Empower Coaching System's Kimberley Turner turns a somewhat frustrating road race (her goal) into a BRONZE medal ride in the criterium at the 2011 Collegiate National Championships! Now thats the power of perseverance. NICE job Kimberley!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Perseverance Pays Off!
Empower Coaching System's Kimberley Turner turns a somewhat frustrating road race (her goal) into a BRONZE medal ride in the criterium at the 2011 Collegiate National Championships! Now thats the power of perseverance. NICE job Kimberley!
Monday, May 9, 2011
Get Structured to Get Fast!
At 37 Alessandro Patacchi continues to win! His quote: “At 37, I’m able to do sacrifices that I didn’t when I was 25 or 27," he said after winning in Parma. He then speaks about altitude training...He's pointing out that his older years are requiring a serious and structured training program:) If you want to get fast, then get structured, we can tailor a program to fit your needs. www.empowercoachingsystems.com
Monday, May 2, 2011
Dana Point Grand Prix
Empower Coaching's Mark Scott chillin after stealing the bronze at Dana Point Grand Prix yesterday in true sprinter fashion. Nice work Mark. Check out his bum.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Coaching Juniors w/ Chris DeMarchi
I have been coaching Junior racers for about a year and a half. Some coaches will not touch the kids that make the future of our sport because of the maturity levels. I have found that Juniors can be a pleasant surprise to coach. Yes, they are young and have alot on their plates with school, training, other activities, and friends, but helping them find the balance in their life and see the light bulb come on is priceless. I really get alot of joy out of seeing a junior athlete accomplish their goals in cycling and still excel in other parts of their lives.
Even if you are not a coach, mentor a junior today! The rewards go both ways.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
COACH ANDY INTERVIEW: GUIDING IRELAND’S ELITE TRACK CYCLISTS
© Shane Stokes
American coach Andy Sparks was previously best known as the coach (and now husband) of multiple world and US champion Sarah Hammer, as well as being the head track coach at the UCI World Cycling Center. He was also U.S. Olympic Track Cycling coach for Beijing 2008.
However from last August he has been coaching the male riders on the Irish track team, and giving his advice and input to women’s coach Brian Nugent. Since coming on board there have been very positive signs, with the various riders showing good improvement. A team of five have travelled to the second round of cycling’s World Cup in Cali, Columbia, which begins today and runs until Saturday.
Martyn Irvine and Felix English will do the Omnium and scratch races respectively, while Jennifer O’Reilly, Caroline Ryan and Ciara Horne will do the women’s team pursuit. O’Reilly will also ride the Omnium, while Ryan will do the individual pursuit.
Sparks is a two time winner of the USA Cycling Coach of the year and his guidance has earned twenty World Cup medals and six world championship titles for his riders. That experience puts him in a very good position to be able to assess the Irish competitors he is overseeing, and he believes that there are grounds to be optimistic.
The rider that seems to excite him most is Martyn Irvine, who he describes as one of the most naturally talented riders he has ever worked with. English is seen as a very focussed rider who he expects to be successful, while he is encourage by the women’s improvement and believes that they should continue to progress.
Sparks spoke to Irishcycling.com in recent days and commented at length about the riders on the team and his short and long term expectations. He believes that Irvine and English can both go top ten in Cali, and that the women’s pursuit will achieve a time of 3 minutes 33 seconds or faster.
Looking further ahead, he expects more improvement in terms of results, and believes that at least some of the team can successfully qualify for the next Olympic Games in London.
---
Shane Stokes: Which of the Irish have you been working most with, and where has that work been done?
Andy Sparks: When I first accepted the head coaching position for Cycling Ireland in August, it primarily was focused on the men's team pursuit team. Unfortunately after Matt Brammeier signed a contract with HTC-Columbia, David O'Loughlin decided to focus on family and business and Marcus Christie was on the sidelines due to injury, it sort of spelled the end of the project on the short-term. Some positives to come out of the decision were the ability to really focus on an event that Cycling Ireland could not only be a participant at during the 2012 Games, but a player at and a legitimate medal hopeful.
Out of this refinement we were left with two key male riders; Martyn Irvine, who is our team captain, and Felix English, who is our development omnium rider and who has also turned some heads recently by beating a pretty good British sprinter [Chris Hoy] at the European Champs. Both of these riders are champions. Martyn has absolutely every ingredient needed for success on the short-term and long-term and he will be a rider to watch over the next 2 years. He is both an exceptional races and trainer and we have given him the nickname: The Irish House of Pain. Felix is an exciting young bike rider who is just finishing up his Junior career now. Felix is a very focused and professional bike rider who will be successful in the sport as he will not let anything stand in his way.
The project has already been rewarding but I also got really lucky with inheriting so many talented bike riders. Both the former coach Tommy Evans and current women's coach, Brian Nugent, did a great job of developing and recruiting the Irish talent. My job is to now expose the squad to both the highest level of training and the high standard, needed in every category, to be successful at World and Olympic level. And I'm very happy to report that we are making major gains towards this goal.
SS: What sort of progress have you seen from each of the main riders (ie those going to Cali)?
AS: We are seeing gains in all three parts of the Irish track program: Men's Omnium, Women's Omnium and Women's Team Pursuit. Martyn Irvine, our top omnium rider, finished 9th at the European Championships which is a very good indicator that he has a great shot of qualifying for the London Games (through 12 Olympic points-earning races over 2 years the top 8 European team qualify spots for London). Martyn is incredibly talented and we will be seeing quick and continued gains from him as he is very new to the mass-start racing and will really come out of every race a new and better bike rider. Martyn is one of the most naturally talented bike racers I have ever worked with.
Jennifer O'Reilly is currently our top omnium rider on the women's side. Jennifer has only been racing her bike for about 18 months (she came from a rowing background) but you would not know that when you see her in the bunch. Jennifer had a very respectable first-showing at the European champs in the omnium and now we just need to get her stronger and fitter, which will happen as she has been working hard towards this goal.
Lastly, our women's team pursuit has been making steady progress and are now achieving some respectable times. We have a team goal of 3.33 or faster in Columbia and I really hope, and expect, to achieve it. Brian has been working hard with the ladies for the last year and over the last 3 months I have been providing some guidance and support for the project in the areas where I can offer something.
SS: What do you think is possible there?
AS: My expectations, across the board, are always going to be high. All of the athletes know what level of performance I am interested in and that is what we have been working hard for to achieve. For Cali, we have set the following goals:
Martyn - top 10 Omnium
Felix - top 10 Scratch race
Women's Team Pursuit - 3.33 or faster
Jennifer - Top 15 Omnium
Caroline - Sub 3.45 in 3K Ind. pursuit
Long-term, I would love to see an omnium World Cup medal in the next 2 years for Martyn. For Jennifer in the omnium, a top 10 at a World Cup would be a fantastic results and for our Women's team pursuit squad a top 5 in the next 2 years at a World Cup would be a great achievement. None of these goals will be easy but if the team continues to work hard everyday in training and have confidence in themselves we will be successful.
SS: How do you assess their chances of reaching the Olympics?
AS: Our chances of making the Olympics differs for each event. Objectively speaking, if you examine the results from the European Championship it shows that Martyn has a very good chance of making it to London. For the women the next two World Cups will tell a lot. With the new selection procedure put forth by the UCI, European countries have it much harder than in years past on qualifying for the Games. If our Irish women get consistent top 8's in the team pursuit it would look promising to have them lining up in London come 2012.
American coach Andy Sparks was previously best known as the coach (and now husband) of multiple world and US champion Sarah Hammer, as well as being the head track coach at the UCI World Cycling Center. He was also U.S. Olympic Track Cycling coach for Beijing 2008.
However from last August he has been coaching the male riders on the Irish track team, and giving his advice and input to women’s coach Brian Nugent. Since coming on board there have been very positive signs, with the various riders showing good improvement. A team of five have travelled to the second round of cycling’s World Cup in Cali, Columbia, which begins today and runs until Saturday.
Martyn Irvine and Felix English will do the Omnium and scratch races respectively, while Jennifer O’Reilly, Caroline Ryan and Ciara Horne will do the women’s team pursuit. O’Reilly will also ride the Omnium, while Ryan will do the individual pursuit.
Sparks is a two time winner of the USA Cycling Coach of the year and his guidance has earned twenty World Cup medals and six world championship titles for his riders. That experience puts him in a very good position to be able to assess the Irish competitors he is overseeing, and he believes that there are grounds to be optimistic.
The rider that seems to excite him most is Martyn Irvine, who he describes as one of the most naturally talented riders he has ever worked with. English is seen as a very focussed rider who he expects to be successful, while he is encourage by the women’s improvement and believes that they should continue to progress.
Sparks spoke to Irishcycling.com in recent days and commented at length about the riders on the team and his short and long term expectations. He believes that Irvine and English can both go top ten in Cali, and that the women’s pursuit will achieve a time of 3 minutes 33 seconds or faster.
Looking further ahead, he expects more improvement in terms of results, and believes that at least some of the team can successfully qualify for the next Olympic Games in London.
---
Shane Stokes: Which of the Irish have you been working most with, and where has that work been done?
Andy Sparks: When I first accepted the head coaching position for Cycling Ireland in August, it primarily was focused on the men's team pursuit team. Unfortunately after Matt Brammeier signed a contract with HTC-Columbia, David O'Loughlin decided to focus on family and business and Marcus Christie was on the sidelines due to injury, it sort of spelled the end of the project on the short-term. Some positives to come out of the decision were the ability to really focus on an event that Cycling Ireland could not only be a participant at during the 2012 Games, but a player at and a legitimate medal hopeful.
Out of this refinement we were left with two key male riders; Martyn Irvine, who is our team captain, and Felix English, who is our development omnium rider and who has also turned some heads recently by beating a pretty good British sprinter [Chris Hoy] at the European Champs. Both of these riders are champions. Martyn has absolutely every ingredient needed for success on the short-term and long-term and he will be a rider to watch over the next 2 years. He is both an exceptional races and trainer and we have given him the nickname: The Irish House of Pain. Felix is an exciting young bike rider who is just finishing up his Junior career now. Felix is a very focused and professional bike rider who will be successful in the sport as he will not let anything stand in his way.
The project has already been rewarding but I also got really lucky with inheriting so many talented bike riders. Both the former coach Tommy Evans and current women's coach, Brian Nugent, did a great job of developing and recruiting the Irish talent. My job is to now expose the squad to both the highest level of training and the high standard, needed in every category, to be successful at World and Olympic level. And I'm very happy to report that we are making major gains towards this goal.
SS: What sort of progress have you seen from each of the main riders (ie those going to Cali)?
AS: We are seeing gains in all three parts of the Irish track program: Men's Omnium, Women's Omnium and Women's Team Pursuit. Martyn Irvine, our top omnium rider, finished 9th at the European Championships which is a very good indicator that he has a great shot of qualifying for the London Games (through 12 Olympic points-earning races over 2 years the top 8 European team qualify spots for London). Martyn is incredibly talented and we will be seeing quick and continued gains from him as he is very new to the mass-start racing and will really come out of every race a new and better bike rider. Martyn is one of the most naturally talented bike racers I have ever worked with.
Jennifer O'Reilly is currently our top omnium rider on the women's side. Jennifer has only been racing her bike for about 18 months (she came from a rowing background) but you would not know that when you see her in the bunch. Jennifer had a very respectable first-showing at the European champs in the omnium and now we just need to get her stronger and fitter, which will happen as she has been working hard towards this goal.
Lastly, our women's team pursuit has been making steady progress and are now achieving some respectable times. We have a team goal of 3.33 or faster in Columbia and I really hope, and expect, to achieve it. Brian has been working hard with the ladies for the last year and over the last 3 months I have been providing some guidance and support for the project in the areas where I can offer something.
SS: What do you think is possible there?
AS: My expectations, across the board, are always going to be high. All of the athletes know what level of performance I am interested in and that is what we have been working hard for to achieve. For Cali, we have set the following goals:
Martyn - top 10 Omnium
Felix - top 10 Scratch race
Women's Team Pursuit - 3.33 or faster
Jennifer - Top 15 Omnium
Caroline - Sub 3.45 in 3K Ind. pursuit
Long-term, I would love to see an omnium World Cup medal in the next 2 years for Martyn. For Jennifer in the omnium, a top 10 at a World Cup would be a fantastic results and for our Women's team pursuit squad a top 5 in the next 2 years at a World Cup would be a great achievement. None of these goals will be easy but if the team continues to work hard everyday in training and have confidence in themselves we will be successful.
SS: How do you assess their chances of reaching the Olympics?
AS: Our chances of making the Olympics differs for each event. Objectively speaking, if you examine the results from the European Championship it shows that Martyn has a very good chance of making it to London. For the women the next two World Cups will tell a lot. With the new selection procedure put forth by the UCI, European countries have it much harder than in years past on qualifying for the Games. If our Irish women get consistent top 8's in the team pursuit it would look promising to have them lining up in London come 2012.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Update from Andy
Hello to my Empower Coaching Systems Family,
I wanted to send out a quick update concerning my sabatical at ECS for the last year. In August of 2009 I was approached by the UCI to lead a new track program at the UCI World Cycling Center in Aigle, Switzerland. For the last year I've had an amazing and unique coaching opportunity of coaching 80 athletes from over 15 countries.. The project produced some great results including 4 World Championship wins (producing the first-ever Korean and African World Champions), 2 World Records, 11 Continental Championship Gold Medals and 10 National Records. A busy but rewarding year!
Following a successful project in Switzerland, I was approached by Irish Cycling in a project to qualify start positions for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. In addition to my scaled-down ECS duties (thanks Dotsie!) I started this project in August and in the last 8 weeks the Irish team has seen some great improvements. Our first race was the European Championships in Poland.
Safe travels,
Andy
Empower Coaching Systems
Empower. Inspire. Grow.
http://www.EmpowerCoachingSystems.com
Monday, September 6, 2010
September Empower Athlete of the Month
Jon Mcgee works hard, really hard. He does not have a lot of free time to cruise around and dilly dally, as like many of us, he has a very full plate. He owns his own company and has a beautiful family of a wife and 3 little girls. Every minute of his life is filled to the brim and he needs pure quality training to reach his cycling goals. When he came to me a few months out from the famous Leadville 100 mountain bike race and said he wanted to race it and make it in under the magical 9 hour barrier to receive the very coveted gold and silver belt buckle (not to be confused with the under 12 hour silver belt buckle), I was ever so slightly skeptical that we could achieve this lofty goal. Man oh man, was I wrong. Jon works fast, really fast.
He put his mind to the grindstone and never let up. Even when family called and he had to miss or change a workout, he was relaxed and trusted his program. He had planned to go race the Silver Rush 50 one month before the Leadville100 race which is in the exact same location and would have given me a plethora of information to work with from his SRM, not to mention to see how his body responded at over 10,000 feet in altitude. He had to cancel that trip and just about gave his coach a coronary with not doing that "test" race. I think he is the one who talked me off the ledge on that day. He assured me he could still do Leadville in under 9 hours. He just kept repeating his goal. As he got faster and faster over the weeks, he got more excited and his excitement poured over into his training, and that is a dangerous combination for his competitors. He was going to reach his goal. 2 weeks out, I knew he could do it. As his Functional Threshold (one of the key components in a race of this length) rose over 20 watts and he lost over 15 pounds of body weight in prep for the steep mountain pitches of Leadville at over 10,000 feet in altitude, he was going to be hard to beat. On August 14th he hammered his way to that shiny belt buckle, along with his brother Rob, in UNDER 9 hours! As I watched the athlete tracker on the Leadville 100 website it was like waiting for Christmas morning, as the time ticked toward the 9 hour mark. He came in RIGHT under the cutoff time, and I mean RIGHT UNDER as I believe he was the last racer to make the cut. He texted me right as I was reading his time come across my computer screen and it pretty much made my entire month! I love coaching an athlete with a purpose and rough neck determination!. Next year, we have done the math and he only has to go 3.7 miles per hour faster to beat Levi's record setting time. If anyone can do it, trust me, its Jon Mcgee. No pressure Jon:-)
Congratulations to Jon Mcgee on being Empower Coaching's Athlete of the Month for September 2010!
Here are Jon's answers to his Empower Athlete of the Month questions:
ECS: What motivates you to train so hard and stay so focused on a daily
basis when no one is watching?
JM: When I started with Dotsie I really saw how much work went into putting together a good training program. I was motivated by the fact that I never wanted to disappoint Dotsie. The goals she set made the training exciting and I looked forward to seeing the improvement week after week.
ECS: What do you like best about your Empower Coaching Systems Coach?
JM: Dotsie is Great! She really knows what she's talking about. I had so much confidence that I had the best coach and training schedule which really helped me give a 100% day after day. She was always available to answer questions and always gave advice.
ECS: What prank would you play on your coach if you could do anything you
wanted?
JM: Dotsie is too nice to prank! (Dotsie says: "clearly he does not know me well enough yet. I will change that for 2011)
ECS: When you get your monthly Empower coaching Schedule, what do you look
forward to seeing on it the most and what do you look forward to the least?
JM: I enjoy seeing the next challenge and look forward to reaching the new goals. The tuff days are never fun when you start off but feel the best when you finish for the day.
ECS:: Any advice you have for a new rider beginning with Empower Coaching
Systems?
JM: Really trust your coach and follow the schedule with exactness. Their experience will provide great results. Don't be afraid to ask questions.
ECS: What are your goals for next season?
JM: I'd like to get a few road races in before the end of the year and I'm shooting for a good result in Vision Quest 2011. Also, looking forward to Leadville 2011 and improving my time.
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