When Coaches Fight

I’ve previously mentioned the odd new phenomenon of trying to bring smack-talking into trail running… and the rather unsuccessful outcomes of it. Well, maybe if media attention is all you’re after then maybe you consider your social media traffic a success, but last I checked runners were still hoping to actually finish a race and not just DNF.

But the other trend I am observing and can’t quite explain is that of coaches bickering publicly. We’ve seen this now at length with Jason Koop feeling the need to endlessly needle David and Megan Roche, but in this case I just felt it was a personality trait of Koop. But now in the aftermath coach Zach Bitter questions the race support practice by Koop’s CTS during Western States and wonders if pools filled with ice is still considered ‘fun’ in ultra running terms. And of course Koop immediately took the bait and slapped back. Because that’s the mature thing to do.

Anyways, I know that these coaches achieve results and that’s what matters for these elite athletes willing to be associated with these personalities, but I would absolutely hate knowing that the person I pay money to in the hope to get me these results spends their time online trolling.

If one’s genuinely interested in pushing our sport forward and not just boosting their personal brand clout there’s a better way to do that.