Magness & Marcus On Coaching

In this episode of the Magness and Marcus podcast, we take on the concept of outliers and averages. Research and coaching practices tend to focus on a select demographic, whether that’s the WEIRD (Western, educated, and from industrialized, rich, and democratic countries) research or coaches focusing on the practices of those who speak English and…

In this episode of the Magness & Marcus show, we delve into the Dunning Kruger effect. You might not know the name of this cognitive bias, but it’s something we’re all familiar with. It refers to our inability to accurate assess our abilities. Novices tend to overestimate their abilities, while experts tend to do the…

In Episode 20, Jon and I discuss the difference between a Systems and Process approach to coaching. What’s the difference? A systems based approach could be described as having a set formula/specific model for training. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Daniels, Coe, Lydiard, or any other coach. A systems approach means following that plan without…

In Episode 19 of the Magness & Marcus show, we have a special guest in professional runner, Phoebe Wright. In an eye opening interview, Phoebe opens up about her running story. Starting off with what her mindset was going from walk-on to NCAA champion and how that mindset shifted once she reached the professional ranks.…

We’re back! After a couple week summer hiatus while I took some vacation time, Jon and I are back with an exciting podcast on Data.We start off with trying to get to the essence of splits. Coming at it from a philosophical viewpoint, we look at what workout splits actually tell us and trace our…

In the latest episode of the Magness and Marcus show, we discuss a familiar topic to all coaches, the trap to do more because you really don’t know what else to do. Yes, we’re talking about the age old problem of increasing work for the sake of increasing something. We begin with the diminished return…

In this episode, we open the doors wide open. We’re talking about the realities of post collegiate running. We take on a slew of topics in this hour long conversation, including transparent conversation on contracts, agents, how much athletes actually make, what training groups and coaches do, and much more. Basically, we try to spread what…

In part two of our in person chat at the USA championships, Jon and I meander through a variety of topics surrounding distractions and performance. We start off with talking about taking the master chef approach. What’s this actually mean? It’s about how to get all of these different people to the same end game.…

Part 1- Once again, Jon and I come to you from a coffee shop on location and simply talking shop. This week we’re covering distractions; how to deal with them, how do you adapt to them, and when they might be positive or negative.  We start out with the “Once A Runner” myth about living…

In part two of Advice for a young coach, we start with the concept of coaching as a partnership versus a dictatorship. What does this mean? The goal should be to take athletes from dependence to independence, not the other way around. The goal of the coach shouldn’t be to prove their worth, but instead…

Coming to you from Austin, Texas, Jon and I take on the topic of “Advice for a young coach” in our first in person podcast. In this episode we take a step back in our young careers and look at our development as coaches. Starting with tracing our history of how we got into the…

In this episode of the Magness & Marcus podcast, we take on the topic that no one likes to deal with: failure. In the world of running, we deal with a sport that has a hard line, either you ran faster than you ever have before or you didn’t. Unfortunately, it’s incredibly easy to define…

In this episode of the Magness & Marcus podcast we explore one of the most basic but important concepts in coaching: understanding your athlete. Not in the traditional terms of where their strengths lie or their physiological make up, but instead by their mannerisms, behaviors, motivations and a slew of ‘soft’ characteristics that help define…

In our longest episode yet and our first with a guest, Jon and I have an hour long conversation with renowned coach Vern Gambetta. Vern has a unique background as his coaching career spanned from coaching High School all the way to coaching some of the world’s best athletes. Similarly, his background is in Track…

In this episode of Magness & Marcus on Coaching, we take on one of the oft-forgotten and misunderstood items in the world of running: the Neural component. Starting off with defining the CNS and motor programming in coaches speak, we take a look at how to integrate this type of work in the realm of…

After a one week hiatus, Jon and I are back for our longest episode of the Magness & Marcus podcast yet. In this one, we meander through a wide range of topics with the central theme of looking at how we have evolved as coaches and to try to take away lessons from what that…

In today’s episode of Magness & Marcus, we take on the myth of self importance. As coaches we put a large emphasis on the items which we can control and in coaching terms that means the workout schedule. There’s this idea that creating the perfect workout schedule is the key to success. For years, we…

Whether it is going from high school to college or from college to professional, we’ve all know stories of those who transitioned well and those who went through a rough patch. In this episode, Jon and I delve into these transitions. In our longest episode yet, we initially look at some of the roadblocks and…

In this weeks episode of Magness & Marcus we discuss how what matters most is often what goes on outside of practice. It’s the other 21 hours of the day when we aren’t working out that often is the deciding factor on whether we have success or not. It’s all about setting up the rest…

This week on the Magness & Marcus podcast, we take on the topic of strength training. It’s probably one of the hottest and most controversial topics in modern training theory. Mostly because it’s not our forte. In this episode we take on how you should lift, when you should lift, and what it actually does.…