Which is more important when it comes to High School Cross Country teams?
A few years ago, the former head cross country coach at Owasso and I, who was his assistant coach at the time, had a debate about whether we would prefer to coach a team of less talented runners who worked incredibly hard or a team of gifted individuals who raced well but had an inconsistent work ethic. I argued for the less talented team of hard-working kids, stating that I could rely on them to show up and give their best effort. To my surprise, Coach Mac, who had coached from the Junior High to the Junior Olympic level, said he would much rather have the talented team. His reasoning was that on my hard-working team's best day, they still couldn't match his super-talented team if they ran up to their potential. His team might be riskier, but according to Coach Mac, and I agree, you can’t teach talent.
As the years passed and I became the head coach, I often thought about that conversation. We've been blessed with some incredibly talented runners at Owasso. There have been athletes I've coached who would have succeeded no matter who coached them. We've also had plenty of runners who ran fast times at practice and looked great but then did not show up again for three or four days. Just last week, we had our first time trial of the season, and I watched kids who barely ran all summer outrun kids who didn't miss a workout for the last three months. How do they do it? Simple. They are more genetically gifted at running than their hard-working teammates, which lends credence to what Coach Mac said: they might be inconsistent, but you can't teach talent.
At the junior high and high school levels, extremely talented kids can succeed without much effort. I've heard stories from my kids about athletes on other teams who don't train much, party on the weekends, don't get enough sleep, eat poorly, and still manage to win state titles. I'm not sure if these stories are true, but with social media being such a big part of their lives, they all seem to know everything about each other, so it's possible. However, I've personally witnessed many talented runners in college burning out and quitting before the end of their college careers. One reason for this is that they have to start truly working for their success. You can't get by at the college level by skipping workouts and not giving your best effort. I assume that at the professional level, every successful person works incredibly hard to be there. So maybe you can get away with it now, but as you graduate up the ladder, your chance of succeeding without hard work in almost any endeavor is far less likely.
So, is talent more important than work ethic? In my experience, the athlete who has to push hard daily to achieve success learns how to stay strong when faced with tough challenges. On the other hand, the super-gifted athlete who only performs well occasionally may struggle to shine when it truly matters. While talent can sometimes overshadow work ethic, I still believe there is great value in hard work. The magic happens when talented athletes understand the importance of consistency and hard work. In the past decade, we've seen teams of less talented athletes make a significant impact at State competitions because of their strong individual work ethic and collective effort. We have also had teams that achieved less than they should have because their work ethic, or lack thereof, came back to bite them when they needed to perform their best. As a coach, there is probably no more empty feeling than knowing your team underachieved.
As we begin the 2024 season, we have a mix of incredibly talented athletes who also work diligently at practice, less talented runners who know their only chance to make the Varsity team is to work hard, and a few runners who have tremendous potential but are not fully committed. I have no doubt the runners in the first two categories are going to have a tremendous year. My challenge to these athletes in the latter category is to realize the limited time they have to compete in this sport at this level and not waste it. As an adult, there isn’t much reason to go out and really push yourself to your limits. A few do, and I admire them, but life gets in the way. Your high school career is so short compared to the rest of your life!
If you will push yourself just a little with runs in the heat, tough workouts after school, and races against top competitors, then why not fully commit and make that difficulty truly meaningful? It makes no sense to push yourself to be average when you could push a little more and be great! That is the most significant difference between talent and training. You can be born with all kinds of genetic talent, which can’t be taught to you by any coach, but it takes training to be excellent and exceptional at what you do. So why not take the risk? Why not take the plunge and go all in? Why not find out just how good you could be while you still have the time to do it? Take the talent you have, regardless of how much talent that might be, and make this season the best it can possibly be, or work a little and miss out on a lot.
Comments