* I hate to preface another post, but am afraid I have to do so. Yes, it is still track season, but we are on the downward slope of my track season and I wanted to put this post out at least a month ago when we were in the thick of the season and when I say thick, I mean thick. But no matter what, I hope you enjoy the post and learn at least one thing about the sport of track or at least enjoy the time you spent here at Hines Terrace Herald.
It is track and field season, ladies and gentlemen. I know most of you are trying to fill the sports void inside yourself that has been left by the end of football, the coming and going of March Madness, the Master's, and now the MLB's preseason and Opening Day, and the activities that occur around an oval are not even on your radar or even in your vocabulary, but it is time to watch the sights, sounds, and utter craziness that can occur while humans run in circles. Macon, Georgia is not Track Town USA (Eugene, Oregon), but if you like track and field, you can watch some pretty great runners, jumpers, hurdlers, and throwers that call Middle Georgia home.
There are few sports like track where the line between the team and the individual is so blurred that it is hard to tell which is most important. Stressing the team aspect is always one of the hardest facets of coaching track for me. There is also the idea or the thought that having one dynamic athlete can win a meet, when that couldn't be farther from the truth. And many field athletes are always feeling as if there events are not as "glamorous" or as worth while as those fleet-feeted individuals who glide around the oval when in fact, a good showing in the field events can win a meet when the runners aren't having the best of days.
Another odd aspect of coaching track is that during practice, a track coach needs to be fully focused on his or her athletes in an attempt to mold and fully prepare the thrower, runner, or jumper for whatever scenario or surface they may meet or have to deal with , but when a meet roles around, the coach must relinquish the reins of his/her team and hope that all will go according to plan. This would be a little more stressful if a coach didn't have so many responsibilities at a meet. Coaches then become race directors, inspectors, judges, and most stressful of all.....timers. My least favorite places to time are anywhere between 2nd to 5th. There can be some pretty hairy situations; especially in the shorter races like the 100m and the 200m.
There are also the seemingly endless amounts of protocol that must be followed during a track meet. There is the coaches meeting, the "scratch" meeting, the correct starting positions, the lines from where races must begin and end, there are the heights for the hurdles, there are times when runners may wear watches and other times when all jewelry is prohibited, there are the exchange zones for the baton races, the exact number of events/races an athlete may do, and the correct number of steps for the jumpers. All of the above may seem like a little much for the casual bystander, but there are few more exciting sports to watch and coach than track & field. A coach must place his/her athletes in the best situations in order to get the best results. Sometimes it feels as if it is this grand puzzle or board game you are playing that you have to do crazy things like tell a runner to go for third in order for them to have enough in the tank for another race further down the schedule; or even get a thrower to max out in one performance area in order to claim the most amount of points at the beginning so you are playing catch up at the end. It is almost like you are playing an athletic version of Risk. I know there have been times when I have entered runners as throwers and vice versa in an effort to win the most amount of points across the board. I've had this work and I've had this blow up in my face; this year I had a sprinter win the discus event and had a thrower compete in the 4 x 100m relay. Both were a great success, but that isn't always the case. Three years ago, I had a runner scratch from the 200m in order to run stronger in the 4 x 400m relay and we lost by half a point. All he would have had to do was run for 5th. And often times, you have to deal with injury by telling them to tape it up or ice it down and get to the starting line and other times you have to tell them to have the caller scratch their name from the starting list and start the healing and move on.
There is also something beautiful and emotional about track that is very hard to describe. There is beauty in the hurdler with perfect form, or the dance a thrower must do in order to release the disc at the perfect moment, or the passing of the baton and the hope of the three previous runners on to the last runner in a relay knowing that everything rides on their shoulders. There is emotion is watching a runner close their eyes and lean for the finish, or wait patiently behind the shoulder blades of another until the perfect time to attack, or watch a runner lay it all on the line and test the limits of themselves. Track is hard. Track sometimes takes years to payoff. Lessons are learned in track that can't or aren't learned elsewhere. It is as if in one small trip around an oval a person stare deep into themselves to see all that lies within themselves and find out who they really are all in the matter of 67 seconds. And there is such peace that overtakes one when they've dug deep enough inside to know there was nothing left to give and they find themselves basking in the light's reflection on the cool grass of the infield. It is track and it is nothing else, but it is so much more
The Normal Sequence of Events at a Middle School or a High School Track Meet:
1. Coaches Meeting/Scratch Meeting
2. 3200m Run
3. Shot Put/Discus
4. High Jump/Long Jump/Triple Jump
5. Pole Vault
6. 4 x 100m Relay (400m Relay)
7. 100/110 Hurdles
8. 100m
10. 1600m Run
10. 400m
11. 300m Hurdles
12. 800m Run
13. 200m
14. 10 Min. Break
15. 4 x 400m Relay (1600m Relay)
Happy Running and Watch a track meet from as close as possible (USA Olympic Track Trials: Eugene, Oregon-June 21-July 6, 2012!)
David
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