Coaching – What Should It Be? What Should It Do?

The purpose of any coach-athlete relationship should be relatively obvious: to improve & achieve a designated sporting performance. To that end, it can initially appear that the coach ‘coaches’ and the athlete ‘does’, resulting in a particular outcome. However, for any coach-athlete relationship to truly succeed, the coach/athlete boundaries must be allowed to shift, blur or even disappear.

The role of a coach therefore, is to help the athlete create a performance-centric environment for themselves, that has a clear structure and plan so that it enables them to achieve their desired performance. The coach will work with the athlete to create and mutually agree on a plan, then offer feedback, monitor progress, suggest detours and be the athlete’s sounding board. In essence, it’s all about balance – a word that I will be repeating frequently during this article.

The first element the pair need to balance is the athlete’s understanding of the demands of their event, and the work required to achieve that. The goal(s) must be realistic and provide enough time to incrementally increase the training load such that adaptation (the process by which the athlete’s body gets used to performing at greater levels) can take place. It’s important at this time that the coach & athlete agree not only on a target performance but also a general outline of the training phases required. This could be an increased period of endurance rides, more specific gym work, longer reps at threshold or any combination of different sessions. One thing is clear: you can’t improve all your weaknesses at the same time. We need to balance the need to get ‘faster’ with the desire to improve all our weaknesses. Choices must be made on what elements you need to, & have time to, improve.

Once the general phases have been agreed upon between the athlete and coach, they can start to map out the specific sessions, creating the correct balance of load, fatigue and rest. As we mentioned earlier, the design of the sessions should see them get marginally harder each week – too hard & the athlete risks accumulating too much fatigue, too quickly, then having to ‘back off’. Too easy, & the risk is stagnation. Therefore, balancing how much harder each week’s load is, versus when to schedule ‘recovery weeks’ becomes a point of trust between athlete & coach – the athlete must be honest with his feedback & sensations and the coach must be attentive to what he understands to be happening, flexing the load accordingly.

At this point, I’ll talk briefly about ‘data’. Most of us log or monitor what we’ve done. Whether it’s how far or how fast, or whether we’ve become a slave to Strava, it’s rare to find a cyclist who doesn’t measure something. As a coach, the data the athlete is creating becomes an important tool i.e. data doesn’t lie! As a minimum, a coach & athlete will plan sessions based on heart rate zones (a sliding scale of effort), then apply that zone to a period of time followed by a period of rest. This gives us a session (like all sessions) based on effort x time. I never tell an athlete how far or how fast they need to ride – it’s always how hard, for how long.

If the athlete says no matter how hard they push, their heart rate will not rise, or if their heart rate is high for a relatively low effort then it could be an indication of fatigue & action can be taken. If the rider has access to a power meter (a device that measures the force produced by the rider, in ‘Watts’, in propelling the bike/rider combination forward) then this can be combined with the heart rate & each device can be used to sense check the other. Ultimately, any rider will always want to produce more power. If we can measure, track and improve an athlete’s power, we can track his/her overall improvement. The online tools available to upload, store, evaluate & analyze this kind of data are very numerous – again, it comes down to a balance of using the right amount of data in the right way…..online tools can indicate ‘freshness’ but never underestimate an athlete’s own ‘feel’.

So, we now have an idea of what sessions we’re doing, over what period, with a specific goal in mind. We’ve planned recovery such that adaptation can occur. Is there anything else we can do? There sure is! Nutrition! We need to fuel the body so that it can ‘work’ at the right level when we want it to and ‘rebuild & repair’ when it’s not. Nutrition is about the athlete & coach understanding 1) what do I want my body to do? 2) when do I want my body to do it? 3) how long do I want it to do it for? 4) when will I be doing it again afterward?

Showing a colourful plate of fresh fruit and vegetables on your Facebook page does not show you’re balancing your nutrition requirements. Understanding how many calories an athlete needs for their body, for their daily workouts and then what they need for their recovery is the balancing act: too many carbs and there might be weight gain, not enough carbs and the athlete could ‘bonk’ during a session. Not enough protein and recovery is compromised. Not enough fat & we risk harming the body’s immune system. The right quantity of vitamins and minerals (almost exclusively via natural sources), and we keep the body ‘balanced’ (that word again!).

What we eat & when we eat it is only part of balancing the athlete’s lifestyle – yes, it’s about committing time and energy to our sport, but what about commitment to family & friends? Who wants to be the best athlete but has no other social footprint outside of training & racing?

The coach should ensure the rider is balancing their time away from the sport – this will help to rest the mind & improve their psychology. Everyone wants to win, and everyone thinks about winning, but clearly, it should not be an all-consuming 24-7 thought process. Balancing nerves and beliefs will improve race-day performance.

Equipment Vs budget needs to be balanced. Servicing requirements: the coach is not a mechanic, but the athlete needs to be self-sufficient in terms of basic breakdown and maintenance requirements. A flat tyre early in a 3-hour ride can either mean a 5-minute delay or a missed session. The coach must help the rider understand that methodical preparation and carrying basic spares (pump, tube, levers) will mean no lost work-outs. Finally, once the coach and rider have worked through the above, set out their race schedule and balanced the number of ‘A’ (important), ‘B’ (less important) & ‘C’ (training) races, they must both believe in their approach. Doubts from a rider’s perspective must be conveyed and discussed with the coach throughout the process so that when they line up on the start line there is only one thought in their mind…………’ today I shall succeed!’