The 2-hour-45-minute track meet.

How to take the drag out of those four-hour marathon meets

When I first started coaching 12 years ago, I was frustrated by the length of our track meets. Since we had no track of our own, we were forced to endure a succession of three-and-a-half to four-hour away meets.

The one school in town at which we loved to compete was Montgomery Bell Academy. You could count on MBA completing a meet in about two-and-a-half hours. They had a lot of helpful people and made great use of student personnel in appropriate ways.

Since getting a track of our own eight years ago, we have worked extremely hard to run our meets efficiently. Where once we literally had to beg for helpers, we now have a network of former athletes, parents, and track fans who enjoy coming out and helping with the meets.

Although I still get frustrated by the length of our away meets, even they now contain a positive for us: Those marathon sessions make our parents and athletes appreciate our efficient home meets! You wouldn't believe the positive feedback we get after most away meets.

Our goal at DLHS is to eliminate the drag that bores everyone at track meets. We try to conduct our dual/triangular home meets in no more than two hours and 45 minutes.

Thanks to the elimination of wasted time, we are now able to present five field and 12 running events in our 2:45 context.

RUNNING EVEN ORGANIZATION:

We work very hard to move quickly between events. The clerk sends the runners, along with an escort, to the starting line area during the preceding event.

Before the end of each event, the next event's runners are given instructions by the starter. They are then placed in their lanes while the results from the previous event are being recorded at the finish line.

As soon as the results are recorded and the track is cleared, the starter is ready to fire the gun.

In all events run in lanes, we include only the athletes who may count in the point total. We run the other athletes in a second heat.

Another key to keeping things moving is having a knowledgeable hurdle crew. We train our male field-event athletes to serve in this role. They take pride in getting the job done quickly. The 100-meter hurdles are set up the day before the meet.

We use our female field-event athletes to help get athletes into their exchange zones for relays. As soon as the zone is clear, the next heat is brought onto the track.

OBSTACLES:

Never allow one person to do too many jobs. It will always create problems. While it's hard to find help, you probably can recruit current athletes, former athletes who live in town, and interested parents and faculty members. Note: The clerk, starter, announcer, and head timer should be different people.

Could you imagine a football game in which the players didn't know where to line up? The equivalent happens in track. Coaches should post a list of assignments and the order of events for their teams. They should also educate their teams in meet event times, locations, check-in procedures, exchange zones, and rules.

CONCLUSION:

Football and baseball have recently made changes to speed up their games. We must do the same for track and field. Fans will not spend four hours watching a contest that could be completed in much less time. We have to try to get our athletes home in time to eat dinner and do their homework.

Let's cut out the down time and keep our meets moving!

We arrange our schedule as follows:

FIELD EVENTS

3:30: girls shot and high jump; boys discus, long jump, and pole vault 

4:10: girls discus and long jump; boys shot and high jump

RUNNING EVENTS

4:00: 3200-meter run (girls and boys together) 4:45: 100m/110m hurdles 4:50: 4 x 100m relay 4:55: 4 x 800m relay (girls and boys together) 5:10: 100m dash 5:15: 1600m run (girls and boys together) 5:25: 4 x 200m relay 5:30: 400m dash 5:35: 300m hurdles 5:45: 800m run 5:55: 200m dash 6:00: 4 x 400m relay 6:10: announce final results

Tim Taylor Track Coach Davi Lipscomb, H.S., Nashville TN