Wow - what a week! Ten days on and I’m still holding on to thoughts and ideas from a brilliant series of talks, workshops and other sessions from a British Triathlon Performance Learning Week. As well as enjoying many of the sessions, contributing to break out discussions and early morning reflections, I also ran my own interactive session. It felt great to be so fully involved.
Performance Learning Week
The Performance Learning Weeks (PLW) were originally set up for the professional coaches and other staff involved in working with GB Olympic and Paralympic triathletes. Now online and invitations extended to other coaches, the scope has been broadened to include wider issues in our coaching, beyond performance excellence for the GB teams.
And what a line up! A striking feature for me was the inclusion of guest coaches and other experts from outside the world of triathlon, such as: consultant anaesthetist Dr Mark Stacey on decisions under pressure; Mel Marshall, Adam Peatty’s formidable swim coach; Olympic Slalom Canoe Coach Craig Morris; and Iain Bates, Head of Women’s Tennis at the Lawn Tennis Association, recounting the story behind Emma Radakanu’s amazing US Open success. Confidence Centred Coaching has always sought to learn from leaders and pioneers across and beyond all sports, so this felt like a very rich forum.
To try and summarise everything from the week is beyond me. So I’ll limit this post to a few big themes, around people’s needs and the energy we bring, that stood out for me and that I’m still reflecting on.
Triathlon past, present and … in the future?
We were treated early on to an insightful panel discussion entitled “The Future of World Triathlon to 2032”, opened for us by Gergely Markus, Sports Director at World Triathlon and with contributions from the founder of the Superleague, Michael Dhurst, British Triathlon’s CEO Andy Salmon and others. Later on, British Triathlon Head Coach Ben Bright also gave us an insightful run through our sport’s history, which we’ll come back to.
Triathlon is still a comparatively young sport so there is quite an intensive, fast moving story of its place on the world’s stage. A men’s and women’s race were introduced for the first time at the Sydney 2000 Games. Tokyo 2020 gave us the two standard events, eight Paratriathlon events (two more than Rio) and the introduction of a mixed relay sprint - with the GB team winning gold. Gergely shared his thoughts on how the number and format of triathlon events might progress in the coming years through to Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane 2032. It was like having a window opened in on the various factors that will be at play - in particular what the International Olympic Committee would be looking for, such as new audience attention grabbing formulas.
I have to say, though, I came away somewhat frustrated. At the elite level our sport has shown itself able to adapt to funders’ demands and interests - such as the advent of drafting on the bike and multi-lap courses to be more tv and audience friendly.
But I was left wondering about the vision of how we want our sport to be? And what more radical changes may be forced on us? By 2032 - even 2024 - will we still be flying big teams out to the four corners of the world to train for and compete in ever bigger international events? Really? And for how much longer will participants in our sport continue to reflect privilege rather than the make-up of our diverse communities?
“Dignity.
Inclusion.
Access.”
Two later sessions brought this questioning to life. One was by Paratriathlon Head Coach Johnny Riall and Wheelchair Coach Ian Thompson, making a ringing plea for three key words: dignity, inclusion, access. Ian recounted some of his experiences: the language and terms typically used that undermine dignity; decisions too often made without including disabled athletes who are the ones affected; the basics of access ill-considered, if at all. I was left feeling angry - can’t we do any better than that as a sport?
The second was a brief presentation on an impressive new British Triathlon mentoring scheme for women coaches. Once again I was excited to hear about what is being done, whilst at the same time coming away with a frustration about the slow pace of change. Instances of subliminal arrogance and predatory poaching by some male coaches, recounted in my breakout room, left me feeling aghast. How much further is there to go to tackle ingrained behaviours, assumptions and equality of opportunities?
Hold on to that anger, Mike - it’s going to be needed to keep a fire for change burning.
In Moments of Success and Failure
Two other presentations in particular set me thinking about a different challenge - how we respond to success and failure.
British Triathlon’s Performance Psychologist Hannah Brooks co-led a great session with guest Craig Morris from the GB Slalom Canoe coaching team. Craig took us through the extraordinary experiences of the Slalom team at the Olympics and how he navigated his way through team members’ mixed emotions - and his own.
He took us in to the intense “Kiss and Cry Zone”. When a canoeist has completed their run, if they are in the top three fastest at that point they are held in a pen, with cameras and film crews right up close recording every reaction, as they nervously wait and watch to see if any of the following canoeists will beat their time - and thereby move them down or out of the medals.
The different stories of each of the team members who Craig supported spanned missing out of a bronze that, as it turned out, was agonisingly close; one of the favourite’s unexpected and heartbreaking disappointment; and what must have felt like an eternity of a 20 minute wait in gold position for the very final - and ultimately winning - competitor.
Craig’s mantra throughout was “be present”: to connect to each athlete, available as needed, in tune with their needs as well as with all that was going on around. I was struck by his intuitive sensitivity - of knowing when “being present” was actually about giving an athlete space for themselves or for their teammates, rather than rushing in. A strong message from Craig and Hannah was about holding oneself back and not trying to “fix” an athlete’s emotions.
There was so much more from Craig’s stories: the work done well in advance of the Games to check out permissions and invitations; talking through, well in advance, what each person sees as success; in the moment, listening to understand and simply “being there” without assumptions; keeping as much as possible normal in abnormal circumstances; Craig’s own awareness of his needs for space; above all, the attentive care Craig showed in being alongside as much as needed while each team member dealt with their own emotions as well as facing the media.
A rather different perspective on success and failure (though I’m really not sure about that “f” word) came from a Keynote talk from Mel Marshall, long term coach to multi gold winning Olympiad Adam Peatty. If you ever want a powerful, rousing, get-off-your-arse-and-do-something-great talk, Mel is the woman to go to!
Again there was so much in her talk. The one that left the biggest mark on me came when she presented these two photos - her moment of intense disappointment at what was meant to be the pinnacle of her own swimming career, missing out on a final despite being favourite for the gold; and Adam Peatty’s victory at the Rio Olympic Games some twelve years later.
What came over powerfully was Mel’s belief that she had much more to give, having learnt so much in her twenty year journey to the Olympics. And in particular the knowledge of the darkest moments - being left in a room on her own after not qualifying - seemed to ignite a determination to support her swimmers through their journeys, win or lose. Themes of kindness, understanding different swimmers’ motivations, self-belief and belief in the whole team all came through.
I sensed that her deep, fierce caring must create a bond of trust with her swimmers and others around her. What an extraordinary energy to bring to her coaching.
Energy and Community
Which neatly brings us to our final theme.
I ran a session called Protecting Our Coaching Energy for us to connect with what I think of as one of our most precious - yet easily overlooked - assets: our coaching energy.
So much of our effort is directed at giving out to others. Too often it is only when we reach a crisis point, facing exhaustion or burn out, that we are forced to step back. I believe that when we really know and value our coaching energy, the ways to protect it naturally become clear. No one-size-fits-all tips or tricks - a knowing and valuing unique to each person.
I encouraged the participants to think of their coaching energy as rooted in the following three qualities and the impacts each have:
an enthusiasm we bring that enables those we coach to engage
an attentive focus on the people we are coaching that enables an in the moment, spontaneous creativity
and a wholeheartedness of bringing the very best of ourselves that enables others to find their very best
So not a whipping up of hyper activity, like froth on the surface; but something deeper, uniquely personal and sustainable. It was reassuring to hear these qualities being echoed by many of the other talks through the week - such as bringing the best of ourselves, the attentive care and mindful presence that Craig and Mel both illustrated so clearly.
We finished the session reflecting on the different roles of people around us in sustaining our energy. Who are the people who cheer us on with encouragement to keep going; or who open doors and make things happen for us; or challenge us when they see us getting over-stretched, or maybe hesitant and in need of a push? Know them and value them.
In this respect the session gave a lead in to the next day’s opening session. Friend and fellow coach Kate Offord relayed the story of the Community of Practice that she and others set up after the last PLW and that I’m a member of. Once a month we meet online for around an hour of openly sharing experiences, questions and concerns. It’s a super supportive network, with each of us bringing our different perspectives on what are often common challenges.
Final Thoughts
And a wider sense of community is perhaps the single most impactful thought I take away from the learning-rich week. This is where I’ve been dwelling on Head Coach Ben Bright’s session and the story behind the GB mixed relay team’s gold medal performance at Tokyo. He suggested that we typically look for the “one thing” that makes a difference. Yet in reality there is always a vast complexity of factors that come together in that moment.
To illustrate, Ben started with some of the early history of our sport - the pioneers and inspirational figures like Simon Lessing and Spencer Smith, the early race organisers and beginnings of international events, the ridiculously skimpy race costumes we wore… and more. He also traced through some of the key factors in how the team members came to the sport and developed, then the whole build up and completion of the qualifying process, the preparations and adaptions through these difficult two years, again highlighting so many different influences - each of which may have played their part in the success in Tokyo.
Was any one factor more important than another? An impossible question to answer - but what I came away with was a wonderful sense of what he called “the bigger story.” And how brilliant to feel a part - no matter how small - of our exciting, evolving sport. Who knows what significance our contributions can make, but it won’t happen without being there, showing up and giving the best of ourselves.
Big thanks to Jorge, Matt and Liam, all the contributors and everyone else at British Triathlon involved in making the Learning Week so rich.
As always please leave any reflections and thoughts in the Comment box below.