Coaching Cues and Technique Tips and REACT

This blog will emphasize on some coaching cues and technique tips. Please review this blog so when we are coaching you will know what we want you to do.

Cross Country is as much mental as it is physical.  Keeping mini goals in mind during your race will help you focus and not just day dream.  It is easy to loose focus when all you think about is how you don’t feel good or how can you not be at the finish yet.  EVERYONE has a point in their race when they CAN cave-give up or they CAN push on and compete.  We obviously want to teach you to compete.  If you have a side ache, a dry throat, your winded or you have a paper cut from the course map, it is important that you focus on something positive.

Contact:  Probably the most important concept in cross country.  It is when you are in close proximity to another athlete, whether it is  a competitor or a teammate.  When you are in contact you’re within striking distance to them, an arms length.  The benefits of contact are many, the obvious one is so you can blow by them when you are ready.  Other reasons are so you can draw energy from them.  If it is your teammate you can encourage each other at different parts of the race.  These are your buddies you run with everyday.  You probably don’t even have to talk-they just sense your movements and you their movements.  If it is a competitor, there is no better way to get into another athletes head than to run at their shoulder.  All they think about is you, how long you will be there, when will you kick, how long can they hang with you.  It puts you in control because you decide when to make your move.

Closing the Gap or Decrease the Distance:  Keeping in contact with other athletes requires expending energy on your part.  If we ask you to close the gap on the guy in front of you, we want you to get back in contact with him.  An arms length, maybe a few strides behind him or her.  But we want you closer than you are now.  To do that you need your eyes up and looking at their back.  You can’t focus on the ground because the next time you look up they may be even farther ahead of you.

Rhythm:  Everyone has one.  You may not know what it is but, you have one.  Rhythm is the swing of your arms,  your stride, how your foot strikes the ground, the ability to relax, your body language.  It’s your beat to the music.   It can be improved upon by listening to coaching cues.  For now we will talk about increasing your rhythm or quickening your arms.  As strange as it may seem your arms tell your legs what to do.  If you use your arms with long slow swings forward and back your legs will be slow in the “turn over.”  Basically, you are slow to get your feet off the ground and switch to the other foot.  We want quick rhythm when you go down hills, when you are trying to catch up to someone and at the finish.  So you will relax your face, your neck and shorten the distance you swing your arms and move them faster.  Try it you’ll be amazed.

React:  You have to react on the course to what we are asking you to do.  If we tell you to close-close, if we ask you to quicken the rhythm quicken the rhythm.  If we ask you to walk on your hands-okay you don’t have to do that, but you get the point.  We can see the whole course, the people behind you and what they are doing.  We know what is coming up on the course and where you need to be.  So do as you are asked and you will perform better.

Okay more on Bursts, Hills and how to handle the chutes in  another blog.

Coach P