Magness & Marcus On Coaching

The seasons done, the races have been run, and the outcomes are determined. Whether they were good or bad, we have to move forward. As a coach and athlete it’s about figuring out what lessons to learn, and how to re-energize yourself (and your team) for the next goal that awaits. In this episode of…

“He’s a competitor!” We’ve all had athletes that exemplified the act of competing. They show up on race day, run their guts out, rise to the occasion when it’s asked of them, and put their teammates on their back, instead of only being concerned with themselves. What makes up this ability? Is it innate? Research…

This week, we take on the big question of mastery, particularly in regards to coaching. Beginners tend to mimic. It’s ingrained in us; mimicry is the way we first learn how to make it in life, as we copy our parents when we are just toddlers. In coaching, this might mean copying the training plans…

In episode 41, we bring in Mario Fraioli to discuss the state of the sport. We start with a different kind of Olympic overview, one which takes a deep dive on the problems that arose and the potential way forward. We talk about how to take control of the narrative of our sport, instead of…

What’s the point of sport? In this episode, Jon and I make the case that it’s about education and learning. The culture of coaches used to be educators. They came from a background of using athletics as a means to help student athletes grow and develop. As the top side of the sport professionalized, there’s…

What defines success for a coach? Is it wins and losses?  Championships won? Leading athletes to new personal bests? Having one athlete win an Olympic medal while destroying 20 of them? These are the common notions that we associated with success. But is it the best way? In this episode of the Magness & Marcus…

Humans have a need for explanations. When faced with uncertainty we rely on closure. The world of running is no different. When something goes wrong, as athletes and coaches we go into a panicked search for a reason why we didn’t perform at our best. Often, we perform elaborate gymnastics attempting to find the elusive…

In this episode, we are joined by performance coach extraordinaire Vern Gambetta. Using the performances at the recent Olympic Trials as a backdrop we take on coaches education. Where have we gone right and where have we missed the boat. We start by asking the question of what makes a good coach? Is it coaching…

In this episode, we have a special guest, the director of Track and Field at Georgetown, Mike Smith. In an in-person conversation at the Olympic Trials we discuss innovation within coaching. With the three of us having been in the collegiate and post-collegiate world we discuss the tendency for the NCAA system to lock coaches…

Coming at you in-person from the Olympic Trials, we dish on the high pressure environment that is attempting to make the US Olympic team. Jon and I take a look at the 7/8 of the field that leaves disappointed and how we should pick up the pieces after a hard fought race. The Olympic Trials…

In this episode of the Magness and Marcus Podcast we discuss a quality that all runners aspire to and all coaches try to engender. The ability to dig down, fight your way through adversity, bounce back from failure, and show up consistently when it counts. As runners, we might refer to this as toughness, but…

In this episode of the Magness and Marcus Podcast we discuss False Positive and Inaccurate Negatives. What are they? A false positive is when we have a great race or great series of workouts that doesn’t translate over to sustained performance. On the flip side, an inaccurate negative is when an athlete goes through a…

   Running form is one of the hot button topics in the world of distance coaches. We debate, often with speed/power coaches, on where they fit into the program. How important are mechanics for a distance runner? How do we change them? Should we change them? These are the questions that wer tackle in this…

In this episode of the Magness & Marcus Podcast, we talk about building Culture. While we are trained as coaches to emphasize the physiology and doc us on workout design, what separates programs that thrive and last is often the intangible dynamic of culture. In this episode, we go through our experiences in developing culture…

In this episode, we’re coming to you in-person from Palo Alto, California. In the day after the Stanford Invite, Jon and I invite a special guest onto the podcast. Brad Stulberg is an expert in human performance. You might recognize his name from his regular work with Outside Magazine where he writes a regular column investigating…

We have a special guest for this weeks episode, head coach of the Brooks Beasts Danny Mackey. Danny has numerous accolades, including coaching 800m runners Cas Loxsom and Nick Simmonds to spots on last years World Championship teams. In this episode, Danny traces his story in how he got into coaching and the lessons learned…

The breakthrough is what we are all after. It’s what we spend months training for, visualizing, and dreaming about. But what’s the best way to get there, and how do we capitalize on it once we do. In this episode, Jon and I go through the psychology of a breakthrough. We start with defining a…

We’re back with a new podcast for 2016! This time we jump straight into what you guys have asked for, specifics on training. For this episode, we divert away from the bigger picture and discuss training for the 800. We start with going through the different types of 800m runners and why it’s an event…

For our last podcast episode of 2015, it’s time to go on a few rants, call some ideas out, and create a little bit of controversy in our own little world of coaching. We’re going to cover bullshit. We start off with the myth of chasing perfection. Instead of seeing perfection as the ultimate goal,…

In part two of Why we are horrible coaches, we continue down the path of bashing our own ability to coach. Starting with trap coaches fall into when they coach someone fast when they’re young- they now think that this is now the magical formula. We then delve into our worst moments of failure as…