Problem? I don't see a problem...

I was just reading this, and came upon this section:

"At the risk of dismissing its value, the coaches probably gained enormous value from other coaches' presentations - Bob Bowman (Michael Phelps' coach) would have heard some valuable tips from Terrence Mahon (Ryan Hall and Deena Kastor, among others), and vice versa, but I dare say that the science would not have changed the way any of the coaches are approaching altitude training for their athletes. They already had a strategy, and I doubt whether the science showed them anything to improve or change it.

And this is a typical problem (...)"

Is it? I don't see a problem with success. Here are some of the most successful coaches in the World explaining some of the methods that got them this success, and for (some) sports scientists, it is a problem if it goes against the science, which when it comes to endurance training still has huge gaps.

The problem I see is scientists that instead of looking for the scientific basis for success that I am sure is behind the success of those coaches, prefer to throw rocks from their precariously founded ivory towers.

The author goes on to expand on how he sees coaching as "the ability of the coach to engage in a scientific process", which is something I strongly disagree, and it shows the traditional lack of understanding that (some) sports scientists have of the coaching process.

Paulo's Mailbag

Reader "hal_jordan_1" posted this on the comments section of this blog:

"ok, this is unrelated to your post but it's something that bugs me. You should seriously rip this guy appart, he is loosing it. Not only Wellington has shitty technique, now all the TBB's that have gotten FISTed by him got good results because of him, starting with Biscay.

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/cadence_P2539875/

"

Dear "hal_jordan_1",

Thank you for pointing me to that thread. So you mean to tell me that someone with zero coaching credentials or creditability is posting nonsensical and delusional pseudo-advice??? You mean to tell me that someone is wrong on the Internet???? My goodness... that almost never happens, especially on that site... ;-)

Whenever you get riled up by what some people write, I recommend you to read the cartoon below. I find it very soothing :-)