What Coaches Can Do To Be Relevant in the Next 10 years with Jim Rutberg #204
Episode overview:
Jim Rutberg is the Content Director for CTS. He has co-authored 10 books on training and sports nutrition, including “The Time-Crunched Cyclist” and “Training Essentials for Ultrarunning”, and produced more than 20 full-length indoor cycling videos. He is also the primary author for the Research Essentials for Ultrarunning Newsletter.
Episode highlights:
(31:32) Finding coaching mentors: the best way to progress as a coach, personal example, collaboration and competition
(51:24) Second phase of coaching: growth and expertise, creating a product to innovate in business or sport, variability of duration, personal examples from Rutty and Koop
(1:23:55) Safeguarding you reputation: coaching is a small community, competitors may eventually be colleagues, be someone other coaches want to work with
Our conversation:
(0:00) Introduction: last week’s episode on the business of coaching and feedback, repeating the theme, introducing Rutty as the co-author of Training Essentials and Research Essentials, long-form discussion on coaching
(2:58) Feedback from last week’s episode: public interest, coaching business has been a black box, most coaches make less than teachers, transparency benefits everyone
(5:52) Coaches as competitors and collaborators: there are currently enough athletes to go around, competition will get more fierce when the market stops growing
(7:07) Transparency in coaching: any small loss in business can be managed on the supply side, transparency improves all coaching business which keeps athletes in coaching
(9:15) Keeping athletes in coaching: examples at CTS, athletes who come to CTS after receiving poor coaching
(11:01) Rutty’s background: helping coaches to get their message out, Koop on Rutty’s extreme talent, Rutty’s role in producing coaching resources and in Research Essentials, a NYT bestselling author, 10-time consecutive Leadville bike finisher
(16:27) Reasons for bringing Rutty on the podcast: Rutty’s breadth and depth of experience in the ultrarunning space, one of the few people qualified to comment on the topic
(17:31) Why consider coaching in 10 years: relevance to athletes, making careers in coaching possible, professionalism
(20:09) Koop’s growth as a coach: example, banter
(21:10) Coaching is a new profession: personalized endurance coaching is ~25 years old, best practices are not standardized, there is no governing body for coaching, exposing charlatans in health and fitness and in coaching
(23:35) Profit-motivated coaches: examples, parallels to Olympic and team sports, coaches who want power, people trying to maximize profit from the growth of ultrarunning, coaching is vulnerable because there is no barrier to entry
(27:19) Ambiguity in coaching: challenges of correlating delivery and results, “bad” coaching is still a positive experience for some athletes, example, bad coaching falls apart over time
(29:29) Coaching career arc: athlete load, newer coaches will make mistakes, mentorship at CTS, customer service aspects, you don’t know what you don’t know
(31:32) Finding coaching mentors: the best way to progress as a coach, personal example, collaboration and competition
(33:23) First phase of coaching: initial education, getting coaching experience, coaching comes before sport specificity, repetition takes 3-5 years to develop a specialty
(36:10) Coaching across endurance sports: endurance sports have common best practices, the importance of working with different endurance sports, caloric intake and output example, xc skiing example
(40:42) Timeframes for beginner coaches: why 3-5 years is reasonable, examples and quantifying coaching experience
(42:54) Working with elite athletes: Jason’s experience of waiting 10 years, the dangers of early success, example of elite athletes who become coaches, good athletes can continue to do well despite bad coaching
(44:06) Elite athletes becoming coaches: elite athletes often need supplemental jobs, entering coaching is reasonable and good marketing, advantage of name recognition, investing in education for a long-term career, Caroline Manning and Stephanie Howe
(48:41) Elite athlete shelf lives: athletic accomplishments are temporary, the recognition can be leveraged, the importance of investing in a career after competing, elites and marketing coaching businesses
(51:24) Second phase of coaching: growth and expertise, creating a product to innovate in business or sport, variability of duration, personal examples from Rutty and Koop
(53:43) Coaching-adjacent growth: example of Lindsay Golich specializing in physiological testing for elite athletes
(55:29) Coaches leaving CTS to become independent: recognizing CTS’s role in professional development, examples, initial frustration and reconciliation, good competitors are preferable to competitors that harm the coaching space
(58:13) Coach development: athletes develop the most early on, coaches develop the most with experience, growing professionally is demanding and individually variable, avoiding comparison, resources from Andy Kirkland, avoiding coach burnout
(1:01:14) Third phase of coaching: elder/mentor phase, banter, good coaching sees past gimmicks, conflicts with marketing, the fundamentals are key, Steve Magness and Brad Stulberg, competition, marketing
(1:04:50) Transitioning out of the growth phase: Jason’s personal example, accomplishment rather than burnout fuels transition, leadership and legacy,
(1:06:43) Growth through being a mentor: Jason’s personal experience, mentoring coaches, professional growth through the KoopCast, traditional research, Training Essentials and UESCA
(1:10:14) Sponsorships and partnerships: a risk, races and athletes do not compromise service through sponsors, coaches need to be weary about endorsements
(1:13:13) Jason on avoiding sponsorship: an easy decision, picking on nutrition companies, sponsorship helps neither coach development, the athlete, or the community, council is your currency, your council must be and appear incorruptible
(1:16:43) Rutty on sponsorship: avoiding sponsorship is a financial privilege, authentic coach-sponsor relationships are reasonable to make ends meet
(1:18:38) Partnerships at CTS: some are authentic relationships and help to improve products, some partnerships are garbage, the consumer can’t differentiate
(1:20:52) Remaining relevant in 10 years: recap of coach development process, how to safeguard your career, become an authority, specialize, examples, Jane Marshall and Josh Whitmore
(1:23:55) Safeguarding you reputation: coaching is a small community, competitors may eventually be colleagues, be someone other coaches want to work with
(1:26:10) Coaches taking things personally: Jason’s experience and criticism, Jeff Browning as a positive example, blurring professionalism and personal feelings, grudges in cycling
(1:28:13) Avoiding territoriality: some CTS athletes coming from other coaches have their previous training logs deleted, running, cycling, and triathlon, there is no “secret sauce”
(1:31:42) CTS’s self-built coaching platform: background, interfacing with software engineers, athletes keeps access to their data, financial considerations and intellectual property
(1:35:03) Athletes transitioning between coaches: programing removed from previous coaches, relevance of previous context to help the athlete, reaching out to Dirk Friel, previous coaches handicapping athletes, no legal or intellectual property rights associated with training
(1:38:32) Rutty on coaches withholding previous training: insecurity, picking apart developing coaches’ plans at CTS to remove insecurity and encourage learning from mistakes, there is no excuse to delete athlete training history
(1:42:00) Advice for coaches: athletes are going to come and go, your role is to help athletes and then hand them off, your job is to ease their transition, athletes leaving is not necessarily a reflection on you, examples, emphasizing there is no reason to delete training history
(1:45:59) Participe in leadership activities: Manitou Incline example, making trails and races accessible
(1:49:33) Ways to get involved: national governing bodies, professional trail runners association, local race structure, volunteering at races, representing small communities
(1:51:25) Supporting trails in your community: a fulfilling way to make an impact, opportunities from involvement, example of working with local authorities to support races
(1:54:21) Wrap-up: Rutty’s article in the show notes, Joe Friel’s Craft of Coaching, authored by a who’s-who of coaching, the importance of communication
(1:57:38) Outro: giving thanks, subscribe to Research Essentials for Rutty’s writing, share the KoopCast
Additional resources:
FastTalk labs- How to Remain Relevant in 10 years
SUBSCRIBE to Research Essentials for Ultrarunning
Buy Training Essentials for Ultrarunning on Amazon or Audible
Information on coaching-
Koop’s Social Media
Twitter/Instagram- @jasonkoop