Cycling Coaches in Sydney - Page 3

Pretty sure there was a study where riders were instructed to apply force in various manners through the pedal stroke and mashing came out on top.

Didn't Coyle et al 1991 find that Cat 1 actually delivered power through less of the stroke but still more overall power than Cat 2 riders.

Far bigger fish to fry for any coach than pedalling technique. Spent yesterday at the track working with 8-16 year old newbies on a lot of technique correcting errors and coaching proper skills and didn't see any pedalling techniques that desperately needed correcting.

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Hamish Ferguson: Cycling Coach
http://hamishferguson.blogspot.com/

Yes.
Yes.
Yes.

On the latter, I see bike fits that need correcting but rarely pedalling technique once they have a good bike fit.

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

Re bike fits...

Yes

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Hamish Ferguson: Cycling Coach
http://hamishferguson.blogspot.com/

How does a bikefitter decide on the exact setting of handlebar height in relation to the saddle ?

If a high performance set up it is finding the right balance between power delivery and aerodynamics.

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Hamish Ferguson: Cycling Coach
http://hamishferguson.blogspot.com/

What are the other areas of cycling (road TT's, the races of truth) so important that they make pedalling technique unimportant and something to be dismissed as a waste of valuable coaching time. How can you explain the fact that it took cycling experts and coaches 100 years to realize the importance of an aerodynamic hand position in TT's.

Your experience would be substantially different then from the coaches at the British National team, or so we have been told.

How would you define a pedalling technique that needs to be corrected ? Why does Lance have such a unique TT bike set-up and position ?

Alex said it best either here or on his blog, power, pacing and piercing.

Funny Frank should mention the British Cycling I was chatting to one of their coaches and as a side question I asked did they use Powercranks, his reply was no.

In what way is Lance's TT position unique?

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Hamish Ferguson: Cycling Coach
http://hamishferguson.blogspot.com/

I think they figured out aerodynamics was relevent to cycling a long time ago. Land speed records set behind a train etc.

I did see a study on thumb position at the biketechreview site but here we are getting into small gain territory. At $1000/hr for US based wind tunnels I think there are bigger fish to fry when looking for aero advantages.

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Hamish Ferguson: Cycling Coach
http://hamishferguson.blogspot.com/

Before you can coach a behavior you have to hold a belief that training your client to adapt that behavior is in their best interest and will benefit them in some way.

Your continual arguments in favor of a pedaling style that apparently only you understand aren't really ready for the realm of coaching. First establish exactly what you're trying to accomplish and how it benefits the riders (that's the realm of sports science) then figure out a way to instruct and train riders to adopt this new technique (now we're getting to sports instruction and coaching).

But for all your drooling over Anquetil's pedaling I haven't seen any strong evidence that it makes a typical rider any faster nor have you proposed a reliable method for instructing this magical technique. Until you do those things (and people here have repeatedly asked you for this kind of supporting evidence) you're in the realm of supposition, not science and definitely not coaching.

If you've got it all figured out then work with a group of athlete's train them in this style of pedaling and get them out onto the racing circuit to kick some serious ass. It won't take long before riders are lining up at your door to learn your secret methods and coaches are calling you up for guidance in your approach. Or maybe approach a reputable university with a sports science program and pitch your observations on the benefits of this style of pedaling and your method for changing the nearly universal habits cyclist use while pedaling and have them perform some controlled and well constructed studies. But if you can't do something like that then exactly what would you like the coaches to start doing with their clients?

And explain why increasing tangental force by X amount is effective when Coyle (1991) showed that cat 1 riders deliver more force over a lesser part of the pedal stroke at a higher power output than cat 2 riders.

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Hamish Ferguson: Cycling Coach
http://hamishferguson.blogspot.com/

It's hard to know where to begin but here's a start, quoting B.Hinault who had a total of 10 Tour and 5 World Championship
TT victories during his cycling career. " Contrary to commomn belief and despite the apparent simplicity of the movements involved, pedalling must be learned. This doesn't mean you should force yourself into this or that style, trying to imitate some champion's technique. You can't copy from anyone else. But your personal style can gain a lot if you go beyond the stage of instinct , by thinking abiut the movement itself and doing special workouts to improve your natural efficiency. Adapting to big gears provides an excellent opportunity to work on your pedal style. If you want to go fast in a 53x12, which rolls out to 9.19 meters , it's not possible to use the economical style appropriate for moderate gears , doing most of the work at the power points and following the pedal for the rest of the revolution. That would put too much demand on the hip extensors and knee flexors. On the contrary you must work on powering the pedal through the complete etc. " Is that enough ?

No, you entirely sidestepped my questions.

What exactly do you think coaches should be instructing their clients to do and what evidence do you have that these clients will benefit from your methods?

The Badger's personal observations don't explain your theories nor do they explain what you find lacking in coaches instructional techniques. Find a way to demonstrate the superiority of your preferred pedaling technique and explain how coaches should proceed with their client's in terms of instructing this method.

P.S. BH's personal thoughts on the subject are obviously contrary to Coyle's famous study, so why do you accept the former and apparently ignore or reject the latter as Fergie keeps asking?

I didn't realize coaching in Sydney was such a contentious occupation....