Art of Training 101: The Foundations of Coaching

A Letter from Steve and Jon

Between the two of us, we've been through just about every coaches education platform there is. They all bring value, but after every course, we couldn't help but feel a need for more. We'd leave each presentation or clinic feeling like we got a good superficial understanding of training or physiology, but we yearned for a deeper understanding.

After over a decade of coaching, studying, and researching, we wanted to fill the gap of coaches education. We wanted to provide something for the coach who had our same feeling; the coach who wants a deeper understanding.

What did we come up with?

A 50-day immersive seminar on the foundations of coaching. This course is designed to give you every skill imaginable to coach the 800 to 10k at the highest level. This isn't a course for beginners, but for the coaches who want to have the foundation to understand and develop training at the deepest level.

We sat down and asked what do we want to know? What knowledge do great coaches possess?

We break the course down into sections on:

1. The History of Distance Running Training
2. The Recent Evolution of Training
3. The 10,000 foot view: Principles and Heuristics of Training
4. Zoomed In: The Art and Science of Writing Workouts
5. Troubleshooting: Lacking a kick, fading early, struggling with translating practice to race day?
   
6. Are You Ready to Race? The Psychology of Racing

In each session we go in depth on the most important topics. In the history of training, we trace the evolution of tempos, intervals, fartleks, and strength training from the 1800's to modern day. We break down the coaching greats like Lydiard, Igloi, Canova, Bowerman, and more. Then we delve into the X's and O's, taking you through how to create workouts. You'll see individual plans for world class athletes for every event from 800 to 10k. And before we leave you, we'll walk through the hardest part of coaching: getting athletes ready to race.

We've designed the training to include a wide variety of resources. From lectures to podcasts to written articles to power point presentations, we use every mode of teaching we can to ensure that the information is delivered in the best way possible.

It’s 50 days of jam-packed content. A coach created by coaches for coaches. The course that we both wish we had when we were starting out or making the transition from high school to elite coaching.

We hope that you will join us on this journey and find value in the content that we have provided,

Steve Magness & Jonathan Marcus