Episode 219: The Biggest Mistakes Coaches Make When Guiding Time-Starved Athletes
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Adapt training to the life of the time-starved athlete
Does it sometimes feel like the training you’ve been prescribed doesn’t fit comfortably into your life?
Does your training volume have you feeling like a zombie rather than a finely tuned athlete?
Did your coach still schedule a bike workout even though you made clear notes that you had a work trip with no access to cycling?
Do you struggle to understand the big picture of your training?
Does your coach keep pushing for commitment and focus even though you’re already stretched too thin?
If so, you are experiencing some of the biggest mistakes coaches make when working with the time-starved athlete.
The challenge of every time-starved athlete is finding a balance between the demands of life’s competing non-negotiable priorities, and the pursuit of self-improvement, or peak performance, in sport or fitness.
Whether you're a triathlete, runner, cyclist, parent, or CEO, each role comes with its own unique challenges, making it difficult to stay on course with a training program designed to maximize performance outside the context of your life.
While plenty of coaches are skilled at building training programs anchored in tried and true methodology geared towards high-performance athletes, the question is, do the same approaches and methodologies fit when someone is incredibly time-starved?
Today, Matt takes a closer look at the relationship between the coach and the time-starved athlete to identify the coaching mistakes that often lead to underperformance or an ineffective coaching relationship, along with the keys to fostering a healthy coaching relationship in the pursuit of balance and success in sport and life.
You'll learn:
Critical Benefits from Leveraging a Successful Coaching Relationship
(16:19) “It's beyond sporting results. The other thing a coach should be able to do, particularly for a time-starved athlete is, through their expertise and experience, help you improve your profile in health, your work performance, and how you show up in life.”
(17:07) “Coaching isn't just about writing some magic good plan. It is enabling the athlete to appreciate and understand the plan, buy into it, and then be able to self manage.”
The Biggest Coaching Mistakes When Guiding Time-Starved Athletes
(27:25) “If you just build your proverbial, this is the plan that is necessary to get ready for X - a marathon, an Ironman, a half Ironman - whatever it might be, it's always going to conflict with life. Because for a time-starved athlete, life is non-negotiable.”
(41:31) “Give them freedom. Allow much of the training to be a little bit of ME TIME. A freshener. A cognitive cleanse. So many coaches miss that as an opportunity and they overload.”
Building a Framework of Coaching and Program to Get the Best Return for Your Hard Work
(46:54) “You can set high standards, you can have high expectations as a coach, but that is only going to be fostered to high performance if it is supported with great listening and empathy.”
We hope this episode will empower you, the athlete, to improve your own training and performance and raise the bar when it comes to finding the right coach.
Episode Timestamps
0:00-09:49 Introduction and Matt's Personal Picks
Purple Patch Blog - How to Train for Half IRONMAN and IRONMAN in a Time-Starved Life
Purple Patch Blog - Are You in a Broken Triathlon Coaching Relationship?
The Purple Patch Center is Open - Learn More and Schedule a Visit
Purple Patch Website and Newsletter
10:03-11:55 Word of the Week - Right Off - "Don't give up on yourself."
12:11- The Meat and Potatoes - The Biggest Coaching Mistakes for a Time-Starved Athlete
Purple Patch and Episode Resources
This episode is sponsored by our collaboration with INSIDE TRACKER. Inside Tracker and Purple Patch - Receive 20% off their services with code: PURPLEPATCHPRO20
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Full Transcript
Matt Dixon 00:00
I'm Matt Dixon, and welcome to the Purple Patch Podcast. The mission of Purple Patch is to empower and educate every human being to reach their athletic potential through the lens of athletic potential, you reach your human potential. The purpose of this podcast is to help time-starved people everywhere, integrate sport into life.
Matt Dixon 00:20
Hey, folks, just before we launch hand in hand, in today's show, I want to tell you something about something that you're going to hear right at the header of the show. And that's where I give you some insights around some of the conversations that we have with athletes who are considering Purple Patch. Now what you might not know is we really encourage people that are interested to give us a call, set up a complimentary call. And that's for several reasons. The first is it helps us appreciate and understand the goals and challenges that you might face. But also, it ensures that we get you on the best program for your situation and budget. It's a no-pressure environment for you to go and ask questions and learn if ultimately, Purple Patch is a fit for you. Now our promise to every athlete is that you are more than a number. And these calls are a perfect way to kick off your journey the right way. And of course, ensure that you have a seamless runway into our program. And so when you're here today, if you are inspired, feel free to ping us, all you need to do is ping us at info@purplepatchfitness.com. And let us know that you heard this invitation on the show. And we will get you scheduled. Also before we get going I do want to say a word about our partner Inside Tracker. Because this is the vehicle that enables us to give you free unabridged content that's going to help you in your performance. It is one of our most important partnerships because it is grounded in helping you guys the athletes, and of course, fitness enthusiasts, optimize your return on your hard work is going to set you up for not just your best performance but also longevity of performance across both sport and life. I want you to do what you love and love what you're doing for a long time. And I think that the insights and recommendations from the team at Inside Tracker provide a sense of clarity and focus on the key elements that are going to help you excel. All you need to do is head to insidetracker.com/purplepatch and add the code purplepatchpro20, and of course you get 20% of everything at the store. If you want to accelerate these insights, reach out to us, grab a coaching consultation from one of the team at Purple Patch. Same email as I mentioned before info@purplepatchfitness.com. Let us know that you want to schedule a consultation to go along with your insight tracker assessment, and we will get cracking. But let's not wait any longer. Let's jump off the cliff. Deep breath out, it's time to get going isn't it I hope you enjoy the show.
Matt Dixon 02:52
And welcome to the Purple Patch Podcast. As ever, your host, Matt Dixon. And to introduce this week's show, what I decided to do is pull some salient quotes and comments from a few of the many introduction calls that we like to have with potential and incoming athletes at Purple Patch. Now these calls are really valuable, because it enables us to meet and understand each athlete's situation and goals but also help them align with the best program. So we want to ensure it's a good fit so that we can create a lasting relationship. We are committed to ensuring that every Purple Patch athlete is more than a number. And this is a wonderful way to kick off the partnership. But in these conversations, we get a lot of insights, some lessons for us as a team. And we tend to see some patterns, some common situations, some challenges. And I thought, you know what, I'm going to share some of these. So we won't associate any names, but I'm just gonna...directly from our core notes...these are all genuine, directly quote a few. Okay, here we go. Number one, "I constantly feel like I can't keep up with the prescribed training". Number two. "I'm zombified throughout much of the day". Number three, "I'm so frustrated. I've just had it. I keep getting told to do a bike ride when I'm traveling for work. I have no access to anything but running and yet I wake up and I see on my plan. Go for a ride". Number four, "I honestly have no idea where the plan is going. I asked questions, but I just get told, trust the plan. I don't seem to get any feedback". Number five, "I constantly feel like I'm failing. My life shifts, and I simply don't know how to adjust the sessions. I seem to get 80% of the workouts done. So I just feel like I'm going backwards". And finally, number six. "My coach is a great athlete. He clearly knows what he's doing, but he honestly just can't understand my life commitment and challenges. He just tells me to declutter life and get committed". Now all of these Coaches guiding these athletes, poor coaches? Likely not. But the truth is that many very good coaches fail when they are asked to apply their training methodology to an athlete who is also constantly challenged with high commitments in broader life, family, work, travel. And I've honestly met many world-class high-performance coaches, who fall at the first hurdle when it comes to adapting training for the time-starved athlete. And so I thought, you know what, let's dig in. Today, we investigate some of the biggest coaching mistakes that occur when guiding time-starved athletes. Now, it's not to bully these failures, but instead, to empower you, the athlete or the fitness enthusiasts to improve your own training. And hopefully, maybe just a little bit, raise the bar when it comes to coaching for those that are challenged with...what's that thing called? Oh, that's right, life. But before we get going, we had some crackers from last week because I asked for the naming rights of our newest section. I had failed to provide a title. I kept saying "What's going on". So in the same way as the Warrior’s brand new basketball arena in San Francisco is called the Chase Center. Today, we give naming rights. The winner is from Cat Lang. Matt's, Musings. Oh, I get what you did there. I like that. Musings and news, huh? Okay, that's super. So today for the first time, I give you Matt's Musings.
Matt Dixon 06:43
So what have I observed this week? Well, a couple of things. I think we need to give a nod to the Ironman World Championship in St. George, Utah. A few things that I noticed there. Firstly, I want to tip my hat to the 20 Purple Patch athletes that went competed and had great personal performances. We had several qualify for Kona, the Hawaii Ironman World Championship later this year, but also some great personal performances. And it was lovely to sit and cheer and meet everyone before the race and following the race. So well done to the Purple Patch athletes. Also globally, I thought there's some really interesting insights. Firstly, raising the bar, the Ironman World Championship. I thought it was a great event, great competition, every part as demanding as the Hawaii Ironman World Championship, and it was super, so I hope that anyone that got to go there and experience it or see it, a lot of respect to so many of the athletes. Now there is one point, we had a lot of dropouts in the pro field. Why was that? I think a part of it is that there was such a runway, such a ramp-up to this race, a long time without a World Championship and a long time for athletes to prepare. And when you have a long runway, it sounds really favorable and it is, but it becomes harder and harder to manage systemic stress. And we had a lot of athletes that probably just pushed to the edge and beyond and boom, sickness injury, it became way more prevalent. It's something to keep in mind when we talk so often about being fit and fresh. When you're at the razor thin edge of world class performance. It's really, really challenging. So, the Ironman World Championships, I tip my hat to every single athlete that participated and navigated. It was a wonderful event and congratulations to all. Second, you know that we have the Purple Patch center here, the Performance Center in San Francisco. So if you're based in the Bay Area, remember we are live. We welcome you. Head to the website purplepatchfitness.com. You can click on the center tab and we have live in person classes and services right now. And did you know what? You don't even need to be a Purple Patch athlete to participate. And even better, you don't even need to be in San Francisco because all of our live bike classes are video-enabled. And you can just simply have a drop-in fee to supplement your training and experience a little bit of the live interactive sessions. They are a lot of fun, high value and it is small group coaching. So if you'd like more information head to the website or of course you can reach out to us. All right with that, we're going to get on today because I got a lot to talk about but I do Barry you are back my friend you had the week off. You are fresh, you are healthy. Your fingers are not full of calluses and it means that you can do ladies and gentlemen, the Word of the Week.
Matt Dixon 10:03
And the Word of the Week this week, Right Off. The message? Don't give up on yourself. For this week's Word of the Week I want to come back to the Ironman St. George World Championships and at the professional end of the field, there were two athletes that I thought delivered inspirational performances. And they had a common thread. One was Daniela Ryf, and the other, you might not have seen the headlines on her, but was an ex-Purple Patch Pro. Someone that's still a friend and still a great athlete, Laura Siddall. Now both of these athletes, with very different reasons, much of the triathlon world might have written them off, might have said their time has passed. Laura, she moves into the sunset of her career. Is she still racing? I heard many people asking that Daniela Ryf, a great world champion. But had her time passed? Was she done? Well, of course, if you followed the race, you don't need to know any more about Daniela. A dominant performance. A great world champion proving that she is one off, if not the best triathlete of all time across both genders. But look a little bit further down the results. Laura Siddall. Seventh at the World Championship. Laura, I am proud of you. I'm so happy to have been a part of your journey and I'm so impressed. Congratulations to you and your coach Julie Dibbens for taking you to seventh top 10 in the world. You richly deserve it and you step up. Neither of you guys are write offs. The message? Never give up on yourself, or Laura. What do we say? Don't die wondering. All right, the Word of the Week, Right Off. Well done. And thank you for inspiring so many athletes. Now, ladies and gentlemen, let's get on with the meat and potatoes.
Matt Dixon 12:11
Yes, the meat and potatoes: Coaching Mistakes. It is a big subject. And I've got to be honest that when I think about that title, it causes a little bit of tummy rumbling, a little bit of trepidation for me, in even bringing it to your attention. Because I'm really aware that if I'm not careful on this subject, it's going to be very very easy for me to create a perception that I'm standing up on a pedestal and saying, here I am Matt Dixon presenting myself as the superior coach who looks down on anyone who embraces the same craft as me. Who are you to think that you're a good coach? And the truth is that nothing could be further from the truth. Look, there are many very very good coaches, and some of them that I'm sure you've heard of. But there are other great coaches that are perhaps lesser known and are still excellent. And I love to learn from these experts. And many of them bring real expertise in various areas that I would say are well above my own. So I really encourage you as a listener to try and listen to as many experts across fields as you can and build your knowledge base in performance. But today, all I'm doing is I'm digging into my little area of what I feel like is my particular expertise in coaching. And that's building high performance for time-starved athletes. Many of the coaches that I said I really respect, some of them fall at the first hurdle when it comes to working with this particular subset of athletes. Those that are really juggling chaotic schedules. And so I hope that this is received in the way that I'm presenting it. As you go through today, my goal is to help you learn three main things. First, what I believe to be the critical benefits from leveraging a successful coaching relationship. Second, I'm going to outline the big mistakes that I see so many coaches make when they're guiding time-starved athletes. And then finally, some of the action steps to build a framework of coaching and program to ensure that you can get your best return from the hard work that you put in. And so, as we dive in, I do want to flag one thing. There is a sister blog to this show. And if you're an athlete, I encourage you to go and have a read on it. It's all about the red flags that maybe you're in a coaching relationship that's, for lack of a better phrase, broken; needs to be enhanced. And I think it's gonna help you with some useful perspective so that you can assess your own approach to fitness or health or training. You don't need to be a triathlete for this. It encompasses all fitness enthusiasts and of course athletes. And so without further ado, let's dig into this very big subject. And I want to start in section one with utopia.
Matt Dixon 15:08
What are the benefits of a really good coach. So what's the role of a coaching program, that will be ultimately one that is aligned with your situation and needs. So I think the best way to tackle this...what are the outcomes that we really want, is to go to that, the outcomes. If you are a time-starved athlete, in other words someone that has a very busy life with a whole bunch of competing non-negotiable priorities, but at the same time you're chasing self-improvement in sporting goals, or fitness, et cetera, then the outcomes are a really good place to align on. And that's where you're going to start to bubble up coaching value. And so in my mind, a good coach should, at the baseline level, be able to leverage their expertise and their experience to build an approach that will deliver improvement across many areas, and enable you to be successful in any sporting goals that you have. So yes, of course, a good coach should help you achieve. It is ultimately results driven. But for me, it's beyond sporting results. Because the other thing a coach should be able to do, particularly for a time-starved athlete is through their expertise and experience, help you improve your profile in health, your work performance and how you show up in life. Okay, so that's number one. That's the baseline.
Matt Dixon 16:39
Secondly though, a really good coach should empower you. A coach's goal shouldn't be to make the coach essential, But instead, should try and go on a journey to build irrelevance. In other words, if you're a great coach, you're trying to deliver knowledge transfer, you're trying to help athletes to be equipped to ultimately self manage. Coaching isn't just about writing some magic good plan, it is enabling the athlete to appreciate and understand the plan, buy into it, and then be able to self-manage. And over time, a great partnership, that word underlined - partnership, in a coach would include the athlete actually having real contributions, and a say into what they feel like they need for success, because then you've got engagement. So good. So we've got this expertise and experience to a building approach. But at the same time, you've got knowledge transfer, and an ever-increasing contribution from the athlete side as you go along.
Matt Dixon 17:47
The third element, the outcome of a good coach that you want, is you want the coach to be there to help you get your head out of the room. That's a really important part of leadership. Coaches facilitate perspective. And that is the only way that the athlete is equipped to navigate adversity and setbacks. And when things do go off track, enable the athlete to course correct to get back on top of it. Now within that, of course, the heartbeat is a healthy dose of accountability, so that you the athlete follows through on your commitments and your promises to yourself. Now, it's really really hard for an athlete to individually be successful on this, because the athlete is rightfully living in the weeds day by day. And so to try and get along with the grind, but also at the same time have amazing perspective for the journey, it's really tough. Because you're living it. It's personal, it's meaningful. And so a good coach will bring the skills, experience and wisdom to help you elevate and that's really important.
Matt Dixon 18:57
Finally, I think a good coach, and this is underappreciated often but a good coach, or a good coaching program, should serve as your quarterback to broader performance and information. Look, right now, particularly over the last decade or so, there is so much information out there. And there are so many practitioners and experts. Whether it's around longevity, health, nutrition, strength and conditioning, sleep and metrics, biometrics, equipment choices - there is an incredible amount of rabbit holes for you to go down as the athlete, and create a situation of confusion, contradiction or traps of big money spent with variable return on those investments. And a really solid coach or program should take on that role to enable them, the coach, to become your filter. And that way, that will enable you to focus on the really important stuff that's going to yield performance and dilute in many ways the confusion. So of everything you could focus on, these are the things that are actually going to yield benefit to you. And that's going to help over the long term. And if that quarterback of a coach creates the team environment, you the athlete can foster and evolve. So we've got this team-based approach, you've got the ability to help you retain perspective and the long term journey, you are becoming empowered as an athlete. And of course, we're leveraging their expertise across all of the types of athletes. In other words, they've done it before. Wisdom and expertise, education and empowerment, perspective, accountability course correction, and your filter from the minefield, the blizzard of bullshit that's out there. That is what we're looking for. a coaching program should have your back.
Matt Dixon 20:51
Good. But, and it's a big but, what is important to you? The listener who is a time-starved, performance-minded individual. In this case, I'm here to tell you that what is really important to you is that your coach or coaching program that you partner with, needs to have not just all of that expertise, but also have the empathy and the skills to develop a program that aligns with your goals and your specific situation. And this, this is when things tend to get a little bit sticky. And it'll be challenging for a lot of coaches. There are plenty of coaches that are super at building programs built on the broad baseline of science-based research, a methodology that's actually been developed in the vacuum of broader insight and perspective, typically stemming from how we train elite athletes. This is for lack of a better phrase, high-performance coaching. But the question is do the same approaches and methodologies fit when someone is high performance living as well, not just chasing high performance in sport, but they are already performing, quote, high performance in their life. And then they are trying to integrate their best sporting performance within context of that. I think it is a completely different challenge. Now, this doesn't matter if you're a triathlete, a runner, or a cyclist, a parent, a CEO, a shift worker, or you're just trying to meet your ends. Whatever it is, your life brings a different suite of challenges. And to be honest, many programs simply don't consider this, when they build out their approach to training. They're either ill-equipped to do so and to actually think about that, or lacking the expertise, wisdom or, I hate this but, the empathy to really take it seriously. For you, the time-starved athlete. It's really rare. Bizarrely rare to me, that coaches consider the big life that you lead, while building the plan. Guess what? They should. And so without further ado, let's dig in and let's talk about the common mistakes.
Matt Dixon 23:09
Now, before we get cracking here, I have to do a very quick timeout, because we like to bring education that is free to you. So I have to talk about our partner, it's insidetracker.com, you know the details, you dive in and get your biometrics. And what bubbles up is a suite of recommendations and advice to guide you on your best focus around your training, your recovery, your de-stressing your nutrition, and any supplements that might be appropriate. If you want to dive in, insidetracker.com/purplepatch. You can head there, put in the code, purplepatchpro20, you get 20% off everything at the store. Super. Enjoying it. A smart coach knows to chase the insights. And so Inside Tracker is gonna get you there. Purplepatchpro20, you get 20% of everything at the store. All right, back to the show.
Matt Dixon 24:03
Section two. What are the biggest mistakes that I observe? Now, let me once again put this in context. This part of the show that we're going to get into now is not about claiming that I've got it all worked out and somehow I'm superior to all of the other coaches. That's not really what it's about. But with this, there is a fact. And that's that the origin of Purple Patch, almost 15 years ago now, was my very driving mission when I started this business. In many ways, what I wanted to do was right or wrong, at least wrong that I perceived. I felt that so many athletes were underachieving and walking around in life fit and fatigued. And the reason that I observed and I actually navigated myself was because of poor methodology, and things like the key elements of recovery and nutrition just simply been relegated to an afterthought. And so for me as a coach, and now the whole team at Purple Patch, our absolute focus, our passion is the time-starved athlete. It is the thing for me. And I've been very very lucky to be able to draw lessons on working with a host of world-class athletes, but also had equal light in working with so many C-level executives, founders of businesses, executive teams. And over the course of that journey, it's really fostered a very clear appreciation of what actually works. What is important for these types of athletes, but also, what isn't important. And so in this little corner of the world of high performance, this is my world. And so I hope that it really comes across that at Purple Patch, we're so passionate about this, that we want to help coaches that maybe don't have this area quite nailed. And that's the mission of today. And I want to help you, the listeners, a time-starved athlete, try and build on your approach. So without further ado, here are the big mistakes.
Matt Dixon 26:14
Now, we're only talking about the big ones here. So let's get going on number one. The first issue, the big granddaddy, is for the coach to build their training program, and the load of that training in a proverbial vacuum. Here's what so many coaches don't appreciate: stresses are stresses are stresses. They accumulate. And so when we have talked so much before about training being a stress, which you apply to an athlete through training prescription and then they adapt positively, we hope, so that they get fitter, stronger, et cetera. So many coaches don't consider all of the other stresses that a time-starved athlete has. Whether it's compromised sleep because of all of the other demands in life, trying to nail their nutritional load, family commitments, and logistics, work, travel, everything else. And it's cognitive, it's physiological. The body is not good at differentiating stresses. And so, so often, if you just build your proverbial, this is the plan that is necessary to get ready for X - a marathon, an Ironman, a half Ironman - whatever it might be, it's always going to conflict with life. Because for a time-starved athlete, life is non-negotiable. Coaches, unfortunately, fail to appreciate this. And so instead, they throw out words like you got to be committed, and you got to be tough and hey fatigue is a rite of passage, and chop wood and carry water and all of this, which is an element of truth, yes you do need to be tough, et cetera, et cetera, but life is non-negotiable. And for a time-starved athlete to be successful, We cannot as coaches make this journey as a second job. The triathlon, the running the cycling, whatever your sport and passion is, it has to be integrated and not a second part-time job. Now a small example of this is for the more committed athletes out there when they get on and they measure their TSS, their Training Stress Score. So many coaches and athletes obsessively track scores like this as the definitive measure of load on the athlete's body. But how often these coaches forget to also consider the huge cognitive and physiological stresses that bubble up from aspects of life. And so yes, measuring data is really valuable. Tracking is a critical component. But it's only really powerful when it is combined with the humanistic internal feedback that the body provides, and the mind provides, to amplify the context. We always talk about performance within the context of life. And yet, I see so many coaches building their plans and expectations without consideration of what the athlete is navigating through their life. This is an important point for really busy athletes, because this is a good opportunity as we go on a little tangent here to think about what the role of training is, as a time-starved athlete. And we think about your runs, your bikes, whatever you might do. What role is that having in your life?
Matt Dixon 29:48
Well of course, the major one is that is the stimulus to drive adaptations. And those adaptations will equip you to achieve your sporting goals. You want to get fitter, stronger, more powerful, more resilient, Yes. So that you can go and run your marathon or finish your big hiking event or your Ironman, whatever it might be. So yes, training adaptations. But I would add to this that training, consistent training, also has a role to build your capacity for life. It should actually ultimately energize you. Much of your training should have an important role as a pressure relief, you should have this valve. And by participating in much of your training it should bring it down a little bit, make you happier, a de-stressor, fill your soul. Not all of training is there to boost your power and your pace. And a really smart coach absolutely embraces this, when they are managing and helping a time-starved athlete plan. They consider it in program design. Unfortunately, many coaches don't. And so the first mistake: building the training load in a vacuum.
Matt Dixon 31:05
The second mistake is for a coach to build the training plan without clarity or flex. Now, this is, as you've heard me maybe talk about before, where we start to think about a dynamic mindset. Every athlete needs to have clarity, and provide clarity, on what they have access to and what they don't. Because the vast majority of time-starved athletes have whole bunch of stuff going on. And they often have travel, they often have commitments with kids and other activities. And so in any given week, it's very uncommon for a time-starved athlete to have a set training block, that always will be the same opportunity. So by definition, you've got to have a bit more of a dynamic mindset when you go and build the program. We like to say life is not a spreadsheet. And so if a coach is building a training plan in a really rigid format that's absolutely uncompromising, it's highly likely that a time-starved busy athlete is going to nearly always struggle. The problem here almost always originates with planning every session holding the same equal priority in a week. If a coach just says here it is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and every single session is just checkbox, you either do it or you don't, It's the same equal value. You're actually removing any empowerment of the athlete to self-manage. Because as soon as they miss a session, or they have a choice between two sessions, they have no hierarchy, they have no understanding of what to do. And if you add to this then that you have many coaches that in habit, either because of overcapacity in their own life or maybe they're just a little bit hard of hearing, prescribing sessions that are impossible for athletes to execute, the challenges mount. Coaches, if your athlete is traveling to New York on business and only has access to a hotel gym, or to Central Park, it is nailing a professional basic to avoid on that day prescribing an outdoor bike ride. The only way for this to happen is to fully appreciate every single athlete's logistics and schedule. And so it's critical that you need to build the program that integrates into life. But beyond this, real success emerges when that athlete that is being guided is empowered. They understand the focus of the week. They understand the sessions. They know the important sessions, the ones that are the master sessions or what we call the key sessions, and they understand what success looks like. The intentions behind it, so they can execute it within the alignment of the prescription that you've put. But then how it becomes successful is providing them with that clarity so that you can empower them to make decisions and adjustments. Don't turn into mummy or daddy. This is a process of learning, of education, of knowledge transfer, of explaining the mission behind the program, and it's an awful lot of work for the coach. It's also an engagement for the athlete, but over time, if you set this relationship up and you aim to empower the athlete to understand how, then you are better equipped for the athlete to become more able to self-manage. We want to develop, for the athlete, autonomy. And unfortunately, many coaches build the training program without clarity for the athlete of the intention, or any ability to self-manage. There is no flex in it. And as soon as you are like this, you are not, by definition, teaching the athlete to...what do they say? Fish for themselves. So we're two mistakes in.
Matt Dixon 35:15
Mistake number three, the coaches failure to adapt to the specific demands of a time-starved athlete. Now, this is a biggie. I discussed this a little bit last week, where the big question was, Is it possible to train for an Ironman on 12 weekly hours? So in other words, with 12 hours a week can I successfully get ready for an Ironman? There was a lot of discussion going on and all the folks said "No, it's not possible". Well, I'm here to tell you it is. And we've proven it with countless athletes over many years. And a lot of those athletes being podium finishers and qualifiers to World Championships and winners of World Championships. But it is only possible when coach and athlete acknowledge the specific demands of life and then optimize around it. So I love this saying, it's very personal. But your mission as a time-starved athlete is to maximize performance within the context of your life. That's the mission. And I'm afraid that many coaches consistently fail to embrace this concept. And instead, what they do is they just chase physical performance, period. They don't acknowledge or appreciate the cognitive load demands of work and life, let alone the specific stresses of travel, family, kids, and more. They build the programs in a vacuum. And then they wonder why their athletes are walking around in the fog of fatigue. And so I see coaches that forget a simple fact. And if this is, if you have a really busy life, or you have a life full of time, the simple fact remains high performance is built on a platform of health. Vibrancy. What a wonderful word that is. We want every athlete to be vibrant. And as a time-starved athlete, it takes more work. It's why we say we are the drivers of performance when we can get the athlete really fit, but also fresh. Fit and fresh. It's not that fatigue is bad. You are going to get tired as you go on this journey, you're not going to feel great every day. It's not, woohoo! Everything's wonderful! But chronic fatigue is bad. And a SMART program will take heavily into consideration the life demands just as much as the training goals. When you can get that right as a coach, the athlete will accelerate every time. And so you have to begin as a coach with that part first, and then put a program in. Now, if you wanna learn more about this, this is really the whole subject of last week's show. So if you didn't listen, head back: Optimization. There's also a great blog on optimization that we've posted last week, and I would heavily recommend that you go and have a read of that. Link will be in the show notes. But it's a very good little piece of information to help you set up optimized training for the time-starved athlete. All right. So I think we are starting to get the picture here. But, but but but, there are two more big ones. And this one is a really big one.
Matt Dixon 38:30
So many coaches fail to appreciate the role of training in a time-starved life. Now, we talked about this a little bit, but I have to put it as a master mistake. We are looking to build adaptations. But we also, as I talked about before, want to have a mental and physical pressure release valve. A benefit from doing this is really important. And I want to double down on this because so many coaches demand from their athletes focus. And they unfortunately have very little empathy for the focus that those time-starved athletes are having to put in the rest of their life. They're not sitting around playing X Box, they're not decompressing, they're not having massages. They are putting massive focus in showing up for their families, showing up for work meetings, whatever it might be. And so I like to see coaches instead shine a spotlight on two to three big sessions a week that are built specifically to drive the performance needle. And you do that through either extended duration and volume or, and/or, high intensity. Now these sessions, absolutely as a coach you say, hey Jimmy, Jenny, you've got to be present. You got to be focused. You got to get yield out. You've got to be all in and immersive on these. But around those sessions, you've got the supporting sessions. And these still are really important in the big picture. They're valuable. You get general conditioning, tissue resilience, maybe you get to work on a little bit of technique, but they're the ones that have If the pressure release valve. As I talked about before, fill your soul. And these are so important and so many coaches unfortunately, through perhaps trying to impress, they tend to overcomplicate these sessions. Highly structured, making the athlete think too much and driving too much focus. It sounds bizarre. Instead, coaches should maybe say, Let's go simple. Here's an example. I could do a 50-minute run that is general conditioning. I could say warm up for five minutes. Go through a dynamic warm-up. Go and execute a few hill strides to activate, then I want you to run for the next 35 minutes. I want it to be at a zone 2 pace. No more than a heart rate of 140. I want you to take a walk break every fifth minute for 30 seconds. I want you to think about good form and leg speed, but make sure that the shoulders are supple. And make sure that form doesn't devolve. Don't go with a friend, they're going to make you go too hard. I want you obsessed. Oh, and do not listen to a podcast or music because that's distracting. Jiminy! Sounds like homework, doesn't it? It's okay, coaches, to label quite a lot of the training to be pretty simple. Let me say that a different way. Go run, 50 minutes. Fill your soul. have a conversation. Maybe listen to a podcast. Don't think about it too much. Now within there, if the athlete wants to do a little activation, maybe they want to wake up the body with some strides, maybe they check in with their form, that's all good. But don't add the load. Give them freedom. Allow much of the training to be a little bit of ME TIME. A freshener. A cognitive cleanse. So many coaches miss that as an opportunity and they overload. No matter how many hours the athlete has, let's call it 10 hours, they make the 10 hours obsessive and it absolutely destroys the athlete. They get a lack of motivation and a big accumulation of cognitive and physiological fatigue. All right, we got one more guys, and this one, we finish with a cracker. I'm afraid it's a biggie.
Matt Dixon 42:10
The big coaching mistake, particularly prevalent for time-starved athletes, and that is a coach's failure to listen. Now, we could call this just having low empathy. This is important and all too common. So many coaches see their role as being a leader from the front. But coaching isn't a dictatorship. I see way too many coaches thinking of leadership, and coaching, as broadcast. Transmission. It's not radio, you don't just turn it on and put it out to the world. Coaches need to be great at listening, really listening. And then from the information that you're drawing out of the athlete, adapt and guide with that perspective. Now, you might remember my case study last week. I talked about one of my athletes who was really struggling. He was leading a major product. He's in tech, working 19 hours a day, if I just stubbornly said, hey you got to stay on track. This is the program. You're getting ready for an Ironman. We need consistency. You got to carve out life. Simplify your life. You'd fail. You have to pause and listen and say, what is the right thing NOW? And so as a coach, I had my plan. I had my spreadsheet. I had where I want to take the athlete. But guess what, life happens. He had three or four weeks, where he was working 19 hours a day. Seriously, 19 hours a day. I can't stick with my plan. I have to adapt, evolve, drawback, give him space. But most importantly, keep the athlete moving. So over the last few weeks, completely changing the landscape, we are building everything to support your immune system. To energize you. Forget about triathlon for a while. Adapt the plan. Hand by hand, high accountability. You need this for your capacity, your energy, and to help you do what is absolutely critical and non-negotiable right now for your work. Now, as I record this, this week I got the email. Hey, it's pretty good. The hurricane is over. Now. It's only 70 mile an hour winds. In other words, my signal that we can have a conversation and get back on track and course correct. We managed to get through healthy, successful with the demands of life, and now I can adapt the program and get back to it. But I could only do that with empathy; by really listening. Understanding the challenge and not say, yeah but this is the plan. You told me that you want to do well at IronMan. So this is what you've got to do. Instead, adapt based on listening and the situation. And that is a really, really hard thing to do.
Matt Dixon 45:12
So as a coach, you might see an athlete really struggling, you might be told of fatigue. And the last thing you want to do is just drive forward. Come on, Jimmy, Johnny, Jenny, you've got to find a way to get back on program. In order for us to be successful, you got to drive forward. NO, sometimes you've got to pause as a coach, you've got to evolve the whole approach, mindset and plan. Guess what, sometimes the athlete might need something different from the plan because they've got non-negotiable stuff going on in life. Now you as the coach, you need the athlete to communicate, but it is you as the coach that sets the environment for that. You need to build a relationship and mechanism for the athlete's voice to be heard. And then, as the coach, you need to listen. And many coaches don't, it's a huge mistake. You cannot devalue two-way communication. You've got to listen to how the athlete feels it is their body. And they, even if they don't know, they often know. Now beyond listening, so many coaches fail in that empathy department. I am no pushover as a coach, I have never heard or never had an athlete that says to me, "you know what? Your training is just too easy". But as coaches, remember, we're building a program within the boundaries of life. And life can stack and stack and stack. And sometimes there are times that work, family, and social can accumulate so much that even the most committed athlete just needs a breather. You can set high standards, you can have high expectations as a coach, but that is only going to be fostered to high performance if it is supported with great listening and empathy.
Matt Dixon 47:05
And there you have it, folks. Those are my big buckets, the mistakes that I see. So many coaches making it when they are supporting this peculiar little subset that you are a part of as a listener to this show, the time-starved athlete. Now if you're listening to the show, and you are an athlete, a time-starved athlete, I would recommend a follow-up here. I'd love you to head to purplepatchfitness.com and check out the helpful piece, I referenced it earlier in the show. It's under the blog section and it is Red Flags in Your Coaching Relationship. You have one journey, it is your journey. And I want to ensure that you are on the best path for you. If you're listening to the show more as a coach. Well, I hope it helps. I hope that it opens up an avenue for you to improve and maybe upskill in this particular area around time-starved individuals. It isn't the same puzzle and challenge as guiding an elite athlete or any athlete that just doesn't have much time pressure in life. But most importantly, whether you're a coach, whether you're an athlete, I wish you all the best. And I hope that we all collectively can drive forward so that we can find a journey and a pathway towards, not just great sports performance, but an amplification of health, work performance, and how you show up in life. Guys, thanks so much for listening. I'll see you next week. Till then stay healthy and take care. Cheers.
Matt Dixon 48:41
Thanks so much for listening. This has been the Purple Patch Podcast. If you like what you hear, we'd really appreciate it if you share with your friends and even go the extra mile and head over to Apple podcasts. Subscribe rate and review the show. The Apple podcast link is in the show notes. Your support and positive reviews go a huge way in increasing our visibility and also the exposure to time-starved people everywhere who want to integrate sport into life and ultimately thrive. Don't forget you can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Cheers
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
life, coaching, purplepatch, habits, performance, success, triathlon, time-starved, athlete, ironman, training, performance, build, stresses, sessions, plan, listening, program, fatigue, journey, adapt