Sebastien Locteau

The last few years have been very interesting. Not many people can say they do a job they love.  My job is a lifestyle, not something you leave behind you when you go home. Many can argue it’s not healthy but if I had a normal 9 to 5 job, I would probably go coaching anyway after work. The last few years have been great and looking at 2011 and 2012 back now it is time to sit down and review what happened, where are we going from there and how realistic my expectations are. I hear people saying I have been lucky with my coaching career, I used to believe them . The truth now that I am older is that there is no way I could have been lucky for 14 years with international results in 3 different sports. I replied sometimes, if I am so lucky I definitely should keep going as luck is part of the game. I am not the most talented coach around, but I am for sure one of the hardest worker and that’s good enough to motivate my athletes and keep them on their toes. Yes som...

Sheffield, England When I came back from Belgium, I went straight to the Irish National Age groups and flew straight away to the British swimming Youth and Age groups championships. As it was in Belgium at the European Juniors swim champs, I had a very small break between sessions and decided to write another small piece during my traveling as I received quite a large and positive feedback from my last article. To introduce Sheffield, it is an old industrial City, Associated with steel since the 1740’s it kept its renown for steel production and coal mine for longer than most industrial cities expanding over two centuries. After a tough 70’s and 80’s the City was revived in the 90’s after a revamp of the cities, roads, infrastructure and house schemes. A compact town, old with new buildings, marina, train, tram.... The town very compact and my runs through it was quite difficult but after a few days of trying different path it got really interesting and...

Sebastien Locteau in Antwerp, Belgium From the 1st to the 8th of July I went with the Irish Junior team and two other coaches to Antwerpen in Belgium to the European Junior Swimming Championship. The results were amazing for Ireland , you can read them on the Swim Ireland website. I took this opportunity to do a few runs through the city, and really enjoyed it. So here we go, an Athenry AC runner in Belgium ! Coaching in a swimming pool is about 32 degree in a hot atmosphere from 6.30am to 7pm in the evening can be quite exausting. Lucky enough I had a few hours of a break between the morning sessions and the semi or Finals in the evening. 2012 Irish Junior swim team,  picture Swim Ireland We stayed in a hotel just opposite to the Antwerp Olympic pool, in which Graine Murphy's coach Ronald Claes who is now in Limerick, was coaching . High performance Director Peter Banks, Kilkenny Head coach John Duffy (Shanni Stallard coach) and Dublin High Performance ...

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...

"The mellow glory of the Attic stage"  I brought down the Christmas three down the attic and found my old military and trophies boxes. Christmas is almost here. Most of you are shopping expecting the last minute deal. For most people Christmas is the joy of family time and holiday. Food flowing around even with very little money a Christmas can be very enjoyable. L eft,  My old military chest and some of my old trophies For me Christmas has a very different meaning. I am going to share something very personal. People always ask me why I love so much coaching, and why I look so happy and wonder how my family cope with me been away most of the time. I never liked Christmas, I always thought it's too commercial and don't want to feel obliged to buy something because I have to. I believe in buying presents to someone when your feelings are there, if you see something which you think can make someone you know happy you can do it 364 days a year and not...

And thank you. Winning the Eircom Spider Award with the runireland crew was a nice feeling, but the true winners are the community we are building between us. It showed you do care about our website and do care about our news, articles and online entries so a big thank you to you personally. Now back to the article...........The sensation of putting one foot in front of the other in a smooth flowing action of single sport running is not regarded enough as technical sports. Many books are out there, about how to train but not enough about how to run. Developing runing skills through Drills and specific sets are important. Triathletes for example although the legs are predominantly the main limbs used in the bike and run sections the individual muscles in both the upper and lower leg are contracting in a different way when running. There are no shortcuts to becoming a good runner. Technique, speed, strength and mobility training, together with an awareness of the ...