Posts by stevemagness
The Insecurity of Hard work
If you work hard, you can achieve anything. These fine words are burned into our collective conscience. It’s part of our DNA, the American dream. We need to believe that hard work can triumph over circumstance. Look no further than our ready and rapid acceptance of the 10,000-hour rule, which many (incorrectly) interpreted to mean…
Read MoreEpisode 58: What Coaching Methods Have You Outgrown?
Welcome Back! In this episode of On Coaching with Magness & Marcus, it’s time to take on one of the important concepts in coaching: Change! How have we as coaches evolved in our thinking? Jon and I take you through the methods of coaching that we used to hold true to our heart but have…
Read MoreAn Analysis of Eliud Kipchoge’s Training Before His Berlin Marathon Victory
Seldom do you get a peek under the hood of one of the best runner’s in history. But with the release of his training in the months leading up to his Berlin marathon victory, we get just that with a training log of Eliud Kipchoge. As someone who believes in the sharing of training to…
Read MoreForm: How It Feels Is More Important than How it Looks
“How did it feel?” It was an endless process. Run a 100-meter stride, walk back and hear this question repeated over and over. These weren’t the words of some uninformed coach or parent trying to fake their way through coaching, they were spoken by Tom Tellez. And when Tom speaks, there’s a reason for the…
Read MoreEpisode 57: The Discernment Spectrum: Smart, Intelligent, or Sophisticated
In this episode of On Coaching with Magness & Marcus, we delve into a concept Jon calls “The Discernment Spectrum,” which is: Smart—Intelligent—Sophisticated As we learn a subject or skill, we exist somewhere on this spectrum. Smart only exists in duality– right or wrong–so it represents a basic level of understanding. To be intelligent means…
Read MoreFlooding 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 More