Coaching is 90% attitude, 10% technique.

Coaching is something I have always been interested in. Earlier in the year I attended some sessions British Triathlon started to roll out, the first "community activator" aimed at those who were possibly looking to get into coaching but more so at people who wanted to become more active within the club. This course gave the skills and knowledge required to lead pre-signed off run, ride and swim sessions but not to specifically coach.

The second session was the "Open Water Activator" aimed again at those looking to take a more active role in club sessions, this second session was a little more based on the background work going behind open water sessions and focused heavily on the health and safety aspect of things (as it should).

There is always one and its usually me, failing that its usually Skippy...

The third and final session I attended was a pilot session aimed at introducing people to guiding Visually impaired Triathletes. I had already assisted as a guide to my friend Chris Vaughan an accomplished para-triathlete who had worked closely with British Triathlon to bring this course to light. One memorable part of this session was being blindfolded and sat on the back of a tandem bike (to experience it as a visually impaired athlete would) TERRIFYING.

Chris and myself at Halifax parkrun.

After these sessions I started assisting with club sessions leading run sessions before but also and shadowing at swim sessions (Gareth and Zoe at Featherstone swimming pool, Tony and Stuart at Thornes running track.) However something felt missing..

Now I don't profess to know everything, however I have a good knowledge of the three disciplines, having come through a running background I am confident there, I know how to train on a bike and I know what a good swim stroke looks like. Having an obvious interest in the three I could quite happily talk the ear off anyone in these subjects, so what was stopping me.

I decided that it was the qualification I was missing, that little bit of paper is the mental block and the reason my confidence waned on occasion...

A few months later and here I am, I arrived fashionably early at Ashville College in Harrogate the venue for our course and was pleasantly surprised that parked next to me was Anthony Pemberton, someone I had met at the previous courses and had stayed in contact with, this was easing the first morning nerves.

After a bit of confusion finding the specific building we needed to be in we eventually walked into the classroom. There was 16 of us taking part in the course and my nerves were further eased by the fact that (including Anthony) I had previously met 7 of the participants in some way (Tri-community at work). This coupled with me knowing one of the courses leaders, Morg Williams settled me down nicely. Any nerves that remained were lessened still by the other course leader Kate Offord who soon put everyone at ease.

The first day consisted of mainly classroom based learning, we were being given information, there were group discussions, we veered off topic, we got back on topic. Nothing out of the ordinary. However it became clear that this course was less about technical knowledge but rather about preparing people to lead good, strong confident sessions. Perfect.

However, around two o'clock in the afternoon we went outside, we had all been pre-assigned a running drill and we had to deliver a session to the group on this. The nerves came back as we stood in the middle of a tennis court (in the bouncing rain) and I started my session on foot rolls. I won't go into the details but the session was a success with feedback given both positive and some negatives (apparently zipping your coat up over your mouth, hunching up and generally looking like you're in the throes of hypothermia probably isn't the best presentation) but it was done and more importantly I hadn't panicked.

Day two saw more of the same however with two sessions to deliver. The first a bike session, my given subject 'running with bike' by now the nerves had gone, the group was comfortable with each other but more importantly we had become more confident in ourselves and our abilities. Session given feedback received again some positives and some negatives but another great experience and another huge leap in confidence.

I have to give a shout out at this point to Shaun who led a session on balance/co-ordination, he brought with him a game where you ride within a circle of cones, which gradually becomes smaller. If you touch your feet on the floor you are 'out', the aim of the game to of course not be 'out'. An absolutely fantastic game, full of learning opportunities. Of course my competitive nature came out (I'm in the blue on the orange bike)...

On to the afternoon where we entered the pool, my given topic: 616/636. Now those who know me know that swimming is my weakest discipline (although my favourite) so I had been more worried about this than the other two. However a new found confidence in myself and my coaching along with the things I had learnt meant I delivered what I believed to be a well thought out and planned session and received arguably my best feedback of the weekend so far.

This woman is doing a far better job of demonstrating than I did!

All in all I have enjoyed my weekend with both the course leaders and participants and I look forward to seeing everyone again in three weeks time for the final assessments. In the meantime I have arranged in the coming weeks to lead sessions in swimming pools, on cycle tracks and running to put into practice the new skills I have found this weekend.

I'm excited to see where this road can take me...

#triathlon #duathlon #coaching #confidence