From Vendula Frintova
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Article from TeamUSA.org on Olympic 4th Place Finishers featuring Sarah Groff:
While many athletes struggle with motivation after the emotional and physical build-up to the Olympic Games, those who finished tantalizingly close to the podium often replay “what-if” scenarios in their heads. Groff knew that she had put it all out there in London. But the race and Olympic experience flattened her, and she struggled in the final World Triathlon Series races of the 2012 season, finishing seventh in one and ninth in the final.
“I don’t think I’m going to forget it ever,” Groff said recently. “I would say it took me until the summer of 2013 to really regain momentum.”
Groff finally made the podium in London — in a WTS race in May 2014 — and despite a minor foot injury in June, is having a good build toward Rio.
Read the rest here
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An interview with Jordan Rapp, with greater perspective on skipping Kona this year, background, and future:
Jordan Rapp announced this past weekend on his Rappstar blog that his Kona 2014 ambitions end now. He will instead focus on other events including the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Mont Tremblant and getting ready for Kona 2015.
Read the rest here
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Junior/U23/Collegiate athletes, we have an opportunity for you, get in touch: http://www.jftracing.com/contact/
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Check out this short interview I did with our kit supplier TAYMORY in Banyoles Spain at a recent camp:
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Setting up a camera to record a run session:
I recently answered some questions for a written interview, and as the answers are often edited or don't appear in full, I thought it would be useful to post a few here:
What kind of training cycles (macro and micro) do you use ?
We generally don’t use traditional training cycles, and instead apply a consistent progressive approach, each one building on the last block of work, incorporating the majority of the elements of preparation year round.
Can you compare your current training group/method with previous groups you have coached.
My coaching practice has evolved over time in many aspects, however the principles of individual approach, and focus on doing the basics very well have remained the same.
How would you describe your training environment?
One where independent athletes are surrounded by like-minded, and committed athletes and staff, making it easy to do the work necessary to progress toward world class performances.
Do you incorporate the latest and greatest technology or take a more down to earth approach to training and recovery?
We use technology, in a simple and straightforward way, to add information, with which to make better decisions holistically.
How do athletes join your group? Do they come to you? Do you seek out athletes?
A combination of referrals from current athletes, inquires from prospective new athletes, and in specific cases we contact those who might be a good fit and could contribute to the group.
What are the key criteria you look for in a triathlete. Do you feel you can predict which athletes will be more successful and if so, what common characteristics do they exhibit, or is there no common formula?
Primarily it’s about attitude: driven to maximising preparation and performance, resilient to setbacks, able to be both completely committed to achieving success, able to have appropriate perspective, and finally enjoys the process of preparation and loves competition.
If you could summarise your group in less than 5 words, what would you say?
Surrounded by commitment, success is inevitable.
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A couple weeks ago I sat down for an interview with Jeff Scull from the Department of Applied Health Sciences at Brock University in Ontario, for a discussion on coaching, inputting on Jeff's research project entitled "Investigation into the motivational strategies among elite triathlon coaches"
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International Triathlon Coach Joel Filliol and Jeff Scull from the Department of Applied Health Sciences at Brock University in Ontario will be having a discussion on coaching, inputting on Jeff's research project entitled "Investigation into the motivational strategies among elite triathlon coaches"
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This video presentation by Malcolm Brown - Leeds based athletics and triathlon coach - to Olympic Triathlon medallists Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee, among others - has outstanding insight into the Leeds triathlon environment - worth a watch.
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SkySports has an article on analytics in football "Future of analytics in football: Time to stop just collecting data and start making some decisions" following on a Sports Analytics Innovation Summit . 'Big data' is a trend in the technology industry, and also in sport, brought into the popular consciousness by the baseball book "Money Ball".
"It’s easy to collect data and feel like we’ve arrived."
While big money professional sports have taken to employing analysts to make sense of the data that is being collected, most coaches don't have access to that type of resource. With the increase in data available for coaches from new technology such as GPS, power meters, we can lose sight of what is important: using the data to make better decisions. Paralysis by analysis is a real problem for coaches, as well as increasing complexification of sport, using up bandwidth which might obscure a coaches' big picture thinking.
“Data is worthless. Only decisions have value.”
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This short article from 99u "Reflection is the Most Important Part of the Learning Process" sums up what is critical for any coach, reflection, and why creating opportunities to critically reflect on our coaching practice is essential for on going learning.
Effective reflection should be structured, and is even more powerful when done with a coaching colleague or mentor.
“We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience.”
Read the full article and incorporate critical reflection into your daily practise.
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"Stress is difficult but stress is also good; it gives you a determination to fight"
A short interview with Liverpool football manager Brendan Rogers: "What's in a day for Rodgers?" with some insight on how he works.
The influence of Psychologist Steve Peters' work with the team can been seen here, with the 'kings and queens' philosophy:
"I then say, it is your responsibility. I will give you all the tools, an elite environment, a high-performance focus, we give you the best people: medical, mental, technical, tactical and I will manage that. "
"All those factors will allow you to perform to a level of excellence. I tell all the players: 'the crown is on your head, you're the king of your destiny.'"
Another quote that resonated was the following about commitment vs motivation:
"I want commitment, not motivation, because motivation is fleeting, it goes by feelings,"
With the pressure and resources going into professional sports, there is always something to learn looking at the processes of the teams behind the teams.
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Adam Meakins' site The Sports Physio has an outstanding article on what is really required from physiotherapists working in sport, "So you want to be a Sports Physio" written by by Gary Anderson (@CoachGA), the Performance Director for the Great British Bobsleigh Team and Olympic Team Leader 2014.
“Shit happens, life is not fair and the goalposts do move”
Gary lists his his criteria for selecting his support teams, as well as his performance philosophy.
A few highlights:
- Contribute to team climate
- No opinions in public
- Accept uncomfortable environment
- Never an easy day
- Not about athletes being happy
The article is well worth a read for all coaches, and applies equally to anyone within your team.
"Do not forget the human interaction – effective communication overrides every element of technology or procedure that you have in your armoury. In my experience the body has a very clever way of righting itself in time, you are just trying to accelerate that natural process. Show that you care, show that you have the best performance interest at the for-front of what you do, thst is very powerful for an athlete."
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Check out the IM Talk podcast episode I did in studio with John and Bevan while on camp here in Christchurch:
http://www.imtalk.me/home/2014/3/24/imtalk-episode-406-joel-filliol.html
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"Nobody runs, skates or cycles faster from biomechanical evaluation only, no matter how many biomechanical factors you measure, there are always more performance factors to consider and to change (or not)."
A good post from Henk Kraaijenhof which captures some of the technological / if we can measure it, it must be useful / interventionist approach that pervades coaching, particularly for those organisations with larger budgets to spend on this sort of approach. It's never black/white, either/or when it comes to measurement or technology, however it's easy to spend energy focusing on the wrong things.
"A patient doesn‘t get better from diagnosis only."
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Another good post from Propel Perform - this time from Jeff Janssen on elements of strong performance cultures - 'championship cultures'. Numbers 2, 3 and 4 resonated with me, and reading this article made me consider, and reflect on where my current coaching practice sites with respect to this principles.
1. Credible Leaders
2. Clear and Compelling Vision
3. Core Values
4. Standards of Behavior
5. Aligned Systems
6. Committed and Unified Team Members
Read the full article and follow the author on twitter @janssenleader
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Derek Hanson's site Runningmechanics.com has an article on lessons learned on athlete development from the late Charlie Francis, Canadian athletics coach. Due to Francis' links to doping and Ben Johnson specifically, I thought about whether to link to this resource, however the post by Hanson is full of coaching wisdom that deserves to be shared and evaluated on it's on merits.
1. Cast a Wide Net
2. Nothing is Too Fundamental
3. Don’t Be Afraid to Walk Away
4. Adapt to Your Individual Circumstances
5. Coach to Your Athletes’ Strengths
6. Don’t be Tied to One Approach
7. Recovery Will Determine Training Objectives
8. Quality Begets Quality
Read the full article - a great resource for athlete development of any discipline.
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Shane Parish's site Farnam Street Blog has the mission to help "master the best of what other people have already figured out." The site is a great resource for coaches, and covers areas such as learning, processing information, useful books, the 'soft skills' such as relationships, rapport, and communication.
This post by Shane nicely links up the aim of EliteCoach.me, and is about learning.
"Most people go though life not really getting any smarter. Why? They simply won’t do the work required."
The summary is to read, and read a lot. But that's not enough - you have to actively read, much like 'deliberate practice' as a coaching concept - passively reading doesn't work. The test is being able to explain the concepts to others. Take notes, and process them, use what you learn.
Read the full post - it's a good one.
A good place to start with the Farnam Street Blog is the best of 2013 post.
If like me you end up collecting a lot to read - download Instapaper to pull material offline to read later in a better format.
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The Australian site Propel Perform tweeted this out last week:
"High Performance Heuristic: If your facilities are better than your results... You have a 'decision-maker' problem."
I felt it deserved a slightly longer follow-up than 140 characters.
Modern facilities are not necessary for elite performers, or to have an effective high performance sporting environment. This is good to remember for coaches, who train in older facilities, or facilities without all the bells and whistles. Also for federations or governments interested in promoting sport - better to make memberships free or subsidise participation than have expensive facilities. Of course it's great to do both, but often it's not possible, budgets limiting.
Many of the best performing programmes come from 'basic' facilities. Perhaps the environment created by shiny 'newness' creates the feeling that one has arrived, vs the struggle that high performance sport unpins is about.
I always like the older pool in Victoria BC, Crystal Pool, vs the newer Saanich Commonwealth Place.
Food for thought.
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Erik Barker's site Barking Up The Wrong Tree has a lot of good content - often excerpts from books and studies on various themes, such as this post on "The Five Paths To Being The Best At Anything" which touches on the '10,000' hours, 'The Sports Gene', having great team around you, and finding ways to give back.
1. Always work hard to improve.
2. When choosing tasks and strategies, consider your natural gifts.
3. Pick a great team and get familiar with them.
4. Within reason, always help others.
Check out the post and subscribe to Eric's newsletter on the site. Follow Eric on twitter @bakadesuyo
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