Making a race plan

Knowing what to do and when during a race significantly impacts your final placing. In this video, Ken describes what he includes in his pre-race coach's briefing with his athletes. Then, he runs through the essential parts of a good race plan.

Video Transcript

I strongly suggest that every athlete and coach before they head out for a race they sit on the bank in a quiet spot like this edge of the warm-up Lake here for example just talk about what they're going to do what the goals are what we're trying to achieve how are we going to go about it are we going to go out hard are we going to try and fight everyone off all the way or are we going to just sit quietly behind someone so that sort of conversation is really important it's not just about where you're going to be in the race it's really about other matters like what type of start you're doing when are you going to find your Rhythm when are you going to if someone's in front of you how are you going to try and catch them if someone's coming at you how you're going to lose them what things are you going to focus on for example when do you focus on technique how do you make sure that when the race gets hard that your mind's not going to convince you that it's too hard and how to set your goals and to make sure you've got the right goals for the race so that when you do race did you find that you're not fatigued not trying to creep in because you feel like it's hard work if you've got a good goal at the end and you're committed to that goal then you can use that to override that thing that often athletes call pain which is not really pain it's just a discomfort but what they're trying to do is to is to convince themselves of the goal is what we're about and therefore you can go harder if you've got a good goal so those three particular aspects I think are crucial to sit down quietly Before the Race have a conversation about them how are you going to race what's important in the race what position you need to be in what technique aspects you're going to focus on and how you're going to focus your mind to make sure that you can do the distance to the best of your ability well worth the conversation in a relaxed position well before you get onto the water and by that I mean immediately before you get onto the water but leave yourself plenty of time for that conversation because it can make a massive difference to Performance in a race then once you've had that conversation I'd suggest don't be distracted essentially go straight to the boat check the boat make sure that everything's okay and nothing's loose and then on the water and away if you do that you'll find you get a much better focus on what's required in order to perform well