Posts by stevemagness
Flooding and Tragedy: A Lesson in Hope.
This is normally a running site. For those who don’t know, I live in Houston, TX. It’s under water right now. That’s tragedy #1. I also found out that the running community lost one of its well-respected members, David Torrence, at the age of 31. That’s Tragedy #2. I needed to write. Here are my…
Read MoreEpisode 56- How To Become A Champion
In this episode of On Coaching, we discuss the amazing book Athletics: How to Become a Champion by Percy Cerutty. Cerutty was the coach of Herb Elliott who was the 1960 Olympic 1,500m Champion and held the world record in the mile at 3:54. In How to Become a Champion, Cerutty wrote a classic text…
Read MoreCoaches Education Gone Wrong: The Cycle of Credential Inflation
I’m not certified in anything. Not USATF, USATFCCA, NSCA, or any other acronym that means something to a select few people ingrained in their small enclave of workers. Wait, I take that back, I am certified in CPR thanks to a class that took a few hours. What’s the goal? With credentialing, or coaches education,…
Read MoreThe Sprinters Compendium
In 2014, shortly after I put out my first book, [easyazon_link identifier=”0615942946″ locale=”US” tag=”onanofthtr-20″ cart=”y”]The Science of Running[/easyazon_link], Ryan Banta reached out about his own massive writing project. He was partway through an undertaking where he wanted to create the resource for sprinting. I didn’t know Ryan before hand and just saw him as an…
Read MoreEpisode 55- The Two Way Street of Coaching: Why learning from our athletes is a must.
In this episode of On Coaching, Jon and I discuss the often skewed coach-athlete dynamic. Traditionally, coaches have been the information purveyors, the power holders, distribtuing knowledg in a one way direction; Coach to athlete. When this dynamic remains, we lose an opportunity to learn. We get stuck in certain patterns; repeating the same types…
Read MoreThinking Too Much: Are You an Instinctual or Analytical Runner?
I’m fascinated by the inner workings of the mind and how we make decisions. As whether it’s in running or life, the decisions we make end up defining who we are and where we are going. I also love self-experimentation. Life can be thought of as a running a million little self experiments and seeing…
Read MoreEpisode 54- A Real Coaching Conversation
On this weeks On Coaching Podcast with Magness & Marcus, we have a special treat for you. We’re bringing you a real conversation. When we were at the US championships, Jon and I sat down at a local coffee shop in Sacramento and pushed record. We recorded a real conversation, nothing manufactured or artificial, no…
Read MoreThis Is Your Brain on Racing
Why do I do this? There are so many other sports I could do. Why couldn’t I be good at baseball? I’m about to be in a world of hurt – remind me again why I signed up for this? Okay, stop thinking like this. You’ve been through this a million times, this one is…
Read MoreThe Balancing Act- Developing Speed and Endurance
Training is all about balance. It may be a cliché statement, but when it comes to training for almost any event, ensuring that speed and endurance, stress and rest, or any number of factors has the appropriate interplay is essential. When it comes to training runners, or even team sport athletes, I like to keep…
Read MoreWhy Bad Races Hurt the Most?
“That felt miserable! That was so much harder than last time. And slower!” Selena remarked as she walked off the track disappointed in her performance. She’d run 15 seconds slower in the 3,000m steeple than she did a few weeks prior. A performance at the time that she said “felt easy, I had a lot…
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