Don’t Let a Coach Ruin It
Hey I’m in England.
The Commonwealth Games are on- bit weird to be in the host city and watching it mostly on livestream, but off to my first session (Vester) this evening and while obviously excited to see him complete his campaign, also really looking forward to get immersed in the in-person atmosphere. I’ve watched a ton of international weightlifting…on a screen. This is going to be something else.
Those of us who love sports I sure love them for a range of different reasons- I do wonder how deeply people have delved into that and can identify the core of what it is that draws them into it, aka ‘the why’. For me it comes down to emotion. But anyway this post isn’t about that.
Only a few sessions into the 2022 Commonweath Games weightlifting programme and there’s been a notable number of rookie errors; missing the window to make changes, and timing out. One of things I love most about weightlifting as a coach is that I am an active part of the competition process. My decisions and behaviours will directly impact the athlete’s opportunities to perform. The coach can’t ensure an athlete wins, coaches don’t lift the barbell they can’t win the medals, but oh boy can they lose it on behalf of the athlete. I wonder if for some athletes this is a disappointing reality of the sport; that they are reliant on coaches to support their competitive performance and cannot mange it entirely on their own.
How poorly prepared some of these coaches are has got me thinking. Training for competition…as relevant for coaches as it is athletes?
Competition coaching (including running numbers) is a related but different skill set to that of programming and coaching in training.
What are the competencies of an effective competition coach? Here are my thoughts….
Ability to count attempts and manage time
Prior knowlegde of other competitors to help inform attempt counting
A thorough understanding of technical regulations and tactical strategy
An ability to stay calm, react quickly and adapt on the basis of observations and how the competition progresses
And then only AFTER all the above, the ability to provide the magic cue/slap/motivation to your athlete is the icing on the cake.
If you’ve got to the end of this and are thinking ‘man look at her all confident telling everyone what they need to be doing with minimal evidence that she is any good at it herself’, me too, lol. We’ll come back to this in a couple of years, see how it ages.
