Sorry for no post yesterday, last night was the annual Break Your Limits Tour de France dinner and by the time I got home I was in no state to be typing. Or doing much else for that matter.
Great night though. As with every year this event happens, my wife and I get to the end having had a great night of great company, good food and loads of fun. Actually, except for one year when I had to leave early to go and catch a red eye flight to a race somewhere, but other than that we always end up having a lot of fun. Last night was no exception.
I won't lie though, the dinner last night made getting up this morning for coaching down at Swim Smooth just a little bit difficult. I got there, but I am perhaps not functioning at 100% tip top capacity at the moment. Totally worth it though.
Coaching this morning was an interesting experience. Just like Wednesday, this morning I was helping fill in for Paul Newsome, which meant I was looking after two of the lanes by myself for the two sessions. The earlier 5:30am session went well, the session flowed smoothly and everybody seemed to finish the session feeling satisfied. The end of it was tough and people struggled, but that was the point. Happy with that.
The later 6:30 session was the interesting one though. Usually the 6:30 session is the easier one because the group is a bit smaller. The group was smaller as usual today, however, the session was definitely not the easier one to run. For some reason today, which I still haven't quite figured out, one of the lanes I was looking after today really struggled. I mean really struggled The were miles off the times that they would usually be romping through. From the look of it, everyone in the lane was simply off their game.
It had me a bit baffled at first. I was wondering if I had set the timers incorrectly and people were trying to swim faster than they should. I checked though and all the timers were correct. I wasn't really sure why a whole lane was swimming slow.
I am not really sure, but I wonder if people just weren't in the game mentally. At the beginning of the session there were a couple of disruptions in the lane. Call it personality clashes if you will. I think it shook a few people off their game though. Perhaps people who would usually lead a lane. With those people not on song it pushed other people to the front of the lane, pushing them into exhaustion earlier than they usually would. In the end, I think the combination of tired people and mentally disengaged people made for a slow lane.
I am not entirely sure if that is what happened, but that is the diagnosis I am leaning towards.
As a coach I am not entirely sure how I should have handled it. I could have slowed down the required times, but in the end what was being asked was well within the capabilities of those there. I could have tried to intervene in the personality clash, but it wasn't a violent outburst or anything and I don't really view it as a coaches place to try and get everybody to get along in a big squad. That is some dangerous territory there. If it was a long term problem I would probably have a quiet word, but not in a squad environment. As it was I let the session play out. The people in the lane knew that the session wasn't a good one, so perhaps it will go down as a bit of a lesson for everyone, including me.
For me, the lessons to come out are twofold. Firstly it was a lesson to me in group management. But the bigger lesson for me was just how much impact negativity can have on a session. I think we are all aware just how much impact negativity can have on a race, getting down on yourself can derail an entire event. Given that, I guess it should be no surprise that being in a mentally bad spot and inhibit our training too. If we think about it I suspect we can all think of times when that has occurred. This was morning was a good reminder though.
This morning was a demonstration of why approaching training with a positive attitude can have a massive impact on the outcomes of the session. It sounds a bit corny, but simply having a 'can do' approach can be the difference between a successful session and an unsuccessful one. On a similar note, having the perseverance to push through and make a session successful when things aren't going to plan can be the difference between a champion and everyone else.
Perhaps not a good morning for those involved, but a great reminder all the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment