Dave Collins: The Best Coaches are Like the Best Chefs, Not Following Recipes -R4R 052

In this episode, we shift our focus from the runner to the person behind the scenes, the runner’s coach. We discuss the unseen process of coaching. Dave explains the difference between outcome focused vs process focused training. He gives examples of soft skills coaches can use with their athletes to draw the best out of them. Dave explains the balancing that needs to be done for multi-events to get the best from each event. We discuss the pressures recreational runners feel vs. professional runners experience. He shares his experience as the performance director for the British Athletics. Today's Guest Dave Collins Dave Collins is a performance psychologist.  Formerly the performance director with British Athletics, he is currently the director of the Institute of Coaching and Performance.  He also works and does research for his company, Grey Matters For Performance. What You Will Learn About What really is involved with coaching. What professional judgment and decision making means to a coach. What Dave means by content, knowledge, wisdom. What you can do mentally to improve your performance. What Dave’s advice is to parents who have a child with talent and enjoy the sport.   Inspirational Quotes The basic point of being a high-level, a being coach at any level actually, is in the decisions you make. It becomes quite important to, again, keep the coach focused and the athlete focused on the process.  What are you doing to get better?  What are you doing to get there? A coach is more like a chef than a cook. They’re not following a recipe. The good coach is a chef, but the good coach is also a conductor.  And she or he sets up the  system, the orchestra if you will, for all these different bits to play together to optimally benefit. One of the characteristics of good athletes is that they have a pretty good and accurate sense of how well they’ll do on any particular day.  And they’ll be able to rationalize, that was a good performance, that was a bad performance. When push comes to shove, it’s the thing between your ears rather than the thing in your chest that’s going to determine how well you do. Runners can have their own wisdom, cos lord knows they know themselves better than anybody else. Resources Mentioned Last week's interview with Camille Heron Grey Matters Performance Dave on Twitter Thank you to Run Angel and favorite recovery product BodyHealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real.  Run Angel keeps you safe, gives you the peace of mind to know that even if you were in danger, your loved ones could be alerted of your whereabouts in minutes, and an alarm the volume of a rock concert would be sent out to get you help. Use coupon code running4real for 10% off at RunAngel.com When I was running 90 miles a week as a pro, I would take 5-10 BodyHealth Perfect Amino tablets every day without fail. They helped me recover faster, and feel better. Now they have Perfect Amino XP, which makes it even easier. Get 10% off at Bodyhealth.com using coupon code TINA10