Coaching

Background

As you would expect to pay for the knowledge, experience and advice of a lawyer or financial consultant, so it is with sports coaching. If you’re seeking advice and guidance in your sporting endeavors, you should be prepared to pay for the assistance.

What, you may be asking, knowledge and experience do I offer to guide others in their training?

As a racer, I was fortunate to work with some of the best coaching minds the Soviet cycling has ever produced. The ever patient Piotr Trumheller, the always barking Viktor Kapitonov (Google translation of a profile in Russian), the cunning Alexander Gusyatnikov or the analytical Yuri Elizarov, each had their own, unique approach to coaching and yet they shared one thing in common – making champions. Not of every rider of course but plenty enough to pause and ask yourself, why almost anything they touch turns into gold? Being curious or even puzzled by the different coaching methods these men employed, I took notice and observed their work, asked questions, poked their minds. Why, for example, would Kapitonov turn a 4 hour ride into a slaughter while Elizarov would slow us down when we were all itchy for an in-house dog fight?

These and other questions were answered while studying the Bachelor’s degree in cycling coaching at the National University of Physical Education and Sports of Ukraine. Things started to fall into their places when I was able to put my extensive practical knowledge of training and racing together with the theoretical knowledge I acquired at the University famous for its affluent academia and cutting edge research.

And so it was, when in 1992 two 17 year old juniors from Copenhagen approached me to help them prepare for a 2-men TTT they wanted to race in, I made a training program for them, rode with them at least once a week for 6 weeks and they won. They were thrilled and so was I. My coaching career started without me even realizing it.

Coaching Philosophy

I staunchly reject the “No pain, no gain” notion so prevalent in cycling circles today. If I had to express my coaching philosophy by a cliché, I would rather use a phrase like “Minimum pain, maximum gain” or something of this sort. I strongly believe that only a healthy, smartly fed, well rested and stress free athlete is capable of achieving their full potential in sport. In my work, I strive to ensure the athletes I coach are never crippled by senseless, unnecessarily hard workouts, which presumably harden them up.

Because cycling is an endurance sport relying almost exclusively on an aerobic metabolism for energy production, I concentrate a lot of my effort on developing, consolidating and improving the athlete’s aerobic system. Anaerobic workouts begin only when the athlete’s aerobic system is sufficiently prepared to take on a high intensity workload. And even then, the anaerobic workouts are carefully measured and cautiously carried out.

Training Programs

Each training program I prepare is individually designed for every athlete I coach. Their age, gender, experience, background, life circumstances and goals are all taken into consideration. In other words, no two training programs I design are ever the same.

Moreover, I don’t just design a training program, send it to you and don’t want to hear from you until you’ll need me again. Quite the opposite. The training program you receive from me will be tailored to your needs as we go along. If you get sick or injured, work or family commitments thwart your plans, your training program will be adjusted to reflect your current situation. Likewise, I don’t limit you to 1 phone call, 3 emails and 5 text messages per week to get in touch with me. I don’t treat the athletes I coach as stock items, customers or annoying flies. I encourage them not to be shy and stay in contact with me, keeping me up to date with their training. Unlike most coaches out there, I’m doing this full time, this is my job and not a spare time hobby. You pay for my advice, you better make sure you use it.

If needed, I’m available for personal, on the road sessions.

Fees

The fees differ by training program’s duration only and are as follows:

12 weeks – $450
24 weeks – $800
36 weeks – $1,100

If, for whatever reason, the above durations don’t suit you and you want a 9 week or a 17 week program, that’s fine, we’ll work it out.