Tag Archive for: cycling coach

PCC Announces Coach Mentorship Program

Pacific Cycling Centre (PCC) is excited to announce that it is now offering a PCC Coach Mentorship Program to coaches. This program is aimed to assist the development and the personal and professional growth of a mentee coach who wants to take his/her knowledge and skill to the next level.

Through the program coaches will gain practical work and advice, learn from the experience of a mentor, increase their coaching confidence and ability in a real working dynamic environment, be empowered to make appropriate decisions, and establish a sense of direction for themselves and their athletes moving forward.

“While classroom and / or online coaching courses are important academically, nothing can replace working with a coach mentor who can equip you with the important tools necessary to perform to your highest capability,” says PCC Head Coach Houshang Amiri who will lead the program. “Our goal is to identify and achieve career development and personal and professional growth goals with the view to make you a successful coach.”

The program will create opportunities to meet and work with athletes giving coaches hands-on experience with PCC programs. Coaches will learn and gain inside knowledge of working in an organizational setting, as well as running their own coaching business.

The PCC Coach Mentorship Program will cover and is not limited to the following:

  • Coaching art, confidence building, decision making
  • Coaching science and technology, latest tools, and gauges
  • Communications, protocol development, program, training feedback, log keeping
  • Training program development, individual and group
  • Developing athletes’ assessment protocols, in-field, and laboratory
  • Goal setting session
  • Developing short term, mid and long term goals: individual and group
  • Training program monitoring: individual and group
  • Planning and running a training session, pre, during and post session communication
  • Race preparation, coaching at races
  • Observing your mentor coaching at training sessions, training camps and races
  • Engaging with existing training sessions and programs at PCC
  • Engaging with your mentor’s athlete coaching programs (confidentiality clause will apply)
  • Creating your own coaching business or working in an organization setting

These elements of the program will be personalized and adapted to the coach’s needs, working with the mentor in a variety of ways such as one-on-one consultation, two-way communications, in person, online and by phone.

Amiri has extensive experience as an educator and mentor. He was coach educator and instructor for Level 1, 2 and 3 NCCP (National Coaching Certification Program) as well as being a Coach Certifier for NCCP Level 3 coach candidates at Cycling Canada for over 10 years.  He became a coach mentor at the National Coaching Institute in the University of Victoria mentoring level 4 and 5 NCCP coach candidates, as well as international coaches at NCI from 2004-2008. From 2009 he worked as Coach educator at UCI and international Olympic Solidarity program, traveling around the world running coaching course for coaches.

For more information on the PCC mentorship program contact info@pacificcyclingcentre.ca

Communicating with Your Coach

Erinne Willock with Houshang Amiri at Bear Mountain in 2010

An athlete and coach should work as a team. Two-way communication and trust are key to any successful team and this is no exception.

Most people will start to seek out a coach once they start setting some specific goals in the sport and realizing they need help to achieve those goals. Even the best athletes in the world still have a coach who they communicate with.

However, when a rider is first starting out and learning about this crazy sport you must have complete trust in your coach and try to listen and learn from their expertise. The coach must also be able to have trust in you as the athlete to follow their program 100%.

The first thing to do with a coach after every season and intermittently throughout is to sit down and talk about your short term and long-term goals. Talk about your strengths and weaknesses. Is your primary goal to maintain or improve your strengths or is it to improve your weaknesses? What worked well for you in the past?

It is your responsibility as an athlete to communicate your lifestyle, sicknesses, injuries, stress, vacations and any event, which will make you tired or alter your training. You cannot expect your coach to be a mind reader. For example, stress somehow seems to be what most people forget to mention, even though we all know it can have huge impact on us. On the other hand your coach needs to be mindful of your schedule and a big week of training should not be scheduled during a busy time for you such as final exams.

You must understand the basic point of your training in order to follow through with it. It is the athletes’ responsibility to be involved with their training because this helps you trust the program, and understand the effects of the training so that frustration doesn’t occur. The early years of working with a new coach will also require more time and patience to grow. Learn how your coach works and ask as many questions needed so that you understand what your training will entail. You must understand that if you’ve agreed to work on something specific that it will take time to see improvement. I’ve seen too many athletes give up after only a few short weeks of trying something new to conclude it didn’t work.  As much as we would all like our coaches to be magicians, they aren’t, and improvement requires dedication to the training and hard work.

By Erinne Willock

(Erinne was one of Canada’s top road cyclists, joining the National Team in 1999. She podiumed at many national and international races and cycled for Canada in the 2008 Beijing Olympics)

Why you need a Coach

Many athletes make the mistake of not hiring a coach early in their athletic career. A life of an athlete can be a short one, so it is important to develop an athlete’s ability early, or the risk is they will never achieve their full potential. Results can’t be achieved if you are stuck in a rut, such as finishing in the middle of the pack year after year. You may be training hard, but are you training smart?

You can train smart and more efficiently with a coach. Coaching is an art and a practice for excellence and on many levels is supported by many years of research and science. A successful coach is always learning. Whereas it may take 10 years and 1,000 hours for a cyclist to win a big race and achieve his/her goal, the coach’s job is never done. Whether it is continuing to work for higher goals, or coaching another potential athlete, the coach is always striving to bring out the best in his/her athletes.

What are the qualities of a good Coach?

It takes time to develop the necessary skills to be a good coach. Understanding athletes needs and goals require knowledge, expertise and confidence. An important criteria for any coach is to have an athletic background in the sport he/she is coaching. That person doesn’t necessarily have to be an ex-World or Olympic champion, but he or she must have experience competing at an elite athlete level. That way they know the expectations of competing at a high level.

A passion for coaching is important and to be able to deal with failure as well as success. The interest in wanting to learn and develop as a coach is also important. Learn the basic coaching skills first and then advance over the years with the goals of being an elite coach.

Choosing a Coach

Before choosing a coach you need to know what your dreams and goals are. Believing in your dream is also an important part of your ultimate success. If you want only technical advice then you may be able to get away with advice from fellow, experienced athletes. They may be able to tell you the best line to ride or what equipment you need, and it may be useful advice and work for them, but it may not work for you.

A competent and experienced coach can also offer technical advice but is more aware of the athlete needs and so can personalize any advice. But coaching is more than just giving technical advice or running a training camp.

One of the biggest reasons an athlete fails is not understanding how to get to the next level. There is a large gap between an athlete’s potential and his actual performance, and a coach needs a systematic approach and long term plan to overcome this gap, and work through it, to keep the athlete on the path to success.

An experienced coach can be the best resource when an athlete is not sure what step to take next or starts experimenting with their training sessions. Changes won’t come overnight as the coach must take the time to understand the athlete’s physiological, physiological, social, and work ethic. A trust has to be developed to build a healthy relationship – the relationship that is also based on respect. Ultimately, the coach and athlete develop a partnership towards the common goal of achieving excellence.

Over the years I have seen many athletes who have great potential but have never taken the time to learn the basics, like decision making, risk management, or effective planning. If they can’t learn these basics they will never be able to dream and achieve their goals.

By Houshang Amiri

 

Pacific Cycling Centre

Pacific Cycling Centre (PCC) provides coaching and training services for Elite, Masters, and Junior athletes in road, mountain bike, track, and cyclo-cross.

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100, 4636 Elk Lane Drive
Victoria, BC V8Z 5M1

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