High Performance
My original background and main field of work is high performance development of open class athletes, U23s and Juniors. Essentially, my job is to bring athletes from whatever level they are at now, to a high performance level – on a sustainable basis. Sustainability makes things more difficult, as the development of an athlete needs to be well strategized and adapted to their rate of growth, as well as to their ups and downs. It is easy to throw high volumes and high intensities at a bunch of athletes and pick the survivors. Unfortunately, this is common practice in quite a few teams. However, I work differently. I usually come into place when the individual athlete counts, and when not-making-it is not an option. Quite often I work with athletes who need to recover from excessive overtraining and / or consequential loss of endurance and injuries. 

A good deal of my work with young athletes involves helping young rowers reach specific 2000m times to qualify for college programs. How this works, is explained in the FAQ section.

As I work with people from many different countries, who are quite often already part of a national team or some sort of high performance group, the majority of my work is underneath the radar, which means that I am not officially involved. 

Masters and Late Starters
The second big part of my work is with masters rowers and late starters. Most of them want to compete at national events, and world masters regattas. Many, however, simply want to be in competitive shape, and only possibly compete. The well thought out structure of a high performance plan, which quite often spreads over a couple of years, helps masters rowers either to improve their competitiveness after years of stagnation and random training, or establish a sustainable competitive shape in the first place. 

Entire clubs, college and highschool teams
A further part of my work is to write plans for entire teams, and monitor their progress. Here, I work closely with the coach or the coaching team on site. Essentially, I strategise, plan, monitor and support in the background. Depending on the agreement with the team, I also include frequent video analysis and even on-site-training in specific cases. 

Coaches Support
Lastly, I run mastermind groups and one-on-one sessions with coaches, helping them with their strategies, long and short term planning as well as with their day-to-day questions on custom adaptions, technique and selection. 

Learn more

Here are answers to frequently asked questions: 

For how long in advance do you write plans?
I usually write out 6-week-meso-cycles, but plan a full macro cycle, which is a full year of preparation for day X, or multiple peaks of season. 
 
How do one-on-one sessions work?
One-on-one sessions are usually arranged whenever suitable for the athlete and myself. 
How do group sessions work?
The group sessions are always on Saturday at 0930 CET and 2030 CET. For Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, I recommend the European a.m. session, for the Americas I recommend the European p.m. session. Each session lasts 45minutes net, and usually covers a very specific technique topic with detailed explanation and drills. All sessions are available for re-live in the Video Member area. 
How does communication work?
Communication typically runs through the Telegram messenger app, but also through FaceTime, or E-Mail. If your package includes one-on-one sessions, these always function as a check-in and update session next to the accompanied training. 
How do you monitor training progress?
I always monitor improvements regarding the training zone which we are working on the most at every given moment. As oppose to (unfortunate) common practice, I do not use permanent 2K or 6K tests, but only towards peak of season when we have actually prepared for it. During the preparation phase, the training plan includes test elements which are always part of the regular training routine. For example will we do multiple 1000m or 2000m pieces at a limited intensity (not all-out). This is not so much an all-out test, but a great measure to see if, for example, a 2000m piece at stroke rate 25 and 75% intensity yields a better time than three weeks ago. This way, we do not ruin low endurance development progress, yet still have reliable feedback on your individual progress. Improvements never happen in a linear fashion and not on all fronts simultaneously. If we are working on the anaerobic threshold, for example, then we will use the ratio of stroke rate to perceived exertion to HR to (possibly) lactate, to see if improvements have been made or are being made. This works in a very similar fashion with all other intensities. 
With strength, we use the execution quality, weight moved and repetitions completed as a reliable measure. 
 
How do you work with individual athletes who are part of a larger program already, yet want to use your help to reach a specific goal?
The way it usually works is that we use our own plan as our guided structure, and aim to adapt the club workouts as much as possible without being obvious. What you are missing, after all, is a clear cut laid out path and the according strategy to reach your goal. This, however, is exactly what I bring to the table. 
Once you know how to read your new plan, and once you know better how to judge and target the desired intensities, then you can use the existing club sessions to cover as much as possible during every given week or two-week-cycle, and use the open time to complement with what is missing.  Keeping the training log will be vital in your case. I always provide a detailed one with the plan. 
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