10 questions you should ask before training

“What should I be asking to get the information I need?”

fitness training willand cullomptonThis excellent question came from Mark, one of the coaches on our last CPD workshop in Devon. You have a blank sheet of paper, you have a new group of athletes: where do you start?

Here are 10 questions you might want to ask (in no particular order).

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Coaching the Millennials

Generation Y Me?

Coaching millenialsSometimes known as Generation Y, this group of people are the ones coming into the workplace since the Millennium.

A bit different from the Generation X “slackers”, the Millennials have been hot housed, nurtured and been led to believe that they can achieve anything.

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Developing young athletes: Jonah Barrington

“Kids are brittle and fickle”

jonah barrington squashJonah Barrington, squash legend. I worked with Jonah for 5 years when I was Head of Athletic Development at Millfield school.

He was always a great sounding board on things to do with coaching, squash and life.

He gave a heartfelt presentation to all of the coaches at the school, and I have just uncovered the notes I took. Here are some of his insights:

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How to acquire skill in strength and conditioning

“Skill learning isn’t just skill learning, it’s preparation” 

skill acquisition john brierleyJohn Brierley in his skill acquisition lecture on our level 3 coaching strength and conditioning for sport course.

Ever see the 5 sets of 5 programme for squats, power cleans and bench press? Dull as dishwater!

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An important lesson from the Navy Seals

“If you know how to ‘shoot, move, and communicate’ the rest will fall into place.”

no easy day book reviewMark Owen, in “No Easy Day” the story of the Osama Bin Laden mission.

Owen talks about the planning and preparation that goes into a mission like that.

An immense amount of training of the basics of close quarter combat, and then more training in pressure situations.

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Hope, mindfulness and compassion

“Do you coach with compassion or for compliance?”

Richard BoyatzkisEffective leaders bring out the best in people, they do this through inspiring hope,being mindful and coaching with compassion (1).

That was one snippet from my recently completed 6 week course led by Richard Boyatzis called “Inspiring Leadership Through Emotional Intelligence”.

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Team building: a different approach

“Pretty much everything we do in life is a co-operative endeavour”

Clay Errosaid Clay Erro at the beginning of his inspirational talk at GAIN. Clay is a recently retired Californian High School teacher and football coach.

He was kind enough to share some of the lessons he has learnt over his career.

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Heart rates, wattage and VO2 max testing.

“Heart rate should be an indicator not a dictator”

Bryan Fish ski coachsays Bryan Fish the Development Coach for the US cross country ski team.

This nugget of information came out at a breakfast conversation at GAIN. I know very little about the long endurance sports, so was fascinated to hear what Bryan had to say.

He expands further here.

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