The Myth of Coaching

I've been meaning to go on this rant.  Now, it seems more appropriate than ever.

You don’t have to look very far these days for evidence of the biggest fraud in professional sports since the Chicago Black Sox; Lance Armstrong was finally unveiled as not simply a cheater, but a character corrupt enough to use his considerable resources to unbalance nearly every aspect of competition.  Almost lost in the shuffle is the minor industry of cycling coaching spawned, in large part, from Lance Armstrong’s association with Chris Carmichael, founder of Carmichael Training Systems.  Carmichael’s books were a careful blend of obfuscation and motivational rhetoric that served up online coaching for cycling wannabes worldwide.  Jumping on the bandwagon, USA Cycling offered B-team and regional pros the chance to earn some much-needed cash on the by certification according to “the book”.  But as quoted from Floyd Landis, through Tyler Hamilton (and co-author David Coyle), in The Secret Race, “I don’t recall Lance ever mentioning Chris’ name or citing a piece of advice Chris had given him,” writes Hamilton. “By contrast, Lance mentioned Ferrari constantly, almost annoyingly so.” Landis is more pointed, calling Carmichael “a beard.”

Now, I don’t mean to throw CTS or any of the other coaches under the bus, coaching does have value, and when followed appropriately, can achieve improvement.  But it’s worth noting a couple of things about “the book” of cycling coach-ology: 1) Coaching, as most frequently practiced, is designed to achieve maximum results from a given rider over a short period of time, three to four months.  2) Coaching methods tend to work best for riders with a specific genetic makeup and muscle development.  Why?  Let’s go back to high school, or little league, or wherever your childhood or teenage sports memories take you.  The coach’s job is to win (OK, Caltech’s basketball coach is a notable exception).  To win, the coach needs winning players.  And the coach must find his or her winning players and get them ready to compete in a couple of months’ time.  The coach doesn’t win by using every single person who shows up for the tryout, not even by using all who survive the tryout.  The coach wins by finding the players (or runners or riders) who have the ability to play, subjecting them to a rigorous training schedule, and finding those few who are ready to compete.  The rest are weeded out.  That’s the coach’s job, also…to get rid of the players who aren’t ready.  Does that mean those of us who didn’t make the cut are destined to be losers?  Maybe…or maybe not.  All of us can benefit from coaching, but we may need a different type of coaching.  We need long-term coaching that focuses on developing physiology and skills that the kids picked ahead of us were born with or were developed before ours could be.  You won’t find this type of coaching from “the book”.  If you want to be fast for a race in three months, go hire any USA Cycling certified coach, it’s your best shot.  But if you got your ass handed to you and you want to be faster next year, an internet coach might not be your best investment.

When you hire a coach, you’re skipping the tryout; you are paying to be on the team.

Consider a few things before you hire a coach:

Benefits

Accountability – it’s easy to skip training rides; it’s even easier to skip once you’ve started skipping.  The weather sucks!  I’ve had a bad day at work!  Mmm…beer!  You know all the excuses.  But remember, you’re paying for this!  Not only are you going to get yelled at, you’re paying to get yelled at!

Variety – One of the keys to being fast is to vary your training from day to day; to work on different aspects of speed, intervals, endurance, strength, etc.

Organization – Coaching inevitably involves keeping a diary of your training and training data.  Sometimes, to some people, this can be useful.

So what?!?

Nothing listed above should be news to anyone who is interested in racing enough to consider hiring a coach.  Nothing listed above isn’t already available for FREE on the internet, or if you want more detail, available in concise, printed form for less than $20 on Amazon.com.  What’s more, you’ll get advice beyond the short-term – cross-training and weight training for things you may lack that won’t be included in your internet coaching regimen.   And, unlike Chris Carmichael, it comes without all the syrupy, creepy, awful motivational mantra.

Internet coaching is really just another of Lance Armstrong’s myths.  You can be fast(er), and you don’t have to follow Lord Voldemort or Stephen Covey to get there.  As Eddy Merckx said, “Ride lots!”