Magness & Marcus on Coaching

In part two of our in person chat at the USA championships, Jon and I meander through a variety of topics surrounding distractions and performance. We start off with talking about taking the master chef approach. What’s this actually mean? It’s about how to get all of these different people to the same end game.…

In part two of our in person chat at the USA championships, Jon and I meander through a variety of topics surrounding distractions and performance. We start off with talking about taking the master chef approach. What’s this actually mean? It’s about how to get all of these different people to the same end game. Meaning that instead of following an exact recipe it’s about understanding and seeing the patterns but having the flexibility to work around it both in coaching and racing. From here, we dig into the difference between racing and time trialing and how we go about dealing with the fact that in the post collegiate world we spend the entire year racing one style (time trial) and then have to figure out how to run rounds and tactical races. How do we prepare for this and how do you get ready to prepare for the event demands in both styles. After that, we discuss the workout Wednesday response, where we tend to look at workouts as predictive. They aren’t. Athletes and coaches tend to think that “If I did X workout, then I should run Y,” when it doesn’t work like that. Instead of looking at workouts as predictive, we need to look at them as a simple way to adapt. To sum things up, it’s about reframing distractions as advantages. Don’t blow things up and make them bigger than they are, don’t use justifications, take advantage of the cards your dealt. We hope you enjoy part 2 of our conversation on distractions. As always, reach out to us via twitter to let us know what you think and what you’d like to hear us talk about! Steve & Jon @stevemagness @jmarpdx Listen and Subscribe: Subscribe on Stitcher Subscribe on iTunes   Subscribe through RSS  Resources mentioned in this episode: Player’s First: Coaching from the Inside Out– John CaliperStrangers to Ourselves– Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious Rumsfeld’s Rules

Part 1- Once again, Jon and I come to you from a coffee shop on location and simply talking shop. This week we’re covering distractions; how to deal with them, how do you adapt to them, and when they might be positive or negative.  We start out with the “Once A Runner” myth about living…

Part 1- Once again, Jon and I come to you from a coffee shop on location and simply talking shop. This week we’re covering distractions; how to deal with them, how do you adapt to them, and when they might be positive or negative.  We start out with the “Once A Runner” myth about living the life of zero distractions and how this might work for some, but it should be about learning how to thrive in a real environment. The oft-cited counter to this argument is the East African running only lifestyle. While this works well for them, the cultural differences and ADD type culture that infiltrates modern society, doesn’t allow for many Westerners to function in this type of set up. Instead of recovering during this type of environment, the “disease of doing nothing” creates a stressor because of ingrained societal norm of being a “productive worker bee.” It’s about finding balance in your life that allows for recovery and self-fulfillment. From here, we jump to how to frame distractions and how pattern recognition is the key to successful coaching and performance. It’s about taking what your environment and conditions afford you and framing them as an advantage instead of a disadvantage. A great example of this is altitude vs. heat. Altitude has been framed as a positive adaptation because of the physiological benefits even though it makes you run slower workouts that feel consistently hotter. Yet, heat and humidity which makes workouts more difficult and slower in a similar way to altitude, is seen as a negative, despite similar positive shifts in blood volume, for example, that aid performance. Despite Frank Shorter training in Florida, the framing is different, although both offer benefits. To end part 1 , we talk about Seth Godin’s principle of “just ship” and how we have to make mistakes, screw up, and fail fast to grow as coaches and athletes. I hope you guys enjoyed another in-person podcast with Jon and I. Thanks, Steve & Jon Listen on Stitcher Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe through RSS   Resources mentioned in this episode: Strangers to Ourselves– Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious Rumsfeld’s Rules Seth Godin  

In part two of Advice for a young coach, we start with the concept of coaching as a partnership versus a dictatorship. What does this mean? The goal should be to take athletes from dependence to independence, not the other way around. The goal of the coach shouldn’t be to prove their worth, but instead…

In part two of Advice for a young coach, we start with the concept of coaching as a partnership versus a dictatorship. What does this mean? The goal should be to take athletes from dependence to independence, not the other way around. The goal of the coach shouldn’t be to prove their worth, but instead it’s to help the athlete foster independence so that they can be adaptable and ready under a wide range of situations, so that they are ready for whatever is coming at them. From there we delve into what coaching actually is. Is it about collecting accolades, padding our resume’s, hitting PR’s, or is it about something else? Jon and I make the argument that it’s about development of people. Not just about hitting certain times, but developing people’s skills that not only help within the world of track and field, but also translate across life. One of the myths that comes along with that is that, excitement is dependent on the level of athlete you are working with. There is a great misnomer that the faster a person runs that you coach, the more enjoyment you get out of it, when the truth is that coaching is coaching, regardless of level. Along the same lines of this idea, is the trickle down effect where ideas/training/concepts come from the pro’s to the college to the HS level. Finally, we summarize our thoughts with discussing how coaching should be about leaving your “space” in a better position than you found that. It’s about developing the culture, the team, and the circle that you have around you.   In the end, Jon put it best when he says that coaching is about relationships. We should continue to treat people with respect, kindness, and dignity, and above all treat people like actual people. If you work hard, accomplish that goal, then opportunities will present themselves. As always, thanks for listening, Steve & Jon Listen and Subscribe: Subscribe on Stitcher Subscribe on iTunes   Subscribe through RSS

Coming to you from Austin, Texas, Jon and I take on the topic of “Advice for a young coach” in our first in person podcast. In this episode we take a step back in our young careers and look at our development as coaches. Starting with tracing our history of how we got into the…

Coming to you from Austin, Texas, Jon and I take on the topic of “Advice for a young coach” in our first in person podcast. In this episode we take a step back in our young careers and look at our development as coaches. Starting with tracing our history of how we got into the job of coaching, how we actually got our jobs versus how we thought we would get our jobs, and from there carry on with a dialogue about some of the big misunderstandings in coaching development. We try to down some of the myths and expectations that we all had when we got into coaching and try to give advice on how to navigate the world of coaching, from resisting falling into the trap of ‘climbing the coaching ladder’, to the importance of focusing on development of people versus accumulating accolades. We then go into into talking about the misnomer of seeing coaching as a business, and some of the issues in the college system that are often overlooked. The goal of this podcast is to have a simple dialogue about what coaching is. In ending Part 1 of this 2 part conversation, Jon and I discuss the temptation to fall into the trap of dependence based coaching versus independence based coaching. Instead of seeing the coach as the dictator who has to have all the answers, we talk of the advantages of moving towards always moving towards a two way street of a partnership based model. Escaping the world of micromanaged coaching, as athletes develop, they should gain independence. We hope you enjoy part 1 of our 2 part conversation on advice for a young coach. As always, hit us up on social media if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions Steve & Jon Listen and Subscribe: Subscribe on Stitcher Subscribe on iTunes   Subscribe through RSS

In this episode of the Magness & Marcus podcast, we take on the topic that no one likes to deal with: failure. In the world of running, we deal with a sport that has a hard line, either you ran faster than you ever have before or you didn’t. Unfortunately, it’s incredibly easy to define…

In this episode of the Magness & Marcus podcast, we take on the topic that no one likes to deal with: failure. In the world of running, we deal with a sport that has a hard line, either you ran faster than you ever have before or you didn’t. Unfortunately, it’s incredibly easy to define yourself by reaching this set standard or not. We start off with defining what failure is in comparing a championship style race versus a time trial one. From here, we discuss how to handle failure. What should you do as a coach? Do you immediately address the “problem” or do you let an athlete digest it first? These topics and many more are discussed where we tie in a bit of science, a bit of experience, and plenty of lessons on how we’ve dealt with failure. Including a bit of talk on how High School phenoms should approach the transition to the college or professional level. Hear how I failed spectacularly as a HS phenom, what I learned from it, and how that failure shaped who I am as a person. As we always do, we meander through a few other topics along the way and end up with an almost plea for coaches to see their job as a mentorship and not a business. It’s not about doing anything you can to score an extra point or say you coached athlete X to a fast time, instead your in the people business. It’s about interactions and relationships built.  Hopefully after listening to some of our stories it puts what we do as coaches into perspective and we all see that the results are secondary and will follow if you take care in the process. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast and feel free to hit us up on twitter if you have any comments or suggestions, Jon & Steve Resources mentioned in this Episode: Books: The Art of Work by Jeff Goins The Sports Gene by David Epstein A Beautiful Constraint by Adam Morgan MiddleMarch by George Elliott Articles: The Plight of the Ego Coach Listen and Subscribe: Subscribe on Stitcher Subscribe on iTunes   Subscribe through RSS

In this episode of the Magness & Marcus podcast we explore one of the most basic but important concepts in coaching: understanding your athlete. Not in the traditional terms of where their strengths lie or their physiological make up, but instead by their mannerisms, behaviors, motivations and a slew of ‘soft’ characteristics that help define them as a person. It’s within these subtle cues that we can pick up patterns of behavior that defines the art of coaching. By paying attention to your athletes behaviors, observing them with attention as they go through practice and interact with teammates, we can start to develop a behavioral norm for each athlete. Then, we can use deviations from these norms to understand how an athlete is feeling prior to workouts and what adjustments might need to be made. In this podcast, we delve into how to identify patterns in athletes, the importance of interacting with athletes during both workout and casual situations, and how treating athletes like adults and giving them responsibility and empowerment can create a team culture and dynamic. Once again, we hope that you find this podcast informative and thought provoking. A special thanks to all of those who have come up to me and Jon at meets across the country and talked to us about the podcast. If you have any topics you’d like covered, no matter how distant they seem, contact us via twitter: Steve-@stevemangess Jon-@jmarpdx Thanks a lot, Steve and Jon Resources mentioned in this podcast: Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek Listen and Subscribe: Subscribe on Stitcher Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe through RSS

In this episode of the Magness & Marcus podcast we explore one of the most basic but important concepts in coaching: understanding your athlete. Not in the traditional terms of where their strengths lie or their physiological make up, but instead by their mannerisms, behaviors, motivations and a slew of ‘soft’ characteristics that help define…

In our longest episode yet and our first with a guest, Jon and I have an hour long conversation with renowned coach Vern Gambetta. Vern has a unique background as his coaching career spanned from coaching High School all the way to coaching some of the world’s best athletes. Similarly, his background is in Track and Field but he ventured out to coaching for MLB teams, Soccer, Swimming, and just about every sport imaginable. In this in depth conversation, we stay away from the stereotypical topics of training regime’s and start with the question of “What makes a great coach?.” Keeping the conversation casual and flowing, we traverse through coaching as craftsmanship, why being naive can be beneficial, and how teaching athletes how to compete is an understated component to coaching. From there, we discuss the art of learning how to be uncomfortable, why creating a culture is the most important thing a coach can, and how to transition from the college to professional ranks. We end this section with a discussion on why having an overarching purpose might be the missing ingredient for success. Forty minutes into it, we finally get to some training and discuss the merits of a Polarized training model, why the 800m, 1500m, and middle distances are some of the most difficult yet interesting to coach. To end with, we discuss the best books for any track and field coach to have. If you coach anything, or are interested in performance development at any level, you must listen to this podcast. It’s one of the favorite ones we’ve done because it’s just three track coaches talking coaching. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did! And if so, spread the word so that we can have more great guests and cool talks to share with you all! Thanks, Steve and Jon Listen on Stitcher Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe through RSS   Resources mentioned in this episode: AntiFragile  by Nassim Taleb The Track and Field Omnibook  by Ken Doherty (1980’s or earlier edition) Track and Field: The East German Textbook by Schmolinsky Dynamics of Skill Acquisition by Keith Davids

In our longest episode yet and our first with a guest, Jon and I have an hour long conversation with renowned coach Vern Gambetta. Vern has a unique background as his coaching career spanned from coaching High School all the way to coaching some of the world’s best athletes. Similarly, his background is in Track…

In this episode of Magness & Marcus on Coaching, we take on one of the oft-forgotten and misunderstood items in the world of running: the Neural component. Starting off with defining the CNS and motor programming in coaches speak, we take a look at how to integrate this type of work in the realm of distance running. Investigating sprinting, drills, lifting, and ploy’s we try and give the listener an understanding of when we implement these items (hint: not thrown in after a workout), how much we need, and what type we need. Before ending, we get into two of my favorite topics when discussing neural work: Fatigue and priming. CNS or neural fatigue is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the endurance world. As it’s a fatigue that we runners don’t quite understand. We’re used to feeling drained or tired after really long runs or hard workouts which give us this sensation of fatigue. With neural fatigue, our trained senses often betray us. Understanding what neural fatigue feels like and how long it takes to bounce back from is key to understanding how to program this work. Lastly, with priming, we can use neural work like sprinting, hops, or ploys to get the body primed to perform at peak physical performance the next day. After this podcast, you should have a better understanding of how to implement these concepts in your training. As always, let us know if you have any topics you want to hear covered or comments on any of our shows, Steve & Jon Subscribe on iTunes Subscribe through RSS Resources you might want to check out: The Neuromechanics of Human Movement by Roger Enoka