An old post was picked up by other award-winning blogs when I first reposted it recently, so here I am reposting it for a third time! Am I running out of things to say? Is the blog nearing an end? (No.)
Anyway, here is the definitive post compiling all New School/Old School submissions in all the various iterations no matter where the source.
Old School (1970s): Practice right after school.
New School (2012): Practice at 5:30PM, just 1 1/2 hours after they get home from school.
Old School: Practice lasts 1 1/2 hours, team meeting included. Ends on time.
New School: Practice lasts 2 1/2 hours, followed by a team meeting. Never on time.
Old School: Practice at high school, trip home by school bus.
New School: Practice at numerous variable sites, transportation necessary both to and from.
Old School: Dual Meets twice weekly.
New School: Quad or Quintuple Meets once weekly.
Old School: Tattoos only on a spectating ex-Marine Uncle from out of town.
New School: Neck tattoos on Freshman runners.
Old School: No sunglasses.
New School: Sunglasses on an overcast day as essential running equipment.
Old School: Nike Waffles.
New School: "Barefoot" Shoes.
Old School: Winner at about 16:00 for boys 18:00 for girls.
New School: Winner at about 16:00 for boys 18:00 for girls.
Old School: No idea what friends are up to during practice.
New School: Tweets and Facebook updates during practice to know that friends are "chillin".
Old School: Coach is basketball coach and high school math teacher.
New School: Coach is 6-time All-American and stay-at-home-dad.
Old School: 0 assistant coaches.
New School: 6 assistant coaches.
Old School: 1 Newspaper article a year, with many facts wrong.
New School: Blog with daily updates on minutiae of every runner's life.
Old School: Quarter mile or half mile repeats a staple.
New School: Don't know what a quarter is.
Old School: One runner with a VW van on its last legs takes a few people home.
New School: Each runner over 16 drives their own BMW, Lexus or Mercedes home.
Old School: Cotton
New School: Lycra
Old School: Stretch
New School: Core
Old School: Fartlek
New School: Lactate-Threshold or Tempo
Old School: 10-year old school-owned-and-loaned spikes which were painted each year to freshen them up.
New School: A personal aresenal.
New School: Screen-printed singlet logo.
Old School: Embroidered ones. Woo-Hoo! The old-timers win one!
Old School: Coach would pile whole team (boys only back then) into Plymouth Fury (Big boat car) and drive 10 miles out of town and drop off team, following team all way back to school. No one would bat an eye.
New School: Coach mentions a 5 mile run and whole team rolls eyes, AD forbids team from going off campus (school board lawyer says liability), and coach drives a Mini Cooper anyway. No one has any endurance.
Old School: Kids did things without critique of "how it used to be"
New School: Adults blog about how kids aren't tough anymore.
Old School- Barney Ewell New School- Usain Bolt
Old School- Nike Waffles New School- Vibram 5 Fingers
Old School- New Zealand Splits New School- Compression Shorts
Old School- ERG New School- G2
Old School- Cinders New School- Mondo
Old School- Lydiard New School- Salazar (Coach)
Old School- Salazar (Runner) New School- Meb
Old School- Salazar (Champion) New School- Salazar (Heart Rehab Patient) or New school Coach - Schumacher
Old School- Amateur New School- Professional
Old School- Squinting, warming up New School- Running Sunglasses, arm warmers, breathe-rite strips, running "zorro" masks
Old School- Track and Field News New School- Track and Field News or New school (for better or worse)- Letsrun.com or New School: Flotrak.org
Old School- Steve Prefontaine New School- Galen Rupp or New school - Solinsky
Old School- Rec Hall/Ice Palace New School- Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track
Old School- Coach Lucas Old School- Coach Groves
Old School- "Wait an Hour" Health Center New School- Ritenour Health Center
Old School- Gentle Thursday New School- Earth Day
Old School- 2 cups of coffee (50 cents for both) New School- Energy drink ($3.99)
Old School- Steve Balkey New School- Ryan Foster
Old School: In most of my years at UC I would go around in a van and give people mile splits, just to get a sense of pace.
New School: Toward the end they would correct me as to where the mile
split actually was based on their GPS. I began to wonder why I was even
out there. The same was true for bus trips where I formally enjoyed
talking with team members on the bus. Toward the end they were all
texting and there was essentially nobody to talk with. Once again I
began to wonder why I was even on the bus. Courtesy of Bill Schnier
Old School: Running comes first , so drop a class so as not to miss practice.
New School: School comes first, so skip practice so as not to miss class. Courtesy of Phil Scott
Old School: Start a run down any country road or trail and run for 60-90 minutes, guesstimating the distance and pace.
New School: GPS tells you exactly where you are, how far and how fast your pace.
Courtesy of Susan Abuasba
Old School: Cross Country was Blue Collar kids of factory workers, living in the city.
New School: Cross Country is Upper Class kids of college grads, living in the suburbs.
Old School: Cross Country team was mainly basketball players getting in
shape before their season, lucky if there were 8 or 9 kids on the team.
Many ran in Converse All-Stars high tops.
New School: Cross Country team has 5-10 serious runners and 30-50 kids
trying to boost their resumes for getting accepted to college. George
Brose
ugh this again
ReplyDeleteYou are alone in your dissent (actually predicted on the FB and Twitter sites!). This was requested by 4 separate individuals in the nation-wide blogosphere. But never fear, new material will be on its way soon. Maybe even you can submit some suitable stuff? Heck, I even kept your previous curmudgeonly submission!
ReplyDeleteI will add this: What "D-Day" practice was would be called hazing by some not-so-tough people. Excellent post DFB!
ReplyDeleteOld school: the term "fifth year senior" didn't exist. Only morons don't graduate with their class.
ReplyDeleteNew school: red-shirt every season to become a fifth year senior. (only morons don't graduate with their class)
Old school: Running NEVER came before class. If you had to miss practice, you didn't skip it, you ran in the dark.
ReplyDeleteNew school: Only morons can't make use of 24 hours.
Old school: The mile.
ReplyDeleteNew school: The full mile
Old school: Bruce
ReplyDeleteNew school: Caitlyn
Old school: Stem
ReplyDeleteNew school:
I would really love a first-hand Stem story complete with photos. Sorry I only ever got to meet him once.
ReplyDeleteGo ask Harry for Stem stories. Make him wear the last remaining Stem T-shirt in existence. Mint condition.
ReplyDeleteI really do wish that was possible. With Coach's condition, it is increasingly less likely.
ReplyDeleteOld School - Rec Hall jocks (mix of sandpaper and cotton, with barbed wire), shorts and shirts
ReplyDeleteSlightly less old school - Dolfin and Nike shorts with nylon liners (popsicle- _ _ _ _ )
New School - what ever they're wearing today.
Turning 50 next month, I am OLD school
ReplyDelete