{"id":8359,"date":"2022-02-04T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=8359"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:11:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:11:41","slug":"learning-to-better-understand-the-needs-of-your-athletes","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/learning-to-better-understand-the-needs-of-your-athletes\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning to Better Understand the Needs of your Athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 4 Feb 2022 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Learning to Better Understand the Needs of your Athletes<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category <\/div>\n Leadership & Culture<\/a> <\/div>\n
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Gary Brickley, best known for coaching 17-time Paralympic gold medallist Dame Sarah Storey, believes the balance between wellbeing and performance is tricky to maintain.<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

\u201cThat balance needs to be carefully managed otherwise the person can go down a whole spiral of interventions that might not always be appropriate,\u201d he tells the Leaders Performance Institute.<\/p>\n

Brickley is speaking just moments after appearing onstage at November\u2019s Leaders Sport Performance Summit at Twickenham Stadium<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He acknowledges that athletes often have traits that set them apart. \u201cAthletes work differently,\u201d says Brickley, who is also a Senior Lecturer at the University of Brighton and an exercise physiologist. \u201cThey might not be well in a general sense but perform absolutely brilliantly. Then you may have a situation where you reduce their training and focus on their wellbeing. You can\u2019t do one without the other.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tough area and I don\u2019t know if we\u2019ve got the people trained up to the level needed at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

How does he see the scene developing in five years\u2019 time? \u201cTo be honest, I think we\u2019ll still be way off,\u201d he says with a smile. \u201cWe\u2019ve gotten better with things such as nutrition and we\u2019ve moved away from those old-style bullying coaches that put athletes under pressure and we\u2019ve weeded out a lot of the rough things that affect athletes, but there will still be challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Leaders Performance Institute sat down with Brickley to briefly run through his reflections on the run-up to Tokyo, where Storey won three Paralympic gold medals, and his thoughts on coaching in general terms.<\/p>\n

Gary, how do you seek to combine your coaching and academic knowledge within the performance environment?<\/strong><\/p>\n

GB: <\/strong>It works both ways, as what I learn from the athletes I can pass back to the students. I\u2019m interested in nutrition, environmental physiology and training theory and there\u2019s a lot that I\u2019ve been able to pass on to my athletes. Say, for example, Sarah Storey is getting ready for the Tokyo Games and she wants to do some heat and altitude work. I\u2019ll work out what\u2019s the best procedure, we\u2019ll try it out, I\u2019ll get her feedback, and then take it forward to the next stage and see if we get some performance improvements.<\/p>\n

What has been your biggest performance challenge of the last 12 months?<\/strong><\/p>\n

GB:<\/strong> Not going to events has been hard. I couldn\u2019t go to Tokyo, I\u2019d been to all the Games since 2000, it\u2019s been remote coaching from home, which has been a challenge. There was no contact with families and that was pretty tough for athletes. You couldn\u2019t win a gold medal and go and celebrate with your family. There were also athletes who contracted long Covid and did not make it to the Games. Tokyo, success-wise, was great for us but we never knew if it was going to happen until the last minute. Then you need to prepare for things to go wrong. For example, Tokyo was about preparing for the heat and then it poured down with torrential rain during one of the road races.<\/p>\n

How important is the feeling of control for a coach?<\/strong><\/p>\n

GB:<\/strong> I give control to the athlete until I feel that something might be going wrong or not in the right direction. Then I would intervene. That could be an injury or it could be a piece of equipment that requires the right innovation team. I have coached in water polo, swimming, triathlon and elite cycling and there\u2019s a process of continual learning and educating yourself, lifting different ideas from different sports. In the past, I\u2019ve had some pretty dodgy coaches and you learn from their errors too.<\/p>\n

In what ways do you check the learning and understanding of your athletes?<\/strong><\/p>\n

GB:<\/strong> Onstage, I mentioned being a decent filter as a coach<\/a> and getting rid of the rubbish, whether that\u2019s rubbish people that are trying to intervene with the athlete or rubbish ideas about the theory of a sport or how you recover. As a coach, I find myself filtering that out so that the athlete hasn\u2019t got to deal with issues like that. They can focus on their race, on their recovery, and have a good, settled situation at home or on the track.<\/p>\n

How do you ensure that everyone inside the building feels empowered to speak up and explore performance questions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

GB:<\/strong> I think we talk a lot about collaboration and multidisciplinary work. The coach needs to pull on a lot of different people at different times. Some people you may not talk to for two years, other people you might be talking to them on a daily basis. If you find that people are backing off a little bit you have to ask why they\u2019re not contributing to the team. That could be the nutritionist who hasn\u2019t felt that they\u2019re needed because the person\u2019s nutrition is fine. We\u2019d ask them \u2018can you find out a little bit more for us in this area?\u2019 There are always performance questions and ways you can encourage people to feel a greater sense of ownership in their work.<\/p>\n

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Download the latest Performance Special Report – Enhance Your Environment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brought to you by our Main Partners Keiser<\/strong>, take a step inside the cultural reset that led Harlequins<\/strong> to the Premiership<\/strong> title with scrum-half Danny Care<\/strong> and Head of Rugby Performance Billy Millard<\/strong>, then explore how the team worked with performance coach Owen Eastwood<\/strong> to place wellbeing at the centre of their performance equation and why this approach is also shared by Google<\/strong> and the Toronto Blue Jays<\/strong>. Finally, discover why equality, diversity and inclusion can be a competitive advantage through the admirable work being done at English Premier League<\/strong> club Brentford FC<\/strong>.<\/p>\n