hurdlers will feature one race modelling run, from the start to at least hurdle 7). Our second strength session will be Wednesday. We will travel Friday, shake out at the hotel on arrival and COMPETE on Saturday.

 

Arizona State post-script: I felt very good about the team’s performance in the first week of ‘mid-season’. In football terms, we have most of our offense installed. My group achieved everything we asked them to do, except one. Nearly every athlete contributed to the group effort on Saturday. It felt great to have everyone back competing.

Must fix: Outgoing athletes did not accelerate well enough in our 4x100 relays.  Thus, our relay exchanges remain a bit reserved and fearful. We continue to train many combinations so we can deploy those combinations, going forward, as we need.

 

Standing reminder /Salute to coaches and athletes: Wherever you happen to be engaged in competition this weekend, it is my sincere wish that you and your squad competes with courage and clarity of purpose. Have a great meet this week in spite of weather or any presumed impediment! Thank you for the courage you display. Your courage inspires me. You will never know how many people your bravery inspires. Competing bravely is a decision. It is something that one DECIDES. Please remember to remind yourself briefly of the wonder of track & field, each day your team competes. You will not hear any sustaining words from any American source, regarding the amazing courage, athletic prowess and tradition of sportsmanship which is a foundational part of track & field -- OUR sport of intense and poetic  movement. For sustenance, we must rely upon each other, and the brilliant precision of the historical record, to give us an accurate perspective on the value of USA athletics and athletics worldwide. Thanks for doing your part.

History for DyeStatCOLLEGE.com
YearVideosNewsPhotosBlogs
2024 4 4 1147  
2023 11 11778 3385  
2022 9 18630 1191  
Show 28 more
 
+PLUS highlights
+PLUS coverage
Live Events
Get +PLUS!