Where should we start, to build an athlete?

Last weekend we watched the Gold Coast Marathon. We stood at the twenty-two km mark and watched everyone from the leaders back to where the attention seekers started coming through. The people with silly hats, costumes etc. There’s was one guy (a sushi eater) running the marathon backwards carrying a big flag. Another one from the same place wearing all white compression tights from ankle to wrist, with shoulder length hair (Japan’s answer to Fabio, the most beautiful man in the world).

Apart from the attention seekers, the most noticable thing about the runners struggling to break five hours. Their running technique. It was terrible. Most were wasting so much energy, I have to wonder how they train for a marathon.

When a new athlete joins my squad, the first thing I want from them is clear goals. Their goals, supply the energy which drives the consistency. The next thing I want is a three day food diary, I have to know what they’re eating and when they’re eating it. Everything they’ll become is going to be detirmined by their diet, and how well they absorb the nutritents.

The next step is to start a steady build up of aerobic work. During that process I examine their swim, bike and run technique. The athlete’s background and past experiences usually shows in their technique.   Some are good at one sport but need work on the other two. Some need to start from scratch in all three sports.

The best way to start an athlete is by building technical skills first and then gradually develop fitness. What was evident at the Gold Coast was that many have never learned “how to run”. They’ve just gone out and trudged around the streets for “who knows how many miles” wearing out shoes.

Watching members of the public, swimming at the Yeronga pool where we train, it’s pretty obvious that many have never had a swimming lesson. They just grind up and down the pool often using twice the energy necessary.

If the time trial times indicate a weakness in an on-line athlete, I’ll ask them to video themselves swimming or running. Then post it on u-tube for me to analyse. So even on-line athletes can benefit from a coach’s feedback.

The amazing thing about most runners is that, when they were little kids they moved efficiently. Then as they grew up they developed bad posture habits and poor walking technique which has carried over to their running. If you don’t walk technicaly well, you will not run technically well.

Many of the running injuries suffered by back of the pack runners could be avoided. By building good core strength. By maintaining good flexibility. By learning good posture (chances are it’ll feel “wrong” or strange after years of getting used to bad posture) A good physio (with a sports background) can help point out what’s wrong way before some injury occurs.

Swimming poorly takes a long time to cover the distance, but it can also injure your shoulders. Running poorly, with poor core strength and bad posture can cause terrible discomfort, very slow times and almost certain injury if you persist.

The runners in the top 10% of the field ran tall and relaxed. They lead each stride with their knee (not with their foot). They landed with their foot right below their hip, and pushed the ground back. They had enough core strength, so it was no trouble to resist gravity. Their foot was on the ground for the shortest possible time. They hardly made a sound on the road. Their eyes were focussed on a point about 1o0-200m ahead of them.  

I see the same thing when I’ve watched an Ironman race. The way cyclists will grind a far too high a gear, then be unable to run after. Climbing fairly steep hills in the aero position. These are not the guys doing the fastest times.

Any athlete starting a new sport should focus most of their attention on learning how to do it right, before worrying about going fast. Those who can resist the human nature or testosterone, and get it right before increasing the miles, will progress through the sport faster than the ego-driven athletes.