Well I’m a senior at the moment and was wondering what steps I should take to get a track scholarship. For indoor track during my junior year I was doing really well in the 400m and thought that if I kept at this pace I would definitely be in the 50’s secs by the time outdoor track came along. Unfortunately my dad made me quit track after my first outdoor track meet when my 4×400 relay team automatically qualified for states. People have advised me to have my coach promote my potential but I have a different coach than from what I have from last year (have been to 3 high schools). Others and myself know that I have Division I potential. I don’t have any good times to send because I didn’t get serious about the 400m till my junior year which I’ve explained kinda didn’t work out. I want to get an athletic scholarship to Stanford.
Please tell me what to do. Would I need to do indoor track to get a good 400m time to send out? If I do need to do indoor track, what are some hardcore workouts I need to do to get in the 50’s sec by the end of December?
You are going to have to run in the high 46, 47 flat range if you want a scholarship to a school like Stanford, and even then it may be a partial scholarship. Its hard for a coach to give a scholarship unless he/she is confident you can potentially score at the conference (PAC-10) meet. Running 50.00 will make it very difficult to get any attention because so many HSers can do it. Running 47.00 or faster will get you looked at more. Remember, there are only 12.6 scholarships allotted for each college mens team, so you have to be stud to get a full.
Indoor performances are not as important as having a solid outdoor season when you want to attract scholarship offers. If you plan on running fast in April and May, you need to be training right now, doing some long runs (15-20 mins) twice a week and light interval work (3 x 500 in 1:30) twice a week, as well as weight training..
When the season gets closer, you’ll be doing quicker track workouts, (6 x 300 in 42 sec); (8 x 200m in 25 sec); (8 x 150m in 18 sec), stuff like that.
You have plenty of time to have a good outdoor season if you start training now. I wouldn’t emphasize any indoor performances because they don’t really bear any weight in the eyes of recruiters.
If you want a D1 scholarship, you are going to have to run at least 47.5 or faster. If you want a full ride, its going to take a 46.80 or better (When I was in college, we had 3 guys on our team that were 46.20 – 46.60 that were all on partial scholarships. We even had some walk-ons that ran 47.50 – 48.10). Then again, the SEC is the hardest conference in the country).
Do some more research on your own. Look at the HS list for last year on TrackandFieldNews.com. Look at the results of the PAC-10 Championships last season. That will give you an idea of what its going to take performance wise.
The good news is that you have plenty of time. Hope it all works out!