"I do not care what coaching cue is used or whether it is totally correct as long as it evokes the response I am looking for. I try to use a variety of statements to elicit the result I am looking for. I do not coach for what it appears to others; I coach for the result. In my part of the country we say the proof is in the pudding. That means if it tastes good, the recipe was good. If it tastes b [...]

I have been fortunate in the time since the Olympic games to spend time with seven coaches of Gold medal winners in Athletics (Track & Field) from the London games. In two instances I got to watch workouts and spend significant time with the coach and athlete. These are the commonalities that all shared:Passion – In most cases they wore their passion on their sleeves.Technical Knowledge – They [...]

Being ready to deliver on the day – The ability to have your athletes ready to perform at their best at the required time is most important. That can be the final of the Olympic games or a high school state championship. Everything is directed to this goal.Coaching is a careful blend of art and science – No more explanation is necessaryEmotional intelligence is the key to effective coaching †[...]

I was in London for the Global Coaches House. The Global Coaches House was in London because of the Olympics. The Olympic games are the pinnacle of sport. Because they occur only once every four years and they are a multi-sport competition they are unique in their demands on the athlete and the coach. Security is stricter, sometime borderline oppressive. You live in a village with other athletes a [...]

The goal of every athlete who competes in the Olympic games is a place on the podium, hopefully a place on the top step. Every athlete who competes in the Olympic games works hard, some have more talent than others. It has been my experience over the years that those who stand on the podium are there because they choose to be there. Michael Phelps, arguably the greatest Olympian of all time acknow [...]

Just a flash report to start the discussion....Bolt has won ANOTHER Olympic Games 100m becoming just the 3rd person to repeat in this most-challenging of events. Time: 9.63 secondsSteps: 41Race splits forthcoming...Just anecdotally, I'd say his Beijing performance was more dominating both in relation to the field and in terms of the quantitative performance. Nonetheless you can't take anything a [...]

We are three days away from the culmination of four years of preparation for the Olympic games. I was reflecting on the final phases of preparation – what needs to be done to put the finishing touches on the training? It can be summed up in a quite succinctly – just enough! Do just enough work to allow the years of preparation to be applied. In the final phase of training what isn’t done may [...]

As the Olympic Games begin I think it will be interesting to track the United Kingdom's improvement as a national team with elitetrack favorite coach Dan Pfaff at its helm. Obviously, with the Games being in London the UK's track and field team will have a lot of pressure to medal. Over the last couple of years the website athleticsweekly has included a number of micro cycles of training from so [...]

It is always interesting to watch coaches and athletes in an Olympic year. To see what they do and what they don’t do. I first became aware of this in 1968 and have seen it in each subsequent Olympic year. Training in the Olympic year should be the culmination of the quadrennial cycle. It should be a logical extension of what you have done the previous three years, in fact what you have done thr [...]

I was reading the history of college strength and conditioning thanks to the blog that Coach Boyle updated recently. Being a huge fan of the history of sports performance all the way to the original olympic games, it was a great read. My concern is what has changed for the better or what has failed to continue now with classic education. Have things become better or just fancy? For my college grad [...]