Author Archives: ueli albert

Using self-monitoring to improve health wellness

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As coaches, we spend a lot of time caring about our athletes and our staff. At every practice, I ask my athletes and staff on how they are feeling and they give me an estimate on their current physical and mental state. In order to improve this process further I have looked into several monitoring systems to make it easy to collect data and get feedback from the athletes not only when I see them in practice but also on the days I don’t see them and use it as a conversation opener. I came across Logit.ai and decided to test the App on myself before I would implement it with my athletes. Logit is a free App and it goes through a series of questions that are send out by email on a regular basis. Logit was developed by a former high-performance swimmer who realized that a lot of athletes are burning out from overtraining and that this could be prevented by logging not only their practice sessions in quantitative numbers but also track how the athlete is handling the workout mentally and how other aspects of life can affect the overall stress load that is placed on the athletes.

I decided to test the App on myself for about 3 months before I would roll it out to my athletes and staff. When I first started I discovered that this is actually the first time I’m reflecting on my own health and wellness and although the questions are very simple I started to think a lot more about my physical and mental state. I started to see some patterns and made adjustments to the days after my scores were low. It made me realize how much I enjoy being a coach and in order to have happiness I need the regular involvement with my training group. The most important thing though is that the App forces me to take 1 minute out of my day to reflect on how I feel. The questions are different in every survey and I have to pay attention on what I answer. This process is motivating me to try and improve on my scores but even more important try to not let my scores fall down to low. It’s motivating to get instant feedback about my health and wellness being in excellent shape and somehow sets me up well for the day.

An article in medical news today stated that seven in ten people in the US track some sort of health marker. The most common is weight followed by exercise and sleep patterns. The article states that instant feedback is a great motivator. Seeing numbers improve instantly is motivating to people and will keep them trying to get better. It was suggested that the monitoring tools should be used to raise awareness in one’s life and highlight the changes needed to make a significant difference. When deciding on what to monitor following recommendations were made.

 

  1. Tracking your health and wellness should be easy and fun.
  2. Setting realistic and achievable goals when using monitoring tools.
  3. Celebrate your success and reset your goals and targets.
  4. Focus on the things that make the biggest impact in your life.
  5. Be prepared to experiment with new activities and habits.
  6. Identify patterns that will help you improve on your scores.

 

Over this month I will encourage my athletes to sign up for Logit and will see how they respond to it. To me it has made a big difference in my wellness and I will keep on scoring my physical and mental state to make sure I reflect on my own wellbeing. “Because a happy coach is a good coach”!

 

 

 

Using Training Camps to develop Coach-Athlete Relationships

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I’m writing this blog from our Training Camp in Warm Springs Georgia. This is the 5th time we are coming to Warm Springs before Christmas and it has become a tradition every year. We are using this time to get an intense training block in before we head into a recovery week over Christmas.

Warm Springs is a small town about 1.5 hours south of Atlanta. The Rosevelt Centre was the staging camp for the 1996 Paralympic Games and all the Facilities are fully accessible. Every year we book a Camp Lodge that has 12 individual Rooms which lead to a Common Room with a Fire Place and TV.

The internet is slow but that is okay and forces us to stay offline more often and talk to each other. We generally train twice a day and take a little trip to Atlanta halfway through the camp. We have 3 meals a day that are catered to us and we provide the cater company with a meal plan that was developed by our nutritionist at the Sport Centre.

It’s at those meals were we often sit and chat not just wheelchair racing but many other aspects in life. It’s were people open up about family and friends and experiences they had in the past.

Having the opportunity to be with the athletes for an extended time gives me a real good chance to develop deeper relationships and getting to know the athletes better. I have one on one meetings and we spend hours planning the season and brainstorming ideas for workouts and equipment changes.

Every year I invite other athletes from Canada and different countries. In the past we had athlete form Switzerland, Nigeria and Great Britain. This year we have a visiting Athlete from the USA and her coach. The athlete and her coach are fairly new to the sport and they get to learn a lot at our camp.

I truly enjoy sharing our training plans and experience with those athletes and coaches and through dialog there are always new things that challenge my views on training and coaching and often I learn things that I would of not learned if it was just our group at the camp.

Once we return to Canada we have a deeper bond due to all the experiences we went through and often this carries momentum through the winter preparation months which can be very hard on all of us but knowing the athletes and their personalities helps me better understand on how to keep them motivated and be understanding of the challenges they might face.

 

How to navigate new Technologies?

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How to navigate new technologies?

In our daily lives we are exposed to technology every moment and many times technology can help us solving problems. We email, text, tweet, facebook and surf the web to access information and find solutions to our problems. With all the access to technology I ask myself how to use technology to be more efficient as a High Performance Coach.

Since starting the HPCTC I have been exposed to many new technologies. Online Learning plat forms (UBC blackboard). Virtual Class Room (Collaborate). Video presentation software (Kaltura) and Athlete Monitoring Software (Kinduct).

With all of these new technologies and software there was a lot of problem solving involved and I found myself “googling” and “youtubing” on how to do things. Using technology to figure out technology at times can be confusing and contradicting and sometimes the information is just not there or I did not feel like reading through a 100 page manual to figure out how to do things.

I feel that sometimes we get fooled by our perception that every information needed is on the web and we can just go out and do it. Using technology is a skill and you have to apply it in your daily practice and problem solve along the way.

In my opinion one of the most efficient ways to solve technology problems is by talking to a real person who has done it. I found myself struggling to set up an athlete monitoring system by trying to figure it out on my own how to set up parameters for my athletes but had no success. Eventually I contacted our Sport Centre Science Lead who already has experience with the software. He was not able to give me all the answers I was looking for but through trial and error we eventually came to the point where we set up the parameters and had the program do the things I wanted them to do.

According to the NCCP, problem solving is the ability to bring about a positive outcome to meet a specific coaching challenge. For example coaching multiple athletes in a practice and give appropriate feedback.

Some of the common uses of technology for me as a Coach is that I record results in each practice and send them instantly to my athletes right after practice. This way athletes can keep the times for their records and get more involved in tracking their performance curve. Another tool I use is video analyses and I will use it on site but also share online to communicate their progress with them and giving them the chance to review their performance after practice.

I’m really looking forward to use the Kinduct software we have implement to monitor the athletes. It will be a tool to prevent sickness and injuries and increase the communication beyond the usual check in at the track but also gather data to make evidence based decisions on future programs. I have also decided to use the technology for myself so I can get a feeling for what the effort of reporting is and how valid the data is.

 

 

 

Does monitoring athletes really improve performance?

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Does monitoring athletes really improve performance?

Data collection and making evidence based decisions for training programing is common practice amongst high performance coaches and more technologies are available than ever to help collect and better understand the data.

Does all the data collection really help our athletes to improve their performance though? To fully understand and making a statement out of it I have dig a little further into this as I’m planning to do a class project on monitoring my athletes using different types of software platforms.

An article review written by Shona L. Halson published in Sports Med in 2014 talks about all the different variables that can be used to monitor training load and subsequent fatigue. In the conclusion section she is mentioning that despite the emerging technologies a single definite tool that is accurate and reliable is not available. The nature of monitoring is very different from one sport to the other which is due to the differences not only in the demands of the sport but also in the individual difference in individual physiological adaptions and responses to exercise. If an accurate and easy to interpret feedback is provided to the athletes and coaches, monitoring can result in enhanced knowledge of training responses and provide further communication between support staff, athletes and coaches and ultimately enhance and athlete’s performance.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs40279-014-0253-z.pdf

Having read the article by Shona L. Halson I got inspired to increase the data collection within my own program and will implement some of the newest monitoring Technologies. I have discussed some of the parameters this with my Practicum Mentor and we came to the conclusion that it will be imperial to have the buy in form the athletes and they will have to be part of the whole process and understand that it will benefit them. The aim is to use the monitoring as a source of motivation for the athletes to become more accountable but also get more feedback on their current performance. Since a lot of the platform relay on self reporting on things such as sleep and nutrition integrity from the athletes will be important. Using the monitoring tools as a form of communication starters in the daily training environment will be key in my approach of using the technology and applying the science to the art of coaching.

 

Creating my Coaching Philosophy

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In our Coaching Effectiveness class our task is to create a 5 minute video on our Coaching Philosophy. We are supposed to talk about our Mission, Vision and Values. In order to do this I made a list of the 10 most important values that I personally feel are important to me.

  1. Family
  2. Friends
  3. Health
  4. Happiness
  5. Honesty
  6. Equity
  7. Fairness
  8. Sustainability
  9. Longevity
  10. Passion

Although the order of importance might change depending on what stage my life is at but I think that these points capture what I personally value in my selfs and others. Recognizing that Family, Friends and Health are my top 3 values always guides me in developing my own career and life goals.

When I first started coaching most of my values were much attached to winning and creating the best performing program possible. Over the last 10 years that has shifted significantly since I realized how much more important all the other factors are to the development of a person. Personal growth will be at the core of my coaching philosophy. It will be my mission to help athletes to personally grow as an person and become not just better at athletics but life in general.

Wade Gilbert explains in his book “Coaching Better Every Season” when creating your coaching philosophy you have to understand who you are as a coach and person. Secondly you have to know your athletes and last but not least you need to understand your Sport. These 3 pillars are important will guide me in the creation of my Philosophy. I have created a 1 page philosophy outline when I attended the Advanced Coaching Diploma and some of my values are reflected in the outline but some are not. However when it comes to the implementation of the Philosophy I think I still have much room to grow. I will expand and elaborate on my current Coaching Philosophy that will then reflect a more holistic approach. I’m looking forward to formalize and organize my thoughts and then clearly communicate to my athletes and assistant coaches.

Autonomy Supported Coaching

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In our first week of the High Performance Coaching and Technical Leadership Certificate, I got to meet many new and interesting coaches from all over the country and beyond.

It was great to exchange experiences and ideas with all of the other coaches. I truly get the feeling that all of us are passionate about their calling to be a coach.

I also was fascinated with a new concept of autonomy supported coaching that I was introduced to. I should say it’s not new to me since I have been coaching in an autonomy supported way but wasn’t aware of the terminology.

As I’m doing more research into leadership techniques it becomes clearer to me what kind of a coach I want to be, and realize that I learn best by researching what I’m interested in. Fortunately that’s exactly what this program allows us to do.

The strength of the program is the people who take the program and the freedom to explore our passions and allow us to delve into subjects matters and spend extensive time in researching and analyzing. I’m so happy I enrolled into the HPCTL, and I’m excited for the journey ahead.

Interaction with my Para Athletes

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Hi Everybody,

Below you can find some videos that I posted earlier in the year featuring some of the athletes I coach and some of the interaction I have with them. Being a Para Athletics Coach I often find my self explaining to people what my athletes do and how the sport works since there is still less awareness for Paralympic Sports compared to the Olympic Sports.
I’m often told that it must be very rewarding and inspiring to work with Para Athletes. My reply is that it really is no different to coaching able bodied athletes and sometimes might even be less rewarding since people still question the High Performance site of the Paralympics.
I tread every athletes that I work with as a High Performance Athlete. I demand full dedication in and out of practice and the primary goal for my group is to make the national team and eventually win medals at international competitions.
I see my self as a high performance coach coaching high performance athletes and I feel that the culture within our team reflects this wherever we go. It took us 8 years to build a group of 8 High Performance Para Athletes based out of the Sport Centre Atlantic.
Over the last 8 years we recruited over 100 athletes but only 8 of them made the cut to be on the team and stuck with the training regime. I only had to literally cut one athlete from the team and everybody else quickly realized if they were willing to make the commitment and sacrifices that I asked from them.
It usually takes about 3 months of training for an athlete to either stay with the program or move on to another sport or activity.
My athletes know I demand a lot from them and I think they all truly appreciate that.