I’ll say it again: The Feedback Loop Is the Engine of Coaching
By: Caroline Livesey, Sports and Life Coach.
Stuck with what to write?
Back in March I wrote an article about the coach-athlete feedback loop, and it’s importance for coaches to be able to coach effectively. But sometimes, despite best intentions, athletes get stuck with what to write. One athlete recently told me he doesn’t like to sound as if he is complaining or making excuses. On the contrary…
But just because your coach has access to your training data, that doesn’t mean they know how you are feeling. Power, pace, RPE, heart rate and training load can tell a coach what happened during a session. But the data cannot tell them why it happened, how it felt, or what was going on around it. Without clear and honest feedback, your coach is effectively coaching blind.
Data is only part of the picture
A session can look perfectly normal on paper while feeling completely different to the athlete.
Perhaps you had a late night and slept badly. Maybe you had not eaten enough that day, or had trained hard the previous day without fuelling properly. You might have been distracted, stressed at work, dealing with something at home, or simply not feeling yourself. I remember my husband Mark once getting feedback from an athlete who had gotten off the turbo during a session. Their new puppy had just made a big brown mess right in front of the turbo and the smell was too overwhelming to continue without clearing up. Life happens! But if you don’t tell your coach, they cannot see it in your data.
These anomalies aside, the majority of the time the important thing is to think about what happened during training and try to work out why. If a session did not go to plan, do not simply record that it was difficult. Consider what might have contributed and tell your coach what you think. Similarly if you had a blinder, try to put your finger on what you did well.
Whatever you have to say, it will be useful to your coach. Your observations always give your coach something to work with, and it also means they are getting to know you better. For your coach, understanding what makes you tick is a huge part of getting the best out of you. Data certainly can’t tell them that.
Feedback is part of the training
So, feedback should not be an afterthought. It is part of the training process. When you finish a session, take a moment to consider how it felt compared with what was expected. Was the intensity right? Did you feel strong throughout, or did you struggle from the beginning? Was there anything unusual about your energy, concentration, breathing or legs?
A few useful sentences can tell your coach far more than another set of numbers. Xhale makes this process part of the training structure, allowing athletes to provide feedback alongside their session rather than simply uploading the data and moving on. This creates a much more useful picture of how training is actually going. This is also why it is important to be prompt with your feedback to your coach. If you leave it a few days the chances are you will forget how it felt.
Be honest about life outside training
Training does not happen in isolation. Your body responds to the total load you are carrying, not just the hours recorded in your training plan.
If you have had a particularly stressful week at work, poor sleep, a difficult situation at home or anything else that is affecting your energy, your coach should know. You do not need to share every detail of your personal life, but you do need to communicate anything that could affect your ability to train and recover.
A coach can adjust training when they understand the circumstances. They cannot do that when all they see is a file showing that you completed the session.
Do not try to impress your coach…
Or be loose with the truth to get a “harder” training plan.
There is no benefit in making every session sound better than it was. Your coach is not looking for evidence that you can suffer quietly; they are trying to understand how you are responding to the training. I have coached athletes who always wanted to do more and train harder, so would be very economical with the truth when giving feedback. Saying “it felt fine” when you mean “I am exhausted” is counterproductive to your long term fitness and goals.
If something felt unusually hard, say so. If you felt stronger than expected, say that too. If you think poor sleep, inadequate fuelling or stress affected your performance, include that information.
Over time, this creates a much clearer picture of your individual responses to training and helps your coach make better decisions. In the long run this is what you want, and it is what will help you improve the most. Ultimately, getting fitter and stronger is not just about completing a hard training plan.
The Coach Has the Data. You Have the Context.
Good coaching is a partnership. Your coach brings the training knowledge, structure and objective view, while you provide the experience of actually living through the training. The more accurately you communicate that experience, the better your coach can interpret the data and adjust your training.
So, when you finish your next session, do not simply upload the file and move on. Take a minute to think about what happened, what felt different (or the same) and, most importantly, why you think it happened.
About the author
Caroline Livesey is an endurance athlete, and a sports and life coach. She is an ultracycling World Record holder, 2 x winner of the Patagonman Extreme Triathlon and elite gravel cyclist. Caroline coaches all levels of athletes to many different types of goals. She is also co-founder of Peak Education Nepal, a charity funding education for poor children in Nepal.
If you want to know more about Caroline’s coaching then get in touch:
Caroline@trainxhale.com
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Email: caroline@trainxhale.com