Do I Need A Coach ? | Tri To Disagree
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- Опубліковано 2 чер 2024
- Triathlon is expensive! And hiring a coach just adds to the expense.
So do you actually need one? Or can you save that money? Today, on Tri2Disagree, we debate the advantages and pitfalls of hiring a coach… and why you absolutely should hire one!
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Do you think AI coaching is needed in triathlon? 🤖
I wouldn't want an AI coach to just "tell me what to do", since I enjoy learning. That said, some light AI "advice" could be helpful. During interviews with KB/Olav, you often hear Olav saying how KB is really understanding the data and what it means for him. I think keeping an open mind and learning is an important part of being a good athlete.
I finished the Ironman using the Trainerroad
If AI coaching creates accessibility and brings more opportunity for more to get involved in the sport...yes
This video would have been better served with taking the self-coaching position more seriously. Not everyone can afford a coach or wants one. The age-grouper who does a local event once a year and just cares about finishing might have no real need for a coach.
It was disappointing (albeit funny) that the “no coach” position was satirized. I self-train, but would consider a coach if convinced it would be valuable. I don’t skip workouts. I read and watch the content about training sessions, nutrition and race strategies. I think my technique in all disciplines is strong. I have seen dramatic improvements in two years of self-training even though I am 45. Yeah, that’s what the “I’m kind of a big deal age grouper” says. But I acknowledge it’s possible that a coach would offer something more that I don’t realize? What is it? This video didn’t give any reasons; it just knocked down bad reasons that I wouldn’t offer.
i agree, if the current number 1 ranked triathlete in the world (sam long) can be self coached, that shows that you dont NEED a coach to be successful. I feel triathlon is pretty evenly split between coached and self coached and i dont feel that either route is superior. Being self coached for 2 years (ex gym rat with zero cardio for a decade) with zero background in any of the sports ive PR'd every 70.3 ive done (3/4 sub 5 hours) and have yet to platue. I told myself Id seek out coaching if i hit a platue that I couldnt navigate myself first. Taking on the role of self coaching is not simply being cocky, for some it is, but for some it means taking on the role of a coach. Tracking your training and how you feel, listeining to your body, trying out workouts over weeks or months time and monitoring progress. Just because we dont have a coach does not mean we are cocky, and does not mean we'll be any less successful than a coached triathlete. Not to mention that a portion of triathlete coaches (in my opinion) bite of more than they can chew and DONT lead an athlete in the best direction for them and their personal goals in the sport. and thats all i have to say about that
side note, the points made "for" coaching are valuable and well made points. Maybe have a successful self traint triathlete do this debate as the opposing side for a better more realistic video?
Good points and good idea. I can see the value of coaching for someone without fitness experience who doesn’t know how to set up workouts or who literally doesn’t know how to swim or who needs a “push” to do the workouts. But my sense is that if you don’t need that, the only coaching that could help significantly is individualized, in-person technique and training advice. That’s very costly. And unlikely to improve results more than just adding training hours would unless you are already at 20+ hours/week already.
Agreed, it was funny, but maybe a bit overdone. I like these segments, but I feel like we need a topic where these two honestly disagree.
This is like a q&a on a coaches website to convince someone to get a coach. There's a lot of merit to self training and learning it yourself. There's a lot of resources or cheap plans to lean into. The topic deserves more debate and there's a lot of value from self coaching
Self coaching can be really good 🙌We hope that some people can use out content to help build their fitness! 🚴
For me, the expense is indeed the biggest reason I self coach. I guess at the end of the day it's all about priorities. I'd be spending more on the coach than on the race, and that's a lot of overhead when my primary goal is fitness (as opposed to "winning"). I've seen a lot of improvement after taking "being my own coach" seriously (buying books, etc). I guess I also have fun learning about that coaching stuff.
At my age and my late start into the sport the coach part is too expensive. It boils down to what is a person's goal. Mine is to not drown, not die and finish. At 65 I utilize Your channel, other You tube channels, blogs and the community of Triathlon. I live too far away for any clubs which offer coaching. So I wing it, try it and hope for the best and just have fun. Is a coach beneficial ? YES. But what are your goals? Keep the content coming, you are big part of my coaching and trying to make it work. Cheers
Great to hear that you are using us to improve 🙌 Have you ever considered going down the AI coaching route?
@@gtn I do not know much about the AI coaching platform. I would venture to try that though. One thing about a coach is that they can detect your form on swim, bike and run. Alone I could just be reinforcing bad technique. A double edge sword no doubt.
The real question is not if a coach would be beneficial. It's should I invest the money into paying a coach vs investing the time to learn how to do it myself. One is only as good as long as you are paying for it the other is an investment/life skill.
They are not mutually exclusive. Hiring a coach could speed up how quickly you learn to coach yourself, by seeing how the experienced coach does it.
@@squngy0 yeah that's my point it wasn't discussed though
I cannot afford a structured training plan, so a coach would be useless. This doesn't mean that I train wrong. It means that I have to swap discipline and type of training in a week based on climate, health, family, work. But I'm consistent with my overall training sessions and overall training time and also consistent with the different type and intensity of training in each discipline. Having a coach would mean having to text/call him every day to change my training plan and this is not something right. I will certainly hire a coach when my life becomes more stable and when I will tackle half-ironman/ironman distances. For now my olympic distance training is made by myself and I can't honestly complain as I've been continuously improving in every discipline over 3 years.
Great to hear you are finding your own way 🙌Sounds like you are smashing to 💥 Do you have any goals for this year?
@@gtn For 2024 my aim was to cut down my times in 3 olympic races that I love and raced in the past years AND to train the whole year without injuries. At the moment, the last race time that I need to improve is Ironman Italy Cervia 5150 (22th September 2024): are you guys coming for a wonderful italian late summer race? If so, let me know!
For me it’s fun to coach myself, I have a science background so I enjoy my “experiments.” I do consult professional training plans often, & train w groups. I also agree, I track my training on pen & paper so the uploading thing would bug the hell outta me haha!!
So by this i mean, I attend coached workouts (gym, bike, swim, run), but on the whole, I am my own coach. Nobody but me knows what i do on the whole. (& maybe whomever works at my fitness watch company or gym haha)
A coach is only going to benefit you if you agree (& like) being coached.
We agree, that's why it's so important to find a coach that works for you 🙌
Do Mark, James, and Heather have coaches? If not, why not?
Who coaches the coaches 🤯
@@gtn Me.
I feel attacked….😂
Hi
had coach 2018-2023 nov . I been training all my life. My mother and my grandfather both were really good bicyclists. They win Finland championships in bicycle, my grandfather 15 times. So I think I know pretty much how to train. I been a coach in country skiing.
In November after Kona I wanted to lift my running. It didn’t take many days and I had a knee injury. Rest probably to little but in the same time my garmin watch started send me warnings. When I was starting the treadmill- the watch told me to take a day off. Never happened when I had my coach. I also got a flu in April. I was almost never sick when I had a coach .
And the time it takes to plan my training plan, so comfortable with coach. Even I try to copy since years before, but you are never in the same situation. Now I compete shorter distances in triathlon so the training is a little different.
I believe I will pay for a coach after this season.
//Marie-Louise
seriously strawmaned the arguments for not having a coach...
no one who legitimately argues for not having a coach would say that.
most people can learn the basics of making a program, right mix of sessions, 10% rule, recovering correctly etc by reading the internet, including GTN somewhat irronically..
I feel like you could sum-up tri training (or any of it's disciplines), into 5-10 rules which, if followed, would mean you're training basssicly perfectly (for an ametuer anyway).
What having a coach really gives you is accountability. Which for most people will honestly improve their training. But if this is really the case, maybe its worth asking yourself deep questions about what makes you train. Are you motivated by someone knowing you're training or are you truly internally driven towards your goal?
I agree with pretty much everything apart from the last one and it's the main reason people DONT get a coach. It's so expensive. Yes its money well spend yes it's one of the best investment for that kind of sum of money, but its still a shitload of money.
To reduce it to yes but you bought a 5k$ bike so you should pay a coach is a best a strawmen argument and at worst bad faith. People do run tri with ways less budget than you think on 300/400$ 10 years old bike and saying to those they must get a coach might turn them from tri at whole because they think the sports is so expensive.
I would have like the nuance that its possible to tri without a coach even if its less optimal because you usually end those tri to disagree with the nuance on inbetween your 2 points.
So far, i've done 7-ish years self-coach "building" plans based of internet videos ... mostly ended up in disappointment as I was never training how I wanted to race.
I've put my faith in Tridot the last 2.5 years, while still being my own manager ... it's been making the whole lot of differences.
I guess what I mean to say is having structured training, suiting you, is so very important.
If a coach gives you that, then you should go for it.
Great to hear that you are pushing it 🙌 What's the goal for this year?
@@gtn
30 June, 70.3 Les Sables in my hometown for the first time (for me). That's my big one! With that, I'm aiming to get under 6h00 for the first time (from 9h00 back in 2017 ... missing cut-off by 30' on that occasion ... 😬).
Then T100 Dubai for Fun, in Nov, Dubai Marathon in Jan to slowly build toward my second full IM in a year from now ... in Les Sables d'Olonne hopefully (first edition)! 🤩
Any opportunity for a selfies with GTN in those locations?? 😉
All an amateur triathlete NEEDS is love, support and understanding from his immediate family. Everything else is WANTS and is up to the individual if he choose to/can pay for it or not.
Interesting point! Surrounding yourself with the best people will always help 🙌
I love to train with a structure I.e. from "AI" app or standard TPeaks programme to go with, just because I don't want to disappoint "real" coach if I'm missing any session 😂
Hahaha it's easier to say no to your AI coach isn't it 😉
@@gtn exactly 😆
Excellent arguments!
I do think that most triathlon beginners would benefit from coaching no doubt! A specially if they do not have any background at any discipline.
I myself just started doing triathlon tanning and actually have my first triathlon ( IRONMAN BOULDER 70.3 ).
My background is of 14 years of a pro swimmer for national team (sprinter), I also can run long distances with out any issue (usually swimmers are not great runners) and biking is ok, did do couple long rides (65 mile) and it feels just fine!
Anyhow, back to the coaching, I think it depends what are your goals and if you have any background at any of the disciplines.
In my case, I don't really care how fast I am gonna go, just doing it because I can and want.
Having a coach in my mind is useless and annoying at least for me, I spent 14 years of my life following coach direction at the pool, and am not willing to to it again... Don't need anyone telling me how fast or hard I need to go...
Bottom line is: coaching is great but not for everyone :)
Happy racing!
Coming from someone who has both self trained and used a coach I think the benefits of a coach for an age grouper are small. My experience along with others I have talked to is that coaches tend to use training peaks programs and give you a well done message if a session goes well and what happened message if it didn't go well. I think an argument could be made that there are plenty of good downloadable training programs that would work just as well at a fraction of the cost of a coach. I am now spending money on a swim coach and feel it is a better investment. I know others that are spending money on a specialized run coaches and getting great results. I think a coach is great for someone newish to Tris and give great nuggets of advise about time management, nutrition, transitions etc but to the age grouper who is several years in the sport I am not so convinced about the return on investment
I learned virtually nothing from this video, but I did spend virtually the whole thing giggling at James 'I'm kind of a big deal ' Cunama and his alter ego 🤣 Congratulations to Mark for keeping his face straight. Well -ish 😉
We hope you virtually enjoyed it then 😉
James's roleplay whinging in this episode is brilliant. I'm genuinely laughing at it.
I thought the "your coach will take into account your desire to do group rides" aspect is a particularly strong selling point of a _human_ coach vs the growing popularity of AI coaches which _can't_ take that sort of thing into account.
I actually don't agree with the final point though. Maybe it works for some people, but personally I think a coach makes less sense if you already know what areas you want to work on and have some idea on how to improve in those areas, compared to if you kinda don't know what to do, or if you're reaching your limit through the above method.
Thanks for the comment Jim! Have you had a coach in the past?
YES! You do. It just depends on what discipline and when during your triathlon journey. The secondary matches your needs, such as adding Core, Weights, and Strength, which many coaches are familiar with for avoiding injuries. Look at your coach's philosophy and you will know what they value.
Finding the perfect match for you is really important 🙌
The one thing that video touched too less on is the only reason for not having a coach: you have to trust your coach! I had over the 20 years 6 coaches and while I got something out of it, the relationship was never one of trust. That's why all my attempts of training with a coach failed.
Why did you struggle to trust your coaches? 🤨
Because it either felt like a business relationship or master apprentice relationship. I never had a coach that treated me like a peer.
Q: Do you two as coaches pay someone else to coach you?
How do you find a triathlon. Coach? I'm in the states, on the East coast where there seems to be far less of a triathlon presence, but it is my dream to complete a 70.3 by 35, or an Xterra!
I understand James' point, but do you think this also applies to people new to the sport? And I agree that a good coach will bring out the best in you, but the fact of doing it alone is also part of the feeling of doing a triathlon.
And finally, how much difference do you think there can be between a coach and online content, guides, AI, books, that can help you put together your own program?
Thx for the video
I do duathalon instead of triathlon because I will need a coach to swim. Maybe someday I can get a swimming coach and do a tri
Easy answer, recreational triathlete = no coach, age-grouper pushing for the win = coach.
I’d be interested to have heard the benefits and comparisons of a coach ($250 per month) vs a good training plan bought from training peaks such as the 21weeks Ironman by Dan Plews or the 21 weeks ironman by 80/20 endurance Matt Fitzgerald. Both are a one off fee of $100 to be used over and over again on TrainingPeaks.
It would be good to understand the benefits of a coach which is $2900 a year more than a good pre-scheduled training plan
That's a good argument 👍
What if I train with just humango and mottiv
The big thing for me honestly is that my triathlon training is inherently selfish. It's only for me, all the expense comes from my family but only benefits me, all the time is taken away from my family only for me. I just can't justify spending even more and putting more burden on the family finances.
It can be a really tough sport it fit around a busy life! We did this video a while back about training and life balance, it may help you out 👉 ua-cam.com/video/CG8BFZXEVVQ/v-deo.html
I wish I was a big deal instead off a big triathlete. I'm 6"4, 130kg.
I'm more a tri-participant maybe the athlete will come after a bit more training
it's not that difficult to learn how to be a reasonably competent coach, do that and then you can make your own training and nutrition plans 🤷♂️
If you are competing at high level and want to get your absolute maximum performance; your sponsor probably provides your coach, kit, physio, nutrition, travel, etc...
TBH it feels more like you're venting out about people complaining about your coaching services than a legit conversation on the topic...