AQR Holidays Coaching Week - Portugal

Another successful AQR Coaching Week in Portugal has come and gone. As a coach what I love about these weeks is seeing each guest improve in so many different ways. What we also see is this little light bulb go off in client's heads when they realise how much better they feel on the bike with small manageable changes.

So what did we cover in the Pre-Season AQR Coaching week 2013 –

Kate & Ian Potter introduced the ‘AQR Coaching Pyramid’ to the group. The AQR Coaching Pyramid starts with your base, and this doesn’t refer to long hours in the saddle. In our view your base is most important and refers to –

Your Goal Setting

Your Genetic Strengths and Weaknesses

Your Health History

Your Personal Stresses

Your Base Nutrition

Your Base Body (Core stability)

Your Bike Set up

Your Base Technique & Skills

Your Mind & Motivation

In case it's not too obvious the key word is YOU! :)

When we coach people we learn about YOU!! Our aim is to help YOU work towards reaching your true potential and improve in all aspects of riding or racing a bike that’s relevant to YOU!!!

The base of the AQR Coaching Pyramid focuses on areas that will help you move forwards in the direction of your goals...I have also used a quote from Bruce Lee following each description to support the direction AQR Coaching takes you in...

GOAL SETTING - It’s very important you and your coach know your GOALS, whether short, medium or long term...else your training won’t have purpose.

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done. Make at least one definite move daily toward your goal.”

GENETIC STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES - It’s very important you and your coach know your strengths and weaknesses, that may be partly genetic or that your body has adapted to over the years...for example all those years running marathons will tell your coach something about your strengths/weaknesses and perhaps why you struggle sprinting.

& HEALTH HISTORY - It’s very important your coach knows a basic history of your health or injuries that may affect your training in the future.

“To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.”

PERSONAL STRESSES - It’s very important your coach knows your job as a builder places extra stress on your body compared to your friends mentally stressful job as a teacher...it's also important that YOU realise what bad habits personal stresses can cause and how to correct them, whether it's learning to strengthen your core for your job as a builder so that you don't weaken muscles necessary for a cyclist. It’s important that your stress output is in balance with your recovery time...and stress is not just about training.

“To spend time is to pass it in a specified manner. To waste time is to expend it thoughtlessly or carelessly. We all have time to spend or waste, and it is our decision what to do with it. But once passed, it is gone forever.”

BASE NUTRITION - It’s very important your coach knows that you only eat 2-3 vegetables a day and hate fruit, preferring a diet of fish and chips and take away...without high levels of nutrition you may end up weaker rather than stronger following training and recovery.

"When you are a Martial Artist, you only eat what you require and do not get carried away with foods that do not benefit."

BASE BODY – It’s very important your coach assesses your core strength and works alongside a physio to ensure you’re using stability muscles effectively so that higher levels of training won’t cause huge imbalances.

“Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.”

BIKE SET UP - It’s very important your coach assesses your bike set up to ensure your bike is not holding you back and suits your current core strength and power output. If you have tight hip flexors this will affect your saddle position...if your core abdominal muscles are weak this could place extra stress on your wrists, so until certain areas are strengthened then your bike must be set up to support you...and this will change as you change! One bike size, setup and type does not fit all!

“If you follow the classical patterns, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow - you are not understanding yourself”

BASE TECHNIQUE & SKILLS - It’s very important your coach teaches you how to be efficient on the bike...and focus on basic skills to make you use less energy on the trail.

“The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.”

MIND & MOTIVATION - It’s very important your coach learns about your mind and what makes you motivated to ride or race your bike. There are key mind and motivation drills one can apply to help you stay motivated even when the going gets tough!

“Choose the positive. You have choice, you are master of your attitude, choose the positive, the constructive. Optimism is a faith that leads to success.”

An AQR Coaching week is about YOU and YOUR bike and helping you learn more about where you can improve on the bike in the short and long term. We don’t expect you to have heart rate monitors, power testing tools or the latest training gadgets if you can’t afford them...our training is focused on helping you feel your way through training and teaching you about how to be efficient on the bike, so you have more energy where and when it counts! What we teach can then be taken home and practiced until it becomes second nature.

On every AQR Coaching week we have an AQR Physio on board to support Ian in the individual dynamic bike set up sessions AQR offer to every client. Anne Dickins is our AQR Physio and as she is representing Great Britain in paracanoeing right now, we had Jenny Herron from Physio Fit in Leeds to run a group pilates class and seminar on joint stability. Thankyou Jenny for all your hard work on the 2013 Coaching week.

COACHING WEEK FEEDBACK 'Thanks to both you and Ian for a superb week of riding and coaching skills it was a real eye opener to have my riding technique assessed then broken down and rebuilt by yourselves in a way that was clear to both understand the faults and to work on the fixes that you recommended. As I write this can still hear Ian shouting heels and wrists...' (Steve – Portugal Coaching Week 2013)

The next AQR Coaching Week will be announced next month...

COST - £520 (early bird discount £500 if you book before June 1st 2013.)

For further information about AQR Coaching weeks please contact kate@aquickrelease.com

Please note we can run Coaching and Training Holidays at any time of the year in the French Pyrenees, but require a minimum of 4 people.

The next AQR Coaching Week in Portugal will be held March 2014.

A QUALITY RIDE COACHING...Winter Technique & Skills Coaching UK

Since before AQR Holidays was even a twinkle in our eye, before mountain bike skills coaching was even heard of Ian Potter has been coaching people on mountain bikes, helping them improve their skills or teaching them basic skills to improve their understanding of trail riding or mountain bike racing. Ian was my coach all through my pre-racing and racing days....even when I out climbed him and my ego was sky high thinking I had mastered a section of trail...he could still see weakness in my technique and so we continued to work on fine tuning every aspect of my riding, and continue to do so today. It's fun to explore what you and the bike can do together...even if it means tasting mud every so often...mistakes give you instant feedback and improvement in the future. I love seeing smiles widen and confident body language take over when a rider learns a new skill and puts it into practice with confidence and commitment.

As the years have passed by coaching has become a big part of what AQR is all about...hence why we now call it 'A Quality Ride Coaching'. We will do our best to make time for regular blogs about what we do and what advice we can share to help you improve your time on the bike in which ever way that may be.

This is the first of many blogs to highlight what AQR Coaching is all about -

JANUARY & FEBRUARY 2013 - Ian and I have been braving the British weather, and for 6 weeks we have been running skills coaching sessions in the UK on weekends and mid week...

Last weekend Cotic-AQR Holidays Racers Ruth & Emma braved the snow and this is what Ruth has to say about the experience...

'The great British weather did it's best to ruin our plans for a weekend of skills coaching with Kate and Ian from AQR with a good foot of fresh snow falling on our journey up to the peaks - making our journey about three times as long as it should have been and with some bonus car pushing!! However, the journey was worth it as Kate and Ian, as always, wanted to make sure that myself and fellow AQR Holidays Race team mate Emma Bradley got as much out of the weekend as possible.

We all braved the conditions once most of the snow had melted and even though the day was really cold and wet, I had a fun day and never really thought about the conditions. Kate and Ian have a great skill of finding places to challenge riders of any level so that they go home armed with aspects of their riding to practice.

On Sunday, although we didn't really cover much distance we were able to practice and be challenged in a number of areas that make a big difference to an XC racer, such as race starts, technical climbing, mounting/dismounting - to name few. We were also put through our paces with some pretty tough hill sprints - which certainly got us warmed up!

I know that with hard work and practice, you certainly see results when you put the Potter's advice into practice. The method of coaching is not to take you to the biggest most challenging descent they can find - which is what some skills companies seem to do, instead they watch you ride and take you somewhere they can pick apart your riding style to find small aspects that with improvement will have a significant impact on your overall speed, power and efficiency.

I know that I am certainly a better rider for my skills sessions with Kate and Ian, but every time I ride with them they still manage to find something that I can improve upon and when I practice and make changes I certainly see the difference.

You don't need to be an elite level racer to gain something from a skills day with AQR - if you want to improve your riding, whatever aspect that may be, then Kate and Ian can help - and you'll always go home with a smile on your face!'