FAQs

Do you accept drop-ins?

All sessions are by appointment at designated dates/time slots as agreed upon at the start of a coaching engagement. When someone signs up, they sign up for a dedicated timeslot. For small-group programs, if we offer the same program on a different day, you can switch to that day as a makeup session for that missed session only.

What is your cancellation policy for 1:1 sessions?

With adequate notice ( > 24 hours), any canceled session may be made up at a later agreed-upon date and time.

Once you book a time slot, that time slot is yours each week as long as you remain a paid client or change with mutual agreement.

Cancellation within 24 hours does not allow us time to find someone else to take that spot. We do understand that emergencies and last-minute illnesses happen, and if so, late cancellations will not always result in forfeiture as long as it does not become a regular habit.

Our makeup time slots are extremely limited, so frequent cancellations may lead us to ending our coaching agreement. Keep in mind that every last minute cancellation and subsequent makeup session takes away our ability to fill that spot which impacts our business and earning ability.

Where are you located?

We are located in Lewis Center, Ohio and all sessions are held outdoors, rain or shine, in the Lewis Center area. We do not have a brick-and-mortar facility. This helps us keep your cost down while providing more realistic, sport specific training.

In the event of extreme weather conditions, your sessions may be postponed or rescheduled according to our weather cancellation and makeup policy.

We prefer outdoor training as it best reproduces and simulates your athlete’s conditions during most outdoor sports.

What if I’m late for my private training session?

In the event that you need to arrive late, or are running behind, please call or text. If no one is scheduled after you, we may be able to extend your time slightly. If the time after yours is booked, your session will end at the regularly scheduled time, however you are welcome to stay after your scheduled session to finish training on your own.

Arriving more than 5 minutes late may force us to change the intended workout that was scheduled to another modified workout due to the time needed to warm up, conduct the workout properly, and cool down afterward.

We will typically wait 10-15 minutes for you to arrive. If we do not hear from you within 15 minutes, or you fail to show, is considered a forfeited session and counts the same as if you were there.

I am injured; should I still train?

In most cases, the answer is often “yes.” You should contact us in advance to discuss your specific situation. If we both feel training will not be beneficial or could make the situation worse, we will defer or reschedule your session.

One of the things we do best is develop training that fits every circumstance, and this includes cases of minor injuries. We simply adjust what / how we train. This may mean changing your workout to focus more on mobility or strengthening, or working around the injury in other ways.

Research and years of anecdotal evidence suggest that recovery and return to fitness will be significantly faster if you train safely and appropriately while recovering from the injury. Rest is rarely the best option for soft tissue injuries and movement can facilitate healing.

In the event we determine that you should not participate due to injury, we will make up your session in the future. If the injury looks to be long-lasting, we will discuss options to defer your training to a future date or cancel altogether.

Do you do sports-specific training?

Yes and No. If your definition of sport-specific is any training that develops speed, power, strength, endurance, or agility, then yes, we do sport-specific training.

If you’re expecting “training for blocking, tackling, or catching” or “specific training just for volleyball defenders or dribbling or shooting a basketball,” then the answer is no. We don’t coach you in specific techniques, but we will make you faster, stronger, more agile, and more explosive.

For Track and Cross Country, we do teach techniques for starts, strategy, and start blocks. For soccer, we will sometimes incorporate ball handling as part of our agility drills, but those are typically the exceptions.

Younger athletes should train largely as generalists and progress to greater and greater sport specificity over time. This is what years of sports science research recommends, and this is how we train athletes.

Can you coach my son or daughter during their season?

We do not coach athletes during their season. This is so we don’t interfere with the team’s primary sports coaches and their training progressions. There are a few exceptions, like highly technical skills, like using starting blocks or working on improving form, but generally we strongly believe each athlete should work with their primary sports coach and communicate to them any needs while the season officially underway.

Our school offers off-season training and conditioning; do I still need coaching?

In most cases, it depends. Due to the state of Ohio and league rules, coaches are mostly prohibited from conducting organized team practices unless sanctioned(for example, indoor track meets).

Therefore, practices are often student-led, basic conditioning or assigned as a take-home plan. These sessions are voluntary (although encouraged).

Our training is more specific, with specific goals and outcomes, and programmatically assigned to go beyond general conditioning.

We build our training around your school’s off-season team conditioning so you or your athlete can start building team camaraderie while saving more specific training and advanced training workouts during our in-person sessions.

What is your weather policy?

Since we conduct training outdoors (all year around), we are subject to occasional weather delays and cancellations.

Our full weather policy and guidelines on when we typically cancel can be found on our weather policy page. The big thing to note is that you do not get charged for missed sessions due to weather.

Historically, we have only needed to cancel about 1-2 times on average during the Winter months and approximately 1-2 times during Spring/Summer.

We can usually train when an athlete is properly dressed and prepared for the weather. We can help you with cold and wet weather gear suggestions if needed.

Why are you so expensive or so cheap compared to others?

Run For Performance is not a “general fitness” health club. We are a sports performance training organization with 13+ years of experience. We did not just take a random weekend certification or online course and call ourselves a coach.

The level of instruction and individual attention we give means that we don’t compete with the high-volume, lower-priced facilities. For every hour you spend with us, another 30-60 minutes outside of our 1:1 sessions goes to monitoring your athlete’s progress, training modifications, and programming. When you break down how much time we spend on each athlete, our coaching fees are more than reasonable.

We also do not use generic, cookie-cutter programs. Every workout we conduct has a specific purpose or is part of an overall training program to develop you or your athlete. Each workout is chosen for you or your athlete so you can get real results over time.

As a legitimate business, we also have overhead like income taxes, social security tax, legal and professional organizations fees, continuing education fees, and insurance. We also pay the sales tax portion out of your fees which is nearly 8%. What is quoted is your price with no contracts and no hidden fees.

And, you aren’t paying overhead for a high-rent facility and large staff.

What should I expect at our first 1:1 session?

The first session will be spent doing a series of assessments and info gathering. For example, we will spend time discussing an athlete’s goals, previous experience, injury history, and what are realistic expectations. You will have plenty of time to ask questions, but the ultimate goal is to come away with a plan forward.

We will do different assessments depending on the athlete’s age and sport. We will assess areas like strength, endurance, balance, mobility, reaction time, spatial awareness, muscle weakness and/or muscular imbalances, running form, speed, technique, agility, and more.

In some cases, we will use slow-motion video analysis to point out what we are seeing so you can learn from the experience.

Once the session is completed, you will be given instructions on what to do over the next several days, and then we will put together the first part of your training program.

Every session after that is based on the training program we provide. For example, we may work on block starts and technique for sprinters, or for soccer players, we may work on agility work, body control, and acceleration.

In between sessions, you will have age/skill-appropriate take-home workouts to complete 3-4 times during the week. These are usually strength training exercises and/or easy-intensity endurance workouts or other workouts like agility, mobility, etc.

Do we have access to contact coaches during the week?

Absolutely! You can reach us by phone, email, or text whenever you need us.

For Track and Field, do you coach hurdles or field events?

We do not coach hurdles. However, we can make your athlete faster and have the ability to jump higher or have good starter block/acceleration technique. We do not use hurdles, though, as part of training since they are not always available.

We do not coach field events like shotput, discus, high/long jumps, or pole vaulting. This is not an area we feel is our specialty however we may consider it in the future by adding coaches with specialties in these areas.

I have a friend or sibling who is interested. Can we train together?

Please contact us for pricing if you prefer to train with a friend or sibling, or check out our small group speed and agility packages, the answer is yes.

When does Cross Country training start?

Cross country (and many Fall sports) is based on our XC Summer session schedule, which runs from May through August each year. Cross Country training is priced as a package and comes as a one-time fee for the whole session, payable in advance.

If your athlete is participating in Spring sports and is not finished by mid-May, we will start one week after the end of the season and discount your fees at a prorated amount.

If your athlete does not participate in Winter and/Or Spring sports, starter sooner is better! Cross Country is a sport that takes time to develop, so training year-round, if possible, will lead to the greatest results.

Do you offer sales, specials, or discounts?

We offer discounts for seasonal packages, or for prepaid packages when paid in advance for 3, 6, or 12-month programs.

We do not offer coupons, groupons, or free trial sessions.

I’m in! How do I sign up?

Group programs can use the enroll now buttons to enroll in one of our programs. For 1:1 coaching, please get in touch with us using our “Ask a Coach” buttons on the main page, or contact form. Once received, we will contact you to discuss your options, available time slots, and start dates.

Once we chat, we will send you an email invoice, which you can pay securely online using a Debit or Credit card via Square Payments.

Payment is due in advance, and your session time slots are confirmed once paid.

Do you offer month-to-month payment options?

No. Most of our 1:1 coaching is package-priced (e.g., one price for Summer, Winter, Spring, Fall sports packages. Package pricing is based on the length of your sport’s off-season and primarily for youth-college aged athletes. Run coaching for adults is based on a 3, 4, 6, or 12 month prepaid term, with additional discounts at the 4, 6, or 12 month term.
Payment for packages/sessions are due in full at signup prior to starting.

Do you require a contract?

There are no contracts.

We do require each athlete (and parents if the athlete is a minor) to sign a general liability waiver. This waiver is similar to most sports participation waivers. It acknowledges that you or your athlete is healthy and medically cleared to participate in a sports and exercise program, and you are aware of all risks of doing so.

We also include a statement allowing us permission to use video and pictures for slow-motion video analysis and for other business/marketing purposes. If you prefer us to not use video or photography, simply let us know at the first session.

Can I watch my child’s coaching session?

Absolutely! we require all minors to have an adult on-site during the workout. You can sit in your vehicle or watch. With younger children, we often teach you several drills so you can monitor your child throughout the week and help them develop outside of our sessions.

We ask that parents always remain positive and encouraging around their youth athletes. Remember, children are still developing and will develop lifelong skills and behaviors as long as their experience is positive. We want training to be productive and fun; the more your child enjoys training, the better their results will be.

We suggest you take advantage of the time to do your own workout, read a book, or take a walk around the track or on the adjacent trail; we just ask that you be in the general area.

When does late Fall/Winter Track Training Start?

We run off-season track training from mid-November until the end of February.

Due to the size of track participation and the number of returning athletes, we fill up by early November as XC and Fall sports end. To reserve your spot, contact us as soon as possible.

What age groups do you coach?

Our typical coaching clients are between the ages of 12-70, with most attending middle, high school, and college. We also coach adults in learn-to-run programs, 5k’s, 10k’s, half marathons, and ultramarathons.

In special cases, we will coach someone younger than 12; however, the focus is more on having fun and learning fundamentals and good technique vs. a scheduled training approach.

Can you help me prepare for a 5k, half marathon, or marathon?

Absolutely.

In addition to coaching athletes, our coaches have led local running clubs and have trained hundreds, maybe even 1000+ runners over the years. We can help you train/run any distance up to 50 miles.

We have helped our clients train for, and race 100’s of local, state and international races.

Beyond just custom training plans, having someone help you with plan modification, goal setting, pacing, injury prevention, race strategy, strength training, nutrition, fueling and hydration, mindset and mental toughness and accountability can go a long way to helping you run your best.

We can do this in person, online over Zoom, or even hybrid in some cases. We realize that our lives can be busy so let us help you find a way to get the training you need in a method that works best around your busy schedule.