Posts by stevemagness
Episode 40- The Businessification of Athletics and the Need for Certainty
What’s the point of sport? In this episode, Jon and I make the case that it’s about education and learning. The culture of coaches used to be educators. They came from a background of using athletics as a means to help student athletes grow and develop. As the top side of the sport professionalized, there’s…
Read MoreOvertraining- Why a little perspective matters
“It’s better to undertrain than to overtrain” This phrase is ingrained in every coach’s mind. It’s cliché to say, but like many clichés the truth rings loudly. Take a glance at our modern world: early specialization, 10,000 hour rule maxims, emphasis on miles run per week or number of gut-wrenching intervals completed. It’s no wonder…
Read MoreEpisode 39 – What defines success for a coach?
What defines success for a coach? Is it wins and losses? Championships won? Leading athletes to new personal bests? Having one athlete win an Olympic medal while destroying 20 of them? These are the common notions that we associated with success. But is it the best way? In this episode of the Magness & Marcus…
Read MoreCoaching Psychology- Delivering the right message and understanding where athletes are coming from.
When Patrick McHugh read the book The Energy Bus, he felt inspired. Patrick is an excellent High School Coach. He’s meticulous in his planning, always trying to learn, and willing to reach out to others to help perfect his craft. In other words, he’s the perfect guy to energetically transfer his lessons from a book…
Read MoreA Brief History of Interval Training: The 1800’s to Now
The Beginning Years(1800’s-1920’s Finn’s) The simple reason to run intervals is that it allows the runner to hit specific paces or training zones (such as LT, VO2max, Lactate tolerance, etc.) for a longer amount of time then would be spent in that zone if you just ran for a continuous run. Now way back in…
Read MoreIs it time to ditch the clock and the chase for records in athletics?
Who has the record for the fastest time at the Kentucky Derby? How about the record at the Daytona 500? What’s the average speed record for the Tour de France? If you know these facts, you’re a more avid fan of sports than I. Records are important in track and field. They allow us to…
Read MoreEpisode 38-The Science of the Unscience of Running:
Humans have a need for explanations. When faced with uncertainty we rely on closure. The world of running is no different. When something goes wrong, as athletes and coaches we go into a panicked search for a reason why we didn’t perform at our best. Often, we perform elaborate gymnastics attempting to find the elusive…
Read MoreHow do you get to World Class? A look at the progressions of top 800m runners
A few years ago, I posted a data analysis of the progression to world class for female 5k runners. I’m an inner data nerd, the kind of kid who grew up calculating baseball stats and looking for patterns before we could easily pull all that data off the web. I’m not a stats guru by…
Read MoreEpisode 37- Interview with Vern Gambetta: Coaches Education
In this episode, we are joined by performance coach extraordinaire Vern Gambetta. Using the performances at the recent Olympic Trials as a backdrop we take on coaches education. Where have we gone right and where have we missed the boat. We start by asking the question of what makes a good coach? Is it coaching…
Read MoreErnst Van Aaken: The Pure Endurance Method
Most people attribute “jogging” or an emphasis on long slow distance running to Arthur Lydiard. While he may have popularized the idea of building a big base of steady running, others around the world were coming up with the same idea at similar times. In 1947, Dr. Ernst Van Aaken first published his ideas on…
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