The coaches corner: Week 1

RayCun

Timmaay wrote: »

Hmm yeh so is there basically no coaching course for adults?

you've a choice of Level 3 or Fit 4 Life Leader:D

they have been working on an adult endurance course for a while afaik. Any new course has to be signed off by Coaching Ireland, and they didn't have that last time I asked. Don't know if it will include the kind of sports psychology thing we've been talking about though.

But I can understand the thinking. The coaching set-up (probably for other sports too) is based on a long term development plan, where you expect athletes to start as kids and learn as they get older. If you're coaching someone 20-25 years old, that's probably someone who has been in the sport for ten years or more, and if they're still being coached it's because they are at a very high level. You don't get many people who start to throw in their 20s, not enough to base your courses on anyway.

Timmaay

I guess I'm trying to have my cake and eat it, I keep meaning to do a level 1 just haven't found time yet.

RayCun

Timmaay wrote: »

I guess I'm trying to have my cake and eat it, I keep meaning to do a level 1 just haven't found time yet.

I really enjoyed the level 1, thought it was very interesting. But I'd say its weakest on middle and long distance running. Where there's a specific technique to demonstrate and work through - whether that's a sprint start, discus release, high jump approach - it's good (especially for someone like me who knew none of that). Not so good on how to put together a distance session, or a series of distance sessions building up to a race.

ECOLII

Sorry about the delay folks majority of been a manic few days so boards time has been limited sop didn't have a chance to sit down and do out responses

PVincent wrote: »

Brilliant insights , thanks so much for your complete honesty and openness. I am interested in your views on a couple of things. What is your view on sports phycology and the role it has within your coaching ethos. And then following on from that , I believe that one of the most important statements that you made in the answers was that the person you are coaching Must have complete faith in the coach and the programme. This side of coaching is missed by many and whilst many have knowledge and qualifications, a lot do not have the required People Skills. ( a lot more relevant in other sports to be fair) . Do you think that this needs to be addressed within the learning programmes for coaches. With the way the world has gone today and communications largely by email, txt, etc, the younger coaches coming thro I feel will find it difficult in one to one and even more so in group coaching.

I think it's an interesting question. Personally I am probably not the best person to answer it given the nature of the coaching I do for the most part via boards and (also being part of that younger generation )

I do think that it is something which needs to be dealt with more for sure though. In the brief time I was working with the sprints group this was probably the biggest learning curve that I had not just from a sports psychology point of view but also from just conveying idea's across.

In terms of the importance I think it has huge ramifications I have seen athletes over perform for their ability as a result of sheer ignorance of limitations and likewise I have seen athletes in great shape under perform in target races only to come back and hit targets in a target race. This is one part of communication that at coach needs to learn on an individual basis (knowing the fine line between pushing athletes hard enough mentally without breaking confidence)

Vito Andolini wrote: »

This has been a great thread really enjoyed reading it, just a quick one from coaching runners of different levels what's the most common obstacle runners face in meeting they're goals?

Following on from last point I would probably say mentally believing in themselves. I think especially in this country there is too much cart before the horse mentalities and training is viewed as getting the body to where the head wants it to be rather than physical fitness dictating targets. Many of us are a victim of setting targets at start of plan and even though I use this approach myself to a point I don't necessarily believe it is the best approach.

Ceepo wrote: »

Have to agree that its a great thread. In order to keep it going heres a few more for you.

What if anything 2 pull be your pet hates when it comes to coaching ?

Like to get your thoughts on the barefoot/ minimum cushion v's regular trainer debate.

Also Thought on the " optimum 180 spm ".

Thanks in advance

Hmm pet hates is a hard one as very rarely would anything bother me. Tend to find limited feedback a bit of a hindrance to the overall process.

Aside from that I am pretty easy going. I remember a great quote from Without Limits describing Bowerman as hating when you train to hard as well as don't train hard enough and I think it is fairly applicable. I think as a sport for the majority of us Ego should be left at the door.

Like many of these debates I think common sense idea's tend to get swept up the these fads as a silver bullet. I think that ankle mobility and restricted dorsiflexion are definitely somewhere that many of us can make huge improvements from but ultimately most of us spent our lives growing up in cushioned shoes so if you are going to go down that route you basically have to build back from the ground up and it is not a case of dropping miles for a few weeks and walking barefoot and building back over 6-10 weeks its a very lengthy process. I remember being at one of the Champions Everywhere talks before dealing with this and though I did not agree with everything I was impressed with the application of the process.

Personally I wear fairly minimalist shoes but I still get the odd niggle I think strength and conditioning and other aspects are a much more viable target are for improvement in this regard.

With SPM I think there are too many variables that are overlooked and again application is the biggest issue with many of the pro's and con's rather than the theory behind them.

pconn062

Thanks ECOLII for sitting in the spotlight this week, was a very interesting thread. Have another contributor lined up for the next week so will get that thread up and running soon!