Coach Carter

A week of holiday was just what I needed – good weather, nice cycling rides, plenty of time with my books and journal, and most of all, the time and space to let ideas come together.

Its incredible how the pace of life and work life in particular prevents creative thought. Often, we end up working on projects with a known, expected outcome. It cramps the innovation, the free-flowing nature of the process. We set ourselves targets by which point we want the product; and because we are often our own worst critics, we want THE perfect product. I know I can often be guilty of this. Because of tight time schedules and / or high expectations, rather than letting the creative juices flow, and I am forcing towards the end product. Getting away from it all this past week gave me the space to just relax into things with the need or expectation of an end result.

It may sound like a working holiday, but I assure you it wasn’t! But I did have time and space to let things flow into my head. I am sure I am not alone in contemplating “how can I capture this holiday spirit when I am at home?” during an annual break. Having worked on my own, and PBscience’s coaching philosophy just before taking the holiday, this was at the forefront of my mind. I have had lots of internal dialogue about how I work: how to improve service to my athletes yet also maintain the perspective of time / space you get whilst on holiday. I firmly believe the more relaxed and in tune the coach, the better the coaching each athlete receives. Work is such a big proportion of our lives that it is important to enjoy it. I am fortunate that I do. What I am conscious of is how that enjoyment can often mean me working too long hours at the expense of other things - so I am intent on finding a better balance. I’ll let you know the answer when I find it!

The need for this balance hit home when I visited the home of Leonardo Da Vinci in Amboise, near Tours. Amboise was his home for the last 3 years of his life, and they now have a wonderful museum of his art and his inventions. I was truly inspired by the visit: Da Vinci was THE master of contemplation leading to creativity and innovation. It is argued whether he was an artist who loved science, or a scientist who loved art – if that wasn’t enough, I found out in this trip that he was also an excellent athlete and accomplished musician...some people! He even invented the bicycle, so what is there not to like about this man? What Leonardo cracked was the ability to contemplate (through prioritising time and space for his thoughts) and convert his experiences into end products. Maybe the reason we don’t find this success in today’s world is that we have too many distractions – we seem to work more hours, but be less productive. Having had a week of no email, no internet I found days longer and certainly more relaxing.

No emails whilst away meant a lot to deal with when I got home – 192 in my inbox when I logged back on using my iPhone in Dover...yikes! Momentarily, the whole tranquillity of my week ebbed away. But, true to my promise pre-holiday, I set about getting back on top of things in my first 2 days home. It was nice having that space. Aside from 6 training plans to write and ensuring I got to grips with where all my athletes were in their training, I didn’t put any pressure on myself: no meetings, no phone calls, no deadlines. “Back to school” feelings were delayed until the following Monday!

Sunday gave me a chance to get back to basics as a coach – its been a few weeks since I have attended a race to watch my athletes. So, when I knew I could catch up with five racing at the same race, I was intent to do so. Anyway, I love team time trials, so the opportunity to jump in my car Sunday morning with a coffee by my side didn’t really feel like work. I really enjoyed being back road side, cheering on the teams; and I also caught up with quite a few athletes who I have worked with in the past – so it felt very sociable. And when Paddy and Seb formed part of the winning 4-up team it really made the 4 hour round trip worthwhile. It is nice to be back :-)