By all accounts the 27th edition of the European Cross Country Championships in Fingal-Dublin, was one of the best in the quarter of a century or so since the inception of the event way back in the mid 1990s.

Once again Team GB excelled in topping the medal table in taking no less than five golds. The Mens under 20s, Senior Women and Mixed Relay Team all took the spoils, whilst Charlie Hicks took a fine U23 individual title along with a 19 year old from Inverness who won gold at the Sport-Ireland campus.

Surprise winner

I catch up with Megan Keith just after her win where she is clearly still on a high after a monumental battle between herself and the German Emma Heckel, with the former producing a sustained gutsy uphill surge on the final lap of a challenging 4k circuit to take the spoils (13m41s) by 3 seconds ahead of Norway’s Ingeborg Østgård with the aforementioned Heckel having to ultimately settle for bronze.

Having has the chance to catch her breath, the Edinburgh University student tells me that, “It feels absolutely amazing to be European champion although it still doesn’t feel real, I think it will take a while to sink in!” In terms of an added bonus, along with 14th-placed Ellen Weir and 17th-placed Phoebe Anderson, Keith led GB to team bronze, behind gold medallists Germany and runners up from Spain.

So at what point did she know she was going to win I ask? With a modest touch she confesses that, “But I was completely certain someone was going to pass on the finish straight so didn’t believe it until I crossed the line”.

Photo: Lindie Naughton

Focus on the process

I then try and take Megan away from thoughts of her achieving her goal towards the process side of the race. I want to know which parts of the course she found most challenging. With a wry smile she responds that, “I knew going into race the hills and mud would be the toughest parts of the course and the bits I could potentially make grounds. On both of the long laps I knew I had to work hard up the hills as there were so many fast 1500m girls in the field with good finishes”.

This was Megan’s second appearance for Team GB in the European under-20 cross country championships. After Covid put paid to the championships which should have been staged last December, we have to track back to two years ago in Lisbon where she picked up a team gold medal whilst picking up invaluable experience in finishing a creditable if unspectacular 27th overall.

Winter goals

Having raced extensively already this winter in British Cross Challenges, I ask the young woman who edged out Jess Bailey (U17) and Alice Garner (U20) in the trials what her Christmas training plans are likely to include under the watchful eye of her excellent coach Ross Cairns.

“I think I’ll be doing more of the same cross country training I have been doing the past few months and probably some longer reps since all my races over the country get longer after Christmas”, she says – clearly alluding to the significance of an endurance athlete building a strong aerobic and strength endurance base at this point of the periodisation cycle.

Its clearly too soon for the athlete who placed 4th over 3000m at the European Juniors in Tallin last summer (PB of 9m16s) to begin to think about the summer season, despite her also sporting promising 1500m and 5000m bests of 4m19s and 16m08s respectively. So I steer the conversation to what the rest of this winter may have in store at least until March 2022. Clearly a fan of the mud, she is quick to assert that, “The rest of winter will hopefully include more Cross Country races.

I am looking at targeting both the Home Countries Cross Country International in Antrim (Saturday 22nd January) and the ‘National’ (Saturday 26th February)”.

In an allusion to the conviction held by the likes of the late great Peter Coe who once famously said, “If speed is the name of the game, never stray too far away from it”, Megan signs off by conceding that, “there is the potential for an indoor race this winter”.

Matt Long has served as both an England Team Manager and England Team coach and welcomes contact for coaching support through matt longcoach@gmail.com

The post Dublin Up appeared first on Fast Running.

29th May 2021. BMC Sport City. Manchester

There’s a sharp intake of breath followed by a rapturous round of applause for the flame haired young man who has just shot to the top of the under 23 800m British rankings as the electronic scoreboard flashes up 1:45.71 as a jubilant meeting organiser Stephen Green gladly listens to stadium commentator James Thie who is rightly waxing lyrical about the terrific talent that is Oliver Dustin.

Several days later I did what most men won’t this summer by catching up with him along with the man who has walked beside him steadily under firm footing for many years.

Long term coach

I am keen to unpick the tripartite relationship between long term coach Graeme Mason, the University of Birmingham coaching team and Oliver himself. Graeme is quick to credit both Luke Gunn as Head of Athletics and West Midlands talent hub lead and Dean Miller, who is instrumental in planning the training schedules for athletes. “Dean is bang on it in terms of letting us know what we can tap in to and we have a good point of contact in Ollie Armstrong, the physiologist”.

Empowerment

One senses that Graeme is most certainly not a controlling but rather an empowering coach and this is born of his natural modesty and humility. He recalls that, “I once said to Oliver’s Dad, ‘We’ll get him to 18 and see where we are at. Look, its essentially a hobby for me. Oliver isn’t my athlete but rather he’s an athlete”. With a nod to the ongoing coaching contribution of Bud Baldaro and Sally Straw, he continues that, “I look at what Birmingham University can offer as simply extending his support team in a healthy way”. Oliver adds that, “The key is communication. I talk to Graeme every day which is why it still works with me being in Birmingham and him being in Cumbria”.

Sport-Life Balance

When pressed on how he balances elite athletics with study, the chemistry student readily acknowledges that, “It’s hard but the switch to online learning in recent times has been a benefit because of the flexibility which it gives me to do double days”.

Subcultural benefits

Oliver retains deep affection for his roots in Cumbria but says, “Back home I trained with Graeme’s daughter Olivia which I enjoyed. This being said when training with a whole bunch of guys like Jonny Davies and Tom Keen, I need to bring my ‘A’ Game with me to every single session. I can’t just turn up and go through the motions”.

Stimulus-response training

Graeme alludes to being influenced by a Lydiard based philosophy which is underpinned by the conviction that a solid aerobic base is a prerequisite in order to progress further up the pyramid of stimulus response based training. In addition strength endurance through regular teenage commitment to Northern Area level cross country races was engendered with Oliver and this focus on strength endurance is credited to Percy Cerutty and still features in the Border man’s schedule in terms of a mile long hill (Uldale) which takes him 6 minutes or so to climb.

Multi-paced ethos

Graeme continues that, “I’m a great believer in variety so its multi pace, multi-distance, multi-surface and multi-location for Oliver and my athletes. My approach is heavily influenced by the work of the late Frank Horwill who founded the Brutish Milers’ Club and the late Peter Coe who guided his son Sebastian to two Olympic 1500m gold medals”.

He acknowledges that the approach of this two is dated but still relevant if refined and points to the more recent work of Jack Daniels in this context. In taking about how this philosophy is effected in practice, the 2019 European U20 champion jumps in to say that one of his key ‘go to’ sessions is 5 sets of 450m (@1500m pace); 200m jog; followed by 200m in 24/25s.

Fundamental and Foundational Development

Up until his mid-teens Oliver played, “every single sport in the book that was going at school!” and credits this with developing what he refers to as “core skills”. At 14/15, healthily he was still to specialise in terms of event group and even at during mid-teens he remembers that, “I was getting beaten in Cumbria county and county schools events on both track and cou8ntry and struggling to make county teams”.

Graeme is adamant that in learning to train, a teenage Oliver was made to habituate drills religiously and he is convinced that this in part accounts for the relaxed speed which the 49.0s 400m man has. With a laugh he shares that, “When he was 11 years old, I remember him blowing a gasket trying to run a 600m time trial. I turned to his Dad and said ‘Don’t’ you worry he will make a great 800m runner one day. These days he looks really comfortable on the first lap of an 800m. He can get to 400m in 52s and look like he is jogging”. Graeme signposts Owen Anderson’s 2018 publication Running Form as being well worth a read.

Racer

Those of a certain age will remember when a young Steve Ovett burst onto the senior scene in the mid 1970s, that he steadfastly refused to chase records until his iconic rivalry with Sebastian Coe took off at the turn of the 1980s. The Brighton man who famously took Olympic 800m gold in Moscow back in 1980 would shamelessly say it was all about crossing the line first regardless of the stopwatch split.

In a similar vein Graeme notes that with regards to Oliver, “He looks to win. It’s the way he executes his races. He has a great finish which is there for everyone to see”.
So far this season, Dustin has polished off his rivals and it remains to be seen if he can continue wiping the floor with them.

Epilogue….

On the 27th June Dustin lined up in one of the most competitive mens 800m fields in recent British Champs history. As they approach the 300m mark Josh Lay has kept the race honest, going out quick to lead into the home straight, tracked by Elliot Giles with Jamie Webb and Daniel Rowden looking very relaxed in third and fourth positions. Oliver sits second from the back, yet to show his, very bright, Border colours.

As the 500m mark approaches a flash of orange stretches to eat up ground in lane two to move into 5th position. With 200m to go Dustin almost looks a little detached from the front group as the field splits into two, with his long stride stretching to keep in touch with Rowden and Webb. As Josh Lay’s legs start to succumb to the quick early pace Dustin moves through the Rugby & Northampton man and Jamie Webb and swings out into lane three to make his assault on the final 100m.

Face etched with pain and effort, head back, arms driving Dustin stretches his arm into the arm, dragging his chest with it through the line for a photo finish with Giles and Rowdon in a stunning closing 100m. As the results are flashed on the scoreboard Giles becomes British Champion by 1/100th of a second, but Dustin secures second place, and at the age of 20 a seat on the plane to the Tokyo Olympic Games. Stunning stuff.

Matt Long is Midlands Mens Team Manager for Road, Cross Country and Masters and a Mentee Team Manager on the England Athletics Team Staff Training Programme. He welcomes contact for support through mattlongcoach@gmail.com

The post Dynamo Dustin destined for Tokyo appeared first on Fast Running.

Spring 2022. Team England warm weather training camp

In the post pandemic world, a couple of Team England athletes are away on a warm weather training camp in anticipation of hard-earned selection for the summer’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. After a hard day’s work at the training track they decide to head to the sea to cool off for a dip.

Together with a team coach, they park their vehicle in the concrete paved car park and lock up carrying their towels and a couple of folded up deck chairs under their arms. The female athlete is a marathon runner who begins to break into a steady run as she excitedly spots the blue waves and she gently strides across the concrete strip towards the sand in between the car park and the sea. She momentarily stumbles as her bare feet touch the sand with her knees buckling ever so slightly before she composes himself and manages to regain her relaxed stride.

As she dives into the sea to refresh herself, she catches her breath after immersing her head under water and pops up out of the foam waving to her boyfriend who is a 200m runner and who excitedly sprints to catch up with her in waves fully intending to join her in her playful swim. He belts across the concrete with a smile on his face but stumbles and falls flat on his face as he hits the soft sand.

Momentarily his girlfriend is concerned that he has injured himself but he soon springs to his feet with an embarrassed laugh, dusts the sand off his shorts and picks up his sunglasses, eventually finishing off in the arms of his girlfriend having walked across the rest of the sand into the sea.

The team coach is by now sat on the sand, shaking his head in bemusement. He has his head buried in a coaching magazine and is doing some prep on what’s referred to by Oregon based coach Peter Thompson as ‘biokinetics’. (Thompson, P.J.L., 2016).

————————————————————————————————————–

Biokinetics

‘Biokinetics’ is a term which is distinctive from metabolic energy systems which we are taught about on coaching courses and sports science degrees. In terms of the way in which we conceive of the aerobic, lactate and alactic capabilities of athletes – we call this ‘bioenergetics’.

On the other hand, the energy gained from internal kinetic sources is labelled as ‘biokinetics’ and is underpinned by knowledge that how the whole kinetic chain operates is critical. It requires an appreciation of elasticity and reactivity simply because all athletic events whether running, jumping or throwing involve rapid acceleration of force in order to move the mass of an athletic body. In terms of running, for example, basically the shorter the ground contact time is, the faster one can run with the same metabolic energy.

The internal elastic response with the ground which the athlete can generate releases biokinetic energy. It involves the hip, knee, ankle and foot joints and furthermore as a starting point the elastic properties of the tendon and aponeuroses need to be understood.

Tendons and Aponeuroses

An understanding of the role of tendons is important. They are shiny white and opaque like a rope and their primary function is to connect muscles to bones. Additionally, the role of the Aponeuroses is important as a white transparent sheath which acts as a collagenous connective tissue, which may involve muscles but can connect bone to bone.

They both have elastic properties that can return or amplify forces with the key difference being that tendons are uniaxial whereas the aponeuroses are multi-axial the latter of which is pivotal when multi-directional movements are required.

Postscript

The two athletes finish their refreshing splash about in the sea and return to the beach to towel off and enjoy a fruit juice with the team coach who has been reading his coaching article. “Did you trip on something on the sand?” asks the female marathon runner, recalling the fall of her boyfriend several minutes earlier.

“I don’t know what happened”, he replies. At this point the team coach drops the article on biokinetics into his lap. He pauses, takes a swig of his drink before adding with wisdom – “You didn’t trip on anything. It’s because you were sprinting and she was jogging that your kinetic chain could not adapt in time to the stiffness required to run over the sand”.

With a frown on her face the female marathon runner exclaims, “Stiffness – I thought you wanted me to be more flexible?”. With a laugh the coach responds, “I mean a different kind of stiffness – I mean optimal stiffness of the kinetic chain. I’ll explain it as we drive back to the team hotel”.

The trio head back across the sand to the concrete car park- article two takes a back seat ride with them.

Reference

Thompson, P.J.L. (2016) Current Perspectives of Biokinetics in Middle and Long Distance Running – An Examination of the ‘Elastic Response. IAAF New Studies in Athletics. 31:1/2; 25-40. Available at:
https://worldathletics.org/nsa/article/filter?&authorId=5461fcc71111ff42acac6c37

Matt Long is a Midlands Team Manager for Road, Cross Country and Masters and welcomes contact at mattlongcoach@gmail.com.

Darren Reevell (dreevell@englandathletics.org) and Mark Brace (mbrace@englandathletics.org) are Regional Coach Leads for endurance who have both been England Team Managers at various domestic and international competitions.

The post Beach of biokinetics appeared first on Fast Running.

You will recall our first piece celebrated the work that Phil has done with Tokyo Olympic marathon selectee, Steph Davis, who booked her ticket on the plane to Japan with a stunning 2h27m16s in the Kew Gardens trials on 26th March.

Almost exactly one month later on 25th April to be precise, fellow Clapham Chaser, Rose Harvey, proved that lightning can strike twice with an eye catching 2hr30m58s at the Cheshire elite marathon in Pulford. Pandemic accepted but aside from a notable 75m03s recorded for the half at Dorney Lake back in October 2020, its fair to say that Harvey’s recent exploits constitute a raising of the performance in the order of the ‘meteoric’ given that she was trotting round the Commons of Tooting and Clapham in 19 and 20 mins at the weekly Saturday morning 9am recreationals we have come to miss so dearly in recent months.

Clearly the development of Davis and now Harvey, offer irrefutable evidence that the work that Kissi does is no fluke and needs unpicking.

Diversity

I resume our interaction by acknowledging the proverbial elephant in the room. With sensitivity I point out that as a black and minority ethnic coach, I am intrigued as to whether people may in the past have unwittingly stereotyped him as a speed-based coach.

In pointing to a civil service career as a diversity manager for the Department of Work and Pensions, Phil’s laugh reassures me that he has realises my probing around the sensitivities of race in an age where Black Lives and dare I say black coaches matter, has been made in good faith. “Definitely, definitely, definitely!”, he affirms- “People could assume that because there are not too many BAME coaches especially in the marathon. I’d like to see more because there are some great coaches out there both black and white”.

Having asked a question relating to diversity, I am then treated to an education on the matter with Phil reminding me that his coaching across event groups, including the sprints, plus his recently being challenged to work with a high jumper, is evidence that he as a coach is unwilling to be put in a proverbial box.

I pause to reflect that this offers the first clue as to his success- namely that because he is keen to work across event specific groups, he is more finely attuned to making sure the fundamental and foundational aspects of athlete development are taken care of than some of us who would willingly frame ourselves as merely endurance based coaches.

The influence of Frank Horwill and the BMC

As an athlete, Phil was coached in the 1970s by the legendary founder of the British Milers’ Club, Frank Horwill. In 2001, he was re-acquainted with his old mentor when taking his own son Sam, a talented 800m runner, to Frank’s training group over in Battersea. “He’s much better than you ever were Phil!”, prodded the mischievous maverick, before agreeing to coach Sam on the proviso that Phil shadow him and learn his trade. Anyone who ever met Frank Horwill will know that Phil had no choice! Their working relationship and deep friendship would last until Frank’s passing in 2012.

Multi-pace training

Following his mentor’s passing, Phil would enjoy considerable success with his Blackheath and Bromley based Katy-Ann McDonald who would not only excel over two laps in terms of taking a British age group record but who would achieve success in winning her category at the English National cross country in Sunderland in 2013 and the London mini marathon in 2015.

Phil attributes the success he had with the now Louisiana State based McDonald and others to Horwill’s inculcating of the ethos of multi-tier training. The famous five-paced system of effecting 400m, 800m, 1500m, 3k and 5k specific sessions over a set microcycle was articulated in Obsession for Running (1991). In addition, Frank introduced Phil to his close ally, Peter Coe, who of course guided his son Sebastian to double Olympic 1500m gold medals in the 1980s. With evident awe, Phil eulogises that, “Coe senior gave me a different dimension to my coaching. I realised I had to tweak Frank’s multi-pace system and refine it for the individual athlete that I was working with”.

In looking both to and yet beyond the admired Horwill, this offers our third and final pointer to Phil’s success and again diversity is the golden thread.

Eclectic influences

Patrick Sang who of course guides Eliud Kipchoge in Kenya, has in Phil’s words, “Taught me that no athlete is bigger than the coach. Sang has so many top athletes but no one gets the star treatment. Every athlete is treated the same”. Whilst a big fan of the aforementioned Peter Coe, Phil gives a nod to the late Harry Wilson who guided Coe junior’s arch rival Steve Ovett to Olympic 800m gold in 1980 and whose own philosophy was espoused greatly in Running Dialogue (1982).

Phil alludes to the influence of the late Stan Long, who honed the talents of 1976 Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist Brendan Foster as well as 1984 Olympic marathon silver medallist, Charlie Spedding. Ron Holman, whose co-authored Focus on the Marathon (1983) is well worth a read, is credited by Phil as aiding his coaching development. The Cambridge Harrier based Holman used a lynchpin session of 1000m reps alternating between 50m easy and 150m hard which is compatible with Phil’s desire to inculcate the ability for the likes of Steph Davis and Rose Harvey to be able to change pace quickly.

The above being said, the addition of the Scot, Tom McNab, to his list of influences is perhaps most significant due to his work with multi-event athletes and again emphasises Phil’s conviction that the real lessons endurance coaches can learn often lie outside the boundaries of their event specific comfort zones.

Phil clearly leans towards empowerment rather than being a directive coach and for him, “you need a team behind an athlete and that includes a physio, nutritionist, S&C specialist and then for some, an agent.” Empowerment of others does not mean the abdication of responsibility or relinquishing of control.

Phil’s parting shot is that, “You’ve got to lead as a coach”. On that note, judging by the progress of the aforementioned Davis and Harvey, he clearly is….

Matt Long is Midlands Mens Team Manager for Road, Cross country and Masters and welcomes contact through mattlongcoach@gmail.com

The post Phil-osophy appeared first on Fast Running.

26th March 2021. Kew Gardens

The clock stops at 2h27m16s as a 30 year old from Clapham Chasers realises the ambition of almost every athlete the world over- Stephanie Davis is to become an Olympian.

Behind her success is a softly spoken and articulate man who is rightly stepping out of the shadows and into the spotlight given this recent success of one of his athletes.

Step forward Phil Kissi, who tells me, “I knew Steph had something when I first saw her running”. But how has ‘this something’ been nurtured I am keen to know?

Holistic Approach

“I always work according to athlete needs”, says the former civil servant as he explains how attention to S and C, nutrition and the weaknesses of his athlete are paramount.

Group training

Phil explains how he believes Steph benefits from an element of her work being group based and is heavily influenced by the philosophy of Patrick Sang who of course guides the great Eliud Kipchoge in Kenya.

The Long Run

Significantly Steph does not work to a 7-day week – her typical micro-cycle is longer, which means she does not do a long run every single week on a set day. 22 mile runs are common every few weeks but Phil explains there is regression back down to 18 and sometimes 14 miles.

He avoids prescribing a pace per mile or km for Steph on this session and asserts that, “micro-management leads to peaking early”. Instead he looks to the philosophy of ‘running free’ according to Rolf Haikkola who guided the great Lasse Viren to four Olympic gold medals in the 1970s.

Alternative ways to build that aerobic base

The Blackheath & Bromley and Clapham Chasers coach explains that his approach is to “minimize volume on the road” due to his awareness that Steph could incur hip, achilles, hamstring or IT band injuries if her mileage exceeds her robustness to cope with it.

Cycling and both pool and lake-based swimming are used by Steph with Phil pointing out, “We can learn much from triathlon in this respect”.

Kew, England. 4 January, 2016. Stephanie Davis (centre) celebrates winning the women’s marathon and securing her place to run the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics at the Muller British Athletics Marathon and 20km Walk Trials. Credit: Nigel Bramley/Alamy Live News

Tempo work

A key session for Steph is 3 x 5k, which Phil says was advocated by fellow Team GB athlete Steph Twell. Davis will affect these runs in under 17 minutes. Critically sometimes she will be given a goal pace to run to but on other occasions she will be encouraged to run to perceptive ‘feel’.

Whilst the recoveries between each block of 5k are always short, Phil likes to alternate between passive and active ‘roll on’ modes of recovery to add variation to her work.

Aerobic intervals

Phil credits the influence of his mentor and founder of the British Milers’ club- Frank Horwill, who has shaped his thinking particularly with regard to Horwill’s work with two-time world cross country silver medallist Tim Hutchings.

Horwill told his mentee, “Whatever you do with an athlete, always have a 5k session”. The ‘go to’ session for Hutchings prior to his magnificent 4th placing at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 was 20x 400m and this is something Steph Davis does.

Phil stresses that he works her over 600m and 1200m in addition but the short recoveries between whatever distance of reps they effect on the track keeps them aerobically dominant.

Speed endurance

Phil is influenced also by the sentiments of the late Peter Coe who of course guided his son Sebastian to two Olympic gold medals.

Coe once famously said, “If speed is the name of the game then never get too far away from it”. So Steph was being raced over both 3k and 5k in the season prior to the pandemic.

Additionally, Phil uses a mode of session not dissimilar to the late national coach mentor Dave Sunderland- what Sunderland referred to in his book High Performance Middle Distance Running- as ‘Tired surges’ are referred to as ‘Surprise surges’ by Phil because of their cognitive element of athletes unexpectedly having to run faster at some point mid-session.

The Negative split

All of the above plus the inclusion of pyramid-based work enabled Steph to run the second half of the Olympic marathon trials last month around 55 seconds quicker than the first.

Psychological habituation

Phil explains how upon receiving an invite to tour the course several days before the marathon trials that he was surprised that no one else was there to take this opportunity when he and Steph were.

They effected an impromptu session which gave them both confidence that this was a fast course which could be attacked with some aggression due to the trees providing shelter from the wind.

Regeneration

Phil is clearly influenced by the understanding of periodisation engendered by the likes of the great Arthur Lydiard, who understood that when athletes had been brought to a peak that they then needed to be rested before being regressed back to aerobic base building.

Steph is herself coming towards the end of such a regeneration phase and embarking on some light jogging as part of this process before building to Tokyo in August.

In part two, we dig deeper into Phil’s philosophy of coaching to look at his guiding principles which shape the kind of sessions articulated above.

Matt Long is Midlands Mens Team Manager for Road, Cross country and Masters and welcomes contact through mattlongcoach@gmail.com

The post Kissi and tell appeared first on Fast Running.

Our first piece celebrated the achievement and our follow up unpicks the process which led to Mick Hill’s astonishing recent comeback success in claiming the British M45 5k record.

Chronological, Biological and Training Ages.

I begin by asking Mick whether he feels his age! With a laugh he confirms that, “I feel every single one of my 45 years, especially when I get up in the morning! My achilles are troublesome, they warm up – but they don’t half hurt in the mornings! I started competing when I was at Primary School but was lightly trained right through to 19yrs or so – I then trained hard up to around 26/ 27 years old.

I then ‘fell off a cliff’ until 34 – so lost maybe 7-8 years. I never stopped running and competing, I just put a load of weight on and probably missed more training than I actually did. I had a load of failed comeback attempts. I got back into it at 34 but had broken down by 36. I started back properly at the age of 43 so all in all I’ve had maybe 12 years of proper training and a load of years with very little! Weight gain and loss has been the main challenge so I probably do have a training age of mid 30s perhaps.”

Masters Compared to Senior Training

I’m keen to ascertain whether and how Mick has adjusted the volume, frequency and intensity of his training as a masters athlete. To my surprise he says candidly, “It is similar with the exception of hill work. I try to run 80-100 miles per week consistently. My coach Bud Baldaro has ingrained in me the benefit of lots and lots of sub-maximal work.

I stay off the tarmac. I like to train off-road and over challenging terrain. It is good for the body and also the mind. I track all my running with a GPS watch and Heat Rate Monitor but I never ever try to run to pace. I just run off ‘feel’.

In my week I tend to run two hard sessions, a medium long run (90mins) and a long run (1hr40 – 2hrs). There are lots and lots of relaxed pace 45-60mins runs. Plus a couple of speed development sessions built in around my easy runs. Variety and consistency are the main areas I focus on. As well as tracking my weekly mileage, I also track my weekly climb – and I know that if I can get in 8000’ plus of climb in a week without touching the fells then I have had a tough week!

Session wise I like to train on grass & dirt. The only time I would touch tarmac is for the odd threshold / progression run and speed development work. Recently I have been on the track once per week and doing some faster sessions (quicker than 3km race pace) – there have been a fair few where I have run off long recovery, one of the best ones I did was 3 x 1km / 6mins in 2m52s, 2m47s and 2m44s.

I like that combination of one strength based session in a week and one speed based session. I look back at my best year-2000- and all my hard sessions were on grass – in fact I ran an 8m17s track 3000m off a single track session two weeks prior. You do not necessarily need to go hard on the track – you can get the same stimulus on other surfaces and perhaps take away a little injury risk”.

Bud Baldaro’s influence

Mick gives generous and rightful credit to the man he refers to as “an absolute magician”. With considerable emotion he tells that, “Ever since I linked up with Bud in the winter of 96-97 he has had a real knack of tapping into someone’s psyche. He can read people better than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s never a one size fits all approach either. He recognises that different athletes need a different approach.

I have always loved those face-to-face or telephone sessions with Bud when you build up your training block structure. It’s like watching an amazing artist at work and you come away from this feeling like you can run through walls! Bud has always preached common sense and simplicity, and an ability to think for yourself. I am at the stage now where I can probably work it out for myself but having Bud in my camp easily gives me another 10%.

I speak to Bud every week and he sets all the hard workouts, but I tend to plan out the overall structure of my training week. We rarely do the same session twice, with the exception of continuous hills, threshold and hills and 8 mile progression run which I like to repeat on a roughly 3-4 week cycle”.

Lifestyle choices

Mick is keen to contextualise the significant demands of his training to referring to his making some better informed lifestyle choices. He asserts that, “I look after myself. I do not drink anymore and I try to get decent sleep. My diet is really good – albeit I still have cravings and can be prone to binge-eating. I never get ill – my immune system seems to be really robust Perhaps the lifestyle I lived in my youth and at university, which was a tough lifestyle has hardened me up! Who knows?

Attention to Agility, Balance and Co-ordination

I press Mick as to what he now does which he neglected as a senior by listing a plethora of activities including stretching; drills; cross training and yoga. With brutal honesty he replies that, “I have played with drills, but I am not as diligent as I should be. I think the key difference are hills. Under Bud back in the 90s we never ever ran hill sessions. All my running was over hilly terrain, there was little flat running in Leeds.

Back then nobody did out & backs on the canal, it was just unheard of. We all embraced the off-road hilly terrain that is in abundance in North Leeds. Now I do a lot more specific hill work – continuous threshold hills is one of my go to sessions, along with threshold and hills mixed together- the golf course is great for this kind of work. Additionally I try and do short hill sprints- 8-10 x 10s, walk back recovery in my week plus at least two fast strides post easy runs. These strides are flat out over say 70-80 metres on tarmac or road with a slow walk back.

The strides, drills, plyos, short hills fall into the category of speed development. It is totally non-aerobic work and gives me a real neuro-muscular stimulus – I am very slow twitch dominant and I would say this work I do has been a game changer as I have got older. My running mechanics are really good for an old guy – and this also plays into my strength which is excellent running economy – even back in 2001 when I was lab tested by Professor Andy Jones my running economy / lactate profile was at the elite end of the scale vs a relatively low VO2 max in the 60s.

I am also a lot more dialled into long runs – back in 2000 I don’t remember running over 90mins and a lot of the long runs I did would have been social slow Sunday runs. Now I treat the long run very much as a key session – and I like to push on a bit with pace, plus run up to 2 hours over really tough hilly terrain on occasions. I am a big believer in the principal of fast-twitch muscle fibre recruitment once you get past 90mins & glycogen depleted and the hills really help with that, plus on occasions the odd fasted long run.

To really achieve these gains you need to get closer to 2 hours and this should be applied to all runners training tool-box whether training for 1500m right the way through to Marathon. I do not believe that long run duration needs to be linked to target race distance. Note, I do not think you need to do these every single week and you can vary your long runs in terms of duration, pace and terrain just like you can vary your other key workouts”.

Future goals

So is there another hill for Mick to climb after scaling the summit of his British M45 5k record? With gusto he tells that, I hope to continue chasing fast times from 1500m – 10,000m on the track through the summer of 2021, plus road times. I believe I can get myself very high up on the respective all time-lists. In the winter I will turn my attention to XC and in particular the twin goals of the British Masters XC International in Santry, Dublin and also the Northern / National XC. I just don’t tend to like the going too heavy. I really struggled at Nottingham in the 2020 National.

I wouldn’t say I am overly motivated by the European and World Masters scene however never say never and Bathurst, Australia in 2022 has the very first World Masters XC Champs being staged alongside the World XC Champs. This would make a great trip!

What can you learn from Mick?

We draw our interview to a close as I ask Mick for some pearls of wisdom for all you masters athletes out there who have understandably been inspired by his recent achievement. He pauses for reflection before clearly articulating, “Be very patient. Take an intelligent and evidence-backed approach. Do not simply try and repeat what you did in your youth. Experiment and do not be afraid to be a non-conformist. If you are able to then get somebody involved to coach / advise / mentor. You might think you know it all – but just having someone to use as a sounding board will pay dividends. Plus if you are not improving then what you are doing is not the right approach, so change it up.

Motivation is the number 1 reason why former runners either cannot actually comeback in the first place – or fail in their attempts! Everyone I have spoken to about not being able to comeback either simply does not want to or has the flimsiest of excuses. For those in the latter camp it all comes down to motivation. This will not be the same for everyone – find something that properly motivates you and get after it! More often than not it will be race related – so get racing from day number 1, swallow your pride and accept the level that you are at – you will progress!”.

Matt Long is a Midlands Team Manager for Road, Cross Country and Masters. He can be contacted for support at mattlongcoach@gmail.com. Mick Hill shares all of his training on Strava and also on his Instagram & Twitter accounts. Please follow him at: http://strava.com/athletes/mickhill https://twitter.com/bethebest45 >> https://www.instagram.com/bethebest45/

The post Hill Sessions appeared first on Fast Running.

Saturday 3rd April 2021

Wearing a white ‘Team Thie’ vest and storming through the line on the ‘B’ race at the Podium 5k is a man finishing in what would ordinarily be a highly creditable but relatively anonymous 20th place. But this is no ordinary run from a very club standard club runner. It’s more than that and the whispers amongst the small but discerning socially distanced crowd are that this is a 45 year old whose 14m44s clocking belies both his chronological and training age in our sport.

Mick Hill has indeed broken the M45 British 5k record. Immediately his thoughts turn to dedicating his triumph to his late, beloved brother. With considerable emotion Mick reflects that, “Pete passed away in autumn 2020 after a horrible battle with lung cancer. He was only 60. Pete had always supported my running and it gave me a lot of pleasure as he approached his 50th birthday back in around 2010/11 and after some battles with alcohol and a lifetime of heavy smoking he developed the running bug and became a keen fell-runner with both Pudsey & Bramley AC & Altrincham & District AC. Watching him get round the Yorkshire Three Peaks race was one particular highlight”.

His mood then lightens when turning his attention to the enormity of his achievement. He acknowledges that, “Running sub 14m50s was always my number one target hitting 45. I had gone 14.50 at Armagh 5km in Feb 2019 so knew it was doable. I got a bit unlucky with bad weather a couple of times and came very close with a 14.54 at Mallory Park 5km. My Podium run was long overdue and we got very lucky with that perfect storm of great weather, fast course, deep field and of course the sprinkle of magic that is Chris Barnes!.”

The senior career

I ask Mick to regress the story to his days as a senior and he explains that, “My senior career had two halves to it – University & post-University. I made a massive jump in my last year in the U20 Junior ranks whilst in my first year at University of Leeds. Leeds made a massive impact on me, especially the likes of Greg Hull and Martin Roscoe, both still in Leeds at the time and university alumni in their late 20s. At the time both were still running well & living a runners lifestyle. I first linked up with Greg for morning runs in 1995-96 and in doing so probably lifted my running volume from maybe 30-40 mpw to the dizzy heights of 60mpw or so. This was the first sign that I would respond really well to overall running volume.

Over that winter from December 95 through March 96 I went from having never made an English Schools XC whilst running for Bolton Harriers in Greater Manchester to finishing 10th in the Greater Manchester Under 20s, 14th in the Northern U20s and 11th in the National U20s. That 11th place in the National at Newark gave me the self-belief I could be a decent runner. Over the next 3 years I had a really great university career on the XC and in various relay events – a 15th and 11th place in BUCS XC, a win at the Braids Hill XC Edinburgh plus fastest legs at Nottingham, Durham and Hyde Park Relays.

Going into my second year at Leeds I also linked up with the magician that is Bud Baldaro. In my last year at Uni, aged 22, I finished 27th in the World XC Trial / Inter-Counties and 36th at the Senior National XC whilst only 22. These latter two performances got me selected for the World University XC Champs in 1998”. Ever keen to credit others Mick acknowledges that, “At Leeds I was also very lucky to have amazing team mates like Simon Deakin, Tim Crossland, Alan Buckley, Andy Beevers, Martin Hilton and Paul Low. Plus there was Ian Mitchell who wasn’t at the University. All great lads who I was very lucky to be able to train with in a running environment which to this day is incredibly conducive to endurance running.”

Post University Running

So how did his form continue post university? Mick continues, “Post grad studies both in Michigan and then back in Leeds didn’t work out for me. Post University I drifted around a bit, headed out to college in Michigan, USA in Sept 98 on a scholarship that just didn’t work out – I was home after about 3 weeks! I also ended up back at University of Leeds on a second degree in Sports Science & Physiology in Sept 99. That didn’t work out either!

I ran well between 1998 and 2000 and picked up a couple of England vests at XC and was starting to run well for my club Tipton Harriers. Winning the 12-Stage in 1999 and the National XC in 2000 were both massive team highlights for me. The Summer of 2000 was when it all came good and I ran most of my PBs – a 3000 PB of 8m17s; a 5 mile road PB of 23m49s; 30m02s for 10k and 50m25s for 10 miles. I was delighted to make the England Senior team for the European Mountain Running Champs in Poland that summer.

Retirement

So where did things begin to grind to a halt? Mick recalls that, “I had worked in London and was then back in Bolton by 2001. This seemed to be the point in my life when I started to gain weight – my dietary habits were shocking and my office-based job had a culture of breakfast butties and take-aways for lunch as we were close to a retail park. Most days I would be eating take-away for my tea as well. At first there was a touch of novelty around the weight gain as I had always been an under-weight, very frail looking runner.

Heading into spring 2002 it was clearly impacting my training and race performances and I’d slipped to 114th at the National XC in Bristol that year. At the time this was so demoralising I don’t think I ran for a month. It went downhill from there and I gained around 3/4 stone every year. I always tried to run and I did a bit of racing between 2002 and 2009 but I just did not understand the relationship between diet, bodyweight, health, training & race performance. I do not think I had ever consciously ‘retired’ as such”.

Overweight and out of condition

As the noughties wore on, it was clear that Mick was well out of shape as an athlete. With a sigh he remembers that, “By 2009 I had reached 15st 3lbs and at the time this was the heaviest I had ever reached. My first comeback started in April 2009 and over 2 years I lost 5 stone and got down to 10st 3lbs. I did this simply by training ridiculously hard, I was not quite on top of my diet. It was brute force approach!

In 2011 I ran fairly well on track and road with some decent performances over 5km and 10km. Towards the end of that summer I got Plantar Fasciitis and it persisted for around 18 months despite all manner of treatment. I put back on all the weight I had lost and by 2018 I was up to 16 stone!”.

On the comeback trail

With a cringe, Mick admits that, “My clothes didn’t fit, my skin was terrible and I was getting some chest pains. Initially I just focussed on weight loss. I simply focussed on ensuring that my calorie expenditure was really high vs calorie intake. I hit the gym every single day and did 60mins on the Cross Trainer at a decent intensity, not mega hard but enough to get a sweat on. I did some crazy stuff like 3-4 hour dog walks with a loaded rucksack. I was also doing some long Sunday bike rides of 3hrs plus. All low aerobic, fat burning work.

I was hardly running, albeit I started racing from very early on and I used my race improvement from a ridiculously low base as motivation to push on. There were a fair few 45mins plus 10kms and 5kms which were well over 20mins. As the weight dropped (around half a stone per month) and the race performances improved I became increasingly motivated and in no time at all I was starting to think about running seriously again.

At some point I decided to start to chase M40 GB ranking positions for 2019 and this then grew into a desire to chase M45 GB records when I hit 45 in September 2020”. In part two, we unpick the philosophy of training which Mick has adopted as a masters athletes which accounts for his recent success.

Matt Long is a Midlands Team Manager for Road, Cross Country and Masters. He can be contacted for support at mattlongcoach@gmail.com. Mick Hill shares all of his training on Strava and also on his Instagram & Twitter accounts. Please follow him at: 

http://strava.com/athletes/mickhill  https://twitter.com/bethebest45 >> https://www.instagram.com/bethebest45/

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19th January 1985. Paris

The Spanish National anthem is being raised and the Marcha Real is ringing out throughout the indoor stadium in the French capital as Coloman Trabado and fellow countryman Benjamin Gonzalez take the applause of the crowd.

Clutching his bronze medal is a young Wirral based athlete whose 1:48.28 over four indoor circuits has etched his name permanently in the history books, remarkably so as he is still 6 days shy of his 21st birthday.

Ikem Billy, from Birkenhead in Cheshire is the World Indoor 800m bronze medallist at a time when Sebastian Coe has months before become the first man in history to retain an Olympic 1500m title in Los Angeles. Months after Ikem’s success, Steve Cram will go on to smash three world records in just 19 days.

This is track and fields’ era of ‘Cool Britannia’, a decade before the likes of Blur, Oasis and the Spice Girls will strut their stuff and be accorded a similar label with regard to their exploits in the music industry.

March 2021

The 57 year old based in Yorkshire has little to do with athletics at the formal level aside from, “getting across to a couple of Diamond leagues with a few mates every season”. He currently works in health and social care- looking after people who have suffered devastating spinal or brain injuries typically in accidents such as car crashes.

“I switched from retail to healthcare shortly after my sister died”, he says with candour- “I’d spent most of my life in sales and wanted to do something for the social good”. Together with partner, Sally, who was herself an international athlete and has a doctorate in physiology, they plan to set up their own company – Podium – that ventures further into what is an obvious passion, namely health and well-being.

Memories of Paris

When I remind him that I’m old enough to remember reading about his exploits when he bagged European junior 800m gold in 1983, with modesty he shrugs and says, “I was just playing with the sport really”.

‘Serious’ is not a word that springs to mind when one is in the company of the affable, laugh a minute, Ikem Billy. Continuing his trait of self-deprecation he adds, “I only did the indoors because I hated cross country!”.

Keen to play down the impact of his global bronze medal, achieved a year after placing 4th in the European indoors, he laughs whilst acknowledging, “Athletes in my day didn’t get the hype that they do these days. These days I’d get a massive sponsorship deal for a world bronze medal”.

Coaching credit

The former Loughborough University student was signposted to the late, great Gordon Surtees by Steve Ovett’s coach, Harry Wilson. With a chuckle, Ikem admits, “We were like chalk and cheese really. That being said to his credit he sussed me out pretty quickly and realised I hadn’t got the personality type to train 2 or 3 times a day”.

I did most of the sessions Gordon set on my own at Loughborough but his words of mentorship rang in my ears. He had some gems like, ‘Don’t chase crimes, just win races’. The other one liner was. ‘Use your speed to open gaps and not close them’”.

Sessions

Ikem could not be described as an ‘aerobic animal’ due to the comparative lack of volume in his training but he was clearly a fan of race specific modes of speed endurance sessions. “In the summer my key session was 4 x 400m. I’d run them pretty much flat out in 47s and have a full recovery -sometimes 20 mins between reps. In the winter I tended to time trial over 5k, with Gordon telling me to throw in some 300 metre based sessions just to keep my legs turning over”.

Mixing it with the greats

Ikem’s eyes light up when he recalls a winter training tour of Australia with the likes of Steve Cram, Peter Elliot, John Walker and Ray Flynn, back in 1984 just before his global medal. When pressed he says that, “Without question, the fiercest competitor I ever faced was not Seb Coe or Steve Ovett- it was Peter Elliott”. The Seoul Olympic 1500m silver medallist is credited with having had, “No reverse gear. 5th gear is all he had!”.

Despite a phenomenal win and magnificent lifetime best of 1:44.65 in the forerunner of the Diamond League in Oslo and having helped Steve Cram to get in shape for Los Angeles in 1984, Ikem would have to watch the Olympics on television. This was indeed the golden era of Coe, Ovett and Cram and Ikem’s comment that, “It was so hard to get past them,” seems metaphorical as well a literal.

The wilderness years

Between 1985 and 1989, Ikem was sadly largely lost to the sport. “My left ankle basically kept collapsing”, he says. I had over-raced in 1984 and was paying the price. I’m a big Everton fan and player Paul Bracewell helped me to access their physio who put me on the long road to recovery”. With a shake of the head he painfully recalls that, “I basically spent the whole of 1987 in plaster but then in the late 80’s got some fitness back through aqua jogging”.

He was back with a bang in 1989 running an eye catching 1m45.27s at Crystal Palace and his comeback seemed complete when selected for Team England at the 1990 Commonwealth Games. Bound by a sales job meaning he had to work from 6am ‘til late at night, training opportunities were snatched at but Ikem managed a creditable 5th in the 800m final, managing to get the better of Seb Coe himself and Tom McKean. “After that I set my sights on the Barcelona Olympics but a hamstring injury put paid to that and that was me done in athletics really”, he says matter of factly and without bitterness.

Our current crop

Generous in his appraisal of our current two lap Team GB talent, he describes Elliot Giles as, “a beast of an athlete”, before adding that, “It was about time someone broke Seb Coe’s four decade old British indoor record. There is a new crop of middle-distance runners that are finally eradicating the times set 35 years ago. Whether it has something to do with technology- then so be it”.

A nod of approval is sent to European indoor bronze medallist Jamie Webb and European junior champion Max Burgin but special praise is reserved for the “rare talent” who he sees in the form of reigning British Champion Daniel Rowden.

Postscript

It’s time for Ikem to get back to the work that he has thrown himself into and the Birkenhead man flashes one last mischievous grin as wide as the Cheshire cat, popularised in Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. The athletics Gods were smiling on him in Paris in 1985 and Ikem Billy is still grinning back at them 36 years later and rightly so.

Matt Long is Men’s Midlands Team Manager for Road & XC and the Midlands Masters Squad. He can be contacted for support through mattlongcoach@gmail.com

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In a recent piece we explored the recovery from injury of multi-world masters champion Louise Rudd. Closely linked to injury is of course the issue of nutrition.

With the ongoing pandemic many risk factors pertaining to nutritional health have been highlighted, one such issue being that of obesity.

Here in the UK, news was recently reported that 25% of our population were obese and 60% were overweight (see also Yang et al. 2020).

More recently highlighted is the issue in endurance sport of RED-S (Relative Energy Deficit Syndrome), which equally has many associated risks.

Testimony from Louise

So how do we the balance between ‘overeating’ and ‘undereating’? The following is a personal testimony from the lead author as athlete rather than nutritionist….

“For me and any athlete I believe carbs are not the enemy. I have found that the ideal amount is 7-10g of carbohydrate per KG of body weight.

My need for carbohydrate will be more if I train more than once a day. What I find helps if you can’t stomach eating more is something like orange juice- don’t forget there can be 10g carbs in 100ml of orange juice.

In terms of my recovery, I have found that the addition of protein (1-2g/KG) to carbs has the added benefit of stimulating muscle protein synthesis and tissue repair.

In generic terms I eat meat, fish and dairy for general but a good nut butter could be a good vegan alternative.

I like to drink good old milk to both replenish protein and re-hydrate myself.

In my experience healthy fats also have a vital role to play in my daily nutrition because I feel they support intramuscular triglyceride stores and therefore provides energy.

The guidelines I follow suggest 70g a day for women and 90g for men, with no more than 30g of that from saturated fat.”

Metabolism

As we age our metabolism tends to slow and so what I’ve come to realise that what I ate 20 years ago may need to change.

I’m not sure about anyone else but my diet especially at university was questionable to say the least!! I have to personally focus on eating a better quality and balance of foods.

Yes of course there are plenty of treats in there as its mentally draining for me personally to restrict certain foods but it’s all about balance! Similarly, I’m well aware that not eating enough can lead to further problems such as osteoporosis due to poor bone health.

A question of balance

It’s important to get a good balance of macronutrients, micronutrients and fluids in your daily diet, but what else can help?

There is some evidence around tart cherry juice being useful for recovery in aiding inflammation. Caffeine has been well documented as an ergogenic aid for sports performance, especially endurance sports. I do have caffeine gum before a race – the recommended amount is 3-13mg per kg of body weight – it’s a big range as we all have a different sensitivity to caffeine – for example – if you drink coffee every day its likely you will need more to get a response. At the moment the studies show a benefit for endurance sports specifically but we all know that a caffeine burst certainly gives you a boost.

I think that Omega 3 has been shown to help with remodelling & recovery from muscle damage, as has Vitamin D. Vitamin D is also integral to good bone health and government guidelines do suggest taking a supplement of 10mcg a day in the winter months in the UK due to the lack of sun exposure. I personally take Vitamin D, a good multivitamin and mineral, an omega, a probiotic and collagen.

From the research I have done, Collagen is an interesting one – some studies have shown a benefit to taking collagen together with vitamin C (it aids absorption) to benefit cartilage injuries. after what I’ve been through, I certainly thought it was worth a try.

From your mid 20s you begin to lose about 1% of your collagen a year and for women as much as 30% in the first 5 years of menopause.

Probiotics

So what about probiotics? They are living organisms that occur naturally in foods such as yoghurt, sauerkraut and miso and they can be known as ‘friendly’ bacteria.

Any imbalance in the gut can definitely have a knock on effect and personally I’ve found the extra supplements have helped. Most of what you need can be found in a good balanced diet (apart from the additional Vitamin D needed in winter) so my advice is don’t worry about having to buy supplements just make sure you plan ahead with meals.

A cautionary note

Be wary of what you buy and where you buy it from as the supplement industry is not regulated in the same way as the pharmaceutical industry. (Editors note – remember to check the status of any supplement you plan to take on the Global DRO website)

Similarly if you are seeking advice from a professional – check their credentials. A nutritionist can technically go on line do a course and get a certificate, a dietician has to be registered. Clearly that doesn’t define whether they are good or bad but be weary of people advising you to cut out entire food groups or those, for example, that state no carbs after 6pm.

A change should be something that is long term and sustainable, be it for weight loss or weight gain. I try not to compare myself to others as we are all very different in both our needs and our circumstances”.

So what?

The above is a personal reflection from an athlete who has been an elite masters level athlete in bagging global titles. It is not a prescription from a qualified nutritionist or dietician.

As athlete and coach, both Louise and myself as coach/ coach educator would always recommend that for prescription, professional advice always be sought. This being said Louise’s experience as a biologically and intellectually mature athlete indicates she is understandably taking a high degree of ownership in terms of how she approaches nutrition.

So similarly, there is no reason why as athletes, you cannot engage with the same self-reflection questions as well as seeking professional advice:

Now what: Questions for self-reflection

1. How am I monitoring signs that I may be ‘overeating’ on the one hand or ‘undereating’ on the other?
2. How cognisant am I of my nutritional intake in terms of the recording of my consumption, as I would be with the logging of frequency, intensity and volume of my training?
3. In what ways is my nutritional strategy aiding my overall health and athletic performances?
4. To what extent can I take ownership of my nutritional strategy or to what extent do I need the prescription of a professional?
5. Why might my approach to nutrition change as my biological and training ages increase as has Louise’s?

You can keep up with Louise’s rehabilitation and comeback @lulurudd on twitter or @louisenrudd on Instagram. As both Midland Mens Road Running Team Manager and Midland Masters Mens Team Manager, Matt can be contacted for views on this piece through mattlongcoach@gmail.com.

The post Stomach for the fight appeared first on Fast Running.

At an England Athletics Conference half a decade or so ago, organised by Scott Grace, respected south coast based coach Steve King offered a memorable anecdote about the late, great Harry Wilson.

The story was about how the diminutive Welshman, who passed in 1999, guided the 1980 Moscow Olympic 800m champion Steve Ovett from his early teens to the ultimate glory on the global stage.

With some degree of affection, King recalled how Wilson’s mode of coaching had shifted from prescription to the youthful Ovett whilst he was a junior with Brighton and Hove AC, towards a role where as an ‘advisor’ later in Ovett’s career, his role would be one of carrying Ovett’s tracksuit top over his shoulder as the great man warmed up on the international circuit before breaking numerous world records over both metric and imperial mile distances.

During the latter part of his illustrious career, it was said that Ovett needed no more than a ‘word of encouragement’ here and a ‘pat on the back’ there. The old master Wilson had adapted his coaching style to suit both the biological, psychological and intellectual development of his long-term athlete.

‘Push’ versus ‘Pull’

The above anecdote opens up a discussion about difference between what the coach education literature has termed ‘push’ coaching on the one hand and ‘pull’ coaching on the other.

In taking the pivotal work of Downey (1999) as a framework (see below), rather than seeing the ‘push’ vs. ‘pull’ methods as two binaries, it may be healthier to consider that coaches, like the aforementioned Wilson, can move along a continuum, constantly adjusting their style to the said athlete throughout their careers.

Let’s take a look at the above continuum. It stretches from the directive modes of ‘telling’ and ‘instructing’ on the one hand, all the way through to the ‘listening’ and ‘reflecting’ non-directive modes of coaching on the other. So in simplistic terms, think of it as shades of grey rather than black and white.

The coaching continuum

Where a coach sits on the above continuum is a combination of several factors. Firstly, it depends on the chronological, biological, training, competition and emotional ages of the athletes concerned.

The less mature the athlete the more a coach may feel the need to be a prescriptive, ‘telling’ kind of coach who leans towards the ‘push’ end of the spectrum’. This of course is entirely understandable.

On the other hand when young athletes develop, greater empowerment may be advisable with the role of the coach evolving into one of allowing the said athlete to find out answers while being guided (hence guided discovery) or being counselled with solutions being ‘pulled’ from the athlete.

Change and disorientation

One of the issues with the progression along the continuum articulated above is the fact that athletes don’t just have static preferred ways of being coached. They mature cognitively and intellectually and the relationship between athlete and coach changes as we have articulated with the example of Ovett and Wilson.

This being said, cognitive change is an inherent part of the experiential learning cycle (Kolb, 1984) and with change comes disorientation if not anxiety.

The first author, for instance, has noted in his own coaching the bewilderment which sometimes occurs when an athlete in their late teens who has gotten used to being ‘told’ what sessions to do, is encouraged to take more responsibility for their own development by working with the coach to co-produce the said session.

Many athletes simply prefer to be ‘told’ as there is a certain ease in receiving prescription- a certain comfort blanket in not having to think through the philosophy of the coach and to anticipate what the coach would say to progress a session from week to week and so on.

Coaching and cultural capital

Plenty has been written in the coach education literature about the diverse ways in which athletes learn- notably one think’s of Fleming’s (1985) classic VARK model which differentiated between visual, auditory, reading (and writing) and kinaesthetic (doing) learning preferences.

To add balance, the coach education literature has provided us with the likes of Downey’s (1999) aforementioned coaching continuum.

This tells us where a coach is located on the spectrum which is invaluable but what is sometimes overlooked is that far less has been said in coaching pedagogic discourses about why coaches lean towards certain modes of coaching.

A sociological perspective

To understand the why question posed above one perhaps needs to look beyond coach education discourses to the broader academy. In taking a sociological approach, the more directive modes of coaching seem to carry what the French philosopher Pierre Bourdieu in his marvellous book Distinction (1984) termed ‘cultural capital’.

In simple terms the ‘telling’ coach might find him or herself being more highly valued in the cultural field of our sport. Again the first author feels that this may well be a generational things amongst the coaching fraternity.

He works with an esteemed figure who has the best part of 60 years in coaching and witnesses the lean towards the directive style which he uses in his work.

This may be a combination of the way in which the award winning coach has been socialised through coach education courses in decades gone by and the fact that he has the cultural capital of having coached a world record holder, earning him the right to ‘tell’.

The third variable would be that the coach alluded to works with athletes predominantly in their teenage years who understandably gravitate towards wanting to be told.

Cultural capital

So why do coaches who lean towards a more directive style perhaps embody more cultural capital in our sport? The insight provided by feminist discourses (see Walby, 2011) would indicate that in terms of gender role stereotypes the ‘telling’ and ‘directive’ are subliminal signifiers of what David Mech in his 1970 classic The Wolf, termed ‘Alpha Male’ characteristics.

Often the lean towards alpha masculinity can be used to mask deep seated insecurities and this may explain why some coaches reach for the dryness of this lifeboat to avoid the stormy uncertainties of other less directive modes of working with athletes.

So in essence the push-pull continuum has to be seen in the context of what Veronica Beechey (1979) would have termed ‘patriarchal ideology’.

Socialisation

We as coaches are socialised into modes of coaching not just on coach education courses but we learn how to coach in ways which are a microcosm of wider power relations in society.

In following this logic, conversely more ‘non-directive’ modes of ‘pull’ coaching are perhaps less valued in terms of the cultural capital in our sport. Why? Well qualities like active listening (Friston et al. 2021) which lead to the potential co-production of training sessions could be characterised as signifiers of more ‘feminine’ qualities in gender role stereotypical terms.

Despite the progressive gains made by ‘waves of feminism’ (Rampton, 2015) and the greater visibility of women in public life, we still live in a patriarchal society and women in athletics coaching may thus find themselves marginalised despite the brilliant work of our governing bodies and others to try and take positive action in order to redress the imbalance in power.

The sad fact remains, however that because the qualities associated with non-directive ‘pull’ based modes of coaching are subliminally associated with women as a sex, they may be devalued in cultural terms. As a white, middle class male, for example, the lead author has at times felt as if he has been censured (Sumner, 1994) by other male athletes when trying to co-produce sessions with them.

Worryingly, these can be mature senior athletes. Questions like ‘Don’t you know what schedule to recommend?’ can result in outright protestation, such as, ‘Why can’t you just tell me what to do?’.

The lead author has often likened his own coaching style to be akin to the counselling role which he undertakes in his ‘second life’ (Bahktin, 1984) voluntary work visiting the sick and the elderly in his role as part of his local hospital chaplaincy team. This is a role dominated by women. ‘Counselling’ is of course labelled (Becker, 1963) as a ‘softer’ skill- once again more ‘feminine’ in its traditional stereotypical depiction.

The point is we as coaches, athletes and significant others in the sport need to look to wider structural issues of gender and age which go way beyond the remit of track and field, in order to understand how we behave and interact with each other trackside.

Valuing diversity in coaching

One of the issues which needs greater consideration in the ‘push-pull’ coaching debate is what style of coaching is best for the coach him or herself. The lead author has for instance worked periodically with numerous younger coaches in their 30s who lean towards a ‘push’ style.

One of the reasons for this is that they have run in major championships securing England and Team GB honours. These former athletes turned coaches have the cultural capital in terms of the credibility and experience to be able to ‘tell’ athletes what to do.

Of course they would be foolish not to use the cultural capital of their experience. It then cyclical, because developing athletes will naturally tend to gravitate towards those with this kind of cultural capital and ask them ‘How did you make it?’. ‘What training did you do?’.

The first author as club level runner who achieved a county vest at his best does not have nor pretends to have this kind of capital. Often such a disclosure may disappoint the athlete looking to be guided be ‘someone who’s been there, done it and got the tee shirt’ as one athlete once told the first author.

The athlete who chooses to work with the coach who lacks experience of top flight athletics has to learn that there are no ‘quick fixes’, or ‘magical schedules’ and often has to work through the cognitive disorientation of being asked by the non-directive coach – ‘How might this session benefit you?’ or ‘Why are you doing that particular drill’?

The asking of a question can be uncomfortable to the athlete so used to being ‘told’ before the athlete begins to re-orientate him or herself to this previously unexperienced mode of coaching.

Learning from the greats

This article began with the affectionate recalling of the evolving coaching relationship between the late, great Harry Wilson and the awesome Steve Ovett. At this point, it’s worth signposting to two other modern UK greats.

Double Olympic champion Sebastian Coe was coached by his father Peter. Coe senior would certainly have leaned towards a ‘push’ mode of coaching with the young teenage Sebastian when they lived in Sheffield and Coe junior ran for Hallamshire Harriers.

At the philosophical level, Peter Coe’s training as an engineer and subsequent coaching style would have been characterised by Aristotle as a combination of textbook style ‘episteme’ (theoretical knowledge) and ‘techne’ (technical knowledge).

As a club level cyclist but non runner, Coe senior’s approach was distinct from the ‘phronesis’ (relational process of self improvement and practical wisdom) of Harry Wilson and Steve Cram’s coach Jimmy Hedley. Unlike Peter Coe, both Wilson and Hedley competed as runners, the former reaching international standard for Wales and the latter starting out as a sprinter.

Pragmatism and guided discovery

As an ‘organic’ (bottom up) coach, Hedley the pragmatist would encourage Cram to learn through what would nowadays be termed the ‘guided discovery’ of trial and error. The long history of this inductive approach can be traced back to the work of educational reformer John Dewey in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

So whilst Peter Coe’s deductive approach worked from the theoretical premises of ‘first principles’, for Hedley, his inductive reasoning would from specific empirical observations of athletes upwards to beginning to make sense of the patterns which he would be witnessing trackside.

In lacking the cultural capital of an elite athlete, Hedley would encourage a young Cram to take mentoring rather than coaching advice from the likes of Olympic medallists Brendan Foster and Mike McLeod, who could offer the kind of experiential insight into racing at international level which he himself as coach could not.

Like Wilson, Coe senior and Hedley empowered Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram to take more ownership of their training as they matured in their mid to late 20s. When Seb took his second Olympic gold in Los Angeles in 1984, Peter reportedly had little input when Seb travelled to be Stateside and Hedley was not in Seoul when Cram competed in his third and final Olympic Games in 1988.

Questions for self-reflection

1. Where do I sit on Downey’s(1999) continuum of push-pull coaching?
2. What am I doing to shift myself along this continuum when my athlete(s) develop so I can remain faithful to the principle of athlete-centredness?
3. What cultural capital can I bring to my coaching style? Am I someone who has practical experience as an elite athlete to pass on or am I someone who ‘pulls’ the answer from an athlete who may well be far more talented than myself?
4. How can I learn from the way in which great coaches like Harry Wilson, Peter Coe and Jimmy Hedley adapted their coaching style over the years spent with their respective athletes?

Matt Long is both Midlands Road Running and Cross Country Mens Team Manager and Midland Masters Mens Team Manager (contact mattlongcoach@gmail.com). Darren Reevell is the England Athletics Regional Coaching Lead for Endurance (North), England Anglo Celtic Plate 100k Team Manager, and the England Athletics Lead for Ultra Running. The input of England Athletics Coaching Workforce Manager, Paul Moseley, is credited.

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