It Takes A Village

MUSINGS FROM A COACH - 13 JANUARY '26

It takes a village (and often a great coach).

I just returned from USA Triathlon's biannual Endurance Exchange - a gathering of USAs coaches and race directors for a weekend of learning and collaborating - and it was well worth the trip. I always love being around other coaches and learning from their experiences and education.

One international coach, Dan Lorang, was there and gave the presentation, "Advanced Training for Long Distance Racing" highlighting his experience working with teams, leadership and working for professional athletes. I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and snagged a picture of one slide, "Athlete centered, coach driven, performance" I found interesting (I've run it through ChatGPT to clean it up).

As you look at this diagram of "people" potentially in a professional athlete's life, you can gather the importance and/or frequency of the inner circle and less importance/frequency moving out and away from the athlete. A few thoughts on how I interpret Dan's diagram:1 - Successful professional athletes have a core team of supporting professionals - each having a very specific role in supporting the athlete. This is represented by the green ovals. 2 - Sometimes the athlete needs to seek outside help from experts that are not regularly involved in weekly support of the athlete. These are the External Experts.

3 - Outside all of these circles are the ever present and varying volume of Noise. This can be everything from "outside experts" giving opinions, to social media opinions to friends, competitors or even family opinions - all of whom are not privy to the daily plans, goals and execution of the athlete's training environment.

4 - And finally, closest to the athlete is their coach. It's the coach's job to ensure the athlete is receiving the proper support from their inner circle, has access to the right external experts when needed and to manage and shield much of the external noise. The coach manages it all and is critical the ensure the "Boss" (that's the athlete) is receiving everything they need.

As endurance athletes, many of us wont have as many circles and ovals around us...but we all have a few for sure. One missing green oval might be our non-professional support group of friends or family.

Regardless,It's important to get expert support from trusted professionals whether it's on a weekly basis, quarterly or even annual basis. And if it feels a bit overwhelming, exhausting or even inadequate, then maybe hiring a coach to help manage it all would be a benefit? Have a great week! 

Gratefully,

Mark

CEO Team MPI