How did you get into coaching? 
I started coaching at the age of 22 after a serious knee injury stopped me from playing football. I discovered that although a poor substitute to playing, coaching was very rewarding, I have been coaching for 30 years. I began coaching football and very quickly took an interest in running, sprinting and speed and started working with track athletes as well as footballers and basketball athlete. For many years I was doing two jobs like many coaches, a day job and coaching , I became a full time coach in 1997 when I set-up Sport Dimensions, we set up the Speed & Rehab Centre in 2001 and the Running School in 2008.
What has influenced/shaped your coaching philosophy?
How long have we got! A number of things really, I think coaching reflects people’s personalities and a good coach should be a good teacher. When I was younger, like all novice coaches I tried and teach what I was taught because of the experiences that I encountered with the people who coached me. Like a lot of coaches today I thought it was all about hard work and volume of training and the harder you work your athletes the better they get. When I was working as a senior manager in an IT company in the early 90’s I was lucky enough to travel around the world - Europe, USA, Far East and I used to contact coaches and say: “can we share our knowledge? This is what I know and I would like to see how you coach”. This was in a variety of different sports like football, American football, track & field, gymnastics, basketball etc. So I learned a lot about what I liked and most importantly what I disliked about the way people coached and how they treated their athletes. But I know now, that the biggest influence on how I coach and what I coach was when I started learning about Rehabilitation after Injury or surgery. Having had a number of serious injuries and surgery and having had a lot of bad advice and treatment myself, it was a subject I was fascinated with and I wanted to learn so much about it. I spent years studying rehab methodologies and watching specialists work with patients and injured athletes and learned how the body and the nervous system changes and how the biomechanics can be changed and the importance of mental attitude and mental strength. This combination changed the way I coach and work about 15 years ago.
Who were your mentors?
I didn’t have any mentors when I began coaching. I made a lot of mistakes in the early years like we all do. I was disappointed by the lack of knowledge by many coaches and I read a lot about teams and coaches and went on courses to learn how to coach. I think the biggest positive influence was working in the USA and visiting a small town in North Dakota, I spent a week working in their Rehabilitation centre. That’s one of the reasons why we have an open house policy at our Performance & Rehab Centre and we allow students and coaches to visit and observe how we work and what we do.
Which UK athletes have you helped with speed and technique?
I work with many UK athletes and their coaches. Youngsters as well as elite level athletes including World and Olympic Gold medallists, I prefer to work alongside the coaches, but this not always possible as some coaches are reluctant to let their athletes work with another coach or feel threatened because of their lack of knowledge. The changes we make depend on the level and experience, with elite athletes the changes are small but can be very significant in their times and their running technique. With young athletes the changes can be enormous in just 6-8 weeks.
How do you develop speed?
Humans have been asking that question since we first started running away from animals thousands of years ago! If you want to develop speed you need to stimulate the nervous system to work at a higher level! The rest of the components involved in developing speed - technique of the sport, functional strength, conditioning, nutrition and mental strength are extremely important, but play a supporting role. If you wan to get fast you have to train the nervous system!
How do you develop technique?
Running technique and sprinting technique are simple to learn! The problem is not many coaches know how to coach them. The basics are the same for youngsters from 8-9 years old to world champions! If we take running and sprinting, if your arms and legs are moving efficiently going backwards, then they will generate forward horizontal momentum and maintain maximum velocity for longer, if they are not moving efficiently then the forward momentum is lost because the body is making adjustments to compensate for the vertical and lateral movements caused by the arms and the legs. There is no such thing as perfect running technique! We are all made differently with limbs having different lengths etc, but there is a perfect running technique for each individual and body shape. Muscle imbalances and previous injury change the biomechanics of the arms and legs and we need to re-teach the body how to work efficiently again. That is something a lot of coaches don’t coach, they focus on volume of training and intensity of training but ignore the efficiency generated by the correct biomechanics. I was working with an elite young athlete recently who was over-striding and I was reviewing a video analysis with her coach who works with about 30 sprinters, some of them are national and international level athletes. I was explaining what we were looking at and what I thought was causing the problem and the effect of the arms on running efficiency and speed. His comment was “what have the arms got to do with running? We run with our legs!” So my point is if the coach doesn’t know what he is coaching what chance have the athletes got! By the way if you’re wondering what role the arms play in running and sprinting? They have the most important effect on the biomechanics and speed!
Who have you seen the most dramatic improvements in and why?
Youngsters! We teach them how to run from the age of 6 and how to run fast from the age of 8 years old and they pick-up the technique in just 40 minutes and their speed improves dramatically in just 6 weeks. The reason is simple - it’s easy to change their technique and to stimulate their nervous system if you know what you’re doing. With adults it takes a bit longer because of all the bad habits they have picked up, so we make the changes in about 3 sessions.
What has been your most memorable coaching moment?
That’s easy, teaching a young lady called Caroline how to run! Caroline came to me about 7 years ago, after she had undergone 2 years of treatment and surgery for bone cancer in her hip and pelvis. Her specialist and physiotherapist told her that she would be limping for the rest of her life and would need a stick to support herself. An ex international netball player she was determined to prove them wrong. It took us 12 weeks to get her walking and another 12 weeks to get her running! That makes what I do so rewarding!
What was your inspiration for founding the Running School?
People are not taught how to run! We think it’s something that we should be able to do naturally but not everyone can do it correctly. Just have a look at the hundreds of thousands of recreational runners running for fitness every day, it’s very painful just watching let alone running their way! Running is a skill that can be learned and the sooner we teach it the more people will enjoy it. I actually had the idea many years ago in the late 80’s. Over the past 15 years - whether I was working with elite athletes, professional footballers or rugby players, kids or people who had surgery or an injury – I found I had to teach people the basics in running technique and movement efficiency, before we could progress to fitness or speed work. So I started developing a coaching methodology, which includes accelerated learning techniques, to teach people how to run more efficiently to achieve their goals. We use the same methodology to teach elite athletes, youngsters, recreational runners and youngsters.
When did you start this initiative?
We started the Running School in 2008 and we piloted it for 18 months to make sure it worked with all levels of ability, age and fitness levels and we launched the first Running School this year and we have 4 more franchise centres opening by the New Year.
Have there been any big success stories?
Many, particularly with young kids who lack confidence in doing sports and recreational athletes who thought that running fast was something they would never achieve. But also with elite athletes who are surprised how small changes to their running technique can makes such a big difference to their running efficiency and their speed.
How does your coaching style differ with adults and children?
About 70% is the same, with both children and adults you have to gain their trust and respect in that you know what you’re doing and you can teach them. But the big difference with children is in keeping the whole learning process fun and challenging.
How does the coaching session differ with adults and children?
All the coaches at the Running School go through extensive training to understand the difference between working with adults and with children particularly in the duration of the runs and the sessions. As well as attention span (which with children under 10 only lasts half a second!) the duration of the runs has to be short 10-15 secs and the session has to be fun, so the whole process is an enjoyable experience. The other significant factor is motor skill development with the younger age groups 6-9 years old. A lot of coaches treat children like mini adults and coach the same way they would coach adults. That’s the reason why we lose so many youngsters in athletics in the early stages – they don’t learn anything, they don’t improve and they don’t enjoy the sessions.
How important is it to develop speed and technique with children?
Very important! The best time to teach technique is after the 7th birthday and with speed there are two very important windows where we can influence the movement patterns and nervous system – one between the ages of 8 and 10 and the other window is a couple of years later and depends on growth rates and is slightly different between girls and boys.
So how does the Running School Work?
The first session is also the most important, we analyse the biomechanics, the way people move and run and identify the weaknesses they have. We then explain them to the runner and how we are going to change them. The next five sessions we focus on changing the technique and style based on what they want to achieve. We also give them homework – strength exercises and running programmes based on their level of fitness and what their target is: fitness, racing, a marathon etcIt takes 6-8 weeks to change the metabolism of the body and although the running and technique can change in 2-3 sessions it takes a little longer for the efficiency to become permanent.
What kind of people come to the Running school?
All kinds we get kids from the age of 7 years old upwards, recreational runners who want to run for fun, what I call serious amateurs, runners who do triathlons or regularly run 5K, 10K and marathons and of course elite and professional athletes who want to get faster. Because of the success we have had with children we have also been asked to go into a few schools and we are now involved with 4 schools where we go in 2-3 times per week and teach the children and the teachers how to run and put on running games and education sessions.
