Postcard from Melbourne

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1

As I was INSTRUCTED to do … here is my “postcard”!!!

(Just kidding - I would LOVE to let you know my feelings, those of the athletes, etc every day. The only problem … to get time to do it.)

It was a very long flight to Australia - from our departure, with a 9 hours difference between my country and Australia, and a connecting flight from Sydney. We left Sunday afternoon/early evening 18:00, we came in the Village about 21:00 on Monday. The athletes struggled at first to adapt to the time difference AND to get rid of the jet lag. My experience with my own athlete was to get him on the track as soon as possible, without expecting too much. We have started with tempo work, worked it gradually up to a hard session (at high intensity) later on.

Other athletes in our team - according to the programmes that their coaches gave them - had to REST (passive/active … I don’t know). They struggled even longer.

To be a TEAM coach is difficult in the sense that you MAY NOT change the programme of other athletes. You are suppose to follow it exactly, and to only assist the athlete. Some coaches are TRAINING their athletes a few days before the “big meet” … 3 x 300 (4’ rest) at full speed, etc, etc. Even two hard sessions per day - they told me, to prepare them for different rounds on one day. NOW??? No further comment!!

My experience in the Village and of the organisation of the Aussies … INCREDIBLE!!! Everything new - from the bedding to the washing machines, the towels to the TV’s. FANTASTIC everywhere!! I don’t have enough words to describe everything here. The food … to die for! (Another side of their planning … to let the athletes of the other countries gain extra kilo’s!!!) I really don’t know how I will be able to go back to normal “home duties” in 2 weeks time, where I will be the one deciding what and when to prepare meals!!!

Housekeeping - the first day, as I was brought up, I made my own bed … just to hear - “Please don’t do it, we LOVE to do it FOR YOU every day”!!! What will I do back home!!!

The opening ceremony was AWESOME!! With the Aussie precise arrangements, there was a plan for every minute (second) of the procedures. I do hope you were in the position to watch on TV.

The people are SO friendly - asking how you are, and if they can help you, a hundred times per day. Wishing you good luck along the way to the opening ceremony - where else do you find this?

The only problems that we have experienced up to now, is that they have struggled to fix the computers for about 3 or 4 days. Technical problems due to the overloading of the network or something like that. Frustrating at first, but no big deal. Further more, one bus driver who did not know the way to Olympic Park … in stead of about 30’ to the track, we took 1 hour 15 minutes!!! But we have seen a lot - maybe my only “city tour” that I will have time for!!!

About my own athlete - his mind is ready to go. My only concern at this stage is, the problems that we had with “niggles” at times that we could not afford it. But that is part of athletics. We will certainly put a 100% effort in EVERY race - from the attitude to the effort. He LOVES attention - and what else can you call the 80 000 or 90 000+ people who will watch???!!!

If you have specific questions, feel free to ask.

If you wonder about my positive attitude - take into consideration that I was never at an Olympics OR CWG before. I still enjoy all the privileges of being here and be part of a team management. Furthermore, I find the Aussies a very proud nation - in everything that they do - and I admire that. It will be EASY to move here!!! (Anyone of the Government reading this and wanting to offer me a job!!!)

Talk tomorrow with you again!

2

Thanks, Sprint_Coach!
Keep it coming, if you can and enjoy!
All the best!

3

Good luck! That was a great post. It is good to hear about life on the front line, it is one aspect that hasn’t been discussed much on CF.com. I look forward to your following posts.

TC

4

Thanks for that SC, I’m sure it will be interesting for you as a Team Coach seeing differing plans and how they impact performance.

5

Awesome Sprint Coach.

Insiders experience. Being a Tasmanian (Island below Victoria) don’t praise the Victorians too much :slight_smile:

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Good luck and have a great time!

7

Thank you very much for all the “best wishes”.

It was a LONG day. I am TIRED!! Started 9.30 this morning with a training session, back to the Village at 13.00. 13.30 we have started with group event meetings in our team, then another training session from 15.30 to 19.00. BUT - to have the privilege to be in Australia, I don’t mind to work as hard as I can.

I met one of the coaches on the Forum today!!! What a surprise! We did not have a lot of time to discuss matters - hope there will be time for a coffee break together. He struggled to get accreditation - a big frustration (for coach AND athlete), when your country did not organise it a long time ago.

My own athlete - although we don’t have time for the same “in depth discussions” as back home - is very positive. At this stage we concentratre mainly on round 1, Monday. We are very realistic - it will be HARD. But, he is ready for that. After that, the focus can shift
to the SF, etc.

Today was good. He did 2 x block starts from the 400m, on the bend, + about 60m. After that the 3 bends (on the 300m, 200m, in the 100m). His technique was good - from the reaction in the start to high hips, running tall, etc. on the bends. I am satisfied. Tomorrow will be a rest day, on Sunday a warm up, a few rhythm exercises and warm down to be “up and about” for the BIG DAY om Monday!! I will keep you updated.

I am still in the “7th heaven” with everything that I experience here!!

8

May be not the time to ve technical but…

9 hours difference between my country and Australia, and a connecting flight from Sydney. We left Sunday afternoon/early evening 18:00, we came in the Village about 21:00 on Monday.

I think a bit more days beforehand would have been better. Was it a choice of the Federation or of the organizer?

My experience with my own athlete was to get him on the track as soon as possible, without expecting too much. We have started with tempo work, worked it gradually up to a hard session (at high intensity) later on.

Later on as “later on in the day” or few days later? Did you try this approach before?

To be a TEAM coach is difficult in the sense that you MAY NOT change the programme of other athletes.

I like this; I don’t like the idea of the National coach messing up my plans… Is that the same with every country? May be not…

Even two hard sessions per day - they told me, to prepare them for different rounds on one day. NOW???

One comment—> :eek:
You see, the problem would be if the National coach thinks the athletes need to train in stead of tapering. he would mess up the whole team, so better limit his duties.

My experience in the Village and of the organisation of the Aussies … INCREDIBLE!!! Everything new - from the bedding to the washing machines, the towels to the TV’s. FANTASTIC everywhere!! I don’t have enough words to describe everything here. The food … to die for! (Another side of their planning … to let the athletes of the other countries gain extra kilo’s!!!) I really don’t know how I will be able to go back to normal “home duties” in 2 weeks time, where I will be the one deciding what and when to prepare meals!!!

Housekeeping - the first day, as I was brought up, I made my own bed … just to hear - “Please don’t do it, we LOVE to do it FOR YOU every day”!!! What will I do back home!!!

GREAT! Envy… :stuck_out_tongue:

The people are SO friendly - asking how you are, and if they can help you, a hundred times per day. Wishing you good luck along the way to the opening ceremony - where else do you find this?

May be Canada? They are friendly up there…

I met one of the coaches on the Forum today!!! What a surprise! We did not have a lot of time to discuss matters - hope there will be time for a coffee break together. He struggled to get accreditation - a big frustration (for coach AND athlete), when your country did not organise it a long time ago.

Is that P. having to deal with AFN?

Best luck on Monday!

Cheers!

9

National Coaches should never add workload or change technical things at the last minute, though, in my experience, it was often necessary to find discreet ways to reduce workload- almost always for the lower ranking team members.
Redirecting them for massage or stretching (and accidently on purpose using up training time to reduce the time left to trash themselves), or yelling: “Too fast! Too Fast!” at them during runs. That served two purposes- got the athlete to reduce intensity and made them feel confident, cause they’d figure they must be flying. Sometimes it worked very well, cause the ones with the craziest workloads have the most room for improvement with a good taper.
Often, it’s good to flush out on arrival if there’s no extra travel to get to a good grass field. If extra travel would be required, better to do flushing exercises in their room.
At the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane in 1982, I was averaging 24 massages a day. Fortunately, most were already pretty loose and didn’t require a lot of time or horsepower. Usually 15 to 20 min each, but that still added up on top of track time.

10

What is the matter SC? It’s been two days: You never visit, never call, not even a postcard :stuck_out_tongue:

11

Interesting stuff… I’ve also found that most athletes overestimate the intensity of thier workouts by a huge amount. For example I had a 10.8 runner telling me he was running 8-10 150m in 17.2 at 80%… I mean that would put his real 150 time at 14.3s!

I don’t think this is a coincidence as lots of decision making literature shows that people’s confidence in thier judgement is usually over rated by a huge margin… except for surprisingly weathermen who are actually very accurate!

In these situations what really is needed is some kind of biofeedback so the athlete can see they are physically fatigued and sub par. Although a good coach is a cheap option I guess in this case sports science support could be useful if we could all agree on a non intrusive test…

12

My limited experience tell me that passing so many times zones (jet lag) and high intensity training cause a big increase in internal load, not something you want before a major meet. Thoughts?

I guess in this case sports science support could be useful if we could all agree on a non intrusive test…

Very good point.

13

Dear all,

I was also INSTRUCTED to send you a postcard from Melbourne, and very happy to do so.
I have some time for myself this morning and i dedicate it to you.

I had the chance to meet Sprint-Coach few days after my arrival on Thursday. We both are pretty busy now but hope to have time to chat with such a great person.

I left Moscow on Monday and arrived in Melbourne on Thursday, after several transits to save money, so i’m still a little bit upside down.
Like sprint coach, my first concern was to make my athlete on the track soon: on Thursday he did 4 x 30m blocks easely + 1 x 150m in 17.5. On Friday, he did a tempo 4 x 200m split runs on the grass. He felt great after this. He progressively overcame jet lag, and massage and motivational speaches did the rest.
My second concern was to find a place to sleep as i realised when i came off the plane that i wasnt in the accreditation system. Big shock and surprise for the athlete. This means access to NOWHERE. So since my arrival i have access to the village as a guest from 9am to 9pm. No access to dining, so my athlete pick me some food at the dining. Fortunately, it is easy to find free bananas, apples and cakes in some waiting points of the village. The first day i manage to cheat and sleep on the floor in my athletes room (the bed is for him i dont massage him for nothing!). The second day i met a Canadian coach with who i share now a youth hotel room. My main job is to get the athlete out of this stress. I managed by god’s grace, after a long fight, to get a personal coach pass to the warm up area the night before the competition morning heats (Friday at 11.30 pm). This was the only thing i asked so i was the happiest man in the World. My athlete has not much reserve left so we kept the warm-up very short, the minimum to avoid injury. He managed yesterday to qualify for semi finals in spending the less effort possible during the qualifying rounds. I didnt saw his races as i have no access to competition stadium, and the TVs in the warm up focus swimming… Watching the race is always good to know what to improve round after round, but i just have to guess from what whitnesses saw…
He is getting better day after day, regarding jet lag and sleep so time is in our favour (he arrived from Moscow a day before me, on wednesday). Age may be a factor as ive spoke to older athletes who are suffering more from the double Moscow + Melbourne and jet lag.

My athlete is a living miracle. I wonder how he can do so well. He feels he is here for nothing as he will receive (when we do not know) from his Fed only half of the money of his plane ticket and accomodation here. In case of win there will be no bonus. Going to the call room just before his heat, he was told he had been given a wrong bib number by his Fed officials. That’s only few things from the long list of stupidities we ve been through here. He is exhausted and hates to wear his national suits (at least he has one here because in Moscow, the Fed didn’t gave him one so he ran in black).

I have to add that the Australians volonteers are fantastic people, very kind and helpful, offering coffees and fruits for my long hours in the accreditation centers. All the hotels are booked for a long time so i know that if one night i have nowhere to sleep, one of them can take me to their home. They are great i tell you! The stadium looks like fantastic with big full crowds, what a support and recognition it should be for the athletes.

I’m so happy to be have the privilege to be in Autralia working with a fantastic athlete. Semis and finals are this afternoon.
Speek later and wish us good luck!

14

PJ, BRILLIANT Postcard. Best of luck to you and your 100m champion. Best of luck also to sprint coach and I hope you two meet up again after the madness :slight_smile:

15

Yes! Good luck to all.

16

So far so good for Sprint Coach’s athlete…

auto qualification through to next round…

17

Yes, my words also when posting all the first-round 400m results in “Race Reports” :slight_smile:

18

this sounds absoulutely fantastic and I think we all envy you, inspite of your hardships Pierrejean :slight_smile: All the best to your athlete

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YOU GO GUYS!

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Rounds were good, PJ!
All the best today!