ECB Coaches Association links Inside Edge 6 May 2018 | Page 46

PLANNING TRAINING PROGRAMMES
AB:
The change of coach is significant, but we’ve tried to
minimise the impact. This transition has taken place
over a long period of time. The running coach, who
Jonny mentioned, is mentoring the new coach. He has
been mentoring for the last ten years. The importance of
more experienced coaches mentoring newer coaches
should not be under-estimated, and does not happen
enough in sports.

Our approach isn’t 30 hours a week of prescribed
training. Large parts of the training we have autonomy
over, because in triathlon there aren’t really the
experienced coaches out there. There really isn’t anyone
who has done it, and we should be intelligent enough to
know what we need to do, and when, a lot of the time.

The level we have been operating at for so long
now, it is about hand picking the best people to talk
to in running, swimming, cycling, gym, and getting
mentoring and guidance from them, rather than too
much structured coaching.

It is about selecting specialists who really know their
stuff in each discipline. Obviously we use physiologists,
physios, nutritionists and psychologists, so there are a
lot of inputs. Choosing when you need each of those
inputs is the real key.
JB:
Planning the programme is really complicated. The
starting question is “at what point in the calendar do
I need to be at my best?”. This will vary each year. This
time round it’s particularly complicated and unusual
because the Commonwealth Games in Australia in April
means we need to peak earlier than is usually the case.
Then we need to work out when and where to hold our
big training camps. When we are at home in Leeds we
can do loads of good training, but Yorkshire in February
and March is not great preparation for The Gold Coast in
April, so we often do training camps away for a month or
two at a time, getting use to the specific conditions we
will face when we’re in the big event of the year.
We need to sit down with the coaches and
calculate when best to train hard, and equally when to
train easy, so we are fit and injury free when it comes to
the big events. Planning the training programme to the
right level of detail, and considering all the variables and
crucial factors we need to take into account, is arguably
the most important thing we will do all year. My coach
plays a big role in doing that.
JB:
There are lots of different skills needed to being a
successful coach. For me my run sessions are set up by
a coach, so I turn up on a Tuesday and Saturday with no
idea what I’ll be asked to do. I need this to stay engaged
and focus.

For both of us the coach often needs to hold us
back, and just put the brakes on a bit. Making us do
slightly less training, and yet keep us confident of our
performance is important. As endurance athletes
there’s a tendency to think the more training I do the
better, but that really is not the case. If you are going
well sometimes having a coach there to tell y