South-west coaches learning just as much as their troops

Coaches across the country dedicate years of their life to improving and getting the best out of the people who choose to play the sport they are involved in.

As the athletes grow the coaches close to them grow too.

It may not be a quantifiable measurement like a personal best shows an athlete's improvements.

It could be as simple as learning a new approach to running a training session or it may be as complex as the coach changing the way they communicate with their different athletes in order to get the best out of them.

Coaches are in a constant state of mentoring and learning as three south-west coaches in Jeremy Dixon (Athletics), Kerry King (Cycling) and Jayson Lamb (Swimming) can attest to.

Lamb is the longest serving coach of the trio with over 20 years worth of experience.

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The former swimmer started with the Warrnambool Swimming Club under head coach Ross Price in 1999, spending five years as a swim teacher and assistant coach.

In 2004 he took over from Price as the club's head coach and bought the swimming school now recognisably known as Jayson Lamb's Splash Factory, which has 25 instructors and close to 1200 students.

Lamb's passion is coaching and it has been since he left his survey technician job in the late 1990s.

"I love interacting with people and they are always learning and as a coach you are basically a biomechanist, a teacher, you are basically everything a athlete needs," he said.

"There is always something to learn and I feel I have been learning bits and pieces over the years.

"Especially if you look at the last two months with coronavirus we have been learning to be creative and adjust accordingly to the restrictions placed on us."

One of Lamb's biggest lessons across his extensive coaching career is not everyone is the same.

"You come across so many different personalities and everyone thinks differently to what I would," he said.

"So as a coach you need to look at things differently and accept those differences and if I tell someone one thing then there is another thing that couldn't be done in the same way for another person.

"You just have to work out a way which works for every individual.

"It's trying to challenge yourself and recreate yourself in doing things and treat everyone as a different personality.

"Just because you delivered the message to someone else in a particular way doesn't mean it will work on another so you have got to accept that and try to maneuver yourself so that every person can improve as well."

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Lamb has seen many of his athletes reach success at different levels.

His most notable athlete is Isaac Jones, who went on to score a silver in a 4x200m freestyle relay at the FINA World Junior Championships.

But Lamb, who played football for Merrivale, South Warrnambool and Portland, says athlete success is not what he chases anymore - a lesson he learnt very early on.

"When I first started I was about trying to get people to a certain level and I saw that as trying to prove myself as a coach," he said.

"It was all about the scoreboard and I realised it is far more than that and more about the relationships you build and creating memories for kids to remember when they are 30-40 to look back and enjoy.

"They may have then taken up the sport in adulthood as a way to stay fit or the skills they have worked on during that time have helped them in some way throughout the years."

Jeremy Dixon is another coach who happily admits he learns something new every time he runs one of his sessions.

The former New Zealand national champion sprinter, who now calls Australia and Warrnambool his home, took up coaching as a 21-year-old with the New Zealand Academy of Sport.

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From that time he took a few hiatuses until in 2017 he moved down to Warrnambool and noticed there was a gap in the market for athletics coaches in the south-west, re-sparking his passion to mentor.

He now trains both able-bodied and para-athletes from across the region and has started the Athletics South West Turbines, which he is currently president of.

Dixon's athletics history is what drives his desire to coach his Inner Speed and Power group now.

"The lessons I had from my athletics career have provided me with motivation for my coaching career," he said.

"There are things I wished I considered more when I was an athlete and now I am really keen to support others and help them not make the same mistakes I made.

"But also the love of the sport and being in strong team environment which also obviously has those individual focuses, disciplines, determinations and opportunities.

"These things support all elements of life and can harness and develop skills in business, with family and friends and with other relationships and it really helps to develop as an individual."

Dixon, who splits his time as an athletics and South West Academy of Sport coach and board member with working for Wannon Water, has learnt to adjust his style of coaching to get the best out of his troops.

"I have had to refine my communication style and how you cue to whoever you are coaching as every athlete is unique," he said.

"Using a broad brushed approached can see some of them get lost so I really considered my communication and cuing early on and tailored what I am saying and how I say it.

"I learnt a lot about coaching from my junior athletes as they are still gaining awareness of their body, their balance and coordination and what might be innate and known to me, as someone who has been through the athletics system, might not be as understood by the athlete.

"You have to think about how to communicate so what I do now is I demonstrate using a mixture of both visual and audio cues."

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Dixon said he had learnt a lot in the past year after joining the Athletics Victoria Talent Program as an assistant coach.

He said the access to information in modern society and being around more experienced coaches allowed him to learn new ways of leading his athletes.

The former 200 and 400-metre runner said he had a reality check when he first became a full-time coach.

"What I found being a coach is I didn't know as much as I thought I did as an athlete," he said.

"I had three really excellent coaches who I had great success with and who were successful coaches as well but there has certainly been some advancements in training models and techniques.

"With the global economy and the access to information and different ways of training much greater now that can really expand the tool kit you have."

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Kerry King knows her learning curve as a coach and the expansion of her tool kit is never ending.

The Royal Bikes shop owner has coached cycling for three years and has grown to love everything that comes with teaching the multi-disciplined sport.

Her journey into coaching started with researching into exactly how she wanted to train and her passion grew from there.

King, who grew up playing competitive tennis before switching to cycling due to injuries, took the step into coaching when she started mentoring one of her employees - Matt Burchell.

Attending races and being in and around the cycling community helped King build her group and profile up.

Now she coaches as many as 15 to 20 athletes at a time and is working closely with the SWAS cycling program.

"It is all still so new to me and there is still so much to learn and experience to gain," she said. "This whole process is a learning curve and it is something that is never ending.

"I'm really learning a lot about communicating with people of different personalities and making sure that it's fun for them and they are enjoying cycling.

"The sport has so many different styles of rider and you have to make sure those that need pushing are pushed and those that don't you need to have the ability to make sure they don't waste their time.

"Then there are people who are in it for fun and fitness and you have to not lose them either.

"Adaptability is important to athletes and making sure you can help them be the best they can and get them to where they want to be."

King said her university degree in osteopathy has come in handy during her coaching career.

"It has helped me a lot because the anatomy and physiology that is in cycling is very extensive," she said.

"That meant the fundamentals and background I got from that course have helped me when I am decide the different things I do with training my cyclists.

"I learnt to use the knowledge from what I have learnt previously and adapt it instead of reading off someone's text book. That has been really helpful.

"Also everyone ends up with injury at some stage and when an athlete I have is injured it's not a scary thing as I know how to manage it and help them get through them it."

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