Philosophy 201: Develop a Coaching and Training Philosophy

This Course is part of The Scholar Program. You are welcome to purchase this course individually, but if you purchase The Scholar Program membership for $29/month you will gain access to every program in the HPW Academy of Scholarship. You can find more details on The Scholar Program here.

What can you expect from Philosophy 201?

What's your coaching philosophy? How about your training philosophy? Are they different? A lot of times when we get asked these questions, we refer to another coach. I'm a Lydiard/Daniels/Canova style coach. That refers to the training system that you use, but it doesn't tell us much about how you coach. In this course, we dive into just that. Establishing a simple coherent philosophy that helps guides your coaching. It starts with understanding coaching and training models, and ends with a philosophy on workout design. This course will give you everything you need to hone in on what matters for your athletes, both from a training standpoint and a coaching style one. Topics covered include:

  • Understanding coaching systems and finding the right system for you
  • How to develop a coaching philosophy
  • Developing a filter to sort through information
  • Becoming a continual learner and preventing yourself from settling into one style of training.
  • Individualization: What is it and how do we do it?
  • Training Philosophy- Heuristics for program design.
  • Workout design- giving you the ability to design, adjust, and get creative with all of your workouts
  • Science vs. Art of Coaching
  • And much more!

How will this course be delivered?

Through a combination of video lectures, readings, powerpoint presentations, podcast style audio recordings, and more. We attack teaching from multiple directions in order to help the student absorb the material best.

What we guarantee:

We will continue to develop and curate content that we think is valuable for the coaching community. We promise to continually update this content so that it is the best coaching resource on the planet. You'll be the first to hear about our lessons in coaching high school, college, and elite runners.


Your Instructor


Steve Magness & Jonathan Marcus
Steve Magness & Jonathan Marcus

STEVE MAGNESS is the bestselling author of Peak Performance: Take Advantage of the New Science of Success and The Science of Running. He is a coach to some of the top distance runners in the world, having coached numerous athletes to top 15 at the World Championships and Olympic Games. As well as having coached six Top 10 performances at a major Marathon (Boston, NYC, Chicago). He's coached athletes such as Natosha Rogers, Neely Spence-Gracey, Sara Hall, Mark English, Jackie Areson, Brian Barraza, Sarah Crouch, and many more. He currently coaches at the University of Houston. Known widely for his integration of science and practice, Magness has been on the forefront of innovation in sport. He serves as an adjunct professor of Strength and Conditioning at St. Mary's University.


JONATHAN MARCUS is the director and co-founder of High Performance West. He's developed athletes to national championships, Olympic Trials Qualifying standards, and national records. Some of the athletes he has coached include: Tara Welling, Nicole Blood, Eleanor Fulton, Mckayla Fricker, Daniel Herrera, and more. Previously Jon was the Head Cross Country Coach at Clackamas Community College and an assistant Track & Field/Cross Country Coach at Portland State, University of Portland, and Warner Pacific College. He graduated with a B.A. from Columbia University in the City of New York in 2006.


Course Curriculum


  What's Your Philosophy?
Available in days
days after you enroll
  Certification for Training Exercise
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days after you enroll

Frequently Asked Questions


When does the course start and finish?
The course starts now and never ends! It is a completely self-paced online course - you decide when you start and when you finish.
How long do I have access to the course?
How does lifetime access sound? After enrolling, you have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like - across any and all devices you own.
What if I am unhappy with the course?
We would never want you to be unhappy! If you are unsatisfied with your purchase, contact us in the first 30 days and we will give you a full refund.

Get started now!