Simon Ward and Chris Jones

Today’s guest is a coach who I rate as one of the best in Britain. He has worked as a head coach in 2 different sports:  Triathlon and athletics. In 2000, he was head coach for the GB women’s triathlon team at the Sydney Olympics. From 2002-2007 he was a Performance Coach for British Triathlon, and in 2009 he became Coaching Director for Triathlon Ireland, and then as Performance Director he led the team at the 2012 London Olympics. He then swapped sports to become National Endurance Coach for Athletics Ireland, and is now Welsh Athletics National Coach.

Chris Jones and I first became acquainted back in 1995 when he called me out of the blue to discuss a strength training article that I had written for 220 Magazine. Since then Chris and I have become good friends and we can spend many hours discussing triathlon training, or general coaching philosophy over a bottle of fine red wine. This was another conversation that I really, really enjoyed and I hope you do too. Please set aside an hour to listen in as we chat about:

• How Chris learned his trade from Ray Butters, the man who is now guiding Jessica Learmonth to triathlon success
• Why great coaches have a deep fascination for their sport that goes beyond a job
• Why sometimes you just have to "scramble” to keep up
• When a good coach isn’t necessarily an expert, but has a book of contacts to draw upon and knows exactly when to do so
• The mental and physical toll of being an Olympic coach
• Knowing when to change direction:  Understanding that all coaches have a shelf life 
• Understanding what type of coach you are and finding your niche
• Learning that what derails sports performance isn’t training, it’s life

To find out more about Simon’s coaching please visit his website here.

To follow Simon on Facebook, click here.

For more information please go to www.SimonWardTriathlonCoach.com, or www.TheTriathlonCoach.com, or email Beth@TheTriathlonCoach.com.