Is it just about winning?

by Dougie Macdonald - 13:43 on 04 April 2009

Choosing a break in the unseasonably good weather, I cycled over the Bealach-na-Ba recently on what felt like the windiest day in March. What does this have to do with Coaching Highland? As I struggled to maintain a cycling speed that would pass as embarrassing for an average club runner, I had plenty of time to ponder whether the experience might provide anything of relevance for coaches. I hope that the conclusions I reached will prove worthy of your consideration and perhaps have some effect on the constant fine tuning a successful coach has to apply to the coaching process.

Bealach-na-Ba or Bealach nam Bo (Pass of the Cattle) is the UK’s biggest road climb at 2053ft (626m) from sea level in just 6mls (10k).  In the summer of 2006 a cycling sportive* event was organized that proved so popular that both distances in the 2009 version are fully subscribed well in advance with no likelihood of any further entries

https://www.sportident.co.uk/entries/event.php?event_id=166
https://www.sportident.co.uk/entries/event.php?event_id=167

Sportives are the cycling cousin of running’s marathon. As with the 26 mile event, rather than racing other participants, sportives see cyclists challenge themselves in a personal battle against the distance and then ultimately, the clock. The already lengthy course will traditionally include climbs and difficult riding conditions, adding to the kudos of the event (e.g. the cobblestones of the Paris-Roubaix).

Not to be outdone, I decided to get a small group together to take on the challenge of the Bealach Beag on our own.

My first cycling companion was a veteran of many shared cycling exploits including three ascents of Mt Ventoux, the Giant of Provence (see the news section for an account of a Coaching Highland supported ride up Mt Ventoux undertaken by students at Inverness College). We first raced against each other as primary school pupils and continued a rivalry throughout our teens with me running for Clydesdale Harriers and Ian for East Kilbride A.A.C. before becoming team mates during a particularly successful period for Glasgow University Hares and Hounds. Almost 40 years since our first race we still compete at just about everything. The important thing for coaches to draw from this, especially those at the start of their coaching careers, is that coaching is not just about the here and now, or even about the goal of the periodised long term training plan. The consequences of your work with young, impressionable athletes will last a lifetime and help form the framework that will define the individual in years to come. The long term effects of coaching qualities such as respect for opponents and the ability to win and lose and come back for more are arguably more important than immediate performance driven objectives. Looking back over four decades of competition it is clear to me that it is the desire to compete, and not winning, that is everything. I’m not sure that I would have arrived at that conclusion without having assimilated these values as part of the coaching I was fortunate enough to have received as a younger athlete. 

Ian had never met the second cyclist in our group of three and, given that we had opted for a three bedded room at the Applecross Inn on the nights before and after our ride, there was always the potential for some awkwardness. What transpired however was testament to my belief that sport provides a common language for people to relate with. Despite coming from a different sporting discipline (cycling), Mike and Ian shared a common bond. The sporting value system that was instilled in them as youngsters was as much a part of their lives now as it was then and proved an integral and essential component in their enjoyment of a quality of life denied to those less active. All three of us came from a background where parental encouragement, club structures and good coaching had given us an undimmed appreciation of the importance of challenging ourselves to maximize potential. Any worries that they might not have got on were banished in the banter, standing with a deserved pint in front of an open fire, as we discussed who had given in to the headwind and gradient first (me L ) !

I considered other aspects of our ride that might be significant to coaches. The analogy of the hard work put in as we cycled from Applecross to Shieldaig providing the pay off of a wind assisted 30 mph trip from Shieldaig to Kishorn – a short lived exhilaration akin to the thrill of justifying the effort of training with a personal best in competition. I thought about the importance of team building and, perhaps more significantly, the enjoyment of team building. However, eventually, the whole experience was distilled into one thought that probably defines my coaching philosophy. The world is littered with people who used to do sport. It doesn’t have to be that way. Why did they stop? What can coaches do to encourage people to enjoy activity over the course of a lifetime?

Achieving a personal best is not about one moment in time.

http://www.applecross.uk.com/campsite/wigwams.htm
http://www.applecross.uk.com/inn/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bealach_na_Ba

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