The coaches corner: Week 1

Hi Ecoli

There is a huge drop-off in juvenile athletes competing in Ireland from age 14 up. While in the US, athletics is the highest participatory sport between the ages of 13-18. How do you think the Irish structure can be improved to encourage young athletes to continue in this sport? What can be learned from the US system?

Netwerk Errer wrote: »

Hi Ecoli
There is a huge drop-off in juvenile athletes competing in Ireland from age 14 up. While in the US, athletics is the highest participatory sport between the ages of 13-18. How do you think the Irish structure can be improved to encourage young athletes to continue in this sport? What can be learned from the US system?

I think the comparison here is slightly flawed as it is financially driven. College fees play a major role in the latter given the amount of scholarships on offer than can effectively be the difference between starting your adult life debt free or not (or in other cases whether you go to college or not) here jobs, drinking culture etc all play more of a role in the drop off rate prior to this.

Compare the US drop off rates post collegiate to here and you would say that we probably fair as well if not better. It's an all or nothing mentality. As mentioned earlier I think there needs to be a viable light at the end of the tunnel in athletics to provide avenues towards a financially stable future for those outside the top 1%.

As a coach, do you think you would find it hard to be coached yourself now? Would you find yourself questioning any training you were given?

Great question and one I have asked myself numerous times over the last 18 months. There are times when I felt that I did need to accountability, I was losing focus for what ever reason and needed someone to answer to.

I came very close on a few occasions during the year to approaching tRR for training and another guy who is self coached and has an impressive resumé (sub 14/30 5k/10k times from self coaching) but ultimately I decided against it not because of ego, I wouldn't be conceited enough to think I know more than them but ultimately I would be a horrible athlete for the exact reasons you highlighted above.

For coaching to work you have to have complete faith in the coach and the approach, if you don't and start tweaking sessions etc (actively rather than life commitments) you are on a slippery slope and ultimately both you and the coach are wasting their time and you are better of self coaching at that point.

I know you wouldn't have that much experience coaching kids, but at what age do you think it is suitable for kids to start "proper" training? Sessions/going out for runs on non-club training days?

Personally I think kids should be active from as early an age as possible. The modern sedentary culture is something which needs to be tackled head on so if you can get activity ingrained in every day life at very young age it can have huge ramifications. Gone are the days of playing curbs, going to local field to play football or many of the unstructured activities that used to be play

In terms of joining an athletic club 7-8 is plenty. The first 5 years should just be just skill based games making it fun while inadvertently developing the fundamental athletic components. Talent will later determine which avenue that an athlete will take but without the foundation of all aspects there is no way in truly comparing potential vs general upbringing (conditioning) to a particular element.

At about 12-13 I would say is the right time to introduce more structured training however I would tend to be in favour of a multi discipline approach here with a non specialized focus. I know many will believe that leaving specific training till 15-16 is probably a bit on the late side in terms of development for endurance events but I remember actually looking at the elements of a middle - long distance training program and something struck me as to how this can be adapted to a juvenile approach without being specialized

Aerobic development, Strength and conditiong, Flexibility, Neural pathway development and plyometrics

These are elements which we aim to tackle in our own training after we become more specific but is something we can also develop a foundation for in earlier life by trying are hand at a multi discipline approach in our early teens

Long Jump/ High Jump - Muscle elasticity/recoil power/ plyometrics - As an adult we aim to use plyometric training achieve this
Shotputt/Discus - Explosive power/ strength and conditioning - Gym work in later life which is an essential part of a distance runners training
Hurdles - Flexibility - Something we all crave in later life in hamstrings particularly, can impact power in adulthood
Sprints - CNS recruitment - Speed development (Strides/ speedwork)
Distance - Aerobic development - Distance training

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.