Issue 12

Interview with Joan Hunter, head coach of Tinman Elite, ahead of the 2024 season!

Some things to know about Joan — Joan's list of coaching accomplishments is staggering. As a high school coach in Virginia, her teams won 10 National Championships, set 10 National High School Records, and won 18 State Championships. In her time as Head Coach of Tinman Elite, Coach Joan has led the athletes of Tinman Elite to two top-10 finishes at World Major Marathons, four World Championships qualifiers, multiple national titles, and a slew of personal bests.

Hey, Coach Joan! Welcome to the Hammer. How’s it going today?

It’s going well, I’ve been working on options for our fall/winter build and feeling excited about getting back to work with my track people! Also booked travel for NCAA Pre-Nats and Nationals which will be fun and a good opportunity to scout out future TME-ers.

As head coach of Tinman Elite, you’re working with and competing against some of the best runners in the world. What are a few coaching things you’ve learned over the last couple of years as a professional coach?

Good question. So many things. I've said it before, but I think one thing I've learned is that I need to be authentically myself as a coach and tune out the noise from those who don't think much of me. I wish I had come into this job with a little thicker skin, but it's been a great opportunity for growth for me. Another thing I've learned is that, even at this level, there still has to be joy and fun to be successful, whether as an athlete or as a coach. When those things are scarce, it's hard to be the best we can be.

The loss of joy and fun and love for the sport often happens when we get too caught up in the idea that we ARE our performances, and that our worth as people is based on how fast our legs move — that is such a lie.

Also, I think it's natural to think that if only our performances would turn around, all would be well and we'd be 'happy' again with our sport. But that isn't necessarily so either. I'd encourage everyone who finds themself thinking this way to listen to Olli Hoare's recent monolog on the Coffee Club podcast. There is a lot of pressure to perform at this level, and if athletes don't have a sense of purpose in their lives that is completely unrelated to their performances, it's easy to become chronically anxious and or depressed when it's not going well, and sometimes, even when it is going well.

How is coaching pros different from high schoolers?

In some ways, coaching people in their twenties isn't much different than coaching high schoolers. Maybe that's because we were blessed to coach some really good teams at Loudoun Valley, and we expected a lot from every athlete, regardless of their skill level, and usually the kids were bought in and eager to commit — the post-collegiate crowd just runs faster.

They might have bigger and different goals, and they tend to be a bit more on top of the practices they need to be successful- sleeping well, fueling well, hydrating well. One difference is that there is more on the line for the post-collegians. In many cases, they've chosen to forego better-paying jobs to chase their dreams, and they have a limited amount of time to do so, and this can lead to stress.

Coaching is coaching, but you do need to be aware of the different priorities, needs, and goals of athletes at different levels.

High school kids start running for many different reasons, and as a coach, it's my job to help them fall in love with running (or at least with being on a team!). I found it so rewarding to see kids blossom in confidence about themselves, their fitness, their ability to do hard things that they never imagined they could do. We had high standards for all our HS athletes as far as expectations went, regardless of their ability, and we focused on personal improvement and appropriately individualizing training accordingly. We tried to have a "Big Family" type culture on our team where everyone mattered. Kids bought in and stuck around. Some post-collegiates/pros may not care so much about that kind of culture- they just want to perform and make teams, and some may not be as interested in investing in close team relationships. Not saying that's bad necessarily, but I have a hard time understanding that.

What could HS coaches learn from listening to coaches such as yourself?

Ha, I'd flip this question and ask, What could pro coaches learn from HS coaches? So I'm gonna answer that one first. And my answer is going to refer to SUCCESSFUL high school coaches. By 'successful', I mean coaches who:

1) Value all their athletes as people and want to help their athletes grow through sport.

2) Have successfully built a program that has repeated success year after year after year.

3) Have programs that have room in them for kids who are never going to make the top 7, yet their improvement is just as significant as the top kids.

I think building a large, successful high school team from scratch was infinitely valuable to my growth as a coach. You learn to be creative with training because you have people on both ends of the talent spectrum, both ends of the 'injury proneness' spectrum, etc. You have to create an environment that kids want to be a part of. You have kids who have never had success in any sport, and those who are great all-around athletes. This means you learn to adapt what you do for these various groups so that everyone gets better and feels like they belong. College and pro coaches miss out on this, maybe not completely, since there are some VERY talented low mileage, no-stranger-to-injury kids coming out of high schools these days, but for the most part, college, and pro coaches are working with more talented pools of athletes than high school coaches are.

As for what could HS coaches learn from someone like me, I'm not so sure. As I said, I have immense respect for good HS coaches, who do what they do with passion and a LOT of time commitment, for very little pay.

We’re coming up on a big year with the Olympics in Paris. Do you treat years like this any differently than others?

I have only been coaching the team for about 2.5 years, and learning quite a bit as I go. Of course, this year, I want to get things as 'right' as possible, so I am applying everything I've learned from the past 2 years' successes AND mistakes. My priority is figuring out what to change so that everyone can have consistent training and not miss time due to injury or illness. For some athletes, this means doing a great job of communicating with me, logging in detail, and speaking up when life's stress bucket starts to overflow. And getting help managing the mental side of chasing their dreams. For others, we need to pay more attention to their physical health and see if we can fine-tune practices that keep their bodies healthy and injury-free.

Staying focused on the process (cliche, I know, I know...) is so important because when we just focus on hitting a certain time, or a certain place, or a certain ranking, stress levels rise and if we've learned anything in the last couple years, that doesn't help ANYONE.

As a coach, you have all sorts of responsibilities all year round. In addition to that, you’re also a mom and grandmother. How do you balance everything?

Probably not very well! I do all of the shopping and cooking in our house, but not the cleaning (thank you, Marc). I love being a grandmother and hate that one of my grandkids lives on the East Coast, but am thankful that one lives here, and we see Drew's family regularly! Both Marc and I have almost 90-year-old parents on the other side of the country as well, and we both feel a lot of guilt for not being able to help out and see them regularly. I often have 'mommy' guilt when I'm traveling with the team, but my kids are pretty great and capable of taking care of themselves- after all, they are young adults now. I tend to work on my coaching job stuff every day in multiple small blocks of time, which is probably not good and means I am sometimes not present with my family in the evenings. Trying to do better about that, but here I am, answering questions at 7 p.m. on Sunday night!! Lots of room for improvement in this area. I’m trying to be more intentional in blocking out planning time.

What’s your favorite part about coaching? After all your success at Loudoun Valley, why keep doing it?

I like the relational part of coaching the best. I like getting to know my athletes. I love seeing people grow as athletes AND as humans, and contributing to that growth in some way is what I like best. I loved the everyday-ness of coaching high school (sometimes I hated it, it was pretty much year-round, but we just spent so much time with our teams!) I loved seeing athletes discover a talent for running and become fully committed to being the best they could be, and how this spilled over into other areas of their lives and helped them mature. I loved winning state and national titles and setting records. I loved going to cross-country invitationals with the goal of winning every single division. But something changed for us after navigating through coaching during COVID. We found ourselves feeling burned out and frankly, we lost a lot of the joy we had previously. We were planning to step away from high school coaching before we were even asked to come out to coach TME.

At this level, I have less access to my athletes' lives, and less influence as well. But I still enjoy getting to know them as people, as much as they will allow, and I think they know how much I care for them as people. I have a lot of respect for my athletes and their goals and individual gifts.

Do you ever feel pressured to follow the latest trends in the running world, like double-threshold? And, since we’re talking about it, what are your thoughts on double threshold?

I don't feel pressure at all to cut and paste anyone's training (that rarely works out), but I do feel excited about figuring out ways to improve on what we are doing. Clearly, people are having success using double threshold, but other groups don't use it and have success as well. I think it's important to look at MY team and see what makes sense for them, and what makes sense for one individual might not make sense for another. Some of the readers might know this, but a good part of the team did Double T late last fall into the new year. We didn't use it in a 7-day cycle like the Norwegians (and others) do because most of our team hasn't demonstrated the ability to run the high mileage which seems to be a key element of Double T, and we need more recovery between workouts.

I don't think it's so much 'following the trends' as being willing to learn new things from people who are having success. I feel like there is so much still to learn and I am committed to improving as a coach. We are going to use Double T this year, but in an extended cycle, making sure each athlete is running the correct effort and a manageable total volume for each person.

Finally, what are you excited about this season?

Lots to be excited about. I love the fall- getting back into training for the track guys, and marathons to look forward to with my road guys. I am looking forward to trying some slightly different things in training this year, while keeping the things that have helped our team, like extended cycles. I'm excited about adding new runners to our team (still working on that!). And of course, the main goal this year is to have everyone healthy and fit for the Olympic Trials so they can get out there and compete for teams.

Ok. Let's answer some rapid-fire questions to finish this off.

Favorite event to watch? 1500.

Favorite sport other than running? Ehhhh, don't really have one. Not a big sports fan.

Go-to pre-race meal (you were a runner once too)? Can't remember, it's been decades. Spaghetti probably.

Favorite quote? Don't really have a favorite quote but here is part of a poem I wrote down a couple weeks ago in my journal because it spoke to me:

Have courage

to be a beginner

entrust your time

to telling a tale

in which the ending is veiled

build patience

for the harsh voice inside;

she is still a child who believes

perfection is the prerequisite

to belonging

-KJ Ramsey

Favorite track to visit? I love the atmosphere in The Armory!

Favorite runner on TME? Depends on the day, haha. Same answer I give my kids when they ask me that question.

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