I certainly wish I had a coach. Unfortunately, I don't have the money., I don't have the money. I have read a lot of books, but for some reason feel I don't know enough. How does one train to be coach? I would love to try and do the same things they do in order to better develop my own knowledge base, and possibly help my buddies.
I coach track to nation level, I learnt by being coached primerily, then refining through studie. I coach for free, I have never charged a rider, niether have I ever paid a coach. I personally believe that the most important thing about coaching is to REALLY know the rider, so I have never been a great fan of on-line coaching. As for myself, when im serious I get a coach, I know enough to coach myself physically but I also know that I will not be able to "detach" ie rationalise a poor performance or evaluate without bias. My coach job is to tell me when im being a slack bugger and to not let me beat myself up over a "poor" ride.
The VAST majority of USCF coaches don't know [censored] about track racing. Those that think they do, usually don't.
A handful, like Gil Hatton and Jame Carney are great.
Carmichael wrote a book about road training. A good one. But he doesn't know squat about track racing. Witness our dismal results on the track in Athens at Worlds the past few years.
I agree that a coach should have specific knowledge, I would not dream of training an endurance rider past basic level. We got a Canadian sprint coach for a Athens trackies with poor results, being our team is mainly pursuiters/points racers.
It's ok for recreational and cat 3-5. But compared to professional coaches as they have in Australia, our coaching 'system' is pathetic. Carmichael latched onto a one in four billion in Lance and has ridden him to the top. Not that Carmichael and CTS are bad. Sadly, they're the best in America. But Lance could make any coach look good. We have no cohesive training and development system here in the USA to uncover and nurture talent, and build enthusiasm and participation in general. Much of it comes down to money. Australian cycling development has a budget thrice that of USA cycling.
Coaching by phone & email can provide a 'little' objective feedback. Very equally little informed direction.
I agree totaly with you on this, at the 1990 commonwealth games we blew Australia of the track, there "Acadamy of Sport" program kicked in and that was the end of that. Worst part is all their trackies go on to the road. Look how many Aussie's there where in this years tour compared with 10 years ago. The mighty $$ and a solid long term plan are the key I believe....and to implement these you need knowledgable coaches.
Just curious if those who race are self trained or use a coach to plan your training year. Nick
I trained myself for years, but to move to the next level I needed help. My goal is to go 54:xx in the state 40k TT, so I need to drop about 4 minutes off my time. I have done three big things this year, set up an aggresive position, hired a coach, and moved to wattage based training. These three things should put me on track to a faster time.
If you are shooting for the podium, a coach can be invaluable.
