In the Derek Evely 'Shovelling Shit' article from 2013, here, there is one bit that stood out for me and I keep referencing back to. Evely talked about the factors of a successful program and the sequencing of those factors. The factors are:
- Coaching Excellence
- Quality Sports Medicine
- Access to Warm Weather
But he warned against putting the cart before the horse and building a centre without these factors already in place. "Do not kit out a Centre with support and medical staff and then try to figure out who your coaches are going to be. All the bells, whistles and support staff expertise can really help but only if driven by a coach who knows what to do with the information harvested from such tools. Without this, it is all a waste of money…money that could be better used for a coach’s salary".
Now most coaches in this country will have little or no access anyway to the bells and whistles of a formal support structure or centre, but they can still have access to a barrage of information thanks to the advances in smart technology and apps in handheld devices or insights from private practitioners looking to make a living. Knowing what to do with the information or not what to do with it can be a daunting task and leave a coach and athlete muddled in the thought process.
As always, it's probably a case of trial and error and mix of old school techniques and modern technology that can find that right balance. A good case study in this is the athlete Gerard O' Donnell, part of our training group in Dublin. A good winter indoors had led to an optimistic view of the outdoor season but some early season setbacks had left the athlete staring down the potential of a less than optimal outdoor season.
A foot injury at the end of the indoor season massively curtailed early outdoor preparation including missing a warm weather camp in Torremolinos in April with no track work possible for close to 8 weeks. Working with Colm Fuller, in the Sport Surgery Clinic in Santry, the injury eventually recovered to the point where training could resume but form was not clicking. Two runs in the 14.90s and another two in the 14.30s were not boding well. Tweaks were being made but progress wasn't coming. Six weeks to Nationals turned into four, three, two and then it was days. Time was running out.
Appliance Of Science
A couple of things started to fall into place. Some testing with Claire Brady, as part of her PhD, showed a relatively slow or long first step out of the blocks. Discovering it 48 hours before a race in Belgium it was decided to not tweak for the Belgian race and re-visit in training the following week. The Belgian race didn't go well but there was something to work with the following week.
The first step was the focus the following Wednesday (Nationals -11 days) and it brought noticeable improvements, particularly at the body position of the seventh and penultimate stride before the first hurdle. The transition from the acceleration phase to cycle phase (that Peter Coghlan had beautifully articulated to us in some sessions earlier in the season), and preparation to hurdle, was smoother and there was greater extension of the body and minimal breaking. Touchdown at the first hurdle was faster too with Dartfish saying it was a 0.10 second improvement on recent summer sessions. Progress.
But the subsequent hurdles weren't seeing improvements. More searching was required and it was the end of the session which uncovered another potential issue. A front on view showed an excessive drifting (inwards) of the trail leg when contacting the ground. This had been obvious some weeks previous when doing standard Mach style drills but as a coach I ignored it apart from mentioning it in passing. Bad mistake.
Athlete Feedback
Gerard mentioned that he was still feeling some discomfort on the inside of that foot, not as severe as the original injury and more of a niggle. We concluded the drift in of the foot on landing was probably a sub-conscious reaction to protect the foot. A treatment from Fuller would be required and a conscious effort to not 'protect' the foot in sessions. The earliest treatment would be the following Thursday (Nationals - 3 days).
Being close to Nationals, you had to be conscious of doing too much so two more key sessions were planned. One on the Saturday and then one on the following Wednesday, four days before Nationals. Before the Saturday session, came the final observation or piece of luck. Shane McCormack had arranged a meet up for me with James Hillier at the European u23 Championship in Poland as Hillier was there with Cameron Chalmers.
Coach To Coach Mentoring
We met in the warmup track in Bydgoszcz on the Friday and discussed several topics. Hillier made the point that sometimes as coaches we focus on the negative or weakness of an athlete as opposed to the strengths. He asked what was Gerard's strength and that that could be a focus in the run up to Nationals. I suggested it was his back end of the race and his last 6 hurdles.
That evening when looking at some training and race videos back at the hotel, and based on Hillier's advice (of focus on the strength), I decided to tweak the following day's hurdle endurance session. 3 x 8 hurdles was planned and it was decided to remove the 'weak' part of the race and focus on the strong part, the back end. So the first three hurdles were dropped in height, the first 6 inches and 2nd and 3rd 3 inches, so as to ensure there was greater speed for the latter half of the runs and take the first few hurdles out of the session.
Gerard videod the sessions, as he was training alone and forwarded them on. The effect was big. The conscious effort to not protect the sore foot meant the trail was straight on and no longer drifting and touchdowns were 0.03-0.05 faster than any of the summer sessions. Gerard was very positive too and concerns regarding the first few hurdles were forgotten. This was another Hillier point in that sometimes when focusing on a positive aspect the negative aspect can fix itself.
The last big session was on the following Wednesday and just before Nationals and all aspects had clicked. First step was great, trail leg was aligned and strong on landing and hip extension was excellent. A visit to Sports Surgery Clinic relieved the foot pain and the Friday and Saturday before Nationals were the first fully pain free in months. The mechanics were back to where they were when Gerard was running faster earlier in the year. All that was left was to race.
Athlete Delivering
Race plan was simple. Be patient with the hurdling on and off the hurdle and trust the back end of the race. The execution was excellent by Gerard and a second National outdoor title was the outcome, something that seemed very unlikely after a 14.90 run in Belgium a few weeks previously. The time of 13.94 (+2.1 m/s) was probably his 2nd best outdoor run ever with still some significant room to improve and build on over the coming weeks and the new season in 2018.
It doesn't always work out but the outputs from a very data driven scientific piece of work from Claire Brady, some old school watching an athlete do drills and two way athlete/coach feedback and then finally a piece of coaching advice from an experienced and successful outside coach all led to things coming just right, just in time. All those outputs were probably there all the time, it was probably not having the necessary coaching experience meant they weren't harvested earlier.
Coach To Coach Mentoring
We met in the warmup track in Bydgoszcz on the Friday and discussed several topics. Hillier made the point that sometimes as coaches we focus on the negative or weakness of an athlete as opposed to the strengths. He asked what was Gerard's strength and that that could be a focus in the run up to Nationals. I suggested it was his back end of the race and his last 6 hurdles.
That evening when looking at some training and race videos back at the hotel, and based on Hillier's advice (of focus on the strength), I decided to tweak the following day's hurdle endurance session. 3 x 8 hurdles was planned and it was decided to remove the 'weak' part of the race and focus on the strong part, the back end. So the first three hurdles were dropped in height, the first 6 inches and 2nd and 3rd 3 inches, so as to ensure there was greater speed for the latter half of the runs and take the first few hurdles out of the session.
Gerard videod the sessions, as he was training alone and forwarded them on. The effect was big. The conscious effort to not protect the sore foot meant the trail was straight on and no longer drifting and touchdowns were 0.03-0.05 faster than any of the summer sessions. Gerard was very positive too and concerns regarding the first few hurdles were forgotten. This was another Hillier point in that sometimes when focusing on a positive aspect the negative aspect can fix itself.
Extreme example on left of the effect of sub-consciously protecting the sore trail leg (left) foot on landing and then three days later a much better aligned trail landing
The last big session was on the following Wednesday and just before Nationals and all aspects had clicked. First step was great, trail leg was aligned and strong on landing and hip extension was excellent. A visit to Sports Surgery Clinic relieved the foot pain and the Friday and Saturday before Nationals were the first fully pain free in months. The mechanics were back to where they were when Gerard was running faster earlier in the year. All that was left was to race.
Athlete Delivering
Race plan was simple. Be patient with the hurdling on and off the hurdle and trust the back end of the race. The execution was excellent by Gerard and a second National outdoor title was the outcome, something that seemed very unlikely after a 14.90 run in Belgium a few weeks previously. The time of 13.94 (+2.1 m/s) was probably his 2nd best outdoor run ever with still some significant room to improve and build on over the coming weeks and the new season in 2018.
It doesn't always work out but the outputs from a very data driven scientific piece of work from Claire Brady, some old school watching an athlete do drills and two way athlete/coach feedback and then finally a piece of coaching advice from an experienced and successful outside coach all led to things coming just right, just in time. All those outputs were probably there all the time, it was probably not having the necessary coaching experience meant they weren't harvested earlier.
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