Coaching sessions – what to expect if you turn up….
You may have seen / heard that over the last six or seven weeks I have been offering a coaching session on Sunday evenings at Billington Park track. There have been a few club members attending, and I’ve been trying to share with them hints and tips to gradually improve their running techniques, and to talk through approaches to races, drills etc.
So if YOU decide to come – what can you expect….and what have you been missing??? Well I suppose the best way is just to come along… but to give you a flavour of how the sessions work, below I will talk through the typical session, and some of the subjects I have covered over the previous weeks.
Firstly we always start with a warm up. Typically this take us one lap of the 400 meter track. During which, not only do we perform three or four dynamic stretches, but I also talk about why a warm up is important and what is happening to your body when you do it. (hint – its not just about getting the muscles moving, but also included increasing heart-rate, increasing lung capacity, and raising body temperature).
Once we have warmed up I will then (briefly) talk through the session that we are going to complete – sometime sharing what I am looking for – sometimes seeing if the attendees can spot for themselves what we are working on. Usually this lasts around 20 -25 mins.
During this time I try to asks the runners how they feel trying the different drills, what they can feel changing (if anything) and occasionally ask one of the group to repeat a section, so we can use them to demonstrate to the rest of the group what we are looking for.
Over the previous weeks we have looked at subjects including arm position and swing, stride length, cadence, agility and balance, techniques for running up (and down) hills, race strategy and pacing for 5km and 10km events and the feeling of pace change.
At the end of the session we will then perform a warm down and some stretches – again I will be trying to explain the reasons for these – and what is happening to your body.
Typically, a session lasts 30 mins. As much as possible I try to keep the session fun and light hearted – also I try to adjust what we are discussing based on those who attend, and also the weather (on one of the hottest days we sat in the shade for a good 10 mins discussing energy systems in the body). I also try to avoid using jargon, and explain what / why in simple terms (hell I’m a simple guy!).
The main aim of the session is to try to help those attending identify areas where they can gain small improvements in their technique and approach to events. Even a small percentage difference can have a big effect ( 1% improvement on a 5km run is equal to being 50 meters further up the course – at some races that’s HUGE!)
So what are you waiting for…….I’m off for a couple of weeks – but the coaching sessions will be resuming on 30th July…..see you there??
What’s the worst that could happen???
