Andy Hobdell: “Coaches don’t get rich off the sport, we get rich off the memories”

Katy Barden speaks to a solicitor who additionally has a wealth of expertise in terms of guiding endurance runners

Andy Hobdell is a senior solicitor specialising in prison regulation. Along with his ‘day’ job the place he offers with a variety of instances inside the magistrates’ courtroom and the Crown Courtroom, he’s additionally a extremely regarded endurance coach and has guided athletes to 4 Olympic Video games.

Most lately recruited by Hoka and dealing with the Hoka-supported Group Makou – an expert group that features Callum Elson, Rory Leonard, Scott Beattie, Ellis Cross, Efrem Gidey and Sarah Astin – Hobdell continues to educate Hoka-sponsored athletes Tom Anderson and Simon Bédard, in addition to a number of different runners that vary from these concentrating on their first 5km by to membership athletes who’re on the cusp of breaking by to worldwide groups. 

How did you get into teaching?

It was pure probability. I by no means got down to be a coach. I cherished operating and I grew up in an period with among the greats of our sport. In my late-20s/early 30s, as I used to be coming in the direction of the top of my very own operating profession, a 13-year-old lad [Mark Draper] turned as much as one in all my jogging teams. We went for a five-mile run and as I attempted to push the tempo he was nonetheless there. We had been clipping alongside at six-minute miles and he was simply chatting away. To chop a protracted story brief, he stored turning up and after a couple of weeks he requested if I might assist him get match for his county faculties championships. I wasn’t his coach, I used to be simply serving to him out, however after he gained that race he got here as much as me – and I’ll always remember it – and stated: ‘Thanks coach’, and that’s the place it began. 

Has your teaching philosophy modified over time?

It’s modified massively. As a younger coach I felt actually sorry for the likes of Drapes [Mark Draper], Katrina [Katrina Wootton] and Badders [Andy Baddeley], as a result of I learnt by them. We made some errors within the early days however we learnt collectively. 

I bear in mind with Badders, we went to his first European Indoor Champs in Madrid and he acquired knocked out within the first spherical. We’d pushed too arduous in coaching and he was cooked. I went to the nice and cozy down observe and Mark Rowland simply checked out me and stated: ‘Alright coach?’. He stated: ‘That is the place you earn your stripes, that is the place you go in and type issues out, and also you come again and also you’re higher.’ They’re true phrases and that’s what teaching is about, it’s about working collectively.

The blokes I take care of now benefit from the 28 years I’ve been within the sport as a coach. I’m extra skilled and I’m very clear on when to push, when to carry again and when sufficient is sufficient. We all know what works; we’ll work arduous when we’ve got to work arduous, but when it’s the time to carry again, I’ll maintain them again.

You joined Hoka as a coach final 12 months. How did that come about and why is Group Makou such match for you?

I acquired a name from Hoka about 18 months in the past asking if I’d prefer to work with them as a coach. I used to be already teaching Tom Anderson and as issues progressed I started working with Rory, Scott and Ellis.

Callum Elson joined us on a camp in South Africa in January – he’d signed for Hoka however I wasn’t teaching him at that time – then fairly quickly after that I began to educate Efrem Gidey, so we then had these 5 guys working and coaching arduous collectively.

The boys, with the assist of Hoka, then began Group Makou. It was very natural, and from my standpoint I used to be very fortunate. I solely work with people who find themselves dedicated, who’ve the appropriate mindset, the appropriate chemistry, and who need to purchase into my teaching philosophy, and that is the primary time that I’ve had the chance to work as a coach with a crew of such gifted athletes.

I need to create an surroundings the place the athletes are 100 per cent centered on their coaching and need to prepare arduous, however as soon as the session is completed they will then benefit from the post-training buzz and have that post-session banter which is far wanted. There’s no higher option to get 110-mile weeks completed than operating along with your mates, getting the identical work completed and having fun alongside the best way. There aren’t too many locations within the UK, and even the world, the place you may get six or seven guys working collectively who’re all operating beneath 13:30 for 5km, or sub-28 minutes for 10km. That’s fairly particular, isn’t it?

What are the challenges of working with completely different personalities inside the crew?

Expertise helps, and the truth that I’m invested. You get to be taught concerning the athletes individually, what makes them tick, what will get them excited and what they want from coaching by the use of emotional assist, however that’s the thrilling half I believe as a coach. It’s not nearly writing a coaching schedule and saying: ‘Simply get on with it’, it’s about seeing how every athlete responds to the coaching stimulus and pushing them on.

Finally, they’re human beings identical to everybody else. They’re so dedicated and centered on what they’re doing that it upsets them in the event that they don’t carry out to the extent they need to or anticipate. But it surely’s like something, you give them a little bit of area, generally you may simply give them a hug, and also you decide them up by getting them to place one foot in entrance of the opposite and getting again on it. I’ve at all times believed that when you begin to carry out in coaching that lifts you and abruptly you’re extra constructive about every little thing. 

Do you discover it arduous to handle expectations when there’s a lot potential inside the group?

I believe the athletes all realise that there will likely be highs and lows alongside the best way. They know the method and what we’re specializing in, but when we’re dedicated and we proceed to work arduous, then the excessive requirements that we set are achievable.

They’re all enhancing and we’re doing the appropriate issues. We’re preserving it easy, they’re working collectively, getting the work completed, they usually’re getting the rewards. They’re all very completely different however they provide and take from one another. It’s a course of, and one of the helpful classes I’ve learnt in teaching is to not rush the method.

What the fellows and Sarah are doing simply now could be one thing that’s wanted in our sport. It’s exhibiting that onerous work and dealing collectively takes issues ahead. It’s exhibiting different runners that it may be enjoyable and thrilling and also you’re not completely reliant on federation funding, as a result of this has been very a lot supported and pushed by Hoka. It’s not a straightforward factor to do, however we’re constructing one thing fairly particular and I believe if we are able to keep on as we’re, getting the work completed, then who is aware of what can occur?

Additionally, the requirements being given to athletes at present are unbelievable. 27 minutes for 10km is completely bonkers. To have the ability to do this you have to have the appropriate backing out of your coach, out of your team-mates and out of your model. You want all the assistance you may get and that’s what we’re all about.

What’s the most important change you’ve seen in athletics because you first acquired concerned? 

After we first began on this sport social media wasn’t an enormous factor. The requirements that the athletes have to realize now are more durable, however the strain placed on them by social media is off the dimensions.

It’s additionally a distraction and I’ve skilled that with one or two athletes over time after they flip as much as coaching and say: ‘Why aren’t we doing this or that?’. It may be very tough for an athlete who isn’t 100 per cent dedicated to the coach and who’s distracted by different coaching concepts and philosophies that they hear about or see on social media. 

I make it fairly clear pretty early on that I’m as invested as the following particular person in serving to somebody of their operating profession, however there needs to be an understanding that if I’m invested, then they must be equally invested; they’ve do what’s requested of them to the most effective of their capacity so we are able to work collectively to assist them turn out to be a greater runner. It’s so simple as that. I’ve at all times felt that I’m old-fashioned with a forward-thinking philosophy, so I’ll take a look at every little thing else that’s occurring and I’ll resolve what we’ll and gained’t use.

What retains you going?

Once I first began teaching it was with Drapes, then Katrina, then Badders. They had been all pretty individuals and a pleasure to work with. As coaches we don’t get wealthy off the game, we get wealthy off the reminiscences and what our athletes do. We get wealthy off them having fun with the game and that’s what it’s all about for me. I can’t consider something higher than working with an athlete and getting them to the stage the place they carry out and do one thing manner past what they ever thought was attainable. It simply places a smile on my face. It’s like: ‘There you go, I advised you that you could possibly do it’. It’s having perception in an athlete’s capacity and exhibiting them that they will do greater than they assume they will. It’s a quite simple factor, nevertheless it’s very particular.

» This text first appeared within the December problem of AW journal. Subscribe to AW journal right here, try our new podcast right here or signal as much as our digital archive of again points from 1945 to the current day right here

The submit Andy Hobdell: “Coaches don’t get wealthy off the game, we get wealthy off the reminiscences” appeared first on AW.