COACH GUY AVERY
Intentional Coaching for High School Distance Runners
Personal Coaching that Makes a Big Difference
INDIVIDUAL ATHLETES
I love working with motivated athletes and I take great satisfaction in their improvement.
When athletes listen to, and follow good coaching guidance, and learn to take better care of their bodies and their health, they can experience major improvements in both the short- and long-term.
I offer one-year coaching agreements with individual athletes who have supportive parents.
My coaching is individualized and thorough and therefore, very time-intensive — requiring daily updates, feedback, good communication and accountability — whether the athlete is local or far away. Because of this, it is necessary for me to limit the number of athletes that I take on.
My basic one-year coaching agreement includes an assessment of past training and racing, presenting goal possibilities, and providing daily, year-round coaching for smarter training, faster racing and optimally sustainable progress.
Coach and Athlete need to be seen as a Team and daily coach-athlete communication is essential to guiding the athlete to sustainably optimize their potential.
TRAINING GROUPS
Train with Others to Rise Higher
CLUB TEAMS
This is the driving understanding of successful teams:
A TEAM is two or more with a COMMON GOAL, who are DEPENDENT on EACH OTHER to ACHIEVE THEIR COMMON GOAL.
The sport of H.S. distance running is moving increasingly toward the club model. That is how they do it almost everywhere in the world and for good reason. Almost every sport (baseball, soccer, tennis, basketball, etc.) in the U.S. uses the club model because you can develop athletes far better than 95% of school situations. Advanced athletes can benefit greatly from the club model.
There are numerous important benefits and advantages to forming a club team.
The Club Teams that I have coached, have reached the absolute highest levels in the State as well as in the entire country.
Every cross country or track club team that I have coached, has produced national-class national-championship-contending teams. State championships are usually small stepping stone goals for teams that want to rise to the top of the high school running world.
In the current lingering school model, forming a club where all the members are from the same school, requires parental support and the support of the school coaches. The results can be amazing if parents and school coaches get behind a club model.
It is a fun and exciting life-changing experience to race at a higher level within a supportive team approach with one's friends/teammates.
Few things in sports, can match such a great team experience.
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I love working with high-aiming teams because it is so fun and rewarding for everyone and it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
COACH AVERY
I love coaching runners.
I love the sport of distance running and I love empowering athletes to help them realize more of their potential in this great sport where everyone can improve and everyone can “win” by learning to do their very best.
I’ve had so many parents tell me recently, that they wish they had known about me sooner. So, I felt it would be a good idea to at least have a way that athletes and parents could find me so that anyone wanting coaching help, could find me, so here I am.
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While my tiny group of privately-coached athletes have had extraordinary success in amassing numerous State Championship, All-American and National Championship titles, the thing I’m most proud of, is that 100% of my privately-coached athletes have measurably improved.
Every athlete who has sought my help, has improved significantly.
They improve because they love the challenge of this sport and they’re willing to perform the work it takes to improve in a significant way. As a result, 100% of my coached-athletes with a goal of competing beyond high school, have gone on to compete at the collegiate level - with most of them choosing NCAA Division I institutions.
Athletes have gone on to run in a wide range of college and university programs including Alabama, Arizona State, Auburn, Belmont, Chattanooga, Clemson, Colorado College, University of Colorado, Dartmouth, David Lipscomb, Dayton, Emory, ETSU, Florida State, Furman, Harding, High Point, Lee, Middlebury, Mississippi State, Memphis, Miami (OH), Montana State, NAU, Ole Miss, Princeton, Rhodes, Samford, Sewanee, Tennessee, Trevecca, Vanderbilt and William & Mary.
I love empowering young athletes and being a part of their success and journey. The satisfaction of doing your very best, always feels worth the time and effort.
Guy Avery coached my daughter for her four years of high school. Guy is an amazing coach whose dedication to his athletes is outstanding. He gives personal attention to each athlete by creating workouts and training schedules that are uniquely tailored to each individual. He advises on nutrition, daily habits, mental-emotional well-being, recovery and injury prevention. He addresses the whole picture, which allows athletes to reach their full potential and then some!
Guy has coached numerous athletes who have achieved national recognition. He starts with local and state level goals and many successful athletes end up setting goals to eventually race in national level events. These races have been an amazing experience for my daughter. Under the guidance of Coach Avery, my daughter achieved remarkable goals and was able to race amongst the best national class athletes with PR’s of 4:47 for 1600m and 10:20 for 3200m, despite being a 5:51 and 12:40 runner as an 8th grader. She has enthusiastically embraced the sport of running and I feel she will carry that enthusiasm for many years.
My daughter has earned the privilege of running for a highly ranked D1 university and is fully prepared for this next challenge because of the foundation Guy has helped her build. I highly recommend Guy Avery as a coach and I will be forever grateful that Guy has been a part of my daughter’s life. I feel her success as an athlete is because of Guy’s coaching.
- Jennifer Donnelly
Choosing to be coached by Guy Avery is the single most defining moment of my life. His ability to tap into my personal talent, motivated me to reach goals that I could have only dreamed about, before meeting him.
Winning State Championships and racing at a National level, however, is not the defining aspects of my experience. Coach Avery’s guidance allowed me to have belief in myself as an athlete and as a person on a daily basis, to this day. As an observer of his coaching, I have seen him empower the same incredible things for so many athletes of all ability levels, helping them to make huge jumps in their athletic performance.
If you are an athlete that is willing to devote yourself to learning from him, there is no better teacher than Coach Avery. Not only will you experience yourself getting fitter, you will be gaining confidence and a positive mindset of what is possible.
Coach Avery sees ‘competition’ as co-operation’ and teaches all of us to treat our fellow athletes and ‘competitors’ with total respect. To this day, I maintain many close friendships from my time with Coach Avery. I strongly recommend him as a coach to any athlete who wants to have more fun and get the most out of their ability.
- Jake Rainey
Guy Avery has coached our daughter, Anna, for the last 16 months, since the middle of her sophomore year in high school. His individualized coaching approach is second to none. We have seen Anna make significant improvements in her approach to training and in her confidence when racing. Her mental preparation and focus have been completely reworked with Coach Avery’s guidance, and his communication with athletes and parents is outstanding.
Coach Avery works with his athletes to set both short- and long-term goals and develops a progression plan to make sure they reach them. His holistic approach with injury prevention, nutrition, strength training and sleep/rest have resulted in continual progress for his athletes.
Guy has taken Anna and all of her teammates from state level runners to State Champions, State Record-Holders, and national level All-American athletes, in a short timeframe. He also emphasizes what it takes to be a great team member, as they learn to depend on each other and prepare for the rewards of team success.
We really appreciate Guy’s willingness and dedication to help Anna explore the best colleges for meeting her academic and individual/team athletic goals. He has coached so many high school runners that became college athletes, that many of the college coaches know him personally. He spends many hours sifting through all facets of college recruiting for athletes and parents. It is a huge benefit to have a coach with so much experience in the college recruiting process. Guy understands all the nuances of the various college programs that Anna has interest in, and this, in turn had helped her to navigate the best college programs for her. It has been so exciting for Anna to be getting sincere interest from major D1 running programs.
- Fil & Connie Banovac
I began running with Coach Avery during my freshman year in high school. At the time, my focus was directed toward soccer. Although most of my time was spent on travel soccer, I still had the desire to participate on my high school cross country and track teams. Throughout my freshmen and sophomore years, Coach Avery supported my participation in both sports. He allowed me to miss track practices for soccer and adjusted my workouts to help me get the most out of each sport and do what was most fun for me at the time.
Eventually I chose running over soccer, and over the next two years, Coach Avery guided me to numerous state championships, state runner-ups and other titles. By the end of my high school career, I was being recruited by college coaches and committed to D1 running.
In my time in sports, I have never seen another coach as knowledgeable in their sport. Not only that, I have never seen another coach so invested in their athlete’s progress and well-being. Coach Avery’s training is extremely individualized and tailored to each athlete’s needs and goals. He helps you to see your capability and empowers you to become the best athlete you can be. I would not have had my success without Coach Avery. I truly believe there is no better coach than Guy Avery.
- Hailey Hendry
I first met Coach Avery because my Dad had been seeking someone to help me take my running talent to the next level. Another coach referred us to Coach Avery and the rest is history.
Coach started training me in the middle of my sophomore year of high school, and I win my first State Championship that Spring. When my high school career was complete, Coach Avery had guided me to seven Individual State Championship titles.
Many things distinguish Coach Avery as an extraordinary coach. He understands all the physical, mental and emotional demands of the sport and how to navigate it all, in order to do one’s very best.
Coach Avery is a dynamic motivator. He always helped me believe that I was capable of attaining what I felt was unattainable. He has a way of making athletes feel more confident and mentally tough. He always pushed me to do my best and never let me rest on my laurels.
Coach Avery is also a brilliant student and teacher of the sport. His philosophy, his approach, his methods, techniques and strategies were always tailored to fit each individual style of athlete, in order to optimize their potential. He has an uncanny insight into what will be most beneficial for each athlete.
Coach Avery was very goal-oriented with me. He genuinely cares about each of his athletes and wants to help them attain their goals. In fact, it was Coach Avery who helped me earn a scholarship to an NCAA D1 school.
I attended Belmont University where I was a varsity athlete for all four years of my collegiate career. I even joined his Summer Training Groups each of the last two summers prior to my junior and senior years of college and those two cross country seasons were my best collegiate seasons.
I am currently a high school teacher and coach and I have incorporated much of Coach Avery's approach and methods with successful results with my own athletes. I would not be where I am today without the help, guidance and mentorship of Coach Avery. I contribute a great deal of my personal success to him and I recommend him without any reservations, to any athlete that wants to improve and become the best athlete they are capable of becoming.
- Brandon Mahaney
As a former high school and college runner myself, Ironman World Championship Qualifying triathlete, youth track coach, and mother of two girls involved in youth, high school and college running, I have had the privilege of being around great coaches, and Guy Avery is second to no one as a distance running coach.
Guy is a passionate and caring teacher with a vision for his individual athletes and teams, and a record of success that is nothing short of amazing. I’ve witnessed countless athletes grow in confidence while displaying humility, grace and and an unusual level of sportsmanship in the process.
Coach Avery’s vision feeds his goal-setting process and individual athlete motivation and accountability noticeably increases. He sees each person’s potential, envisions and communicates what is possible, and plans step-by-step progress in a highly organized and brilliant way that gets incredible results.
His results never cease to amaze me, regardless of an individual’s starting point and talent. I believe his underlying integrity as a a person and coach, is the foundation of his phenomenal success with athletes.
Guy’s gift in empowering athletes and helping them get the most from their abilities, is incredible and my observation is that every athlete is enriched by the experience. If you’re looking for an amazing coach, I give my highest possible recommendation to Coach Avery!
- Diana McLaughlin
H.S. RUNNERS CAN RACE FAST & HAVE A BLAST
Anyone who puts their mind to it, can learn to race much faster and make large measurable improvements as a distance runner. It is fun and rewarding to train smarter and race at another level.
You can become a much better runner if you make it your intention.
Excellent coaching can help you train smarter and race much faster. Having wise coaching guidance, can make a huge difference in helping you achieve your goals.
It's a lot of fun to take your running to a higher level.
It's a blast to race fast.
I love helping athletes realize their potential and reach their goals.
The first high school girl I coached won four individual State championships and the first college womyn I coached, became Vanderbilt University’s first-ever NCAA D1 All-American. This began my journey as a coach.
Working with a small group of committed runners in Tennessee, it's been an adventure and the successes on our journey together have been extraordinary:
• 77 out of 77 privately-coached athletes have run in college programs •
• 7 Straight Years of Qualifying Individuals and Teams to NXN •
• 193 State Championship medals •
• 88 State Runner-Up medals •
• 23 State Records •
• 92 All-American honors •
• 29 National Championship awards •
• 13 All-Time U.S. Top-10 Marks •
• Millrose Champions, Brooks PR Champions, New Balance Indoor & Outdoor Champions, Festival of Miles Champions, Music City Distance Carnival Champions •
• 8 State Team Cross Country Titles in 9 years with one narrow Runner-Up finish with 2 different schools •
• 2 Different Teams that broke every XC meet record in a season •
• Individual (15:09) & Team (15:46) Course Record Holders on State Championship course •
• 5 of the Top-6 All-Time Team Times on the State Championship course •
• 5 of the Top-10 All-Time Individual Times on the State Championship course •
• 2 Nike Southeast (NXR) Team Champions •
• 4 Nike Southeast (NXR) Individual Champions •
• Athletes Hold Both the Individual & Team Meet Records for Nike Southeast (NXR) Championship course •
• 3 Nike Cross Nationals (NXN) Team Qualifiers in a 6-Year Stretch •
• 12 NXN Individual Qualifiers in 6-Year Stretch •
• 2 NXN Podium (Top-3) Teams in the Country with two completely different squads (no athlete overlap) •
• 3 Athletes have won 10 State Titles each •
• 6 Athletes have won 5+ State Titles each •
• Coached the Team (Brentwood HS, TN) that broke the 34-year old legendary Hammonds, Indiana 5x2M All-Time Postal Nationals Record with a 9:05.22 five-runner average •
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Many high school athletes can supplement their school team situation with additional coaching help. I help runners realize much more of their potential.
Athletes of every ability level have all shown significant short- and long-term improvement - usually running consistently significant PR’s from year to year with a high percentage of them placing high in Section, State, Regional & National Championship meets.
It's fun to train smart and race fast and take your running to another level.
PRIVATE HIGH SCHOOL DISTANCE RUNNING COACH GUY AVERY
Personal Running Coach Guy Avery
