The Craft of Coaching

Work with your athlete to create a race plan for the season—and then build your training plan from there, but remember there's plenty to factor in.

Joe Friel addresses the problems that athletes most commonly face en route to their goals: training plateaus, inconsistent training or lack of motivation, inadequate sleep, and prioritizing performance at the expense of health.

There's a fine line separating performance and athletic potential—and ambition can easily blur an athlete's judgment and decision-making. This case study highlights an athlete hoping to qualify to compete in triathlon's debut at the Olympic Games. It illustrates the real consequences of overtraining, the road back to racing, and how training load can be better managed to avoid the high-stakes gamble altogether.

How you assess and analyze performance with your athletes can have a huge impact on their progress. Here's our guide to ensuring that process goes as smoothly as possible.

Every coach will be involved in athletic performances that fall short of expectations, leaving both the coach and the athlete dissatisfied. What is the best way to handle these situations? In the aftermath of failure and disappointment, the coach needs to gather and analyze the available evidence, thinking through exactly what led to the poor performance, and then make decisions about how to get the athlete back on track before the next competition.

No one wants to “fire” an athlete. But there are times when the coach-athlete relationship is clearly not working. Coaches need to reflect on these difficult situations and athletes so they can identify problems before things get personal.

For the coach-athlete relationship to be successful, it must be rooted in trust, and trust is earned or compromised from Day 1. Begin any new client relationship with the end in mind.