Our Great Coach on this episode is Simon Jones.

Simon is a cycling coach who started working with British cycling in the mid 1990’s.

In 1998 he was appointed the British National Track Endurance Coach and then in 2003 he was promoted to the Head Coach role of British Cycling. During this period he coached Sir Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish. And in 2004, 2005 and 2007 the team came top of the medal tally at the Track Cycling World Championships.

In 2007 he moved to the Western Australian Institute of Sport in coaching roles for racing sports.

This then led him to a coaching and innovation role with Team Sky under Sir David Brailsford in 2014, and 2 victories in the Tour De France, in 2015 and 2016.

And from there to the top role at Australian Cycling as the Performance Director from 2017 to 2021.

Simon puts athletes at the very centre of his coaching approach. He believes that attention to detail and a focus on, in his words, planning not the plan, help the cyclist unlock their potential and adjust accordingly in a complex world.

He believes in the human ability to synthesize information, summarize, find patterns and adjust and in this this interview, recorded before the Tokyo Olympic Games, you will hear him talk about:

• His description of working with Sir David Brailsford at team sky, and how they applied a focus on marginal gains to win the tour de France.
• How on race day you have to be mindful of not having a negative impact as a coach, and so you need to stand back and give the athlete space.
• And his view that legacy is for your ego, and so he doesn’t focus on it, but instead tries to just do his job and enjoy the role.
• This was an enjoyable interview with a coach who believes in empowerment and I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.

If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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