Putting Coaching Principles into Practice

Individuality

We are all different in our physical make up, our psychological orientations and we all adapt differently to training due to our individual genetic factors that have been reported to be responsible for 80% of adaptation to training stimulus. Also we all respond and are motivated differently to different coaching styles. Some well known coaching organisations allow coaches to coach vast numbers of athletes, that are no doubt coached by off the shelf plans that have no relevance to the individual, a far cry from the support that is received by Patterson training clients.

Annual plans

The annual plan sets out your training year based upon the races or events you have listed for that racing season. Within the annual plan is your training periodisation with each macro, meso and micro cycle clearly shown, along with information such as variations and contributing percentages of technical, tactical, physical and psychological preparation. It also lists the variations in frequency, intensity and training time for each training cycle. The annual plan enables the athlete to easily take a look at the forthcoming weeks and months and know by simply running their finger down the plan that corresponds to a given date and have a clear idea of every aspect of the training for that date.

Weekly plans

Within the weekly plans is the detailed information about the week's training including specific exercises, skills, training terrain and details about the frequency, intensity and training time. The weekly plan also has allocated space for the athlete to give the coach detailed feedback on the training completed, and also some physiological variables such as resting heart rate and "feel good factor".

Fatigue profiles and rider feedback

The rider feedback is a critical part of any coaching relationship and at Patterson Training we have designed a number of spreadsheets and forms referring to the athlete's physical and mental well being, to be completed on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. These forms enable the coach to spot any trends in physical and mental state that will aid in the prescription of training and recovery and educate the athlete to listen to their body and be more proficient at giving feedback to the coach.

Psychological skills

It is a well-known fact that most coaching on a club level is geared towards "working the engine" of an athlete, referring to the physical conditioning especially in cycling. Improving an athlete's physiology is very important, but is usually done at the expense of psychological skills. Many elite athletes have gone into a major competition and competed well below their ability only a couple of weeks after recording a personal best. Steve Backley, the British javelin thrower stated during one competition that although his physical ability was great he did not have the right tune playing in his head. This loss of mental focus during an event such as a tactical road race or a tough time trial can be as detrimental to performance as a low lactic threshold, so at Patterson Training we have a strong emphasis on mental skills training that, as with all aspects of our coaching, is specific to your chosen event and delivered in a knowledge-based practice. If the intervention required is beyond our expertise the athlete can be referred to a accredited sport psychologist with our full support.

Evaluation and re assessment of the athlete

"If you don't know how it works how can you fix it?" One of the great advantages of being a Patterson Training coaching client is the high standard of performance testing that we are able to offer using high quality Gas and blood analysis and power measuring using SRM training systems, and also the ecological validity and comfort of using your own bike on a Kingcycle ergometer during performance tests. We don't use correlations from computer programmes to evaluate VO2 values or lactic thresholds at Patterson Training, we follow BASES guidelines using calibrated and reliable metabolic testing equipment for all our testing procedures to ensure reliability and validity of our testing. This regular testing allows the coach to measure if the training stimulus has been successful and adjust the training plan accordingly. This is coaching science, not coaching by guesswork. If you want to succeed then Patterson Training should be your choice for coaching and sport science support.