Who we are
The Coaches
David Chalfen
David is a runner of 30 years experience, with a focus on longer distances. Qualified at Level 4 (Performance - 10k to Marathon) within UK Athletics coaching system, he has covered a range of practical and technical modules. He has recently been appointed as one of England Athletics Area Coach Mentors in Endurance
http://www.englandathletics.org/news.asp?itemid=1600&itemTitle=New+team+to+help+boost+endurance§ion=42§ionTitle=England+Athletics+News
The Area Coach role has evolved from previous coaching with the England Athletics London Region Performance Squad, assisting the capital's best Under 17 and Under 20 distance runners and 2 years as England Athletics Long Distance Co-ordinator for London. He also coaches a group of national level 16-18 year old endurance runners at Oaklands Athletics Academy in St Albans, currently the only specialist athletics programme of this type in 6th form colleges. http://www.oaklands.ac.uk/about/athleticsacademy.aspx
As a runner he achieved a 2.32 marathon and 10 sub-2.35s. He is a member of Serpentine Running Club.
In a professional capacity, he has picked up much best practice from working on Sport England’s and UK Sports World Class Programmes that support elite British sport. He currently works in Sports Development.
To complement his coaching commitments, he has managed numerous elite runners, both African professionals and GB internationals, at big city marathons such as Berlin, Istanbul and Seville, as well as other championship races in Spain. He says:-
- As a self-coached runner I was always very keen to put in plenty of miles but underachieved through not training smartly enough and not having an objective external guide to shape the training and recovery as sensibly as it could have been. I made the typical errors of neglecting almost all non-running preparation to focus solely on getting the miles done, and always training to my strengths, rather than addressing weaknesses, which over time will leave you short of your full potential.
I started coaching because I am much more excited by contributing to other runners' improvement than dwelling on my own slowing down. The progress made by the runners I continue to coach as a volunteer in the traditional club environment (see Who We Coach) has given me the confidence to develop this approach via the website.
Since starting coaching I have learned that many runners focus too much on volume as an indicator of progress whereas an informed coach will offer a programme with the suitable balance of volume and intensity without necessarily worrying about any ‘magic’ mileage figures. I stress variety and progression across the programme so that, whilst one can never avoid doing the underpinning volume and regularity to make progress, there are an infinite range of different ways of structuring the training sessions to achieve the required physical challenge.
Dave Newport
Dave has spent over half his life as a running coach - which very few guys aged only 37 can claim!
Dave has recently been appointed GB Elite Duathlon Team Manager by the British Triathlon Federation and led the team to the World & European Short Course Championships and the World Long Course Championship in 2008.
As a youngster he showed talent in a number of sports, including judo, cricket, rugby and football, but settled in his mid-teens on middle and long distance running. Having stumbled into coaching in 1987 Dave quickly built up a strong squad of 11-18 year olds before he joined the Army in 1991. This career change took him first to Yorkshire where he was very successful with his first coaching of senior athletes. 1996-2005 was spent in Hereford coaching junior athletes, whilst also building a strong group of senior athletes in Cheltenham, where he settled after leaving the Army in 2005.
He has coached several national level runners, including a GB senior international who competed at the World Cross Country championships, and his current squad includes former English Schools 1500m Champion Alex Felce, 2006 British Elite Duathlon Champion and Midland XC Bronze medallist Tom Lowe, along with U20 internationals Iain Whitfield and Claire Conway. The latest additions to Dave's training group have made a huge impact this year, with Emily Merrick breaking through to run one of the fastest 5km times in the country by a 17yr old, and young Rhys Park proving that he's one of the brightest young long distance prospects in the UK right now.
The majority of Dave's runners have continued through the 18 - 23 age group, which has a notoriously high drop out rate, evidence that as well as having the technical know-how to improve people's running he also has the motivational skills to retain their enthusiasm for the sport when the pressures of life can take their toll.
Having coached for athletics for 20 years, and having a thirst for any ideas, skills and knowledge that can add to his coaching expertise, Dave brings plenty of diverse experience to the sport. Having spent long periods abroad with his work, he has managed to coach via email and satellite phone from Iraq, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Bosnia & USA, showing that there are no boundaries that can keep a coach from his athletes.
Dave says, “Every athlete has room for improvement, whether entry level novices, or international level performers. My goal is always to help athletes achieve the greatest possible improvement each year, whilst avoiding injury or over-training. I am a firm believer in long term development, rather than quick fixes or crash training which will only provide short term gains. There are many ways to improve performances, with no ‘one size fits all’ solution, but this is the challenge that I enjoy most. Generally I prefer to ensure that the athletes are firstly aerobically fit and that they work to a progressive multi-paced system when ready. For any system to work though, patience is required, by both the athlete and myself, as I believe that consistency is most important of all to achieve long term improvement. I try to keep each program flexible, but always ensure that the workload remains consistent with the level of performance being targeted. Cross training can be an asset, and have used this many times with good results. Many runners believe that there is no substitute for actually getting out and running, but it’s more important to avoid injury and keep improving via ‘smart’ training rather than simply thrashing out meaningless miles for little gain. I am passionate about coaching, but if my athletes don’t improve each year, I cannot enjoy my sport, so I guarantee to leave no stone unturned in order to raise the performance levels of every athlete I coach.”
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