Coaching Philosophy

Winter Track 2006-07

Coach Smirk-Head Girls Coach home 609-771-6879; cell609-204-5859; email- james_smirk@monet.prs.k12.nj.us
Coach Woodside- Head Boys Coach home 609-896-7026; cell 609-802-2023; email- jtwoodside@yahoo.com

Coaches Philosophy and Success Methodology

1. Our approach to Winter Track is that we consider it primarily as a conditioning season for Spring Track (or another spring sport).

2. We are serious about training young athletes for competition and we are here to help you in any way that we can.

3. We are first and foremost interested in maximizing your racing performance through hard training.

4. Winter Track will focus on conditioning, strength, and technique as much as actual track training.

5. We consider learning, growing and progressing in the sport of Track to be as important to any athlete as it is to Track athletes. We believe it will help provide a foundation to being competitive regardless of your primary sport. However, our immediate goal is to see that winter track athletes have success in training and in meets.

6. We realize that in sports sometimes you need to have some fun to keep it interesting.

7. We believe that you will get success out of track ONLY if you put maximum effort into it.

Requirements and Expectations from Winter Track Athletes

1. Commitment: We require commitment of your time to be at practice each and every day.

2. Be Prepared: We require that you show up at the proper place, at the proper time, and with the proper attire and equipment to participate in practice each and every day.

3. Conduct: We expect you to conduct yourselves in a mature and sportsmanlike manner

4. Attitude: We expect you to show up ready to work hard and complete the workouts given by the coaches, all with a positive attitude.

5. Competition: We expect you to be prepared to compete in the meets, and to perform in whatever events the coaches decide is necessary for the team to succeed.

6. Goals: We expect you to set goals in your chosen events and to train hard to reach and exceed those goals.

7. Injuries: When injuries occur, we still require you to show up at practice every day to do 3 things: 1. To update the coaches and the trainer; 2. Receive any treatment that has been proscribed; 3.To complete an alternate workout (when your injury allows).

8. Missing Practice: Athletes who are chronically absent from practice (excused or not) will be asked to evaluate their commitment to the team.

9. Communication: We expect you to communicate with the coaches when you have a problem or emergency. We can work with you if you let us know what is happening in a timely manner.

10. Winter Break: We will hold practices during the winter break and we expect every team member to attend just as they would a normal practice session. You are required to communicate with the coaches if you must miss a practice due to other obligations. No athlete will be penalized for missing practice during the winter break as long as you let the coaches know IN ADVANCE. We expect you to understand that missing practice for almost 2 weeks will seriously set back your training.