Tag: Coaching Newsletter
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Weekly Newsletter – My fuelling secrets in 2025

Fuelling is one of the three most essential facets to getting better as an athlete (alongside proper training and recovery). And it’s equally essential to aiding the training and recovery process both in the prehab and rehab in between runs. Not to mention all the fuelling that needs to happen during the thing itself. With…
Rhys Desmond
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Weekly Newsletter – The Magic of 2-Minute Hills

I love hill workouts in every form. From 3-minute hills to 10-minute hills to 90-second hills, I LOVE MY HILLS. There’s so much magic in a hill workout for trail running, as you get the muscle breakdown of all the downhills on your rest and recovery; and get to practice pushing harder in a more…
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Weekly Newsletter – Le Fun vs. Le Duh

It’s so hard to tell ourselves to stop in the moment, especially because humans are very, very bad at changing their own minds once they’ve set their mind to something. Now imagine how bad RUNNERS are at changing their own minds. You have to prioritize Le Fun. There’s no other way. But it must always…
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Hidden Gem #4 – Be where you are

I’ve done a bit of a 180 lately (famously my favourite move to do off the diving board). I’ve lived life in the slow lane, and by proxy of doing so in a foreign language, it’s been very much not in the comfort of normalcy. For the past two weeks, I’ve just really embodied this…
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Hidden Gem #3 – UTMB Indexes are so freaking weird

Out of all the ranking and scoring systems in our sport, UTMB’s somehow happens to be the best. I say somehow, as there is so much that still doesn’t make sense about it. Not to mention the fact that UTMB is fraught with controversy. But for all intents and purposes, it’s the best. What a…
Rhys Desmond
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Attention to detail when coaching at the elite level

While coaching ideologies can generally apply across a myriad of ages and abilities, there are a few distinct differences. This includes:1. A greater attention to detail at the high-performance level. 2. A greater attention to position-specific training. 3. More complexity when adapting activities to add challenge/intensity
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Coaching high-performance athletes

abilities, there are a few distinct differences. This includes: A greater attention to detail at the high-performance level. A greater attention to position-specific training. More complexity when adapting activities to add challenge/intensity. Let’s break this down!
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Building logical session flow & implementing rewards

Today I returned to the classroom for my Coaching & Leadership course for eighty+ undergraduate students. For the first class of the new semester, I facilitated a European Handball session on ‘switching play’, which is a session plan I’ve done plenty of times in the soccer world. Here were some of the key reflections…
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Hidden Gem #1 – Running with a varicocele

A year and a half ago, I started to realize that my left-sided friend down under was significantly larger in size than the right-sided friend down under. I also noticed that exercises like jumping jacks or certain stretches caused me peculiar pain. It was the type of momentary pain I had experienced for years in…
Rhys Desmond
