Interview with Coach Alan Versaw – The Classical Academy January 18, 2021 0 1 Alan Versaw has been the head boys and girls cross country coach at The Classical Academy in Colorado Springs since 2000. In that time he has led the boys and girls cross country teams to 15 state titles. In 2016, he was named the Colorado Springs Gazette girls’ coach of the year and will be inducted into the Colorado High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2017. Alan was generous to answer a few questions from the Colorado Coyotes on youth running and development, enjoy! Thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions from the Colorado Coyotes. First, tell us about yourself and how you got into coaching? Though neither of my parents was particularly into sports, I loved sports from the time I can first remember. Like every American boy, I went through a stage of thinking football was the be-all and end-all of sports, but I eventually migrated and found that track was the sport I connected with best. My high school didn’t have cross country, and I would have to learn to appreciate it later in life. My first teaching job more or less required me to also be a junior high football coach. I mostly hated the position and got out of it as soon as I could, promising myself I would never coach again. Years went by, though, and I found I very consistently resonated well in the classroom with the cross country kids I had. I had run distance in high school, so I started turning over in my head the idea of coaching cross country. When The Classical Academy started the high school in 2000, I threw my hat into the ring to start the cross country program and got the job—though I was not their first choice for the position. Things happened at a furious pace. I had to learn skills of the trade I never imagined on a near-daily basis. But, I also had the most wonderful set of kids to start with anyone could have ever asked for. What their coach lacked in understanding of training, they made up for twice over in infectious enthusiasm. The early years of TCA cross country was a wonderful experience of growing together. You’ve been coaching at The Classical Academy since 2000, when dealing with youth runners what are a few things that you’ve learned and improved upon in terms of coaching and training? I’ve learned the I can help plant visions and provide a lot of useful encouragement along the way, but unless the young athlete owns the vision, it’s really not coming any closer to fruition. That’s the big picture story. Over the years some of the things we do better in our program than we did in the past are that we incorporate more speed work in our training and include it through more of the year. We’re better at looking at a race that didn’t go well and analyzing what went wrong. An ongoing challenge, though, is simply tending all the little things that need to be tended to to be successful. You start focusing on two or three things and you’re likely to lose track of other things you need to be paying attention to as well. I’d label that is the single biggest ongoing challenge of coaching. It’s challenging, to say the least, to keep all the balls in the air at once. What would you say the biggest adjustment is for freshman entering high school and joining the cross-country team? It isn’t necessarily this way all around the state, but middle schoolers in Colorado Springs—and many other parts of the state as well—only run 2500 meter races. Going from there to the high school 5K is an enormous jump. It’s just as big of a jump in terms of training as it is in terms of race distance. Unless middle school kids are running in some kind of program in addition to their middle school program, it is very difficult to bridge them up to being competitive in their freshman year, even when they bring a good deal of talent—both mental and physical—to the table. I realize that all programs vary in terms of training and mileage, if you could talk about the training approach at TCA and how many miles per week your top runners are running? Anytime you work with more than a handful of runners, there are always compromises involved. My team training philosophy is to put team development ahead of individual development as a priority. It’s very easy to focus on an individual and try to bring him/her along to full potential, but much more difficult to bring along a team to something close to their full potential. But, more difficult equals more rewarding if you’re successful at it. Risk and reward is that way. Tanner Norman was running 60 to 70 miles per week this fall, but 15 to 20 of that was on his own outside of practice. Typically, our top males are getting close to 50 mpw and our top females maybe in the mid-30s to up to 40 miles per week. Only a small number ever end up running more than that in our program. This year you had the pleasure of coaching Tanner Norman who was the top boys cross country runner in the state and will be running at Iowa State next year. In Tanner’s case, what separates him from the competition? Tanner separates himself from the competition in his unflinching willingness to do all the little things right. He gets rest. He puts in extra mileage we don’t have time for in practice. He does supplemental strength training. If you’re going to be an individual state champion these days, it doesn’t happen without those extra efforts. All that and he happens to have a very nice aerobic engine. In today’s era of parents obsessed with their children getting an athletic scholarship, just how difficult is it to get a scholarship in cross-country or track at the D1 or D2 level? When dealing with college coaches who are recruiting, what do you find they are ultimately looking for? It’s a lot different story for boys and for girls. Frankly, it’s a lot harder for boys to get those scholarships than girls. First, there are fewer available because of NCAA rules on equity and the influence of football on the overall scholarship picture at a school. Second, a greater percentage of your top boys want to go on and run in college than is the case with your top girls. I’ve seen that percentage difference shrink over the years I’ve been coaching, but it’s still there. As a result, when college coaches go looking for boys, they are looking for top-end kind of talent. And, at least in Colorado, they can successfully hold out for it. The Colorado DI and DII programs, especially the most successful ones (of which there are several) can be very selective. I find the girl they’re looking for tends to fit a slightly different profile. Yes, they want top-end talent, but they’re always keeping an eye out for who they think is durable enough to deal with the load. Some coaches take a rather long look at personality as well, and perhaps more so with girls than boys. Is this girl someone who can adjust to a role that, at least initially, will be a lot less prominent than what she has grown accustomed to in high school? I’d like to get your take on youth sports specialization. Running like any youth sport can now compete on a year-round basis. You can start the year running indoor track, move to outdoor track and then cross country, not to mention the limitless 5Ks that kids can run throughout the year. What’s your opinion on middle school children and younger competing year-round, will they enter high school with a significant advantage over kids who didn’t compete as often? I love to see middle school children—and even younger children—active year round. But, let’s be honest, that’s much more the exception that the rule in our culture. I’m not a huge fan of running year round, but I don’t think it’s necessarily as disastrous as some internet articles make it out to be. If they are running year round, I hope they’re at least doing something else occasionally as well. Children should be active, and probably some variety of activities is a better plan than focusing on a single activity. If nothing else, it makes them less prone to injury. Ultimately, I’m a fan of youth activity mostly because people pay steep prices later in life when they aren’t active in their younger years. And, it is beyond dispute that boys and girls who have been active in their younger years, regardless of what they’ve been active with, come in way ahead of boys and girls who don’t take up running—or much of any activity—until high school. Honestly, that gap is very nearly insurmountable. When dealing with high school boys and girls runners, what have you learned when dealing with the different genders when it comes to coaching? Running is a unique sport in that puberty can actually have an adverse impact on girls when it comes to running times. Do you have any thoughts on training girls so that they are running their best in the later years of high school? Most girls can continue to improve through high school. Perhaps not as much as boys who are typically getting stronger at a much more rapid rate during the same years, but girls most definitely can improve. It’s a pernicious myth that girls typically won’t get any better as runners after about 8th or 9th grade. I think you must begin by acknowledging most girls won’t drop times the way boys do in high school. But, working hard and long in the same direction will almost always yield improvement and results. We see that over and over again in our program. Some girls, though, find the work isn’t worth it. There’s not much you can say to that—if it’s personally not worth it to the athlete, it’s not worth it and there’s probably not much you can do to make it worth it. There’s no need to get into any arguments over it. Seasons of life change. But, for those who want to continue to work and continue to maintain a buoyant spirit, there is very good reason to believe they will be rewarded for their efforts. It’s kind of harsh that girls can’t goof off over the summer like some boys do and still be better in the fall, but that time of reckoning will eventually come for the boys, too. You will be inducted into the Colorado High School Coaches Hall of Fame in 2017, which is a tremendous honor. The results of The Classical Academy under your coaching speak volumes. What advice do you have for other youth running coaches and for parents of young runners? It is a tremendous honor. My best advice for youth running coaches is to marry someone who has a high tolerance for having a coach as a spouse. When you marry a coach, you set yourself up for a life that many people wouldn’t choose for themselves. Coaching successfully requires a deep commitment to the kids. Coaching is not an excuse to neglect your spouse, and there will be some hard conversations and much give-and-take along the way, but ultimately someone who marries a coach ends up doing a lot of sharing of their spouse’s time. It’s inevitable. The unseen magic behind most successful coaches, at least for those who are not single, is a spectacularly giving spouse. I don’t know that this falls under the category of advice, but it’s a full-out blessing to have the kind of relationship with your own children that they want to be coached by you. That’s going to vary by child, though. And, they must come to understand not every coaching decision is going to go their way. For parents, my best advice is to let kids choose the activities they do. There may have to be limits set on how many activities they get to do, but the unhappiest kids I’ve seen as runners have been ones where it was more their parents’ idea than their own idea. It’s tough enough to excel when it’s your idea. It’s very nearly impossible to excel when it’s someone else’s idea.
Test Retest – Benchmark Workouts January 18, 2021 0 2 You Can’t Improve What You Don’t Measure. Something I’ve always loved about running is that it’s not just a battle to determine the winner. Most kids will never win a race, in a race with 100 kids, only one can be the winner. However, often the greatest wins are just knowing that you’re improving and getting faster. It’s embracing the mantra of “The only person you need to be better than is the person you were yesterday.” In most sports it’s hard to quantify improvement. It’s difficult to put a number on how a child has improved their dribbiling in basketball, or how a youngster has improved their tackling skills. In running if you only compare yourself to other runners, it can be tough to see improvement as kids improve at different rates. In cross country the course can vary and sometimes the distance isn’t always accurate, which makes it difficult to compare cross country races. When I did CrossFit, a big part of the programming is establishing benchmarks. We’d test and then retest at a later date. We took that approach with the Colorado Coyotes and in our first week of cross country practice in 2016 we had the kids run a timed 1600 meter on the track. We posted the results online and out of 32 finishers the team had an average time of 8:49. Six weeks later we retested and had the kids run the 1600m on the same track and once again we posted results online. The second time we had an average time of 7:31, an average improvement of 1:18 per mile. We could tell the kids were improving and getting faster, but when you see the data and see young runners knocking a minute off their time in the 1600m, that’s a great feeling! For us as coaches and even a better feeling for our runners. All of our athletes had huge smiles on their faces and many of them wanted to run the 1600m the next day to see if they could improve even more! (which we did not do) The 2016 Colorado USATF meet schedule was unique in that the team ran three races in Fountain, Colorado on the exact same course. We had the Kokopelli Invite on 10/08/16, the USATF JO State XC Championships on 11/05/16 and USATF Regional JO Cross Country Championship on 11/19/16. Once again, I geeked out as this was another opportunity for us to collect data and measure performances. With the big question being, “will our taper work?” We had 26 runners compete at the Regional Championship. Out of those 26 runners, 15 runners ran their fastest time at Regionals compared to the previous two meets. We detailed all of this data in a spreadsheet and shared with the parents at the end of the season, to once again show results. We also used that data to review the season and evaluate the taper. Having 58% of the runners running their best race at Regionals was great, but now that 58% is the 2016 benchmark and one we look to improve upon in 2017. Because you can’t improve what you don’t measure.
Kids running shoes January 18, 2021 0 1 One question I frequently get asked is what shoe should I run in, or should my kid run in. If you ask 100 Colorado runners what shoes they should run in, you’re bound to get 100 different answers. First let’s talk about running shoes, what your young cross country runner will wear to practice on a daily basis. It’s important that you pick up a pair of quality running shoes, that’s the first step and can easily be accomplished by going to your local running store or sporting goods retailer. Now I’m a fan of minimalist shoes in general and even more so for youth runners, who often have better mechanics than adults and already run on their forefoot. A child who is 70lbs does not need a supportive running shoe and I feel they will do more harm than good in the long run. Finding a minimal running shoe is getting harder and harder, especially in youth sizes. I’m personally a huge fan of Altra Running shoes, especially for the youngsters! One thing to look for is lightweight shoes and shoes with a low heel to toe drop and a low heel height. This will allow the foot to work in a more natural position. The next decision is racing shoes or spikes. This will be a personal preference and a lot of that will depend on how competitive your child is and how serious you/they are taking running. At the youth level, most races aren’t even conducive to wearing spikes as the kids will often have to run over concrete trails for a long period of time. Most kids at the meets will not have separate shoes for training and racing. If you do elect for a pair of racing flats, a shoe such as the Nike Zoom Rival (Waffle) has been around for decades and is a good all-around choice. Or you can always pick up a pair of XC spikes, remove the spikes when they are not needed and add them to races that are entirely on grass.
Stop Static Stretching January 18, 2021 0 0 When I time high school cross country races or spectate high school basketball games, I still see kids sitting on the ground static stretching, getting ready for battle and I wince. Static stretching is dead and you won’t find the Colorado Coyotes performing static stretches. It reminds me of Zombieland when talking about limbering up and Woody Harrelson responds “I don’t believe in it. You ever see a lion limber up before it takes down a gazelle?” All joking aside, there is a better way to get ready to race than static stretching and that’s a dynamic warmup. The coaching staff for the Coyotes will teach your youngster a proper dynamic warmup. We’re also going to over body weight exercises such as air squats, lunges, jumping jacks, pushups and burpees. Working on proper form and movement and preparing your runner for the future. In fact we will also incorporate some HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) from time to time, to vary up the workouts, have some fun and build strength.
Should My Child Run Year Round? January 18, 2021 0 2 In 2016, your child can play about any sport year round. Your youngster can literally play more basketball games in a year than Steph Curry and more soccer games than Lionel Messi. Running is no different, you can run indoor track in the winter, move onto spring/summer track and then spend the fall running cross country, not to mention roads races year round. One of my favorite books of the last five years was David Epstein’s Sports Gene, and he has an excellent article in the NY Times, Sports Should be Child’s Play. Check it out, keep sports fun and hold off on specializing until your child is older, either late middle school or high school. One of the problems with youth sports is once adults figured out they could make money off it, sports that were once seasonal become year round. Parents want whats best for their kid and they worry if their son or daughter doesn’t compete year around, that they’ll fall behind their peers. The question that begs to be asked, is that good for my kid and in particular their running development? In short the answer is no and I think with running it’s even more important to not specialize early on. Running is not a skilled sport, the way soccer, basketball or volleyball are. This means the learning curve is not as steep, which makes it an easy sports to get started in and to have early success in. The other advantage of not competing year round is it makes improvement positive linear. If a child races year round, yes they will have an advantage over other 10 year olds, but the disadvantage is it will allow them to reach their peak at a younger age. If your child takes a more moderate, long term approach, it will allow them to continue to make marginal gains as they get older and not run the risk of getting burnt out. In Sports Gene, David Epstein talks about the two factors that make an elite runner. The first is genetics and the second is adaptability to training. Which essentially means you can have two kids of similar ability, put them through the exact same workouts and three months later one of the kids is beating the other kid by 45 seconds in a 5K. Not everyone responds to training in the same way. I think it’s easier to get burnt out on running than other sports, because running isn’t always inherently fun for kids, in the way kicking a ball, catching a football, or shooting a basketball can be. Kids run all the time, but it doesn’t have to be in a structured running practice to stay in shape, so let them play. I’ve always loved cross country over track, just my personal preference and I competed in both. For young kids, I think your better off putting your kid in active sports like soccer, basketball, lacrosse in the off season where they can still be active, but not feel like it’s just running. These sports also develop foot and hand eye coordination that running cannot, as well as lateral movement. If running is your child’s sport, perhaps wait until high school to let them compete in cross country and track and field on a year around basis.
boys & girls – the development years January 18, 2021 0 1 The time gap between elite male runners and elite women runners, generally hovers around 11% with males out performing females. What’s interesting is that the gap doesn’t take place until about the age of ten when boys start to enter puberty and gain an advantage. Up until the age of ten, boys and girls can compete against each other on equal footing and if you look at the track and field youth records they are pretty much identical right up until the age of ten. In most sports, youth development is linear and each year the athlete gets a little bit better than the previous year. With boys, this is mostly true. Boys go through puberty and get stronger and faster which means that most boys are running faster their senior year of high school than they were their freshman year of high school. Boys going through puberty can literally sit around and play video games and eat potato chips and they’ll still get faster and stronger. When you get slightly faster each and every year, it’s easier to train and stay motivated. The following link has some great data on how many girls slow down as they enter their puberty years. One of the big takeaways is that VO2 max for boys steadily increases from ages 8 to 16, but will often remain unchanged in girls. When it comes to running, a high VO2 max is one part of the equation as is body weight. Running is a strength to weight ratio sport. The less body mass you have to move the easier it is to run. Thus for girls, you’ll often see a 5th grade girl who might weigh 60lbs dominating older girls who have gone through puberty but, has the same VO2 numbers, however they might weigh twice as much and be a foot taller in height. Why do I bring this up? In one word, expectations. I’m the father of a ten year old girl and what I’ve casually observed in the last year is that girls who enter puberty early have an advantage in sports like basketball or soccer but, a disadvantage in running. If you have a gifted ten year old runner, this is great and fun to cheer on but, it’s wise to keep your expectations in check that your child might not get much faster. In fact some will even get slower. On the flip, I’ve known girls who were average youth runners who turn into top tier high school runners through consistent training. Once armed with this knowledge you can tamper your expectations and have realistic goals for your runner. Running is a life long sport and one of the few sports where a child can compete at the age of ten as well as still compete in 40 years later. Keep it fun, have realistic expectations and understand that puberty affects running, sometimes positively and sometimes negatively.
The importance of proper pacing January 18, 2021 0 0 Racing is an opportunity to compete and test yourself against your peers. When running a two mile race, is the goal to find out who the fastest runner is at the 200 meter mark? The obvious answer is no but, it seems that a lot of athletes ignore that fact. Coaches and spectators see the same scenario play out at races for beginners to collegiate athletes. A large number of runners hear the start gun and take off as fast as possible. Unfortunately, going all out in the first few minutes of a race is mentally and physically draining. It will catch up to an athlete at some point in those two miles. Every current world record from the mile to the marathon has been set by negative splits. A negative split means running the second half of a race faster than the first half. Science and records prove that we are better off taking it out “easier” the first half of a race and speeding up versus trying to “bank time” going out hard and holding on. If the best in the world are running negative splits to run records, the rest of us should pay attention. Patience at the start line of a race is a key factor to getting across the finish line as fast as possible. For most runners this is a learned skill and it takes a lot of practice and patience. It all starts in practice, where we work with the kids on paying attention to their interval splits so that they are running their fastest intervals at the end of the session. The Hanson Brothers are fond of saying “For every second you’re fast on the front end, it will cost you two on the back.” The Colorado Coyotes coaching staff will work with all our athletes to race smart and run efficiently to then maximize results on race day.
