Alexander Megos Training/Coaching/Mentoring

Author of the article: Patrick Matros who has been the trainer of Alexander Megos for five years.

From the training video: http://vimeo.com/24776832

(c) Ignacio Sandoval Buron

Training as a complex process
In the following we will provide an insight into our work as trainers and coaches and show, that there cannot be the big secret about training in sport climbing/bouldering.

Training is defined as a systematic and goal oriented process, which depends partly on scientifically proven principles, partly on principles which are based on experience. Training is also a very complex process with several factors which influence development. Considering training, for many people physical aspects like strength and muscular endurance come in mind. Others place emphasis on technical skills. Some think about the mental aspects of performance.

But there’s another often neglected aspect. Training with a trainer is also working on relationships. The athlete has to accept the trainer und his advices with understanding the reason for them, not just executing them because of external pressure. In addition to that, the trainer is a kind of role-model for the athlete. This requires a responsible attitude on the part of the trainer. On the other hand, the trainer has to appreciate his athlete and give him a certain (in most of the cases a constantly rising) level of self-determination for planning his training. Last but not least, the trainer has to consider influences from parents, friends and idols on the athlete as well.

Arriving at a high level of self-determination, based on many years of experience, the athlete knows pretty well what to do, to get into top shape. Sometimes training is done intuitionally. In this stadium, the trainer’s job is, to get the athlete aware of a high responsibility for his actions but it is also important to reflect the athlete’s actions from another point of view to prevent processes the athlete is not aware of. The trainer’s role changes more into one of a mentor’s. Alexander’s Road Trip to the U.S. is a good example for that.

In such a case we keep in frequent touch with the athletes (via E-Mail and also phone calls). It’s important for us, to be in the know of the team’s mood on location, the motivation of the athletes and their physical constitution. Thereby we work partially with mental anchors, because a detailed counseling is difficult. If it is necessary, we also monitor the media coverage and give some feedback in the case of need. We advise the athlete not to do this constantly, because he might be influenced in a negative way.

Trainer and athlete – working together

Is the trainer getting into the act with the athlete, he has to consider physiological, psychological and educational aspects. Concerning the physical aspects, we work with strengths/weakness profiles, based on guideline interviews and specific fitness tests. Also the mental training is important. Often it is underestimated. The athlete gets knowledge and skills to regulate his affects and strategies to follow his goals over a long time. Eventually a philosophy is a must-have for a trainer, which is the background for a long-term cooperation with the athlete and a base for some abstract objectives (which probably will be achieved). In our opinion, the topic of these objectives cannot be a victory in a competition or the accomplishment of a very hard route. The key objective for us as a trainer is to provide support for the personality development of the athlete, whose self-concept is designed pretty much with topics of climbing. Is the work with the athlete finished (not our friendship), the most important thing for us is, that the athlete is still happy to climb, whatever he decides to do with this activity.

Long-term achievement-motivation is only possible, when the trainer supports the athlete, to hold the balance between goal-oriented cognitive and emotional motivation. Fun and enjoyment as well as persistence and self-regulation have to be in balance to achieve peak performance.

Thus, it cannot be the aim, to produce so called “wonder childs”. Due to their lightheartedness, their ideal physiologic preconditions (power-weight-relationship, reduced lactate-acid production and good anatomically preconditions like little fingers there will be fantastic results with the right training in a short time. The athlete often has to pay for it with injuries according to a deficit in compensatory and balanced training. Often the trainer loses the focus on the personality development and the motivational balance, too. When the progress stops and the athlete gets to a barrier, often a drop-out, quitting the sport is the consequence. These barriers could be injuries, a mental block getting to a new difficulty, a plateau in physical condition due to habituation effects, but also a development stage like adolescence. Supporting the athlete getting through these barriers we consider as our most important challenge. Therefore you need special knowledge about physiological and psychological aspects. These barriers are not definable in determined within a certain age range. They only can be conceived and resolved under a systemic perspective.

The work with Alexander

Now to Alexander: He started sport climbing at the age of 6. At this important age especially technical skills are developed, which form a basis for important proceedings later on. When he came to us, he was already at 13 and his hardest route was “only” 8a. He had won some regional competitions and was the Bavarian champion of his age. We recognized pretty fast his physically and mentally potential (it’s very important to consider both). Due to our philosophy, refusing fast progress as possible with all the mentioned negative aspects, we started a very fundamental strategy for training/coaching, based on profound and frequent strengths/weakness profiles. This prevents the athlete also to hit his first barrier too quick. We imparted Alexander tools, to organize his training routines in a step by step more self-determined way and to get more and more knowledge about his body.  A second enormous significant aspect is, to train the antagonist muscles in a variable and intensive way.  This helps to prevent injuries and shortens phases of recovery. Beyond that, the athlete develops a very balanced physique, which enables him to train more intensive.

You can see some examples here: http://vimeo.com/24776832 It seems that we found an optimal solution to prevent one of the biggest fears of a trainer: fast habituation and stagnation of performance. After Alexander finishes his school with a general qualification for university entrance, another step had to be done. Alexander decided upon the advice of us, to get a year off, traveling and climbing around the world, with only a few starts at competitions. Very important: Not with us, with some friends! At this point, our coaching primarily consisted in mentoring mental and motivational aspects of his training/climbing. Frequent communication – nowadays no problem – is the key to success, but not to monitor a rigid training routine! We are happy, that Alexander hasn’t reached his next barrier yet.

Last but not least we would give some advice to the young and motivated athletes out there. Go climbing with dedication and work hard for your goals, but don’t take it too serious! There will be other athletes growing up and other winners in the competitions will replace you. If your personality is only focused on something like “I have to be the best” coming down back to earth could be pretty frustrating J

Who we are:

Patrick Matros, working as a scientist (sports and educational science) at university and Ludwig (Dicki) Korb, working as an educationist at the institutional youth care service. We are trainers/coaches at the federal center of sport climbing and bouldering in Erlangen-Nuremberg. Referring to this, we have published some articles in specialist magazines.

In fall 2013 we will release a book with DVD with many exercises for intelligent and balanced strength-training starring Sasha DiGiulian, Mélissa le Nevé, Bernd Zangerl, Babsi Zangerl and Fred Nicole. The DVD will include also not published training footage of the legendary Wolfgang Güllich and some expert-interviews. Stay tuned for Gimme Kraft! (http://gimmekraft.com/ )

Contact: [email protected]