The Buffett Formula — How To Get Smarter

Shane Parish's site Farnam Street Blog has the mission to help  "master the best of what other people have already figured out." The site is a great resource for coaches, and covers areas such as learning, processing information, useful books, the 'soft skills' such as relationships, rapport, and communication. 

This post by Shane nicely links up the aim of EliteCoach.me, and is about learning. 

"Most people go though life not really getting any smarter. Why? They simply won’t do the work required." 

The summary is to read, and read a lot. But that's not enough - you have to actively read, much like 'deliberate practice' as a coaching concept - passively reading doesn't work. The test is being able to explain the concepts to others. Take notes, and process them, use what you learn.

Read the full post - it's a good one.

A good place to start with the Farnam Street Blog is the best of 2013 post. 

If like me you end up collecting a lot to read - download Instapaper to pull material offline to read later in a better format.

If your facilities are better than your results...

The Australian site Propel Perform tweeted this out last week:

"High Performance Heuristic: If your facilities are better than your results... You have a 'decision-maker' problem."

I felt it deserved a slightly longer follow-up than 140 characters. 

Modern facilities are not necessary for elite performers, or to have an effective high performance sporting environment. This is good to remember for coaches, who train in older facilities, or facilities without all the bells and whistles. Also for federations or governments interested in promoting sport - better to make memberships free or subsidise participation than have expensive facilities. Of course it's great to do both, but often it's not possible, budgets limiting.  

Many of the best performing programmes come from 'basic' facilities. Perhaps the environment created by shiny 'newness' creates the feeling that one has arrived, vs the struggle that high performance sport unpins is about.  

I always like the older pool in Victoria BC, Crystal Pool, vs the newer Saanich Commonwealth Place. 

Food for thought. 

The Five Paths To Being The Best At Anything

Erik Barker's site Barking Up The Wrong Tree has a lot of good content - often excerpts from books and studies on various themes, such as this post on "The Five Paths To Being The Best At Anything" which touches on the '10,000' hours, 'The Sports Gene', having great team around you, and finding ways to give back.

1. Always work hard to improve.
2. When choosing tasks and strategies, consider your natural gifts.
3. Pick a great team and get familiar with them.
4. Within reason, always help others.

Check out the post and subscribe to Eric's newsletter on the site. Follow Eric on twitter @bakadesuyo

Young players don't respect coaches

Interesting article from TheAustralian.com.au on Toni Nadal, the coach to tennis star Rafa Nadal, who is also his uncle. 

"But he sees among young players a lack of respect to coaches and a wariness of the unrelenting hard work and absolute commitment as reasons why 34 of the past 35 Grand Slam titles have been won by four men."

"Coaches come for players with water, with food - many times I see the player go to the court for practice and the player goes with nothing and the coach has the bag. I have seen many times players who talk to his coach so bad. "

The article resonates particularly for any coach working with Federation supported programmes and athletes. In our efforts to  go the extra mile for performance, we can inadvertently create environments where athletes end up with entitled behaviour. They can end up dependant on staff to take care of them and find solutions to problems vs learning how to manage themselves, even if that means making mistakes during their development years.

This reminds me of a discussion with Kiwi/British Coach Ben Bright on the path many young Aussis and Kiwis forged in the early years of triathlon, coming to Europe with nothing, and finding their way as professionals, racing for food and lodging. The modern generation of athletes have more support, but there can be a downside to that support, that they miss these formation development experiences.

Reflections & Expectations - Gambetta

Vern Gambetta has a post on his Functional Path Training blog with some lessons and reflections from 2013, a couple of which I have highlighted below, which resonated with me:

"Every year that passes just keeps reaffirming that everything that is old is new again."

"Just because something did not work in the past does not mean it won’t work now - different time, different people, different place and different circumstances."

"Master the basics and never abandon the basics. Everything is built on basics."

Read the full post and follow Vern on twitter @coachgambetta

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Why Crossfit works...but really doesn't. The randomness of adaptation, and why beginners just need change.

Athletics coach Steve Magness has a nice article at his Science of Running blog, on intervention training studies and why many 'new' protocols might 'work' in the lab, but might not be giving the full picture in the 'real world'

"Too often we get caught up in isolation, and forget the complexity and interaction that surrounds the isolation."

In summary, we always respond to short term change, but that doesn't mean that change is in the right direction for the longer term for our performance goals. 

This is a real problem with applied sports science research and it's application for coaches, and why while keeping current with the latest research is a good tool for coaches, changing programme direction as a result of research may not be a good strategy over the longer term. 

Follow Steve on twitter @stevemagness

Top 13 of 2013 - Squad Review

Our 2013 Squad review is here

Top 13 of 2013 - Squad Review
At the end of the year, it's been great to reflect on the last 12 months, with just few of the achievements from the athletes part of our team. In alphabetical order -

The Top 13 of 2013

Read the rest on JoelFilliol.com

Top 13 of 2013 - Squad Review

At the end of the year, it's been great to reflect on the last 12 months, with just few of the achievements from the athletes part of our team. In alphabetical order -

The Top 13 of 2013

1. Alicia Kaye USA - Winner Lifetime Fitness Series - Alicia was the non-draft Olympic distance boss this year, winning the Lifetime Series, including the final in Oceanside, and the male/female Equalizer. @AliciaKayeTri

2. Carol Routier ESP - Podium Sarasota ITU Cup - While young Spanish athlete Carol is known for leading WTS swims, she has moved forward all around, shown by a strong 2nd in Sarasota in a breakaway with two team mates. @CarolRoutier

3. Helle Frederiksen DEN - 2x 70.3 debut wins - Helle dipped her toe into the non-drafting world in 2013, and made and impact with her first two efforts over the half Ironman distance producing two solid wins. @helle_f

4. Jarrod Shoemaker USA - 70.3 Debut Puerto Rico - While not usually known for his bike power, Jarrod put in a strong first 70.3 performance in San Juan, finishing 6th in a competitive field of specialists. @jarrodshoemaker

5. Kyle Jones - Canadian Champion - Kyle returned to the Edmonton this year to defend his National title and won again in style. Can't wait for Edmonton 2014 Grand Final. @JonesKyle

6. Mario Mola ESP - 3rd & 3rd in London WTS - Former World Junior Champion Mola had a breakout season this year, with three WTS podiums, and third overall in the ITU World Series. @mariomola

7. Mirinda Carfrae AUS - Kona Champion - Although we only had a short time with Rinny before coach Siri Lindley took the reigns in Boulder for the second half of the year, it was great to be involved in a small way with Rinny’s fantastic performance in Hawaii. @Mirindacarfrae

8. Paula Findlay CAN - Winner Sarasota ITU Cup - Paula had a building year, focused on gaining strength and returning from challenges she faced in the lead up to London 2012, however with her Sarasota performance she showed she can still win, and will be back. @PaulaFindlay

9. Richard Murray RSA - 2nd in San Diego WTS - Rich had a strong season overall, finishing 5th overall in the ITU World Series and highlighted by a stand out second in San Diego. @RD_murray

10. Sarah Groff USA - Racing like a Boss -  Coming off her inspiring London 2012 campaign, Groffy took a different approach to ’13 and went all in for San Diego, Madrid, and London, making important changes for the build to Rio. @sgroffy

11. Tommy Zaferes USA - Winner Brazil FAST Triathlon - I had never heard of a race director asking an athlete to slow down to avoid lapping out the field, but that happened to Tommy in Brazil. @tzaferes

12. Vendula Frintova CZE - Euro Champs Bronze Medallist - Vendula raced with guts at the european champs in Turkey, running from the front pack, and coming away with another European medal. @VendulaShouldGetTwitter

13. JFT Squad - Zero to Heroes - From zero in 2011, building from two Olympians in London 2012, to a superb group of athletes working together in 2013, we had amazing performances, and really enjoyed the process along the way.

2014 brings a further evolution of our squad, with new athletes, new staff, and sure to be outstanding performances and good fun. Our 2014 roster will be announced on JFTracing.com in the new year, follow along & at JoelFilliolCoaching on FB. 

The 53 Greatest Lessons 2013 Taught Me

I'm usually more interested in experts who are out in the field practising their craft at the coal face, compared to professional presenters/speakers, however on RobinSharma.com there is a post about 53 lessons learned, which has some thought provoking points applicable to coaches. Here are a few I selected:

"Success has less to do with hard work and more to do with massive focus on your few best opportunities."

"Real leaders have the guts to have the hard conversations."

"Self-belief is so incredibly important. Because if you don’t believe you can achieve a vision/goal, then you won’t even start to do the work needed to achieve that vision/goal."

"Our biggest enemy is our own self-doubt. We really can achieve extraordinary things in our lives. But we sabotage our greatness because of our fear."

"You rarely go wrong when you trust yourself."

"Small little details done excellently and consistently stack up into something the world sees as Mastery."

Any coach can see something applicable to their coaching context in that list.

Career Advice For Students Who Want To Work In Sports: DON’T

Sefu Bernard has a post on his Thellabb.com site based on an interview/quote with Mark Cuban based on the following question:

“How can I work in the professional sports?”

The advice Cuban gives is that professional sports is very difficult to get involved with due to the demand, so don't bother.

I see the same question from athletes and coaches - "how can I become an elite coach" or how do a 'turn pro' - my answer is the same as the conclusion of Sefu's article:

"Persistence pays off."

Follow Sefu's coaching education site on twitter: @TheLLaBB

Lessons Learned as a Performance Coach

Propel Perform has a guest post from Sports Performance Coach Jorge Carvajal about a conversation he had with a young coach about lessons learned. He had these three pieces of advice: 

“Trust your abilities as coach!”

“The athlete needs to be sold.”

‘’Be an economist with you program design!”

Read the full article to get the context behind Jorge's answers. 

Follow Jorge Carvajal @carvperformance

Leaders in Performance Magazine

Performance sport conference promoters Leaders in Performance launched a free (with registration) quarterly magazine earlier this year - the first issue is quite good and has a fair bit of content on planning, injury management, psychology, book recommendations, among other topics. Worth a read.

Excerpt from Rasmus Ankersen's article: "If it ain't broke, Fix it"

The Key to Preventing Overuse Injury in Runners is Load Management

Craig Payne's Running Research Junkie site has a good article that cuts through the BS on running injuries, and the various ways coaches attempt to avoid injuries. The article touches on several variables: the training programme, foot biomechanics, stretching, strengthening, running shoes, and running form, looking at evidence in each area to reach the following conclusion: 

"You can not decrease the load in one tissue with changes in running technique, running shoes, strengthening or foot orthotics or any other approach without increasing it in another tissue."

"It all boils down to: load management."

Essentially, all tissues have load limits, these can be managed, and loads shifted between areas, however ultimately simplest way to manage these loads is the external load of the training programme. Some athletes have lower load limits before injuries occur than others, and our job as coaches is to progressively increase the load limits in our athletes with minimal injuries due to exceeding these limits. 

Follow Craig Payne on twitter.

The Kings and Queens Philosophy

Joseph Lightfoot has an article on the athlete-centred approach of British Cycling - described as Kings and Queens:

“We put the riders in the middle; we’re just the minions around them giving them expert advice.”

“Having the riders in the middle having ownership and having responsibility for what they’re doing is one of the key things that we try to promote. And it seems to work.”

“The ‘athletes are kings and queens’ with everyone else there to support them. That philosophy runs through British Cycling and Team Sky.”

Many federations, teams and governing bodies claim to be athlete-centred, and in some cases coach-driven. In practicality, it's tougher to implement, and rare to actually pull this off, as these bodies often struggle with communication and resort to authority, which is easier to implement than athletes having a true voice in the programme. 

When programmes aren't athlete centred, coach driven, there is often a lot of wasted resources, as these resources aren't driven by needs or problems to be solved, but instead are 'check-list' based, driven by funding bodies too far from the coal-face, which means many of these resources don't meaningfully contribute to athlete performance.

The Kings and Queens model is ultimately the best one for senior experienced athletes, and should be scaled for developmentally athletes, teaching them to learn how to drive their own programme, while still leading them in the right direction.

Lightfoot's article has some suggestions on how this model applies to programmes with more limited resources, and how to make it work.

Dan Pfaff 38 years in 28 minutes: Part III

Part 3 of the video interview with American sprints coach Dan Pfaff, via Stuart McMillan:

Follow Pfaff on twitter.

Dan Pfaff 38 years in 28 minutes: Part II

Part 2 of the video interview with American sprints coach Dan Pfaff, via Stuart McMillan:

Follow Pfaff on twitter.

Dan Pfaff 38 years in 28 minutes: Part I

This series of videos from American sprints coach Dan Pfaff via Stuart McMillan is full of wisdom of real coaching, worth a watch and favourite:

Follow Pfaff on twitter.

Beijing 2008 Reflections with Joel Filliol and Simon Whitfield

I've started a small side project on elite coach education started on a new site: http://www.elitecoach.me/ and via twitter @ https://twitter.com/elitecoachme 

It's a work in progress, as I find resources that I find useful, I'll add to the site.

Starting off with a video from a 2008 post-Beijing talk I did with Simon Whitfield: 

This video is the Beijing 2008 Olympic Reflections talk I did with two time Olympic medallist Simon Whitfield, in November 2008, held at PISE in Victoria BC Canada.

Beijing 2008 Reflections with Joel Filliol and Simon Whitfield

This video is the Beijing 2008 Olympic Reflections talk I did with two time Olympic medallist Simon Whitfield, in November 2008, held at PISE in Victoria BC Canada.