Who am I?

My bio

I guess the starting point for me is answering the question of why you should care about anything I say. My answer to that is; you shouldn’t. I’m not going to say I’m an expert or the authority on anything, but I have been around the block a bit. I have spent a lot of time around athletes and I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to keep them happy, healthy and performing.

My start in coaching was at the age of 17 as an assistant age group coach at my home swim club. From there, coaching and teaching has become my life’s work. My undergrad degree is in Biology and I taught the subject for four years at the high school level and though I enjoyed teaching, the influence that you can have on a young person’s life as a teacher is dwarfed by what can be done as a coach. That is a hugely important point to me. There is a tremendously outsized influence that a coach has on their athletes at all ages. In fact, for many athletes, coaches are ranked as the most significant influence in their life and with this comes a great deal of responsibility. I was extremely fortunate to be taught how much responsibility before I started teaching and coaching by people experienced in the field. I was warned about the personal pitfalls, showed the positive difference I could make, but also the negative impacts that I could have on athletes. The role of the coach in the development of an athlete’s life outside of sport will be a common topic here.

I spent many years in the sport of swimming both in the water and on the deck. I swam at a fairly high level, but by no means was anything special and though I did swim at nationals it was as part of a relay when I was 31! I have coached athletes to every level of the sport and have been a USA Swimming National team coach, ran the USA Swimming Open Water Development Camp and been a member of the World Championships coaching staff in 2013. Though I do love swimming and coaching it, as a father of young kids, it is very difficult given the times that practices and meets are held. Thus, I have turned my focus to coaching cycling and triathlon since these sports allow me to be home more on a daily basis.

I came to cycling late in life and, in fact, did not compete in my first bike race until the age of 26. After four years of racing Xterra professionally in the early 2000’s, I turned my focus to the bike and raced off and on until about 2010 when I turned my focus primarily toward cyclocross. I did race ‘cross at the elite level for a few years in there but seeing as my more, ahem, advanced age, the elite level was not there for me for long. This period did serve as a transition to cycling coaching and thanks to my affiliation with Neal Henderson and APEX Coaching I began to make a name in the coaching world. All these years later and I have coached multiple national champions in ‘cross, road and mountain bike as well as a World Champion paralympic athlete on the road. Additionally, I have been on the USA Cycling National Team staff for cyclocross and have done some work with coach development for USAC as well.

At the height of COVID, I made a decision that has indeed altered my career and put into perspective many of my strong feelings regarding coaching. I went back to school to study Applied Sports Psychology at Adams State University. Fast forward a few years and I have completed that degree and am a Certified Mental Performance Coach. I cannot express how beneficial both the degree and the certification have been in my development as a coach. Much of what I learned I was already using in practice, but to have the theory and scientific work behind it has enhanced my confidence in what I do and why I do it.

All this is to say that my opinions on coaching and athlete development, while only my opinions, do come with a great deal of experience both scientifically and anecdotally. While I do not expect everyone to agree with them, I do hope that they are listened to and met with respect and consideration. A great deal of my philosophy is built around the search for ongoing joy and love of sport for athletes at all levels. However, I do believe that it is essential to point out that this philosophy is not only directed at youth and beginner athletes, but at those at the very pinnacle of their sport. High performance and joy are not mutual exclusive and in fact, I strongly believe that sustained high performance is difficult to achieve without sustained joy in athletics and life.

Please never hesitate to comment in order to further the conversation or contact me to discuss things further. My goal here is to create conversation and discussion regarding coaching and athlete development. Please do ask questions or suggest topics for further posts. I am not looking to create a money making endeavor and thus will not put this behind a paywall, but do note that this takes time to create and I will be accepting donations.