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There is a complete misconception regarding indoor track when you talk to people who hail from warmer climates. The general perception is that everybody has glorious banked tracks where teams spend hours each day sheltered from the elements in their own little track and field utopia.
The reality of the situation is quite the opposite. Most schools spend the winter outdoors, or in the cramped hallways of the main campus. Some are fortunate enough to get shared time in the gym, and the truly lucky have a field house with a few oval lines on the floor.
The athletes at Lexington High School are fortunate enough to have a field house, and they truly appreciate the luxury. Although it may be far from ideal, they realize the situation is better than most. Shared practice time and the occasional basketball rolling across the lanes are minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of a successful season. Coach Aaron Ladd has found a way to turn the chaos into productivity. This installment of Workout of the Week demonstrates his creativity and ability to turn madness into a valuable lesson.
A typical indoor practice at Lexington has bodies flying around the track like a metropolitan freeway; merging at full speed in an effort just to survive. The athlete’s ability to navigate the congested track is far superior to their skill behind the wheel, and it’s workouts like this that result in the precision exchanges spectators get to witness on weekends. Managing chaos has become a necessary skill in a state where the 4x200m and the DMR are often closer to roller derby than the “non-contact” sport of track.
Good coaches find a way to make the best of the tools they are given. If a coach perceives something as a positive, then the athletes will too. The best way to create that buy-in is to model the behavior you ultimately want to see from your athletes. Coach Ladd understands that principal and certainly practices what he preaches. If you want evidence of that, just look for the athlete with a beard in the middle of the workout.
A sincere thank you goes out to the coaches and athletes of Lexington High School who created, filmed, and produced the video. They are a shining example of teamwork and dedication. The facility may provide a slight advantage in inclement weather, but the banners that grace the walls of their field house are no fluke.
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