I recently have had the opportunity to help assistant-coach my school’s track team, and it has been a wonderful experience. A wave of nolstagia has swept over me as I’m constantly reminded of the pain and fun of my own training in high school. All the workouts these students are grumbling about as they sweat through them bring back fond memories of my own grumblings. I just wish they knew what a rare opportunity they have—a chance to have physical training built into their pre-5:00 PM day. I think the lack of such a program is the reason why most adults (even ones who were serious athletes in high school or college) are out of shape (or don’t work out “enough”). All the working adults I know work at least nine-hour days, if not longer. That means if they want to exercise regularly, they have to wake up extra early to work out before their commutes or work out late after work and then have an even later dinner, both options being less than ideal if your workout is an outside workout (as it’ll be dark when it’s not during the work day).
So even though I’m not able to do all the workouts with these kids (I have to supervise them or time their splits), it’s great that I can use part of my work day to get some exercise. I just have to keep reminding myself not to tell these kids too many “When I was your age, do you know what we had to do for our track workouts?” stories.
the student has become the master.