Don’t Copy

This is a great post from Goldie. Wayne Goldsmith is a leader in the area of coach eduction and development and its someone I respect and look to for advice.

In this post he points out to coaches to make sure you tap into what what works for YOUR athletes. Sure - learn from others, but if we do what everyone else is doing and not tapping into what works for US then that always leads to disappointment.

In this day and age of a podcast every week telling you all the big sessions and the power athletes are doing in their intervals it plays with your mind.

Athletes … Tap into what works for YOU. What are you good at that works? What is the best thing that you have in your toolkit that your competitors don’t have?

I coach an athlete that has done a couple of sessions lately that I would never prescribe but they did them and importantly THEY WORKED ! The athlete tapped into their intrinsic beliefs and took their minds to new levels.

I also coach athletes that have barely got a red session in 5 years. Their successful moment WILL come. Their moment attacking over the Poggio, or in our case, their moment running off the bike at their dream pace will come as a result of those 5 years of discipline.

Self-awareness lies at the core of the next step-up in your development.

In our sport you will find absolute weapons doing 90min long runs and you will find weapons doing much longer than that.

The key is they are tapping into what works for them. Not what a formula says they should do.

Athletes (and coaches) must be themselves as that is what will lead to your success. Not copying others.