Sebastien Locteau

The last few months have been very hectic  I never experienced such struggle to keep my coaching plans up to date and for the first time in 13 years I was not able to provide a plan to some of my athletes. Mike Flannery from Atlantic Masters jumping from blackrock in stormy weather I always say to my athletes that there are no reasons to miss training, that you can always do something else if there is an issue with a session that is logistic, social, physical or mental. This rule could be applied to coaches. The floods made my life impossible at home and professionally. My partner and little girl could not get home and were stuck in the village of Craughwell which was on the main road from Galway to Dublin before they open the new Motorway and it was under the water. I decided to keep working and travel from Wesport, Roscommon, Dublin and Galway and even if many young athletes could not travel we kept some session going. I also made the trip to Naas for the “Pulse” Tria...

I have been extremely busy in the last few weeks, coaching is a 24/7 job and my coaching plan didn’t reflect the progress I was expecting. Sickness has been around too and many of them had to recover from it. I traveled for 24h in the last 48h between car, plane and train. I had the time to do some interesting thinking about my new article. Our readers are always looking for the extra tip which will make them quicker. I was trying to look at the way the athlete’s footsteps can be improved; we know for the last 50 years that the foot optimize itself by automating the motion along with body posture. The human body is made to run, but even if most people think that there are not many skills or postural development to be made, we all heard about injuries, and new techniques developed such as the Chi-running which has been proved been beneficial. But generally, the body is capable to learn itself how to save energy naturally. Why do we let our head change this natural ability? ...

Is there a real Technique to follow or more a guideline !        Pictures : Forest marathon 2017 S.Locteau Athletes always ask me what is the best running technique. I don't believe in a universal running technique, but more in adapting the run to each individual. I always follow some basic guideline: Technique Many people do not know what they should do with their arms and hands when running. Your arms and shoulders will be tight from the swim and bike ride by the time you reach the running portion of the race. Try to focus on swinging your arms forward, but keep movement in your lower arms to keep your muscles loose. Your elbows should be bent about 90 to 110 degrees and keep your hands loosely cupped. Don’t clinch your thumb in your hand, but rather place it on top of your index finger. Your arm movement should be rhythmic and easy. Your hands should stop at the midline of your torso. When running, you want to foc...

My athletes know me as a hard task master, but I never lie to them. I tell them what is going to happen straight away so they are ready to focus instead of them discovering bit by bit and get afraid and can’t concentrate on their skills. So let’s be honest and put it this way with you: It is going to be scary! Now that you expect the worst the following should be easier to swallow. Swimming in open water is a great experience, from beginners to experienced athletes, the main difference from a pool aside from the depth is the f Fly Shannon Thomond Swim 2017  (Picture Limerick Masters Swimming Club) ear of the unknown, the darkness of the water or when there is a good visibility the fish, jelly fish and other aquatic “monsters”. Technically you only scared by what you don’t know or have a bad experience of, or been taught it was scary or dangerous. It is like having your first driving lesson and you don’t know how to drive and you know you can hurt yourself or someon...

I remember asking two decades ago in an international sport conference, if coaches should train women differently than men? I was laughed at, now I am laughing as recent research proved it. Portumna Forest Marathon 2017 (Credit S.Locteau) I do believe in a difference of coaching them, and do think it is highly neglected and you can see it as an example in gear made for women or sports equipment. I left the coaching of Track after the 2004 Games, simply because I felt that my skills were not good enough at the level I was coaching at. Along the way it seems that I succeed better in sports I felt I was not predisposed to coach than the one I really wanted to excel. My interest in track, running was first an enjoyment and a way to help other athletes and became a recurring job taking over my nursing career. Track training is very similar to swimming training in a pool. Of course the biomechanics and techniques are different but the core and hips motions is a very important...

Marathon has always been, for some, the ultimate achievement. There is a mythical aspect behind it. Forest Marathon 2017 by S.Locteau I receive many requests for a simple training plan, so I have published the one I give to athlete since last year. There are many plans out there on the web, people copy and replicate and most of the plans you can find are really well written. I have run about 25 marathons so far with times between 2h51 to 5h21 depending on the conditions or if it was at the end of an Ironman triathlon, but even as a coach I always listen to people’s comments about what I should do. They are not always right but I always learn new things from them, and I do appreciate that they are taking time to talk about their own experience. I do believe that sports is all about your own experience of it, like life is, we take what suit us and leave what does not, because we are all different. I usually don’t make generic plans, simply because I love tweaking things for...

"If you always train the same expect the same" My and daughters hand in perception talk in Canada In this article I will try to bring some new concept to review your training, I could do training plans or tell you exactly what to do, but with the internet I am sure you can find that information already. So let’s try something a wee bit different. It always amazed me how athletes have psychological barriers in sports. The sub 40 min 10km is one of them. Similar to the sub 4-min mile barrier in the 50 and 60's, they are the ones of those times in training that seems impossible to break, but once broken is easy to accomplish time and time again. I call them “perception time and distances issues” which in terms of goal training for a 40 min 10km a can be frustrating. Time, Distance, Skills, Physiology and Training. "Distance" When I explain this perception distance to my athletes as a self belief and educational problem I give them the ...

Mother Nature talked to me at the weekend! I went to Wicklow on the 12th of April 08, with my Friends Enda, Mark, Martin and Aoife. I went to Wicklow in the past and did some cycling and running around the mountains. I went there with the thought of testing my core capacity after my surgery 10 months ago. I went to Wicklow on the 12th of April 08, with my Friends Enda, Mark, Martin and Aoife. I went to Wicklow in the past and did some cycling and running around the mountains. I went there with the thought of testing my core capacity after my surgery 10 months ago. I went thinking that even if I am not very fit with my two runs a week of 45min that I would walk through it easy. Well there is some part of our nature that will never allow you to rest or take it easy. When you are stuck in the middle of the mountain with your calf feeling like a stone, yes you can stop, but the wind, rain and cold tell you have to keep going. This is where nature dictates to you what to ...

Practice make Perfect ! Learning is a relatively permanent improvement in performance arising practice. There are 3 stages of learning - mental stage - practice stage - automatic stage It is very important to understand these 3 stages of learning because each requires different instructional strategy. Mental stage When a technique is first being learnt the objective for the participant is to understand what is required to perform the skill correctly. To achieve this requires a great deal of mental plan of the correct technique and strategy. The best way for the athlete to understand the sequence required for the skill is through demonstration and explanation. Care must be taken not to overload the athletes learning circuits by too much teaching at this stage as the human brain can not handle too much information at one time. The goal at this stage is to help the athlete form a good plan for what they need to do. Practice stage The emphasis in this s...

It seems some known website enjoy my post to the extend to copy some of the content, flattering somehow but not very professional. (Picture Sean Bailey, Portumna Marathon 2011) In what ever way people read, replicate or interpret it most coaches would agree on the basic principle of following a program. how? by simply Training properly with quality. TRAINING PLAN HERE (Might need a newer design at some stage) Always question yourself, are my goals realistic? This is a 6:26 pace per mile after all! If your personal best is below 45min, with the correct program you can achieve a sub 40min. If your time is up around the 50 min mark, then maybe you should try to work towards a target of 45min. Of course at this stage you won’t break the 40min mark tomorrow, however if you give yourself plenty of time, say 16 weeks with a realistic date which you can work towards, set out your plan and endevour to stick to it, then you are well on the way to achieving your goal. ...