By Rob Griffiths, Head Coach TBCUK
Last Saturday I had the good fortune to spend a few hours with my old buddy Bernie Shrosbree. He was opening his new Performance Centre, set up in the beautiful surroundings of the Haven Hotel in Sanbanks, Poole. He was being interviewed about his coaching philosophy and so I listened with interest whilst he shared his thoughts. After, I reflected on what he had said, and I tried to relate that to my own experience - both with coaches I worked with as an athlete and now as a coach, working with athletes.
Bernie talked about some fundamental factors, some core principles that he sticks to when developing an athlete. These are: Understanding them as an individual on a deep level; Helping athletes develop a reservoir of endurance and conditioning through cross training before adding sports specific polishing; Getting athletes to focus on technique to become really efficient in their sport; Helping the athlete to really understand their bodies and sense whats happening to them to in the moment; Helping them develop a robustness and resilience to keep trying, keep pushing and never giving up.
Like me, and being a similar age, Bernie comes from what one might call the 'old school' of coaching. By that I mean we have a similar belief that nothing much has changed. Sure we have some great new tools and technologies for measuring fitness and helping people see whats going on - our bikes are now made of carbon but all other things being equal, there are still only two ways to make a bike go quicker...push the pedals harder or faster! It's still the person that can do this that wins the bike race.
Looking at the successful athletes I have coached over the years, they have a number of key elements that make up that success. Two of them are Patience and Coachability. These can be hard to find in our culture of quick fixes and miracle techniques. 'I have been training for 6 months and therefore I should be good at this already!' We all want success and managing those expectations can be crucial to our performance and longevity in the sport.
I've had lots of conversations with athletes who approach me for coaching and who have a limited background in endurance sports. They tell me about how they keep getting injured, have bouts of illness that stop them training, or are gutted they did not qualify for the World Championships, or disappointed with a 13 hours finish in their first Ironman.
The old adage about taking 10 years to becoming an overnight success is as true now as it was 10, 20, 30 years ago! Have our bodies developed so much over the past few decades that we are now able to change our physiology? Success in our sport is counted in consistent sustained training over many years. Alistair Brownlee is the No.1 in the World at 21 and for the past 11 or 12 years he and his coaches have been working on exactly those things that Bernie had outlined in his interview.
To get good at anything we need patience - this is especially true in endurance sports - to keep practicing that swim stroke, or developing that smooth pedaling style. Sometimes when we don't really feel like it or our mates are taking the mickey because we are trying that funny swim drill again. Our bodies need the time to adapt to the training and demands we are putting on it, some adapt quicker than others depending on genetics and background. Too much too soon and we end up with the injury and illness sceneario. In my view it probably takes 5 years to learn how to race an Ironman and then a few more to perfect it. Thats what Bernie was talking about - developing a deep resevior of endurance and conditioning! As my old athletics coach Frank Horwill used to say, it's all about putting 'pennies in the bank of stamina'.
Coachability is the another key element I have noticed in successful athletes. By this I mean the ability to take on information and advice and do something with it - top athletes are willing to listen to a coach or adviser. If athletes keep getting injured or ill there is probably a good reason for that, and more often than not it lies in their behaviour and training pattern. It's a fine line between being determined, single minded and focused - important elements for any top athlete - and being pig headed and stubborn. This is where Bernie's point about helping an athlele understand their body, sense when they need to push, when they need to hold, when enough really is enough.
Listening to Bernie is always a treat, as he is a fantastic storyteller, and as someone who has had enough experiences to have lived two lives, he has a lot to offer. If you get the opportunity go and visit him at his new performance center, and take the opportunity learn from his remarkable knowledge and experience.
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