How I Unpackaged my Passion & Developed New Skills

Rewinding a few months to when I was waiting in the UK to fly out to India & join Lyndsay, I was
desperately surfing the web, trying to find cycling clubs, groups, rides & races. I was determined to
find a surrogate environment for my cycling. There didn’t seem to be any properly organized,
affiliated clubs (there aren’t), races appeared to be very few and far between (they are) and local
rides tended to be more along the touring / distance side of things (BRM’s, or distance based
Brevets, similar to ‘Audax’ style riding in the UK are reasonably popular in India).

Nevertheless, I found a local road race that was taking place just 5 days after I landed in India. A
baptism of fire………..I successfully navigated my way through the race and finished about 15th – I say
‘about’ 15th as beyond the top 5 places (which received prize money) there were no official results.
The race was not only exposed me to Indian roads and Indian traffic but Indian bike racing as well. At
one point we had to race through some tolls and, not knowing that one booth had been left open for
the race, I got distanced from the group I was in, then spotted by one of the ‘pilots’ (motorbike-based marshals that ride with the race to create a buffer between the riders and traffic) just before I
was about to take a wrong turn and paced back to the group. This was followed by a crash (not
involving me) and swerving to avoid some cows. Oh, & did I mention the 35-degree Celsius heat? The
heat, the roads, the traffic, the racing – none of it had dampened my enthusiasm and determination
to get more involved in what was a very nascent, emerging sport. It also gave me the motivation to
get out of bed at 5am and train in the dark (when it’s both cool and the roads are quiet), hopefully
allowing me to maintain some semblance of fitness.
In early 2016 I attended one of the British Cycling Federation’s Level One Coaching Courses back in
the UK and the next rung on the ladder was established.
Soon after returning to Mumbai, I was on a Sunday ride (having been literally forced out of the
house to go for a ride by my wife) and met 2 local cyclists, got chatting and explained my BC
Coaching trip. Impressed that I had a ‘real’ (albeit Level One) qualification, they invited me to come
& talk to their wider group as it was preparing to undertake a charity ride from Delhi to Mumbai.
One of the riders in the group, who happened to do business with Scott-Sports India, mentioned my
acquaintance and from there I was invited by Scott India to start providing coaching guidance to
some of their sponsored riders (Road / MTB / Tri) and provide some coaching ‘talks’ via some of the
dealerships.
Some of the Delhi-Mumbai charity ride participants then asked me to start providing weekly turbo
training classes for 2 – 3 riders at a time. With the onset of the monsoon in India, it’s always difficult to
stay fit / improve/retain motivation!
These connections were simply made by a) doing the thing that I loved (& I’d had to be
reminded of that by my wife) and b) not saying ‘no’ – having the courage to walk through an
open door, even if you can’t see what’s on the other side.
A client contact then introduced me to a local sports injury clinic that had a small gym facility – I
started providing sessions there for knee injury referrals (where runners had undergone ACL /
cartilage operations and been advised to not run again, but were required to maintain a non-impact
cardio fitness regime and regain/strengthen the muscle around the knee). I also started using the
the facility as a central base to run 2 turbo sessions a week and also take advantage of the 4 Wahoo

Kickers there, such that I could offer some power profiling/analysis to the more committed local
cyclists.
In parallel to the above, I also was introduced, via a friend of a friend, to the Exercise Science
Academy – the only academic faculty in India providing Sports Science workshops and qualifications
certified by the American College of Sports Medicine. I embarked on a nutrition course first, then
followed that up with a Sports Nutrition Certificate.

In summary, I learned:
1) It’s easy to say ‘no’ but harder to say ‘yes’ – any new door is an opening to a potentially bigger
opportunity, but those opportunities are rarely clear on the horizon; it takes a level of commitment
to keep going even when you think you may be heading into a dead-end.
2) never stop learning – there are always more skills to learn and more ways to complement what
you’re doing.
3) what & who (as in the type of athlete) you want to coach can quickly become the polar opposite
of what & who you are actually coaching. Clients will continually surprise you with the breadth of
their aspirations so flexibility and being adaptable quickly became important.
The third & fourth parts of this blog will summarise the 10 lessons that have helped me learn,
identify my weaknesses and allowed me to grow and optimize my coaching services portfolio.