Elite coaching special - Nic Bideau, coach to Craig Mottram

Building belief
To fully develop an athlete’s potential Nic believes they must choose races wisely. He uses Mottram as a good example: “When I brought Mottram to Europe in 2000 he was 19 or 20. He ran in races at places such as Bedford, Manchester and Battersea and small meetings in Ireland and won most of them.

“When we were finally sure he was ready to compete with some top level athletes, I put him in at Zagreb in the 1500mand he ran 3min 38sec which was a big personal best. He didn’t win it but he was competitive and was there or thereabouts in the last lap. I didn’t want him to get used to running out the back. He’d won four or five smaller races over here by then. He was winning races and feeling pretty good about it. I placed him in races that were a good progressive step. I didn’t slaughter him straight away by putting him in at Oslo or something of that level.”

Even when an athlete’s career is well developed being wise in choosing the right races is still vital. The World Championships in 2001 at Edmonton give an example: “People were saying ‘Why isn’t Mottram in the 5K after he’d run that event at the 2000 Olympics?’ But it was at altitude, even if only slight, against the Africans and he would have been killed. So we had him in the 1500m where he could at least keep up until 300m to go with the very best. In his semi he was still within reach of El Guerrouj with 300m to go – he didn’t make the final but he didn’t come away thinking it was impossible next time.

“It is about good management - putting a strategy in place where you can get the best out of someone rather than them getting hammered.”

Nic can quote examples of juniors being put in senior races where they get ‘hammered’ and says he wonders what the people advising them expected them to gain from the experience. He says: “People are put in situations they are not ready for. There’s a case for putting potential stars in the Commonwealth Games for experience where they won’t get killed. But don’t send them to Oslo or Zurich or Rome with 20 Africans out there- races where they can get annihilated.”



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