Affirmation

A nice little bit of affirmation today.

No matter how confident you are about something, there is always that little seed of doubt that what you are doing isn't the right approach. I have to say that I sometimes have that thought about coaching. I have been trained as a coach and have had years of racing experience, so I should have an idea of what I am doing, however, it can also be hard not to second guess yourself sometimes.

Today though I got a nice little confidence boost that the approach that I have been taking with coaching is on the right path. Today I had three athletes racing in fairly demanding events, two in a Half Ironman and one in a half marathon. All of the athletes were unsure of how they would go, one having only decided to race the Half Ironman this time last week, one having had an interrupted lead up, and one lacking a little bit of confidence in his ability. For all of the athletes though I was confident that they had had the preparation needed for a good race. They had all trained well and the data was pointing towards good results, all that was needed was for the results to actually come about. Which thankfully it did today.

All three athletes ended up with good results today and achieved their race goals. They all had great races that went to plan, resulting in significant PBs for their events. While we try and focus on process rather than outcomes, PBs are always a nice measure of success. Two of the three athletes got PBs by nearly 10 minutes which are great gains. The third athlete was also a PB, but that was by virtue of the fact that he hadn't raced the distance before. Getting through a Half Ironman for the first time is an achievement on its own, getting through it and having a successful race even more so. On top of the PBs both of the athletes in the Half Ironman ended up on the podium, which was a nice sprinkle on top. Pretty much a successful day however you slice it in my view.

I don't think today's outcome will stop me from second guessing what I am doing, however, I don't see that as such a bad thing. Not being entirely confident that I know best makes me more willing  to listen and learn from others, which is only going to make me a better coach in the long run I hope. Still, next time I am having any serious doubts about the process I am following I think I will remember back to this weekend.

Hopefully just the first of many to come.A