Where are the coaches at?

well if its an obvious question that anyone would know then i can see how they couldnt want to embarass themselves in front of their coaches. but the questions that rlly bug me are ones that no one on here could answer correctly b/c we dont knwo them personally, their strengths/weaknesses, their level of training, or anything else about them. the only person that could answer those questions are their coaches who hopefully have had a couple years to get to know them as runners and answer accurately. but thats just me.. :-)

You make a really good point, most of these questions are things that can and probably should be directed towards a coach if one is available. When I was a captain, however, people would come to me and ask me alot of questions that our coaching staff maybe should have answered, including other captains, because they didn't want to look bad in front of the coaches, or ask them a question that they feel like is going to make them look stupid. Asking on the internet adds a bit a anonymity to the process and they can still get an answer to their question from someone either with experience in the area.

Maybe some people are too intimidated by coaches. I know people on my XC/track team are just scared of getting yelled at by our coach. I mean, he's a great guy, but he can be a bit old and crabby at times. He has tons of experience, but it's hard to relate to him sometimes, especially when he is barking at us. I know he just wants us to succeed, but it's just too much harshness at times. Also, since I'm on a girl's team, the girls don't really feel like being all buddy-buddy with our male coaches. (Because we have 3, and they're all male.) I know people should just get over their problems, but still, it's kind of hard to talk to some difficult coaches at times. I don't think many people are fortunate enough to be super-comfortable with their coaches, but if you are, that's great.

Yahoo is the perfect place to ask some insipid question that the answer is obvious.

Usually they will give you a hint on what kind of answer they are looking for...