I’m forever preaching on here about ways to train etc etc but most of you reading this may not know much about me. So I thought I’d take this opportunity to share with you my ‘journey’ so to speak. And what led me to become a coach and eventually here.
I was never what you would call a ‘sporty’ kid at school. Ask any of my friends about my ineptness at catching, throwing or kicking a ball. I would much rather have had my head in a book or been doing cartwheels and flips around my garden. So much so that for a few years I went to gymnastics classes twice a week and really quite enjoyed it - I can still do a decent cartwheel/handspring now. Through my school years, I kept myself reasonably healthy and active and even though I wasn’t a sporty kid I was always a safe bet for a decent showing at sports day in anything over 400m.
Even through University and beyond, I didn’t particularly have an active interest in sport and fitness. I went to the gym a bit and did the odd run here and there. However, it’s in my nature to do stuff properly. So every time I went to the gym I’d have a plan - maybe not a good one - but a plan was a plan. Then it was in a drunken conversation one night in 2008 I was goaded into entering the Leeds Half Marathon. I say goaded, I secretly wanted to do it. So me being me I made a plan and got on with it. Finishing the event in a non too shabby 1:45.
From then on I kept on doing a bit of running, a bit of swimming and the odd gym session; staying in relatively decent shape but with no real goal or ambition other than general health. It was at swimming one day when the bloke in the same lane as me told me I should come along to a Swimfit class as it had a coach and made you work hard and had some variety. ‘Yeah sure, how hard can it be.’ Turns out very. I swam 2000m and was a wreck. So obviously I went straight back the next week for more.
It was at this point I met my friend Liz Burrows (the coach at swimfit) who said I should join Ackworth Road Runners and maybe think about doing triathlon. So I joined up and having a bit of structure to my training worked wonders. Along with this, I got a bike and started training with Liz - as she was preparing for the world champs - and tagged along to her sessions and learnt how to really push myself out of my comfort zone. My first triathlon came shortly afterwards in July 2013 at Ripon. In quick succession I did a boat load more along with other running races and got hooked.
It was at these races that I began to see people racing in GB kits with their name proudly emblazoned on their chests. I fancy a piece of that thankyou very much. Although that standard of performance seemed a long way off it didn’t feel out of reach. So I set my goal and off I went.
Once I set my mind to something one way or another it will happen. I’m pretty stubborn and driven in that respect. And so it was with qualifying for Age-Group Triathlon. I got my head down, worked hard, trained with different swim bike and run clubs and in May 2015 qualified for the European Champs in 2016
2016 turned out to be quite a year. I competed at both the Euros and the Worlds as well as really learning a lot about myself as an athlete. To this day I can still remember how it felt crossing the line at my first world champs in Cozumel and the feeling of elation that I had absolutely raced my heart out. Along the way I worked with a lot of people - athletes and coaches - who taught me an awful lot about what it means to coach someone and how to do it effectively.
What I should probably mention here is that at this time I was a full-time primary school teacher. A job which I loved and had wanted to do since high school. However, I was becoming increasingly disillusioned with the profession and was looking for other career paths. Enter coaching.
Through 2017 I began to coach on a voluntary basis at Wakefield Tri Club at their track sessions and some of the Saturday morning swims. I really enjoyed helping people develop and realise their potential or just seeing how pleased they were when they achieved something they didn’t think possible. Getting a 5k PB or a 400m swim PB - or even just mastering a certain running drill. It was incredibly rewarding and I found my background in teaching helped a lot in being able to break stuff down or explain something in simple terms.
By this point I had started coaching a few close friends on an informal basis. Most notably. Lucy Burn, who when I told her she should consider having a go at qualifying for AG triathlon had laughed at me. A year later she was competing at the world champs in Rotterdam. It was great to be able to share a bit of knowledge and guidance and see my input paying off; making someone better or perform at a higher level.
It was then at the end of 2017 as I was becoming increasingly disillusioned with teaching that I decide to take a leap and begin working part time with the intention of making coaching an actual job and forming a company. It was a pretty daunting prospect for someone who didn’t really know much about running a business and who had been in the same career for ten years. But as you’re probably gathering by now I had set my mind to it and so I would make the plan and get to work.
Throughout 2018 I began getting myself qualified up and volunteering more and more with my club. Once qualified I began getting a few more clients through word of mouth but didn’t actively have a business as such. I had an idea for Hard&Smart and began to work away at a business model and how it would work. Finally at the end of 2018 I officially launched Hard&Smart as my coaching business.
The next few years up to this point have been a bit of a blur to be honest. I’ve added a few more qualifications to my name; learnt so much from fellow coaches; grown a business in a pandemic; and worked with an amazing range of athletes. Alongside this I have been able to continue to compete myself and still improve and have continued to teach on a part time basis and rediscover the passion I had for it when I first started. I’ve had to work hard and learn fast and in the process made mistakes or decisions that I’ve regretted. However, as I encourage my athletes to remember, making mistakes is part of the process and a valuable opportunity to learn.
I can safely say that taking that leap and pursuing coaching not just as a passion but as a career has been one the best decisions I have made. From early in the process of qualifying, coaches are asked to think about their ethos - what you hold dear as a coach. I’ve come to refine this more and more and change but it but these few lines sum up why I compete and why I coach.
‘I firmly believe in enabling athletes to be the best that they can be. I want them to always see sport and competition as enjoyable whilst going hand in hand with a drive for improvement.’
‘I want to empower athletes to not only progress physically but to become more complete athletes who have a locker full of strategies that allow them to be prepared for anything.’
As you’ve probably gathered by now from reading this, I’m a pretty driven and ambitious person. I set challenging goals for myself and I’m not afraid to work hard to get them. I love what I do and I’m grateful for the people who have supported and inspired me along the way.
Exercise, sport and competition is privilege for any of us. To be able to use your body and make it do incredible things is an immensely rewarding and fulfilling experience. My one bit of advice to anyone though is to always make sure you enjoy it.