Important Questions in coaching

I think too much is made of success and failure measured in finite results - "we won", "I lost", "We were second [third, fifth, fifteenth,...]", "we got beat", "you kicked their...".

As a coach, I'm obviously thrilled when athletes I work for do well.  I'm also pleased when they have a positive learning experience, be it having someone do better than they did, or because they stopped to help a competitor who flipped their boat, and then sacrificed their race to stay with them to the finish.  Those are great moments.

Other great moments are the minor victories and losses.  I have a set of questions for athletes after every race.  Not every athlete gets every question every time.  Asking "where could you have saved 5 seconds" is pretty meaningless when the athlete wins by a full minute - or when they crashed off the course, fell down a tree-well, and had to take their skis off in order to get back on the trail, losing 2 minutes.

But in general, the questions ring true in any kind of race against the clock.
Questions:
Where could you have saved 5 seconds/kilometer? (5 km cross country ski race)

• Every athlete needs to develop a 'replay' loop in their head.  Thinking about the handful of spots where you got complacent, or didn't read the hill well and bogged down, picked the wrong pace or the wrong line.  None are catastrophic, but in races where the difference between 3rd and 13th is often less than 10 seconds, finding 10 seconds can be huge.  Learning how to process your race, take away a few thoughts, and put those lessons into practice are a huge part of becoming a complete athlete (not to mention lessons for the rest of your life).  It's a subtle but important change to move from "You were 11 seconds out of 6th place" to "I bogged down on both of the hills today and lost about 5 seconds on each one. I also eased up coming in to the finish and didn't pass that girl. I need to work on my endurance when climbing."  That's a maturing athlete.  Knowing that you bogged down (which the coach standing on another part of the course can't see) and telling your coach what you need help on allows your coach to adjust your workout to add more climbing power work - or closing speed in a sprint.  Not knowing that would perhaps spend too much time doing technique work on the flats.  Athletes need to be the main part of their coaching team.

Did you leave it all out on the course?  (especially important after a bad race)

• Sometimes, no matter how hard you go, the results go against you.  Yesterday, I watched Marit Bjoergen, the most dominant cross-country skier in the world right now, finish 31st at the World Championships.  (Jessie Diggins was 2nd, and Caitlin Gregg was 3rd!!!)  Conditions changed, and Marit's wax techs didn't hit the right combination.  By midway through the race, it was pretty obvious she was not going to be on the podium, but there was no quit, no 'saving it for another day'.  She still went for it with everything she had.  While I was in awe of Charolette Kalla, and near tears for Jess and Caitlin, I really felt for Bjoergen.  She left it all on the snow. Every race, every time.  No athlete wants to face the questions from their coach, their parents, their fans - or themselves - about "Did I try as hard as I could?" Everyone has bad days, bad races, mediocre outings.  But there is a big difference between "having a bad day" and not trying.  If you did all you could given conditions, health, overwhelming competition, mechanical breakdowns, hold your head up, see question number one, and figure out how to do better next outing.  

What do you need to do to get ready for next time?

• Again, see question number one.  If you are assimilating what you learned about your race, then you can sit down with your coaching team and plan out the improvements.  Finding that one or two points to work on in a given week may make the difference next time out.  It's not often an instant fix. Usually, it's absorbing behaviors, lessons, and working to make it perfect.  

And then again, if it was a great race...

• I live for the moments where I get to stand with an athlete just after they have crossed the line and processed that they had a great race, preferably while they are still hot, sweating and riding an endorphin high.  It's less a question than a concept at that moment. "I want you to take a deep breath, close your eyes and focus on how you feel right now.  Fix it in your mind.  You just had the best race you've ever had.  Fix it.  Remember it.  You own this. Enjoy it. Great race."  

It's *all* about the athletes.

Sportsmanship

Photo: John Millea, MSHSL media specialist

I am not knowledgeable on, nor really a fan of dance line, but I do respect  the athletes who participate.  Like any judged sport, there is a built in subjective criteria to judging, and sometimes the wrong team wins for the right/wrong reasons.   However in this case, it looks like Faribault won with a routine that was pre-adjudicated to be legal, and must have been executed well.  It would appear that the choreography was within the rules as written, and they won.  I wasn't there, I wouldn't be able to judge it in any case.  All I've been able to review has pointed to actions taken *before* competition by the Minnesota State High School League to remove the origins of the routine as an issue.  My sense is that dance choreography borrows from all sorts of sources from NFL cheerleaders to Martha Graham and the Bolshoi.  I could be wrong - I'm a coach in a different arena, and there are no style points awarded for keeping a boat upright.
Bring me the news coverage

All that said, I am disappointed for the kids/athletes who were shunned by the other competitors at the awards.   It's a judged sport, for heaven's sakes. They won. They didn't cheat.  They didn't kneecap anyone else to win or bribe judges. Congratulate them and move on.  If rules need to be changed, the time to do that is later.  The video of the now disqualified 2nd-5th place teams' actions should be evidence at their disciplinary hearing for further sanctions for the coaches.

There is no place in high school sports for actions like this.  "Honor the game" - even if you don't like the results.  To act as the other teams did dishonors the sport, themselves, and their competitors.  As coaches, parents and schools, we work hard to build up kids' true sense of self worth and self esteem.

Right now, I'm feeling a lot of sympathy for the girls who stood proudly on center stage, and not much empathy whatsoever for the 4 teams who stood off to the side, and frankly pouted.  Just plain out bad sportsmanship.

Sportsmanship and grace - Two years ago, an athlete I coach placed 4th at US National Team Trials for sprint kayak.  She had possibly the worst spring (in terms of training conditions) possible - ice on the water until 3 days before trials, horrid conditions on spring training trip south, and her coach did not do an adequate job of preparing her on the ergometer (indoor training). But she sucked it up and went for it.  She finished 4th (3 to qualify), and with far more grace than I could manage, congratulated the girls who beat her. I had never been so proud of an athlete.  A month later, she was elevated to join the team when one of the other athletes had to decline, and made 2 semifinals at Jr Worlds.  
Last year, I watched a high school boy from a conference rival school hand his race skis to a young lady whose skis went 'missing' due to a communications issue with her dad.  No questions asked, just I'm about the same weight, mine were fast, you can have them.   That the skis wound up securing her state championship is almost beside the point.  It's now legend, and an act of true sportsmanship.  *THAT* is the kind of legacy you want to see at State, not a 4 team pout.

If I ever have an opportunity, I'd like to go shake hands with each Faribault athlete and coach, and tell them simply - "Congratulations - you won it".

Bottom line, you can't always win.  If you don't, accept it with as much grace as you can muster and congratulate the winners.  If the truly unfortunate happens, and it turns out there were issues, accept the new results and move on.  Sour grapes and boorish behavior simply have no place in sport.

First Gravel Grinder - Training for hills

In an earlier post, I laid out a five week plan for your first gravel grinder. I assumed that most people were somewhat fit, have done some riding, but probably aren't used to riding long distances on unpaved roads. And I've heard from a couple of people that maybe it should have been a SIX week program with a couple of 10 mile rides just to get used to being on a bike again - especially if you are planning to ride a fat bike!

On several of the weekly rides on the above plan, I list 'ride a few hills' as the goal.  Depending on your fitness level, and what's in the area, that can mean anything from a freeway overpass to a 300 climb from the river to bluff-tops.  Generally, I look for climbs that are around a mile, and nothing steep.  the first few should be at easy grades - 3-4% (200 vertical feet in a mile of riding).  This is enough to raise your heart rate and make your quads burn a bit without straining knees.

First, pace is not important on the first few - just ride them.  Find out what pace feels comfortable,

and use that as a mental benchmark (baseline really).  Try to time that mythical mile long hill - or whatever length you have to work with, and watch your average speed.  If it takes you ten minutes, fine.  If it takes 20, it may be a little long for now.  Cut back to around 8 minutes for the first 2 weeks.

Try to do 5 repeats of the hill - that will be a total of around 15 miles on an 8 minute climb. (level 2-3 if you are used to heart rate).

So now you've got your pace sorted out for something that you can accomplish, let's crank it up a bit. If you've been tracking your speed, try to increase that by 5% a week on your hill.  See how long you can hold your speed.  It's not essential you ride the whole thing without fading, but do try to hold a steady speed for most of the way. Now turn around, ride back down, and do it again - a total of 5 repeats.  See how you feel.  If you've never done repeats or not done them in years, it may not be much fun, at least the first time or 3.  Take a breather, and then ride the rest of your ride.

I'm big on interval work (what we just did).  Improvements come rapidly, and can be really rewarding.  If you can increase that speed up the one mile climb by 5% each week, that's a 20% improvement in 4 short sessions, which is probably 2 MPH or more!  The quicker you get over long slow climbs, the sooner you get to enjoy the flats and downhills again!

You should also find something steeper and maybe longer for the last 2 weeks.  Miesville offers about a dozen climbs of anywhere from a minute to 10 minutes, with the last two climbs being 10 minutes or more.  None of the grades are really steep, but they are challenging, and will take some mental energy to complete.  If you are training for the Pisgah monster cross, it's probably more like a 50 week program instead of 5, but the same general elements apply.  Good climbing is mental as well as physical.

So that's another element to training for your first grinder.  If you have any questions or comments, use the link below and I'll be happy to answer them.

~marsh

Shiny objects and game changers

I spent the weekend at the USA Canoe/Kayak annual Coaches and Leadership Assembly.  This is a great opportunity to get many of the coaches and leaders from all clubs around the country to come together.  Part of it is always organizational administrivia, sessions on technique, training, and psychology, but there are usually a couple of sessions on new technology (and always some time to socialize after all the work is done).

This year was no different.  Except that we came away with some interesting technology.

In general, Americans look for a technical cure for every ill, whether it's weight loss, power, or speed.  And in general, we get *way* too wrapped up on numbers like wattage for cycling, fluorine content of ski waxes, and the precise size of tennis rackets.  Or we'll worry about getting lots of threshold work when all our racing is at L4/L5.  Tech is great when it complements your ability to perform, not so great when it's relied upon instead of your ability to perform.  The classic example of this is cycling, where riders will spend thousands of dollars to shave a few ounces from their bike, while ignoring the extra ten pounds hung around their waist.

So three pieces of tech that I'll track and hopefully write more about in the coming months:

Sportlyzer (http://www.sportlyzer.com)
This is one of the most interesting sport management packages I've seen.  It's not perfect, but it does provide a very inexpensive way to manage the team, workouts, and track things like attendance and performance.  Coaches and managers build the calendar and workouts, athletes load the app on their phones, and can even track their workout via the app
I'm starting to populate it to see if it makes sense for my program.  So far, it's pretty easy to work with, and easy to understand. .
Roughly 25 bucks a month for 10 athletes. Full version with all bells and whistles for trial period.



Motionize.  http://motionize-inc.com   This could be a game changer.  The Motionize puck attaches to your paddle, and a deck mounted waterproof housing holds the other half of the sensor system, a speeaker, and a smart phone.  The app uses Bluetooth to communicate with the paddle sensor, and gives instant feedback on stroke rate, paddle position, distance traveled per stroke, speed and other factors ON THE WATER, in real time.  The speaker will *tell* you to lengthen stroke on the right side, take the blade out sooner, or whatever you need.  And that's as a stand-alone athlete.  If you are working with a coach, this is opened up to include interactive work with your coach, the ability to tune your workouts for specific technical features.  And they will add additional features for other functions.
Price - not available yet, expected launch 2Q2015, price not available.  (My guess - 3-500USD)


The third item is something I heard about not something I saw or had a session about, but hearing was enough to get my interest up.  Using blood lactate levels AND heart rate is a much more accurate method of setting training zones, and measuring improvement. Most heart rate users train in the wrong zone - HR zones alone usually set anaerobic threshold several beats higher than the true LT.
Moxymonitor.com has introduced an infrared blood lactate level monitor.  No more lancing earlobes, no need to pause workouts to record levels, or feats of gymnastics hanging over the edge of the coach boat trying to prick the athlete's ear while the athlete is trying to hang on to the coach boat without being sucked under it.  Moxy Monitor also has interfaces to a couple of sport watches, pc app interface, etc.
Pricing is still out of reach for most individuals, but it may be something a club or clubs could afford. Around $1000 bucks.

More on these and other technical tools to come over time.  Also note that I have no stake in any of these.  I may buy or review one or more of these in the future - if it's given to me, I'll let you know that as well.  My opinions are my own.

~marsh

Bikes for sale

I'm going to leave this post almost as a teaser.  I have two road bikes that I'm selling to fund my Fat bike build.  They are both excellent bikes - a top of the line Ridley Noah sz M (54-55), and a very, very competent Colnago CLX 2.0 (sz Small -50cm).  They are for sale, and all you need to do is hit the contact form at the bottom if you are interested.  The prices ($2200 for either bike) are very reasonable and the bikes are very, very good.


But that's not the point of this post.  The point of this post is that in order to further junior and women's road racing, I will significantly discount my price to either a junior or woman racer.  No strings, no BS.  I would like some proof that you are who you are, and that you are making a serious effort to further your racing career, be it toward National Team, or just trying to move from Cat 5 up the food chain.  There are so few opportunities for juniors and women who are just getting revved up to get decent equipment.  This is my attempt to help move someone's career forward.

Want more info?  Drop me a note in the 'contact me' link below.

~marsh