Thoughts/questions after watching the Olympic women's final

[zipsDIGSpv]

this incident with Rick Suhr, whether right or wrong, has sparked some interesting conversation about how we coach our athletes and how athletes are wired these days. I want to make something clear. I feel that what Coach Suhr did during the Olympic finals was uncalled for and inapropriate and it is a shame that a national audience overheard it. That being said, where is the line? Athletes seem to be headed towards being softer and being less self-motivated. In my own experiences I have seen athletes that have milked the collegiate system for all its worth with no regard for their team or their coaching staff. They want their money and beyond that they could seem to care less. Also, it seems that many athletes lack the motivation to be great, they accept being just good. It seems to me that we as coaches have to do a whole lot more work to tap the potential of athletes and to motivate and that it has gotten even harder in the past decade. What are your experiences? You coaches that have been around for 10 or 20 or 30 years what shifts have you seen in athletes over the years? How has your job become harder? How has it become easier? What do we do about it?

I do feel that pole vault coaches have to deal with this less then the rest of the event areas. Pole vaulters in general seem to be a lot more intrinsically motivated and more willing to do the work to tap their full potential. I often look at the other event areas and wonder how coaches don't pull their hair out on a regular basis. What are your thoughts?

[master]

When I read this topic post I wasn't aware of what Rick Suhr had said. On the web I found this link to video of the comments.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.html?assetid=0818_hd_atw_hl_l1722&channelcode=sportat

And here's a link to 4 pages of comments on this topic (on http://www.letsrun.com).
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2631633&page=0

- master

[kmonty51]

Did anyone see Sanya Richards' interview after she had a disappointing race (won bronze) in the 400 finals? She said she "...really wanted gold, but it's not about me, it's about the country." No matter how you cut it, that's a class act! I wonder (no sarcasm intended here...honestly) how Rick Suhr feels about that mentality?