Coaching – The Pack
May 20th, 2009 by Gavin
Luckily I haven’t had to ask my Men this question, but if needs be, I will !
I currently work with 6 athletes from deep within the Wicklow mountains and so far
So Good
It is the first time I have coached and I am enjoying it.
I have Triathlon experience but I do not have experience of “the real world !” – I have sent in a few applications to join but they keep getting rejected !? From my brief time working with my guys I have come to a new understanding and have gained a lot of respect for athletes in our sport who live in this ‘real world’ and have things called ‘responsibilities’.
How they manage to train, work, train and take care of all of these other ‘responsibilities’ is a mystery to me – if I had half the energy I maybe wouldn’t be such a moody bitch after my own training !
With my group I attempt to be time efficient – the sessions we do are aimed at getting the maximum return for their time invested.
For example, at the beginning of our adventure I highlighted that I felt time spent doing fancy swim drills is time wasted – unless we could swim 20-30k per week and I was on pool deck reinforcing the drills everyday – alas an hour 3-4 times per week is all the ‘real world’ allows - so our aim would not to be beautiful pool swimmers but fit and tough triathlon swimmers - and so far with an average 32 second improvement over 400m in 6 months its working well.
And then of course there are the “secret sessions” – there is only room for 6 in the pack so to learn about these sessions you would have to kill someone !
I learnt one of these secrets during the winter- a wise man told me
“Gav, this session - its bascially cheating”
that’s all I am allowed to say about that.
The Pack – real triathletes living in the real world
3 Responses to “Coaching – The Pack”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
May 20th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
In Amsterdam marathon I ran by a guy in such condition as in the motivational poster above… and an old school walkman on… Not nice being around that…
May 21st, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Hey,
Check this link out, good to see methods being questioned I must say. No results – move it around and change. Always asking am I working as hard as I should be?
http://www.piranhatri.com/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=14122&fromblock=yes
I view my swimming in same way running and cycling. Winter miles equals summer smiles. With time in the pool you get the miles in, refining technique as you do so and get a proper feel for the water.
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Michael – thanks for the note, I saw the thread on Piranhananana
its not that I feel drills are not beneficial – I do drills in every session of mine – its just that rarely does a coach reinforce the drill time and time again – and so they become something to do in a warm up or cool down – its like doing a different stroke instead of freestyle.
triathlon swimming is so different to pool swimming. its a different sport. and when you dont have much time you need to be very focused and specific – specific to the demands of our sport – swimming in moving water, fighting etc
how for example ‘ a catch up drill’ prepares you for a triathlon swim is something i would question – whereas creating a situation where you are very uncomfortable and you need to find a way to ‘hang on’ might be more benficial