Track and field can be intimidating to coach for the first time because it isn’t really one sport.

Keep in mind that you don’t need to become an expert in every event before you can help young athletes. But you DO need to understand the fundamentals, know when an event requires more specialized instruction and resist the temptation to simply make everyone run harder.

Good track and field coaching starts with understanding what you’re trying to develop in each athlete.

1. Start With Running, Jumping and Throwing

For younger athletes, track and field doesn’t have to become highly technical immediately.

World Athletics’ Kids’ Athletics program is designed for children ages 4 to 14 and starts with fundamental movement skills through running, jumping and throwing activities. USA Track & Field takes a similar approach with its free RunJumpThrow program, which includes activities for running form, jumping, throwing, hurdles and dynamic warmups.

That’s a good model for a beginner coach. Let them sprint. Let them jump. Let them throw. Give them opportunities to try different events and see where they are comfortable.

You may quickly notice tendencies. One athlete loves short races and acceleration. Another can run comfortably for much longer. Someone else can’t wait to get over to the jumping pit.

That gives you somewhere to start without specializing too early.

2. Don’t Turn Every Track Practice Into Conditioning

One of the easiest mistakes to make in track is assuming that more running automatically means better training, but this isn’t the case.

A sprinter trying to improve acceleration needs opportunities to run fast with enough recovery to maintain that speed. A distance runner has different training needs. Jumpers and throwers need time devoted to approaches, positions and technical repetitions that may not be physically exhausting at all.

If every athlete finishes every practice completely worn out, that doesn’t necessarily mean the practice was productive.

Think about the purpose of the day before choosing the workout. Good coaching is less about finding exercises that look difficult and more about deciding what the athlete needs to learn that day.

3. Use Drills Because They Teach Something

A-skips, B-skips, high knees, bounds and other running drills have been around track practices for years, and they can certainly have a place in a warm-up or technical progression, but doing a drill doesn’t automatically fix running mechanics.

World Athletics’ current teaching library progresses young athletes through activities based on their age and ability. Its obstacle-running material, for example, introduces the skill progressively rather than putting a beginner in front of full hurdles and asking them to figure it out. Its throwing activities likewise begin with simpler movement patterns before progressing to longer run-ups and more technical actions.

If you can’t explain what a drill is supposed to teach, it probably doesn’t need to take up half the practice.

4. A Track Practice Doesn’t Need Much Equipment

You can coach a useful beginner track practice without filling a storage shed.

• Cones are useful for marking distances, acceleration zones, approaches and activity stations.
• A stopwatch can help with longer repetitions and basic tracking, although electronic timing is preferable when you’re trying to compare very small sprint improvements.
• Mini hurdles or low obstacles can be useful for rhythm and coordination work, and age-appropriate throwing implements are obviously necessary if you’re coaching the throwing events.

Beyond that, the equipment depends on what you’re teaching.

A long jumper needs access to a safe runway and landing pit. Shot put and discus require appropriate implements and, importantly, a controlled throwing area. Hurdlers eventually need correctly spaced hurdles. Pole vault requires specialized facilities, equipment and coaching and isn’t something a brand-new coach should improvise.

Safety matters especially in the field events. Don’t let athletes wander through throwing areas or retrieve implements while someone else is preparing to throw.

5. Keep Technique Simple With Younger Athletes

New coaches sometimes try to correct everything they see, but you should pick the correction that matters most.

A simple cue like “run tall” or “push the ground away” may be enough for one repetition. A beginning long jumper may only need to concentrate on running consistently down the runway before you start dissecting takeoff mechanics.

Good coaching often means knowing what not to correct yet.

As athletes become more experienced, you can add detail. That’s also when event-specific expertise becomes increasingly valuable. A youth or school coach doesn’t have to personally possess expertise in every event. It can be much better to recognize when an athlete would benefit from working with someone who specializes in the event.

6. Keep Younger Athletes Moving

Track practices can create a lot of standing around if they aren’t planned carefully.

For younger groups, use stations, smaller lines or partner activities when possible. While one group works on running, another might work on a simple jumping activity and another on a safe throwing exercise.

Not everything has to look like a traditional track workout.

For a 9-year-old, a relay race, obstacle course or throwing game may do a better job teaching movement than several minutes of technical explanation.

7. Learn the Events You Coach

Track and field looks simple until you start paying attention to the details, and a new coach shouldn’t be embarrassed about needing to learn a lot of new things.

USATF currently offers a Developmental Coach Program specifically for newer coaches, parents and administrators. It covers areas such as positive coaching, ethics, risk management, teaching sports skills and athlete development. Coaches who want to go further can progress into the Level 1 program and eventually into event-specific education.

World Athletics also offers formal coach education through its Coaches Education and Certification System, beginning with a Level I program that covers all event groups before coaches progress toward greater specialization.

You don’t need a certification to learn something useful from those resources. Even reading official teaching progressions can help you avoid picking up questionable technique advice from random social media clips.

8. Know When Individual Coaching Can Help

Team track coaches have a difficult job because one practice can include athletes from several event groups at several different skill levels, and there may simply not be enough time to watch every stride of a sprinter’s start, every step of a jumper’s approach or every technical position in a throw.

That’s where individual instruction can be useful.

A private coach can slow an event down, identify a specific technical issue and give the athlete more repetitions with immediate feedback. That can be especially valuable when the team’s coaching staff doesn’t include a specialist in the athlete’s event.

Athletes Untapped connects families with private track and field coaches who work with athletes across different events and experience levels.

Private training doesn’t have to replace a school or club coach. Ideally, it fills in the gaps, giving an athlete more individual attention in the areas where they need it most.

Good Track Coaching Starts With Knowing What You’re Teaching

You don’t need an enormous equipment budget or a book full of complicated workouts to begin coaching track and field, but you do need to know your athletes, understand the basic demands of their events and build skills progressively.

Let younger athletes experience running, jumping and throwing. Keep practices active. Use drills with a purpose. Don’t confuse exhaustion with improvement. Learn enough about each event to teach it safely, and seek out event-specific expertise when an athlete moves beyond what you’re comfortable coaching.

Track and field becomes a lot less overwhelming once you stop trying to coach the entire sport at once.