Newbury Park invited us to their summer practice at Peppertree Park near the high school. The day of our visit was an easy day of loops in the park or run in the surrounding neighborhood. The emerging runners finished the run with hill repeats in the park. Afterward the run, first year Coach Kris Karsten and his assistants led the team in a variety of strength exercises.
Coach Karsten explained the summer practice plan:
When does Newbury Park practice in the summer?
We practice Mon-Sat during the summer. After CIF in spring track, we take some time off, then resume with what I call “unstructured” training. Runners are free to run whatever feels right as they start reintegrating back to normal training, but nothing fast. All easy runs. By June, we’re usually ready to start base training for the summer.
How was team camp?
We have two training camps over the summer. Our summer program is optional and open to any of the NPHS runners. One camp stays local around the Newbury Park area, but I also take my varsity runners (at least those who are able to go) and a few rising varsity runners up to Big Bear to train at elevation for a few weeks. After Big Bear, we return back down to NP and rejoin the local summer program. Both programs have been going great so far.
How do you build the team culture?
I make my expectations for the team and team culture very clear to the athletes and their parents. And my seniors and varsity athletes embrace it, so it comes from the top down. When our frosh/soph and rising varsity athletes see how dedicated our seniors and varsity athletes are, and how it leads them to so much success, the culture sort of builds and reinforces itself. I honestly don’t have to do a whole bunch to build it. Everyone knows that our team philosophies and culture are not optional for our program, so it takes care of itself.
What are some fun activities you plan to do this season?
I’m probably not the most fun coach in the business. I think working hard and producing good results are fun! So I don’t really do much as far as fun things other than the Big Bear trip for the Varsity/Rising Varsity athletes. Most of our fun comes from socializing before and after practices and through socializing outside of the program. I don’t guide it though, it’s mainly driven by the teammates. The way I tend to judge if we’re making it enjoyable for the athletes is by how many laughs I hear after practice and how many inside jokes we have circulating amongst the team. We have plenty of those things in our program, so I think the kids enjoy it and have learned how to handle the high expectations/workload of our program while enjoying the process and the camaraderie of their teammates at the same time.
View the practice at Peppertree Park HERE