Cycling Coaches in Sydney - Page 2

I would defintely reccomend getting some clipless shoes pretty quick.
You can get some good priced ones at places like www.cellbikes.com.au
They have the shoes & pedals and will even fit them to your bike for you.

And dont worry about the guys that look fancy, looks can be very deceiving

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Always Remembered Never Forgotten

Cycling must be the only world sport where technique is almost completely ignored by coaches.

Au contraire.

There is a lot of technique to coach in cycling (e.g. track racing, MTB, CX, crits), just not a lot of it relates to pedalling. Track standing starts is a big one for instance.

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Custom Training Plans -- cyclecoach.com -- My Blog -- Power Meter Hire in Australia

I would regard that as your start pedalling technique. My explanation for coaches lack of interest in pedalling techniques is ignorance, they can't teach them if they know nothing about them.

OK, as an evidence based coach, my obviously limited knowledge is based on the evidence from various studies demonstrating that the fastest cyclists are the one's who push down the hardest on the pedals. So clearly I need to work out how to coach my clients to push down harder on the pedals. What technique drills would you suggest for that, besides simply riding at a higher power?

Are we off track or still talking about coaching in Sydney

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Custom Training Plans -- cyclecoach.com -- My Blog -- Power Meter Hire in Australia

True, the fastest riders will be the ones who push down hardest on the pedals, but will the fastest riders over 4 or 5 hundred yards be the fastest riders in a 50 mile TT. I was referring to all coaches.

Cool. You'll be so hooked before you know it

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Dig Bands

No, but the fastest riders over 50-miles still push down harder than their slower competitors. So presumably the "technique" to be "taught" is to push harder.

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Custom Training Plans -- cyclecoach.com -- My Blog -- Power Meter Hire in Australia

Not if they know how to increase the tangential effect of the force they are applying to the pedals by 33 per cent over that of the stomper and that is possible.

Not interested if it doesn't result in more power.

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Custom Training Plans -- cyclecoach.com -- My Blog -- Power Meter Hire in Australia

I believe I read about a study recently that showed that elite riders' strokes are biased more towards downstroke force than beginning riders'. I'm not sure that means that orienting the force of your pedal strokes with your cranks isn't important though, because it seems likely to me that elite riders' legs are vastly more powerful to begin with. A better answer to the question of pedalling technique might come from analyzing the ratio between useful applied force and force that's applied parallel to the cranks.

I don't know about that study but there is a study that clearly demonstrates that faster national level elite riders push down harder (apply greater downforce as a proportion of total pedal forces around the whole pedal stroke) than their slower state level (but still very well trained) counterparts.

So in effect, they do have greater overall tangential forces applied to the crank, but it is all achieved by pushing down harder.

Trained riders are more powerful because they can produce more power (i.e. work per unit time). I suspect you might be confusing the thought of leg "strength", which is not a limiter in endurance cycling performance.

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Custom Training Plans -- cyclecoach.com -- My Blog -- Power Meter Hire in Australia

There goes another thread . Alex, do you realize that your presence is the only thing that makes all this still "on topic"?

N crowley, it may interest you to know that sometimes I purposely mash more down on the pedals than it's natural for me. Yup, that's what all this circular pedalling technique talk has done to me, and I appreciate it.

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Ah, that was exactly the study I was trying to remember. I don't think I'm confusing this with the concept of leg "strength" at all. We're both in perfect agreement that this is all about sustainable power ouput.
The question I think we're arguing about is whether there might be any benefit to be had from pushing harder in other parts of the stroke, instead of focusing just on the downward press. If anything, this would reduce the maximal leg strength used in the stroke, since the goal would be to spread force development over the whole stroke. We might hope to see some efficiency gains by doing this.
I imagine that the maximal aerobic power output of a muscle is limited by the amount of oxygen that can be carried to the muscle, and I assume there's some sort of interplay between the V02 max, the surface area of blood vessels inside the muscle groups and the volume of blood pumping through the muscle groups. If there's an advantage in using smaller muscle groups to assist the pedals through the motion, it seems like it must come from loading the muscle groups proportionately to their ability to create power.

Pedalling style may not be the name of the thread but it was one of the main concerns of the OP, but unfortunately he was advised it was unimportant and to steer clear of any coach who focussed on it. Why your obsession with the circular style, it's the weakest of all techniques, ideal for touring riders but not for competition.