Triathlon and Endurance Coaching
The importance of endurance sports
Endurance sports and triathlon in particular have been instrumental in helping me develop both personally and professionally. I believe that endurance sports are an amazing tool for discovering limits beyond what you thought attainable, and for improving weaknesses that you didn’t think could be addressed. In other words, endurance sports teach you about yourself, how to improve and successfully achieve your goals. I've been fortunate to have been able to divide my time between both coaching and racing at elite level. Coaching and racing have always worked hand in hand for me, but ultimately, coaching was where I knew I could be most successful. |
Psychological and Physical
I am now focused on improving the performance of athletes and developing as a coach. Whilst coaching at elite level is understandably demanding, it is also most rewarding. I share the same enthusiasm working with amateurs, who often have more challenging and diverse boundaries to work within. The knowledge and experience gained through coaching athletes of all levels provides a powerful tool in ensuring the best possible outcome for clients. As a coach, I find the best way I can help an athlete is by understanding the person and their psychological make up. There are obviously numbers that need to be known as well as sessions and testing that have to be completed, but ultimately finding out how an individual functions mentally will inform me how they function physically. |
Cardiovascular and muscular systems
Having worked within fitness and sports for over a decade, I’ve been fortunate to see hundreds of athletes at all levels. Reaching an understanding of how an athlete functions best is based on how I feel their body is built. The cardiovascular system is the engine the runs the show and training this is a priority. However, as a coach, if you don’t understand the muscular system and its relationship with the cardiovascular system you will never maximise performance. This relationship is my speciality, and although athletes may complete the same sessions at the same time, each individual’s cardiovascular and muscular system functions differently. Consequently, every athlete requires a different journey. It is, of course, important that training is stimulating both mentally and physically, so it’s vital to challenge the body in different ways. At the same time creating fitness is a process of building moving things in a specific direction, which does require repetition. I aim to make this as varied as I can but repetition at certain times is essential for building fitness if you are serious about progressing as an athlete. |
Achieving success from failure
I’ve experienced both success and failure as an athlete and coach. I genuinely believe one is not possible without the other. Discovering how to learn from failures and use this to your advantage and peak at the right time is where I obtain the most satisfaction as a coach. Although it can be very painful when things don’t go right, the most important thing is to understand why. The cause of failure is very rarely does bad luck alone, and looking for the positives and moulding them into success is my objective with every athlete I coach. With endurance sports, very small margins can decide on success or failure. Additionally, there are far more variables that can be controlled than those that cannot. By jointly addressing these issues, coach and athlete learn to control and manage these variables and share responsibility for them. I aim to coach athletes how to make the best decisions, listen to their bodies and to be disciplined but also flexible. A plan is there as a guideline but what really matters are the daily decisions that accumulate over weeks and months. With my help I am confident I can make a real difference to every athlete. |
Establishing a partnership
I choose to coach a small number of athletes, so I can devote all the time and energy required to realise their potential. If you have the desire and commitment to be disciplined with your training, to develop the patience to learn about yourself, how to be flexible and to make the correct decisions for the right reasons, then we we have the right ingredients to work together. I don’t believe in providing programs without regular guidance, but if you’re looking for a committed working relationship with regular communication, then this would represent a solid basis for a successful partnership. You don’t have to be an elite athlete to be coached by me, but you do have to be prepared to be open, honest and committed. In return, you would receive first class training and guidance from someone who continually strives to be one of Europe's most successful trainers. |