Thursday, April 10, 2008

You can blog later...

I confessed in another post on this blog to being an old-school coach. But according to my definition of what is old-school, I try hard to keep up with the new (meaningful) trends. One of such emerging trends is coach/athlete communication through... blog.

With an increasing number of athletes having a personal blog these days, it seems that the passive-aggressive attitude of sending little messages through blogs, for which I am as well guilty as charged, has invaded the coach/athlete universe. For a lot of athletes, the question pops in their mind: Should I email my coach or just write a blog and expect him/her to see it? And a lot of the times, the blog wins. The problem with this is that what athletes put on blogs is their version of things for public consumption. And what coaches need to hear is the real thing, the nitty-gritty, the straight dope.

There is an obvious difference in the type of information that you share with your coach and the information you share with the outside world. And the only way a coach can do a good job at coaching you is if he has the right information to work with, not a distilled, digested version of your training and your life.

So go and email your coach. You can blog later.

6 comments:

IronBarista said...

Right to the point once again.

Always a refreshing read here on The Triathlon Book.

MarkyV said...

Or you have your athletes set up a inconspicous blog that only you read. ;)

For once I've beaten you to something. :)

Have phun in phoenix.

Alan said...

Right on Paulo!

Communication skills are fundamental to a solid coach-athlete relationship.

In the age of e.mail, blogs and RSS it is important to remember that talking the time to talk to your coach/athlete in person can be worth way more than a few thousand words in an e.mail.

"Blog later" is so true.

So... "call me?"?

khai said...

Email is good. I like IM chat better. Instant feedback.

tfo said...

Paulo, did you post that because Andrew did not run the "Orange Parmesan Vinegrette" recipe by you before putting it on his blog?

Richard

Brenda said...

Well put. What I say in my blog is very much for public consumption, I know my coach will probably read it, but if it's something he really needs to see or hear for my training then I make a point of telling him, either through email or over instant messenger.