Hi Reader,
If you listened to this week's podcast you'll know I went back through six conversations with some of the best coaches in endurance sport and pulled out the principles they all kept coming back to.
There's one thing I said in that episode that I want to expand on here, because I think it gets to the heart of what good coaching actually is.
I said that one of my goals as a coach is to make myself redundant as soon as possible.
I mean that seriously. The athletes I'm most proud of aren't the ones who needed me indefinitely. They're the ones who developed enough self-awareness, enough honest self-knowledge, and enough understanding of their own body and life that eventually they could do most of this themselves.
That's not a coaching failure. That's a coaching success.
Chris Jones - who was head coach for British Triathlon at the Sydney Olympics and one of the most influential coaches this sport has produced - used a phrase that I've stolen and used ever since. Context before content. Understand the person first. The plan comes after.
What strikes me about that principle is how rarely athletes apply it to themselves. Most of us go looking for the plan - the programme, the schedule, the methodology - before we've honestly asked the more important questions.
What does my life actually look like right now? What can I genuinely execute consistently given my sleep, my stress, my work, my family? What does my body specifically need at this point, not what does the average training plan prescribe?
Those are harder questions than "which plan should I follow?" But they're the ones that actually determine whether the training works.
The coaches I spoke to this week weren't describing magic programmes. They were describing the art of fitting simple principles to complicated people. And the athletes who get the most from coaching - at any level - are the ones who bring honesty and self-awareness to that process.
That's a skill worth developing. And it gets better with practice.
Train smart,
Wardy
P.S. Building that kind of self-awareness - and having a framework that helps you apply it consistently - is a big part of what SWAT is designed to do. Find out more here.https://www.simonward.co.uk/swat-inner-circle
P.P.S. If you haven't listened to this week's episode yet, six coaches, eight principles, and one idea that runs underneath all of them. Worth your time.
Listen here:The Principles of Great Coaching: What Six Triathlon Legends Have in Common
Read the full article here: Eight Principles Six Elite Coaches All Agree On. And Why Most Athletes Ignore Them.
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Simon Ward
Performance coach for endurance athletes over 50
Helping you train smarter, race stronger, and stay in the sport for the long haul.
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