Discussion: I need a coach!... soon

So I'm down to my last semester of collegiate track and field. Once I graduate, I'm planning on getting much more involved in the orienteering community.

Here's my life as it stands right now. Over the summer I will be in Philadelphia and working a lot. (trying to make enough money for my trip to Spain and deal with student loans) In late August I will be moving to Spain, most likely Madrid, to teach English. I will be working anywhere from 16-30 hours a week.

I want to see how far I can go with orienteering, and outdoor sports in general, so I'd rather not try to reinvent the wheel. I feel that the advice of a veteran in the sport could save me from much unneeded struggling.

My questions are: should I find a coach in Spain or a coach that can correspond with me over the internet, is there a coach present on attackpoint that would be willing to help, and would said coach be willing to work with me for little or no payment?

I leave it to the attackpoint community to point me in the right direction. If not I'm just going to train hard and hope it turns out well.

That is great Greg! This is a winning attitude. I am sure this community can help you reach these goals.

I hope you get some responses. My personal opinion is that it would be better to have a coach there in Spain that you can work with at least occasionally in person. However, if that doesn't work, an internet coach wouldn't be a bad option either, especially if they can view your training on line and if there are enough local orienteering events/trainings so that you don't need a local person to set that up for you.

On another note, I've wondered if orienteering coaching should be more specialized. For example, one coach that just focuses on Sprint and another on middle and long distance and still another on the physical training. Of course, they would all need to work together and it may be hard enough to find one.

There is nothing better than having a coach that can give you a swift kick in the rear end (actually) if you need it, which is why I would suggest you find a coach locally. Normally the local running clubs will have somebody and you would just need to pay the running club levies.

You can still however have a virtual coach, or more than one. It never hurts to get more than 1 opinion and also get some sage advice from somebody who you've know for a while and who you consider a role model for yourself.

Just my 2 cents :)

I would also suggest local. There's much more an o coach can do having seen you out there.

Where in spain are you? There isn't much o around but there are pockets of activity.

I also very much doubt you will have to pay anyone. I've never coached for cash in europe, have only received expenses for group trips.

Good luck!

Hey Greg.

After a quick look at your log I can see that you're already doing the same volume as many of the elite runners here in Sweden. What you need is someone to get you into the orienteering specific training and an online coach wont really able to help you with that stuff. But I think I can point you in the right direction.

There's a swedish guy in Spain that used to coach the spanish o-team and that now runs o-travel (a company that specialise in training camps in Spain and Portugal). Try contacting him and se if he can coach you. He knows the area and if he won't coach you he can probably help you with finding one. (He might be kind of busy this time of the year tho since all the scandinavians want to escape the winter).

http://o-travel.com/?page_id=19&lang=en - This is the homepage of the travel company.

Here's some maps nearby Madrid:
http://o-travel.com.loopiadns.com/wp-content/uploa...
http://o-travel.com.loopiadns.com/wp-content/uploa...
http://o-travel.com.loopiadns.com/wp-content/uploa...
http://o-travel.com.loopiadns.com/wp-content/uploa...

Good Luck!

Wow, amazing response time attackpoint. I am really going to look into all this. Thank you so much!

Greg,

I totally agree with everything mood said and was going to write the same thing when I saw his message. Email Per - he is the best person to get in touch with for this. I am really excited to see you wanting to train hard for orienteering. I am looking forward to watching your progress and following your results!!

Thanks Boris. By the way, I had my interview yesterday with the Madrid Catholic schools; it went pretty well. It sounds like at this point I'm going to be in Madrid they just need to find what school I'll be in.