A. SING ALONG WITH ME?
The first lines of one of my favourite songs are: "And the hardest part was letting go, not taking part". Many of us who coach are unable to compete, or if we do, it’s nowhere near the level we were once able to. But there is a deeper meaning to those words by Coldplay. Effective coaching is about “letting go”, delivering advice and helping with training and seeing the athlete develop much of the time quite independently of what we have to offer.
The athletes we coach have different ways of thinking, of processing our input, and of drawing from their own inner resources, in order to realise their ambition as well as achieve any goals we may set them.
The hardest part for the coach is letting go, not taking part. It is our job to deliver all the direction, inspiration, guidance, advice and leadership that we are able to, without stifling any of the creativity or potential of the athlete.
B. THEY ASK, “WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO?”
The 21st century athletes often have less club loyalty, less training group loyalty, compared with 20th century athletes. The reason is the accessibility of available choices and the large amount of recreational time they have, particularly here in Canberra where travel time to and from work is not a significant problem. The kind of lifestyle we are seeing more and more of is what I call the “smorgasbord” lifestyle; take a bit from here, take a bit from there.
Some people see coaches as the antithesis of that lifestyle, they see them as people wanting to direct and control, so are reluctant to even join a group, or are scared off after one session.
Others expect a dictatorial coach so resign themselves to having to totally submit to what a coach tells them.
There is a question people ask “if I join your group, what do I have to do?” Whereas the typical 20th century person is keen to know the answer and will try and fit in, the 21st century person is more often worried they will have to do something they don’t want to do, and would like to be reassured there won’t be disapproval, and that there will be space.
The 21st century training group adapts to cater for whoever are members of the group at the time. Instead of “if I join your group, what do I have to do”, the question I would like asked, is “if I join your group, what will I learn?” But people are worried they will have to change to fit into the group, rather than the group changing to accommodate them.
I would like to answer them with, “hang out with the group for a while, get some ideas, and I can help you set some challenging goals, and stick around and learn how to achieve them.” Rather than saying, “You have to do this kind of speed training, because that’s what this group does.”
The key word is Adaptability.
If we have adaptable groups though, there are some problems. In such a group there are many tensions. For example, a tension between structure and informality.
Structure – “here’s the kind of training we will be doing in different phases of the year”, versus Informality – “what should we do today because of where each of us are at, and why?” Coaching provides for both structure and informality, balancing the two.
Why have I developed this somewhat non-traditional approach to coaching? As well as being retired for three years now and having time to put my mind to these things, I am looking for something which suits people who are very different from one another, within the unique and emerging Canberra lifestyle of variety and opportunity. The search never ends, but what is being developed I believe suits the emerging culture better and which is something we could all work on cultivating in our training groups.
C. PRINCIPLES
In a training group which is open, adaptable, accommodating, and inclusive, people learn what training works for them as they uncover principles about how to train and race. I deliver Principles rather than Programs.
Principle-orientation says “here’s some training guidelines from which you can work out an effective plan which suits you” while a program-oriented approach would say “here’s a training program for you to follow, there is a specific training goal for each day, I hope you can fit into it”.
So rather than me dictating a set of programs, I like to let the athletes learn principles.
For example, I have a plan this year to help the training group focus on good pace judgment, testing the principle that even pace results in the best race times. Once we have had enough of that, the focus should shift to the complementary area of surging techniques. I have already had suggestions from the athletes in the training group of sessions they would like to do which develop the ability to surge at will in a race.
D. ADAPTABLE
We ask our athletes to be adaptable (to others’ tactics, to weather extremes, etc), but we coaches too need to be versatile and adaptable in how we respond to the needs of these people who live not only in our training group environment, but also in the external emerging culture of multiple choices, multiple opportunities, multiple affiliations.
In Canberra the lifestyle is one of copious free time, which means there is a multiplicity of recreational options, and people usually take up more than one; they shop around, they try a few things on, and over time keep trying new things.
The annual turnover of formal membership of our ACT Veterans Athletics Club is around 15%. It will get “worse” in the future, and regardless of the quality of services offered by the club, I suggest nothing we do will change that. A solution is to become part of the emerging 21st century culture ourselves, and as we do, we may lose some things like “total loyalty”, but we will gain far more through wide influence and in the long run, wider exposure. And it’s already happening, of course.
E. BLOG ME
An example of adapting to our culture follows. This is the era of the blogger, and I joined the blogosphere in January 2005. Set up as an online discussion forum in the style of a journal, the purpose of my blog is to facilitate communication between coach and athlete, and between athlete and athlete. Anyone can contribute their comments, their suggestions, their questions. It is great for mutual encouragement and support. I document principles we have uncovered, there are sets of form principles, conditioning principles, racing principles, all there now, and more to come. I have included sample training sessions for people to try out if they want. As well there are motivational things for fostering group spirit and building a team, and there are lists of coming events and race results for the group. I use it also to advertise and promote both the training group and the sport in general.
Just as importantly there are heaps of links to other running bloggers’ sites, which in turn link to us and regularly read and contribute. So even if only twenty, say, of the fifty or so who regularly train with me participate, there is a whole world of runners who influence me, and whom I influence, through the blog.
Geoff Moore
The first lines of one of my favourite songs are: "And the hardest part was letting go, not taking part". Many of us who coach are unable to compete, or if we do, it’s nowhere near the level we were once able to. But there is a deeper meaning to those words by Coldplay. Effective coaching is about “letting go”, delivering advice and helping with training and seeing the athlete develop much of the time quite independently of what we have to offer.
The athletes we coach have different ways of thinking, of processing our input, and of drawing from their own inner resources, in order to realise their ambition as well as achieve any goals we may set them.
The hardest part for the coach is letting go, not taking part. It is our job to deliver all the direction, inspiration, guidance, advice and leadership that we are able to, without stifling any of the creativity or potential of the athlete.
B. THEY ASK, “WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO?”
The 21st century athletes often have less club loyalty, less training group loyalty, compared with 20th century athletes. The reason is the accessibility of available choices and the large amount of recreational time they have, particularly here in Canberra where travel time to and from work is not a significant problem. The kind of lifestyle we are seeing more and more of is what I call the “smorgasbord” lifestyle; take a bit from here, take a bit from there.
Some people see coaches as the antithesis of that lifestyle, they see them as people wanting to direct and control, so are reluctant to even join a group, or are scared off after one session.
Others expect a dictatorial coach so resign themselves to having to totally submit to what a coach tells them.
There is a question people ask “if I join your group, what do I have to do?” Whereas the typical 20th century person is keen to know the answer and will try and fit in, the 21st century person is more often worried they will have to do something they don’t want to do, and would like to be reassured there won’t be disapproval, and that there will be space.
The 21st century training group adapts to cater for whoever are members of the group at the time. Instead of “if I join your group, what do I have to do”, the question I would like asked, is “if I join your group, what will I learn?” But people are worried they will have to change to fit into the group, rather than the group changing to accommodate them.
I would like to answer them with, “hang out with the group for a while, get some ideas, and I can help you set some challenging goals, and stick around and learn how to achieve them.” Rather than saying, “You have to do this kind of speed training, because that’s what this group does.”
The key word is Adaptability.
If we have adaptable groups though, there are some problems. In such a group there are many tensions. For example, a tension between structure and informality.
Structure – “here’s the kind of training we will be doing in different phases of the year”, versus Informality – “what should we do today because of where each of us are at, and why?” Coaching provides for both structure and informality, balancing the two.
Why have I developed this somewhat non-traditional approach to coaching? As well as being retired for three years now and having time to put my mind to these things, I am looking for something which suits people who are very different from one another, within the unique and emerging Canberra lifestyle of variety and opportunity. The search never ends, but what is being developed I believe suits the emerging culture better and which is something we could all work on cultivating in our training groups.
C. PRINCIPLES
In a training group which is open, adaptable, accommodating, and inclusive, people learn what training works for them as they uncover principles about how to train and race. I deliver Principles rather than Programs.
Principle-orientation says “here’s some training guidelines from which you can work out an effective plan which suits you” while a program-oriented approach would say “here’s a training program for you to follow, there is a specific training goal for each day, I hope you can fit into it”.
So rather than me dictating a set of programs, I like to let the athletes learn principles.
For example, I have a plan this year to help the training group focus on good pace judgment, testing the principle that even pace results in the best race times. Once we have had enough of that, the focus should shift to the complementary area of surging techniques. I have already had suggestions from the athletes in the training group of sessions they would like to do which develop the ability to surge at will in a race.
D. ADAPTABLE
We ask our athletes to be adaptable (to others’ tactics, to weather extremes, etc), but we coaches too need to be versatile and adaptable in how we respond to the needs of these people who live not only in our training group environment, but also in the external emerging culture of multiple choices, multiple opportunities, multiple affiliations.
In Canberra the lifestyle is one of copious free time, which means there is a multiplicity of recreational options, and people usually take up more than one; they shop around, they try a few things on, and over time keep trying new things.
The annual turnover of formal membership of our ACT Veterans Athletics Club is around 15%. It will get “worse” in the future, and regardless of the quality of services offered by the club, I suggest nothing we do will change that. A solution is to become part of the emerging 21st century culture ourselves, and as we do, we may lose some things like “total loyalty”, but we will gain far more through wide influence and in the long run, wider exposure. And it’s already happening, of course.
E. BLOG ME
An example of adapting to our culture follows. This is the era of the blogger, and I joined the blogosphere in January 2005. Set up as an online discussion forum in the style of a journal, the purpose of my blog is to facilitate communication between coach and athlete, and between athlete and athlete. Anyone can contribute their comments, their suggestions, their questions. It is great for mutual encouragement and support. I document principles we have uncovered, there are sets of form principles, conditioning principles, racing principles, all there now, and more to come. I have included sample training sessions for people to try out if they want. As well there are motivational things for fostering group spirit and building a team, and there are lists of coming events and race results for the group. I use it also to advertise and promote both the training group and the sport in general.
Just as importantly there are heaps of links to other running bloggers’ sites, which in turn link to us and regularly read and contribute. So even if only twenty, say, of the fifty or so who regularly train with me participate, there is a whole world of runners who influence me, and whom I influence, through the blog.
Geoff Moore
