The Art of Coaching Flashcards
Training Tools
There are several training tools and techniques you can use to effectively communicate with your athletes. Consider the following.
Real time feedback or educational interactions that are conducted in person, over the phone or online
Online group Q&A round table discussions that are recorded and made available to athletes as podcasts
Use of communication tools available through online training software such as TrainingPeaks
Reading material and/or short videos on foundational information like nutritional strategies, functional strength, things to keep in mind during the racing season, et cetera
Weekly newsletter delivered via email that discusses questions received from a specific athlete or information related to a specific phase of training
Webinar presentations on specific aspects of training
Social Media
Blogging
Type of Fatigue
Before deciding whether to push a fatigued athlete or pull back, coaches need to determine the type of fatigue the athlete is experiencing. When athletes complain about “heavy legs” or feeling sleepy, coaches should push their athletes to learn how to train strong when they are fatigued.
However, there are some warning signs to be aware of that indicate a need to pull back.
Loss of hunger despite high training load
Unusually sore muscles or sharp pains
Suppressed or elevated morning HR
Very suppressed HR with high RPE during training<
Broken sleep and/or night sweats
There are also VISUAL CUES that coaches who work with their athletes in person should be aware of.
Anticipated Fatigue
There are times during the training season when coaches will want their athletes training with some fatigue. Athletes need to learn how to train strong when they are feeling tired. When fatigue is anticipated and more muscular in nature, athletes should be encouraged to push through.
In a well-structured training plan, periods of loading are followed by periods of unloading. Coaches should look at the plan to confirm that the athlete’s fatigue is expected, and that adequate recovery is scheduled for after the current sequence of hard days are over.
Common Psychological Issues During Training
The following are common psychological issues that may affect athletes.
The desire to over train Lack of confidence Lack of competitive desire Frustration as a result of injury Inability to concentrate Intolerance of the pain associated with hard training Lack of motivation for training Refusal to optimize recovery
Quantitative Data
The two categories of quantitative data are physical metrics and training measures.
Examples of physical metrics include:
Height Weight Body fat Body circumference Resting heart rate (RHR)
Examples of training measures include:
Intensity (HR, resistance) Duration Pace Power Elevation % Completion A great way to track athlete progress over the course of the training season is to include similar training sessions every 4-6 weeks that include test sets. In the beginner IRONMAN 24-week plan, testing is scheduled during the sixth, twelfth and eighteenth microcycles.
Qualitative Data
Qualitative data is used to gauge how the athlete feels and can include both physical and psychological feedback. Coaches should try to gather qualitative information on:
Mood Fatigue Soreness Appetite Motivation Concerns Stress Social issues (that may impact training)
As mentioned in the previous topic, a great way to obtain this information is by asking open-ended questions. You can also encourage athletes to use a log or other feedback system that provides them with a list of the information they should record for each training session.
To measure the quality of a training session, an athlete should also rate his or her perceived exertion using BORG’S RATE OF PERCEIVED EXERTION (RPE) SCALE.
Fatigue
When evaluating data from a training session, you would expect to see an athlete’s heart rate elevate as the intensity of training increases.
Should you see an abnormally high heart rate, or if an athlete’s heart rate is higher than it was the prior week for a training session prescribed at the same level of intensity, then there’s a good chance the athlete is fatigued.
Fatigue is often the issue if the athlete is hitting the expected training measures (such as power or pace) but the quantitative and qualitative feedback indicates they are working harder than normal to achieve projected numbers.
Resting Heart Rate
If an athlete is complaining about feeling fatigued, a good way to evaluate if overtraining is the issue is to obtain data on the athlete’s resting heart rate.
This data should be collected upon waking in the morning, before any activity or nutrition. If the athlete’s resting heart rate is elevated above normal, it may be an early sign of overtraining.
Overtraining
Excessive fatigue and extended muscle soreness are two clear warning signs of overtraining.
This state of constant physical, mental and emotional exhaustion can lead to a decline in performance.
Other warning signs of overtraining include difficulty sleeping, depression, elevated or suppressed morning HR, longer HR recovery period (accumulating fatigue) between intervals, easy irritability, persistent illness or injury, lack of confidence and overall lack of quantitative progress.
Add more active recovery days or possibly even have the athlete take some days off to rest.
Another method is to restructure the microcycle to prescribe 2-3 days of progressive workload with a day of active recovery.
By integrating these recovery days within the microcycle you allow more time for the body to recover.
Exceeding Expectations
The issues uncovered while analyzing athlete data may not always be negative.
There may also be times when an athlete is progressing faster than anticipated.
The coach may adjust the next training session with a similar objective to incorporate a longer interval at the same intensity zone, or the same interval duration at a higher intensity.
As a reminder, to elicit the training response and to avoid injury, follow the 10% rule by increasing either duration or intensity by 10% when modifying the training plan.
Quantitative Data: Compliance
An important quantitative measure to analyze is compliance with planned workouts.
Coaches should evaluate the data from individual training sessions to determine whether the athlete completed all the sessions as prescribed, only partially completed some sessions, or if any sessions were skipped.
Too many missed sessions may be an indicator of a bigger issue.
In these cases coaches should quickly reach out to the athlete to determine the cause, and to help rectify the issue (if feasible).
Coaches should also compare the athlete’s training session duration, to ensure he or she is not over-ambitious (training more than prescribed) or partially completing the training sessions.
Quantitative Data: Pace, Power and Heart Rate
When heart rate is compared with power or pace it provides a revealing metric.
Coaches can use this data to identify potential warning signs.
If the data showed that the athlete’s heart rate spiked after a period of time, the coach could use the data, along with qualitative feedback, to determine the cause.
It’s possible that the athlete’s fitness lead to the increased heart rate, or the athlete might have been dehydrated or fatigued from lifestyle stresses.
Peak Pace
Another way coaches can use pace data to determine the parameters for future training sessions is to look at the athlete’s fitness history.
If the athlete is steadily improving his or her pace over time, this indicates a gain in fitness and coaches can use the peak pace data from recent sessions to develop new threshold measures.
Quantitative Data: Intensity
One more way coaches can evaluate if athletes are completing sessions as prescribed is by analyzing the percentage of time athletes are performing at threshold intensity within each training session, throughout a microcycle, or during different legs of a race.
Coaches, along with their athletes, should also analyze the data for chronic training load for trends that indicate an athlete has the potential for getting sick or injured due to the excessive training load.
