Supporting Champions 056: Malcolm Brown on a career in coaching and lessons from the Brownlees
056: Malcolm Brown on a career in coaching and lessons from the Brownlees
This episode’s guest is Malcolm Brown a Performance Coach based at the Leeds Triathlon Centre where he has partnered with Jack Maitland in coaching the Brownlee Brothers, that’s Alastair and Jonny – two of the greatest triathlon racers of all time.
He was previously the head endurance coach for UK Athletics, coaching athletes to international gold medals at Commonwealth, European, World and Olympic level
Malcolm has journeyed through what would be considered one of the most traditional routes for a coach, being a PE teacher by trade, coaching in his spare time almost always on a volunteer basis and then as the system in the UK developed he began to coach professionally, first for athletics, then later in triathlon
In this interview, Malcolm reflects over the long arc of his career and draws on the lessons that have kept him so stable, cogent and wise. Malcolm tells it like it is about the state of coaching and how it has been underinvested in, how it lacks the recognition and prominence that it deserves but ardently hopes for better and is active in creating that future for coaching.
He’s supposed to be retired, but he’s still extremely active in the coaching community, having established the Leeds triathlon centre and recently the Endurance think tank. We start the conversation with a recent health scare for Malcolm, which it sounds as though many of his athletes ‘coached’ him through.
Show notes:
Club Le Santa, Lanzarote and a heart attack
How Malcolm occupied his mind when recuperating
Context to Malcolm’s 42 year coaching career
Paternal role model, interest in multiple sports, Head down and Head up perspectives from academics
Malcolm’s athletic career and the insights provided by his own injuries!
Finding the right words at the right time to support the athlete
Working with Alistair and Jonny Brownlee and picking up body language indicators in order to adapt sessions clip
Malcolm didn’t want coaching to be his job, he enjoyed his independence and autonomy too much!!
The common language of a team
Coach with significant input from the athletes led the training environment
Coach development roles, skills and competencies
The benefits of the endurance think tank
Malcolm’s observations around successful junior athletes not progressing to being successful senior athletes and the reasons he identified
The resourcefulness of the Brownlee brother’s and the necessity for them to make their own decisions as they are the athlete
How has Malcolm’s input changed with the Brownlees over time
Physiological efficiency
Malcolm’s nuggets of wisdom
Fail better!
Malcolm on Twitter
https://twitter.com/Malcthecoach
Leeds National Endurance Centre
https://nationalendurancecentre.co.uk/
International Council for Coaching Excellence
Supporting Champions on Twitter www.twitter.com/support_champs
Steve Ingham on Twitter www.twitter.com/ingham_steve
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