Coaches are time lords !

Our lives are based on time; life expectancy, working hours, birthday, all kind of anniversary, TV, appointments, sleep, meals and more.

A coach is certainly someone with a time obsessive disorder, everything needs to be planned and calculated in advance. Some of my programs are more than 4 years ahead of schedule which includes variation with injuries, traveling abroad, studying, life changed plans, or if the progress does not match the expectations at that particular time I need to draw a different time line.

Even a basic plan will do with a new or young athlete; things don’t need to be too complicated:

Sebastien Locteau with Double Olympian Michael Carruth gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

We also “Play” with the past results or even their physiological made up, if they grow fast or slow, what time of the year they were born, how the parents do look like, if they are tall, small and their shape. It give us an idea how what we could expect to see the athletes to develop in to from the genetic background. The same way with the mental aspect which is as important.

In the last few months, I have been offered a good few coaching positions and 2 outside Ireland. The irony is that the one I really wanted close to my house and applied for, I just did not get. But I am actually happy I did not, I have a good base in Ireland now with 11 National Championship Level athletes, in swimming and triathlon. And even if it might seems a bit ego centric talking some of my results, it just shows that in Ireland we do can succeed and we need to stop putting our head down and start to stand up for ourselves. We are as good as anybody just accept it and when you are in any event on a starting line with other great athletes, it simply means you deserve to be there like they do….. just go and prove yourself now!

In the last few months 14 year old Sarah Kelly swam in the Celtic Tri Nation bringing a 3rd place for Irish Senior team, and the Connacht squad is just a pleasure to work with. Pulse Triathlon club has been a great support and Kim Hickey the new girl around is a great little worker with 3rd Place in her Age group in the half ironman in Barcelona with so far top five female in the last few national series. At the Olympic trials and National Championships we did quite well with again a good few medals with Saoirse McGrath and Olivia Fullard. This was tough championship and any final was just amazing, so a medal was just from another world. Watch the short video and see the quality of that meet:

Last weekend I brought my Division 2 swimmers from Comans SC to Limerick for their National Age Group Champs, and with 14 of them, I had such a great time, with many great performances and Medals. That team make my day, training for over 10 month for that weekend and it was simply better than expected.

Next week I will be traveling with the Irish Junior Team and as one of the Coach for Ireland, I can say this young team is definitely the future of Irish swimming. The European Junior Championship in Belgium will be a great meet to go to and be proud to represent Ireland at.

Finally after Belgium we will have 2 more Youth and Age group championship before flying to Sheffield with the Connacht squad for the British Age Groups and Youth championship which will take place before the Olympic Games.

To go back to our time line story, People are always asking me how athletes peak and how things work. The answer is quite simple, it is all about timing. It’s like taking the bus or the train:

The body is like a stop mechanical watch with all the little gears in it, they need to be maintained, services and taking care of. If they are not the mechanism become slightly unstable and the hands of the clock can lose a fifth of a second every day. Yes this is not much and you can adjust it every few weeks as this is not a major issue. But the more you rectify this the more the little adjuster button is getting worn and then after a year or two need replacement, and like a car when you start to change one thing it leads to more problem, a s a new part with old components is not a perfect synergy as the new part, better stronger will worn the old one quicker. As this continues, the watch breaks and you miss your train.

 Sebastien Locteau sponsored double Olympian Paul Hession "fastest white man" in the 200m at the London Olympics in 2012. A highly tuned machine in 2008 before his departure for Beijing Olympics

The body is the same; you need to meticulously make sure it is maintained at its top all the way through the next four years, without doing any modification. Every time it need some changes, from injuries, new program, new coach, then it stop the clock ticking for a very small amount of time, but like everything it does add up and you end up missing that bus to performance city !

Again, the solution is simple, change what is not working well as soon as possible, plan what could possibly go wrong ahead, everything that is going well is bonus. Learn from experienced people what the usual mistakes that coaches and athletes make are. Never think you know the outcome, consider any options. When I planned Portumna Ultra Marathons and Marathon, this year I thought there was no fault. Well without friends, it would just have been me running all over the shop and making massive mistakes. The team, the friends are important in sports and in life. Sometime we think nobody cares about us. But in my world people do, and they are just amazing people.

Coaching is just like planning a trip, and thinking about what can happen if you lose your credit card, miss your flights or worse, or a similar pathway of an athlete and walking on a wire with a safety net. Yes you can fall many times, but the fewer mistakes you make, the more time you will save and you will learn to avoid distraction from the outside world of normal human life. Don’t be a human been, be an Athlete.

Sebastien Locteau

First published on runireland.com on the 27/06/2012