Cycling Coaching what is it?
What makes a coach?
Now this can be controversial but it something I’ve been looking into for a while. The reason for this is I’ve seen a number of coaches around the traps, and they all seem to be doing the same things. It’s a simple formula one would think to coach one or more people to achieve a goal.
Although it’s the achieving of the goals that, the run of the mill coaches miss the ball on. For the past few weeks I’ve been searching for what makes a coach?
To me a coach is an individual that would listen and learn not only from his clients and their need or requirements but also from his or her own achievements and years of training that will bring something more to the table than just the extensive theoretical knowledge required to coach.
As I’m no expert in the field I decided to start a personal quest to answer just this question. Disappointed in continuously hearing friends talk about their training regimes and thinking to myself, “How will that help?” or “Where is the training plan?”. Having a coach that has a group of athletes all doing the same workout is not coaching in my book.
From my investigation the following is what I would be looking for in a coach if I were seeking to achieve a goal I had in my sight. A professional coach weather paid for services or volunteering their services to a club needs to follow a few key areas.
- Understanding the individuals needs and goals
- Producing each individual with a separate training program
- Providing analysis into the training taking place
- Re-accessing the program on a monthly bases to tailor the program to the data being produced for analysis.
- Sports Psychology
- Recovery Training
- Nutritional advise and analyses.
This of course is just scratching the surface the coaching ideal. The disappointing thing I find is that there are every few known or recommended cycling coached in Australia. A useful resource I’m looking into at this stage is www.TrainingPeaks.com which looks to be promising and a starting point.
The Weather
BrisbaneFriday, 29 August, 2008, 1:16 pm 
Partly sunny
current temperature: 21°Csunrise: 6:04
sunset: 17:34
Forecast Saturday, 30 August, 2008 day Partly sunny
20°CForecast Sunday, 31 August, 2008 day Partly sunny
21°C