Having an Adequate Game Plan

A university professor used to often tell my class, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” It was his favourite mantra, and it holds true for multisport endeavours too.

Writing down a training plan ahead of time is key to self-coaching success. This eliminates the oft-repeated behaviour of making things up as you go, or in other words, training without structure and direction.

“This is where I feel most self-coached athletes go very wrong,” offers Madsen. “Many just train based on how they feel that day, but you need a plan with good intentions regarding those things you need to work on. If, for instance, you are in a run block you will add more running to your plan and have a correct progression plan set in place to keep you improving and free from injury. Many self-coached athletes feel great one day and add a ton of extra work and then do little to no work after that due to high fatigue. It takes a lot of self will to hold back and be consistent, but having a sensible game plan and sticking to it truly is the key to successful training.”