Find a Coach
Finding a coach: a triathlon coach, an endurance coach, an ultra marathon coach – whatever kind of coach can be quite stressful. It can be hard to know where to look and what is important and what isn’t. Especially in the early part of the new year, coaches are everywhere and social media becomes a shouting match as people compete to shout the loudest. Read on to help cut through the noise and find yourself a coach.
An athlete will interact with a coach at many stages in their early life. They will have learned to swim, been involved with a running coach of some description and may or may not have come across a cycling coach - most of the time the old adage of “it’s like riding a bike” – nonetheless, they would have somehow been taught the disciplines. Within triathlon, there comes a time that the athlete wants to improve, and they look for coaching.
Therefore “finding a coach” is interesting - you probably have already come into contact with a coach and they may be a great place to start.
As a newer athlete, in the sport, it can be easy to generalise that coaches are for the elite, and the top-performing age-group athletes not for the humble beginner. Often these coaches try and entice new athletes seeking to hit Age-group titles and "winning" which can be off-putting for newer athletes. How do you know where to start looking for a coach?
The first step is often missed:
What do you need from a coach?
It may be a series of swimming lessons, some time working on transitions or some guidance in doing a triathlon which will help you the most. In which case, joining a local club is certainly going to be the easiest step to get the guidance you need. Club coaching is an excellent way to learn the basics, and understand how to train as well as how to learn some of the technical points that perhaps limit your progression. You will also find some excellent friends and training buddies that will also help.
At some point, though, if you want to perform, you are likely to think about employing a coach to works specifically with you. Again, the first question you need to ask yourself is "what do I want out of this coaching relationship?". Amazingly, most people we come into contact with at Tri Training Harder are unclear on what they really want and are often shy about their goals. This makes things a lot harder!
Now, finding a coach can be a lot harder. Often governing bodies have lists of coaches, but these can be outdated, or incomplete. IRONMAN has a list of coaches who have completed their coaching course, and Training Peaks has a similar one athletes often look to "better" athletes as well for guidance. That is before you start googling, or asking for friends and training buddies for advice. So how do you know where to go?
Full disclosure, you are reading this, and we are a Coaching Company! So the first step would be to check our website! 😉 We pride ourselves at seeking out quality coaches who come to us to further their career. We then ensure they go through a strict 6-9 month intensive development programme before they are allowed to start coaching athletes, and even then they will still be looking to develop for the next few years after that. If you are new to the sport, you may not care too much about what we do, but the reasoning behind it is an interesting one.
We found that there was a significant gap between a governing body L2 or L3 coach and the standards we expect when coaching professionally (i.e. for a living). This doesn't mean that the two are exclusive, just that there are gaps in knowledge, ability or completeness of understanding which undermined the professional part of our business. Equally, courses, like IRONMAN U was online-based and so had limited to no athlete-facing skills mentioned and ignored coaching short course athletes! Usually, IRONMAN U "qualified" coaches wouldn't make it through our first series of standard requirements. Therefore, we needed to ensure we kept the quality high for people paying for coaching. This means you really need to be confident that the coaching you are getting is the standard you expect/are paying for. Depending on where you are in your athletic lifestyle will impact how much of the gap will slow your development down. A newer athlete may need someone who is a step or two a head of them and they will make progress. But we would always ask, are you making the right rate of progress? Look beyond the badge of a coach and start asking the big questions:
Is this coach proven to work with athletes like me?
Has the coach got experience in coaching?
Does the coach have the qualifications and the insurance to cover my coaching?
Does the coach athletes who are achieving what I want to achieve?
Is this coach shouting loudly or coaching quietly?
This last point is probably one of the most interesting – good coaches, some of the best, are usually the least vocal. They are humble and deliver coaching standards, time and time again. Sadly, the sports industry is often saturated with loud people with limited knowledge looking to make some money quickly! Do they have substance behind their marketing wall?
Finally, a coaching relationship is exactly that, when looking for a coach, if you are satisfied with what you see and want to sign up, the final and most important step is to ensure that you have a coaching relationship that is based on trust and one that works for you. Make sure you have a chat with the coach before you start! Everyone can look good on paper, but you need to really click. Remember, you are sharing your dreams with this person, you want it to flourish and so should they!
Other considerations that are important to consider:
What frequency of communication do you want to have?
Are you after face to face coaching or just remote coaching?
Are you geographically close to them?
Do you want to train in a squad environment with your coach, or just on your own?
How much do you want to spend on your coach?
How are you going to share your training sessions with them? (Most use a recording device or watch, do you have one? If not, will there be additional costs to set that up?)
We do genuinely believe that coaching athletes is one of the most incredible and exciting professions to be involved with, and we are privileged to share those experiences with the athlete. Often an athlete won't know the true impact that coaching will have on them until they start working with them, and that is one of the saddest things in the sporting world! If you are looking to finding a triathlon coaching, finding an ultramarathon coach, or finding a general endurance coach, make sure you are able to check the points throughout this article and choose a coach who can offer you the very best for your development. After all, that's what you deserve!
Philip is the founder of Tri Training Harder LLP. He’s a British Triathlon Level 3 coach, and has been coaching for over a decade and is involved with mentoring and developing other coaches.
Philip has have coached athletes to European and World AG wins, elite racing, many Kona qualifications, IRONMAN podiums and AG wins.
Alongside the conventional development through many CPD courses, he has also been fortunate enough to work alongside experts in the fields of Physiotherapy, Strength and Conditioning, Nutrition, Psychology, Biomechanics, Sports Medicine. Putting this knowledge into practice he has worked with thousands of athletes to various degrees, from training camps in Portugal and around Europe, clinics in the UK and online coaching.
Visit Philip's
Coach profile
We’re here to help
Tri Training Harder are one of the leading Triathlon coaching providers in the UK, using our wealth of experience to unite scientific and technological research with already well-established and successful best practices, to create a formula for triathlon and endurance coaching that works.
The result is an honest, dynamic, yet simple new way of constructing an athlete’s training to allow them to reach their potential.
If you’re planning your next season, just starting out in the sport or are looking for extra guidance at the very top end of the field, we are here to help, and our coaches would be delighted to hear from you. You can contact us via the website, and one of the team will be in touch.