Seasonal Preparation

This is one of my most favorite topics to discuss as a coach.  While I was coaching at Nazareth College, I prided myself on having my athletes have personal best performances at our conference championship meets.  Since the 2015-16 season, almost every athlete that competed in our conference championships threw a personal best in at least one event (shot/weight indoor and shot, discus, and hammer outdoor).  Ironically enough, the one athlete that sticks out the most that didn’t accomplish this feat is Luis.  During his season year, he was the one athlete that actually didn’t hit a personal best at our indoor or outdoor championships.  He hit his personal best throws at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor National Championships in the weight throw (1st-20.41m) and hammer throw (3rd-59.29m).
 
I mention Luis in that light because when I discussed meet preparation with my athletes on an individual basis, everyone had their own plans for optimal performance.  Each athlete had their own definition of what optimal performance meant to them.  With an athlete like Luis, we knew in December that he was going to throw at Indoor Nationals that year, so we planned our season accordingly to peak in the 2nd week of March.  For most of our other throwers, I knew that either the indoor or outdoor Empire 8 Championships was going to be their peak meet.  There were a few throwers on the team that extended their season to compete in the State and ECAC Championships.  As of a couple years ago, we no longer compete in a State Championship meet.  That is nice because it leaves one less meet to have to try to peak for or compete in over the course of the season.
 
You see, during the 2015-16 season, we had the State, ECAC, and National Championship meets on three consecutive weekends.  That was asking a lot of our athletes to try and hit big marks over the course of a three-week period, especially if they were chasing marks to try and qualify for Nationals.
 
There is a lot of strategy involved when laying out your seasonal meet schedule.  Each athlete is different, and they require individual attention and support when discussing their goals and where they want to be by the end of the season.  This is what I did with each athlete, beginning with the first group I coached at SUNY Fredonia back in the 2004-05 season.
 

1. Meet with each thrower individually during the first couple of weeks of the semester.  I tried to meet with everyone by the second week of September.  That gave them enough time to settle into a routine in the hopes of starting to establish good habits with regards to going to class, getting enough sleep, and blocking out practice time in the afternoon.
2. When I met with each athlete, I had a copy of the upcoming season schedule with our conference meets highlighted.  During this meeting, I would ask each athlete what their expectations were for the upcoming season and their goals for each event they participated in.  It wasn’t until I started coaching at Nazareth that I began asking why their goals were important to them.
3. After each athlete shared their goals/expectations for the season, together we would sketch out a plan for how they would accomplish/reach those goals.  I say sketch because nothing is ever set in stone, and you never know what can happen throughout the course of a season.
4. When the season would officially begin, typically 6 weeks after this first meeting, I would again discuss individual goals and expectations with each athlete.  Expectations at times changed by this meeting because the athletes would either come prepared for that first practice or that first practice would be their first type of athletic activity the whole semester.
5. At the end of each week I would informally have a conversation with each athlete about how they thought their week went, what they liked, what they didn’t like, and what they thought they should work on the following week in order to reach their goal(s).  The athletes would keep track of their thoughts in their journals.
6. Once the meet season began, we would have these informal conversations on Monday or Tuesday at practice.  Sometimes they would happen on the bus on the way home from the meet.  Depending on the outcome each thrower had, some wouldn’t want to talk to me about their performance until later that week.  I would discuss their expectations for the upcoming meet.
7. As we got closer to the conference meet, I would sit down with each thrower and discuss how things are going from their perspective and if they thought they were on track to accomplish their goal(s).  I’d say 90% of the time each athlete was on track to hit a personal best if they hadn’t already.  Last year my four throwers at conference each hit at least one personal best in the shot, weight, discus, hammer, or shot.
8. After our conference meet I would sit down with each thrower and discuss the season.  If they extended their season, we wouldn’t have the conversation until their season was complete.  For those that were done for the season, we would discuss what went well, what didn’t go well, and what we needed to do in order to have a more pleasant outdoor season.  I say pleasant because most of my throwers enjoy throwing the discus and hammer more so than the shot and weight, so they often times look forward to throwing outdoors and throwing things far!
9. Once the outdoor season began, I would repeat steps 2-8 with each athlete.  The only difference here would be the selection of implements to throw at certain meets.  For example, last year I had three throwers that wanted to throw all four implements each week.  I tried discouraging them from doing that, but I relented and they learned their lessons.  In one case, I think that because she competed in four events in one day set her back a week because of the lack of individualized attention spent on her main events.  This only happened one time before our conference championships.
10. At the very end of the season I sat down with each thrower individually before they went home for the summer.  In this meeting we again discussed what went well, what didn’t go so well, and what they thought I could do over the summer to become a better coach.  I take a lot of pride in asking that question because I take what they say to heart and I know that they are being honest with me.  The only way I can become a better coach is to work on my weaknesses as well.  Unless they tell me, I really don’t know.

 
In a nutshell, that is the outline I implemented with my athletes from the very beginning.  Not all of the conversations I had with my athletes were pleasant, but we were honest and communicated with each other.  I’ll be honest, I’m willing to bet that some athletes dreaded these conversations.  I’m sure of it.  I also think that because of these conversations my athletes were able to reach their defined levels of success because they were able to communicate why accomplishing those goals were important to them!