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Why Your Athlete Needs a “Super Trainer” to Prevent Shin Splints This Spring
Every March, I have the same conversation with about a dozen different families. It goes something like this: “Coach, my kid’s shin is killing him. He had a great indoor season and now we’re three weeks into outdoor practice and he can barely finish a workout.” I already know the answer before I hear the…
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2026 NFHS Track & Field Rule Changes: A Practical Guide for Coaches
Three rules that look like paperwork. One of them could save your athlete’s season — or their life. It was a Tuesday dual meet at Exeter, a few springs back. Not a championship. Not a divisional. A regular-season meet on a cold April afternoon with rusty athletes and hopeful coaches. One of my girls hit…
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Mind the Gap: Why High School Runners Break Down in Their First Year of College
Your athletes have the lungs of a D1 runner. Their tendons, bones, and stabilizers? Still running JV. It was late October, the week after our state qualifier, when I got a call from Jake’s college coach. Jake had been one of the best distance runners I’d ever coached. Talented freshman, improved every year, ran 15:02…
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The 6-Month Build: Why Your March Strategy Defines Your November Championship
While everyone else is focused on the next 1600-meter race, the runners who win state in November are building the engine for it right now. I’ve watched a lot of November championship races from the sideline. The athletes who surge over the last half-mile while everyone else is hanging on? They didn’t find something extra…
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The Detraining Effect: Why the 2-Week Gap Between Indoor and Outdoor Track Matters.
A few years ago, one of the most talented athletes I’ve ever coached made a decision that quietly cost her an entire outdoor track season. She’d just run 2:19 in the 800m indoors as a junior—a time that had college coaches calling. All she had to do was keep the momentum going. Instead, she took…
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Zone 2 Training for High School Runners: Solving the 4-Year Burnout Crisis
It was mid October, more than halfway through cross country season and a week before Divisionals, and I was chatting with another coach after practice when Sarah’s mom called my cell. “Coach, can we talk?” Sarah was one of my varsity girls—a junior with legitimate talent. She’d been a standout freshman, improved her sophomore year,…
