Coaching. Your Way

What is coaching?

For an athlete, is it purely the time spent building the engine and emptying the tank as they consistently endeavour to push the boundaries of their capability? And for the coach, is it purely the time spent nurturing an athlete’s physical performance until they reach peak?

Maybe, for some. But there’s only so far that’s going to take you, whether you’re a coach or an athlete.

Life itself is a collection of human experiences. They overlap and borrow from each other to make us who we are.

So it follows that coaching should be something more than an isolated element of rituality. It’s something that should enhance the human experience of the athlete; something that stays with them, and from which they should be able to borrow and integrate into other aspects of their day to day life.

And that makes the role of the coach a little more complex.

They’re not just number crunchers or (depending on your feelings on a given day) sadists who exist purely to dish out copious amounts of physical activity. They are designers in their own right, crafting individual experiences that reduce the uncertainty of outcomes, provide control within your performance and form deep connections; between your physical and psychological boundaries, your ability and your belief in it.

They are curators who focus relentlessly on every element that makes an individual an athlete. And none are missed when they create an experience for that person.

At a time when the world outside of us has become more overwhelming than ever, we run the risk of our intrinsic drivers being downplayed or, worse still, going entirely unnoticed. It is your coach that is there to make sure they are accounted for.

Ultimately though, we all have the same primal need: people want to know that others care about them. We crave this sense of belonging and direction, regardless of how fiercely independent and capable we appear to be.

The role of the coach is to create an environment that is meaningful for the athlete. The key question they ask themselves when they’re bringing together the building blocks is ‘how will this make them feel?’.

And when we talk about a ‘meaningful’ environment, we’re talking about one that inspires a change in behaviour. It should be a safe space where thought patterns can be challenged, feelings addressed, and actions taken.

But for this to be effective and inspire an athlete to level up, physically and mentally, it’s vital that the coach understands the person they’re designing that environment for. Without this innate understanding, it’s near impossible for a coach to gain trust and infinitely harder for them to demonstrate a genuine level of care.

Conversely, a coach who understands their athlete on a personal level is able to take them on a journey; to live alongside them through the anticipation, excitement, fear and relief that comes with performing within any sporting arena.

The danger of focusing on an isolated performance is that too little attention will be paid to how an athlete reaches the level they need to on race day.

So, creating an experience within that meaningful environment starts with shifting focus from outcome. Race performance is a milestone, not an end goal; it’s part of a bigger journey, not a finish point.

Experiences don’t happen by chance or they don’t have to, at least, especially in environments like these. And when they have purpose, a reason, they have to be shaped: the highs and the lows.

For a coach, that plan should be designed around how they want their athletes to feel. Are they trying to create an experience where race day is all that matters, that not reaching an agreed threshold is a total failure of the whole process? Or are they trying to create an experience and environment that focuses on physical growth and incremental improvements; where race day is a benchmark, something to learn from, not a be all and end all?

Our school of thought aligns with the latter.

We create small, intimate training environments that cater for individual needs. We focus on what drives our athletes as individuals and formulate performance curriculums that encourage progressive development, using evidenced based research, experience and expertise to account for every detail.

And along the way we offer bespoke experiences through our RÁS Weekenders, Challenges and Seminars. These are events that are designed to push each athlete’s experience to new heights, where they can test themselves, physically and mentally, and find support and encouragement from those on a similar journey.

Truth be told, we’re not coaches. We’re not here to just crunch numbers or sadists dishing out copious amounts of physical punishment.

We are engineers of personal experiences.

Because to us, and to our athletes, this is more than just a coaching programme. It’s a journey borne from an experience we create together.