A Peek Inside (Part 17)

Hello readers,

I keep believing that this series has reached it's finale, and then I get another idea.  

So a step back.  What is the Peek Inside series meant to be, other than a peek inside the coaching world?  Initially the idea was to have a couple of posts detailing a day in the life of a rowing coach and then call it a day.  Instead I started thinking about the tools that I use on the daily - not getting into my coaching toolbox because you can find a link to that - and then the what and why I purchase items such as clothing.  I also felt that it was good to dive a little deeper into my own experiences as a coach and work on some of the struggles that I've faced and continue to face such as self care.  

I spend the summer of 2019 mentoring some younger coaches.  I earned my Level III US Rowing Coaching certification back in 2012 which enables me to be a mentor and sign off on hours.  It was my first true experience being a mentor and I wanted to share as much as I could with them.  My goal as a coach is for coaches who eventually work with me or whom I mentor to not have to trace the same path that I've walked down.  While I am proud of where I am, and the work put in, many times the path felt lonely.  I felt isolated from other coaches, and it seemed each point that I would be able to work with a coach with vastly more experience than I, the situation would change, and that opportunity would be gone.  While that was my perspective while going through those times, and having gained more experience and knowing that I could have likely reached out to others, I want to provide that ear and insight for younger coaches.  Approaching an experienced coach, as I have, can sometimes be daunting.  You're not sure what to say, or even where to begin.  

In this post, I wanted to share some of the advice or lessons that I've been given or learned along the way.  Not all of it will be tied to rowing, but I've found it all applicable.  

Always know the reason why

This of course seems fairly obvious.  Everything that you do as a coach should have a reason, and you should be aware of that reason.  This piece of advice lends itself toward practice planning and training.  I've seen a lot of crazy shit out there:  6x20' hard, 9x2k hard, 12x500 hard, heaviest weights possible.  The question becomes, what is the purpose for those workouts?  What are you trying to get out of it?  Breaking a sweat, and elevating heart rate is not a goal.  That's something that happens during the workout, but that's not the goal of the workout.  You don't, or shouldn't over complicate the purpose, just have one.  

Titles mask the real responsibilities

A great coach, two of them actually, told me that 10 percent of coaching was the X's and O's.  The 90 percent you don't see is what truly makes you a coach.  And I agree.  How often are we watching a sporting event where something doesn't go our way and we react, often saying, "Man, I could coach better."  The X's and O's of coaching any sport aren't overly complicated.  This is why there are those, "Idiots Guide to _(insert sport)_" in every sporting section of a book store.  But those books do not cover the depth of the responsibilities you have.  I was working with a young coach once who had finally gotten their shot.  They were going to be the interim head coach for a full season.  They were pumped.  So many plans, and ideas, and they wanted to talk training.  A few days later I text them to see how life was going.  The response I got was classic.  "I've been sitting through so many meetings, and the AD wants to see my training plan, and the racing schedule for the athletic budget including transportation, hotel costs, and airline flights, and our equipment is a mess and I have to get that repair list out..."

Welcome to coaching. 

Consistency will help you and kill you

You should be consistent in what you do.  Being consistent is the key to building a successful program.  You cannot walk in and spin the wheel and hope that whatever comes out the other side is going to work.  2x2k this week at SPM 24.  2x2k next week at SPM 36 with half the rest.  Establishing how you build lineups and then changing because...reasons? Changing your stroke sequencing throughout the year.  One day you're lifting for strength, then you're lifting for power.  It breeds panic within your program because the athletes realize you don't know what you're doing, and you don't have a plan, and if you don't have a plan, then the ship is sunk.  

On the other hand, do not become fixated on your consistency.  Adaptation is also key to improving your program.  Holding onto the same training plan year after year without any alteration or review simply sinks your program further into the ground.  Most plans can remain effective long after their initial development, but they must evolve as training evolves.  

Copy and paste is for computers

Coaches I know joke about this because we were once in the same place in our careers:  It's your first convention or clinic, and it's being run by several experienced coaches or you're planning on hitting up several lectures run by gold medal winning coaches.  The lecture begins and you begin scribbling.  You're not listening, just writing, and you walk away with starry eyes, and dreams of gold.  But there's an issue.  You're coaching junior novice, and the coach you just listened to coaches the US Women's Eight, best eight in the world.  Your crew is attempting to break 8' on their 2k while the women in the eight are sub 7'.  Disconnect.  This also goes when you're riding in a launch - something you should absolutely do - with a great program.  Know where your program is, know what sort of athletes you have, know what level you're coaching at, and then consider the workout.  

Often what I warn coaches about when it comes to copy and paste is this:  There's nothing wrong with it, if it can be effective for the athletes that you're working with, and it fits in your own training program.  But if you don't understand the purpose of the workout, or how to effectively run the workout, then you're simply hoping that throwing numbers at the board gets the job done.  And it won't.  I did not run Rusties for a couple of seasons until I worked out that a lot of coaches have a lot of different interpretations of what Rusties are - mine is outside arm, inside arm, wide grip, standard.  

It's ok to be wrong because you will be

One of the worst mistakes I believe you can make as a coach is to never admit that you made a mistake.  That puts you above reproach and that's simply rarified air that you don't want to be breathing.  You're going to make mistakes.  Big mistakes, small mistakes, whatever.  You're only human.  Admitting mistakes earns you respect with your crews.  Your athletes understand what's going on, even if they can't quite describe it.  Admitting that you've goofed is not the end of the world.  Far from it, admitting that you goofed lessens the tension around the program.  If the coach can make a mistake, and admit they made a mistake, then I can admit that I made a mistake.  It's ok that I made a mistake as long as I understand what I did, and am working to correct it.  

Build your personal security

You're going to be insecure to start.  I'm still a little insecure at times.  That's ok as long as you manage it, and that it doesn't manifest itself in either what I outlined above or in how you build your staff.  Do not surround yourself with Yes people.  If you do, you're extremely insecure, your athletes know it, your staff knows it, the programs you race know it, and you're doing nothing but hammering it further into your own subconscious.  You want coaches who are not afraid to tell you, respectfully, "Coach, I think we need to rethink this," or "Coach, I have some ideas."  If you're the kind of coach who needs people to agree with them, there's no hope for you or your program.  Period.

Never underestimate your athletes intelligence

I hear it all the time.  "Kids these days are so soft."  Bull.  Here's the problem with that argument.  Let's use me as an example though I've never once said that in my career.  Take 20 years off me and I'm 18 years old, and coaches my current age and older are saying the same thing about me and my generation.  I guarantee the very first human who decided to switch from being a hunter/gatherer and go into farming was seen as soft.  I grew up with cell phones, but just.  Most kids in high school had pagers, and a few of us had cell phones.  Kids these days have phones that make our best computers even 10 years ago look slow.  We went to space on tech less sophisticated than the fitness tracker I'm currently wearing.  Look, kids these days have access to information we could only dream about.  They're intelligent and tough in ways that are different than how we were tough.  Concussion protocol when I played soccer was to follow a finger and if you turned your head, you were concussed.  That would never fly these days.  Part of building your training program, and having it evolve is to meet your athletes where they are.  This isn't allowing them to dictate the training, but you're showing them respect.  You're showing them that you will respect where they come from, the things they go through on the daily, and in turn you expect them to do the same.  This is a give and take process.  Sometimes you lead, and sometimes you serve.  

It's not the rigging/boat/blades/seven seat

It's your training.  Since 2004, I have run into exactly two instances where rigging was the primary factor in why a boat wasn't performing.  In one instance the oars that the program had ordered years prior were ordered with permanent pitch.  In order to set correctly you had to subtract the oar pitch from the pitch number to find the correct number.  In the other instance, the boatman had rigged all the oars the same length.  The problem was that we were using two different blade styles.  The oars my boat was using were 7 CM short which explained why we ripped the water and couldn't find the connection.  That's it.  In 16 years, two instances.  It's not the rigging that's the issue.  It's not that you need Hudsons or Empachers instead of Vespoli or Pocock.  It's that your training is not effective.  Or your tech is not effective.  Fix the training.  

The older you get, the better you were

This was one of the first pieces of advice I was given as a coach.  When I rowed or played, I was the paragon of athletic virtue.  They called me, "God."  Heard it over a thousand times.  Everything was better, your program was better, you were better, and literally no one cares.  Your athletic career ended the second you graduated college unless you went to the national team in which case your career ended when you retired.  The last medal I earned was at the conference championships back in 2004.  Gold in one, silver in another, and that's it.  I don't row masters, so I'm not competing.  A boat I coached won a national championship.  Boats I coached earned medals at these regattas, or at those national championships.  I didn't win those medals, the athletes did.  Leave your personal ego at home, or go join masters.