Helping Athletes Perform

by James Glover, Performance Manager - 10/07/2013

As part of the British Triathlon support team, my role involves looking after the person as well as the athlete. I predominantly focus on two areas: how the athlete manages their life and how they develop. I look at whether they are managing to live like an athlete so they can deliver their best performances but I also help them focus on developing as a person, so they can cope with life away from the sport.

The aim of a performance lifestyle manager is to understand the challenges an athlete is facing and to help them develop the skills needed to overcome them. It’s lifestyle coaching within a sports context.

It’s a role that requires someone who’s good at listening and questioning, and someone with empathy so they can see things from the athlete’s perspective and offer support. It needs someone who can see the athlete as a person as well as a performer.

Triathletes face particular challenges compared to other athletes because triathlon is a multisport. They have so much work and recovery to fit in that there’s not a lot of time left for anything else. The majority of time is focused on the athlete, not the person. For me, the most important thing is to have a happy athlete so I help them think about what roles they want to play. An athlete may also be a husband/wife, brother/sister or friend. It’s important to recognise those roles and to ask if they have the opportunity in each of those areas to be a happy and fulfilled person.

The other aspect is in personal development. Most athletes will have to get another job when they finish competing. It’s important to look at how they develop, to not only understand their skills and strengths, but also what their interests are so they have no trouble entering the world of work and normal life when they finish being a triathlete.

Being happy and satisfied away from the sport has a clear relationship with performance. The ability to come to each session fresh and focused is really important. For some athletes being able to ‘switch off’ from their sport is vital, as there will be times when they aren’t training or performing as well as they have in the past. For example, they may have picked up an injury that prevents them from training at their normal level so having some form of support network around them allows them to remain robust during knocks and setbacks that are part and parcel of being an elite athlete.

An elite athlete must communicate well with their coaching and support team so everyone understands what their goals and expectations are. That dynamic translates exactly, though less obviously, to an age-grouper.

And age-grouper’s team may consist of their boss, their partner at home, their children or their friends, who don’t necessarily understand the commitment the athlete is trying to make to give their best performance.

If the age-grouper doesn’t communicate effectively to get their ‘team’ on board, what they’re doing becomes more of a challenge. The age-grouper has to use a lot of energy fighting battles and calming friction rather than focussing on what they’re trying to achieve.

Understanding what makes you happy is as important for age-groupers as it is for elites. You need to be clear on the roles you have to play in your life and to invest enough time and energy in the ones that are important. If you feel you’re not doing this well, then it’s important to address the issues and devise a clear plan of how you are going to rectify them.

This article first appeared in the Summer 2013 Issue of TriNews magazine, the official magazine of the British Triathlon Federation available to members.

To find out more about membership, please visit www.britishtriathlon.org/join

Author profile

James Glover, Performance Manager

James is a Performance Manager who has specialised in lifestyle management with the English Institute of Sport and British Triathlon

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