Former world 1500m finalist nonetheless likes to tug on his racing spikes when he isn’t main coaching classes, lecturing, occasion organising, asserting or commentating
On the peak of his observe profession James Thie was a world, European and Commonwealth 1500m finalist. Now a senior lecturer in sport administration and efficiency at Cardiff Metropolitan College, in addition to head coach for Coopah, he’s a a number of masters world champion and coach to a profitable group of athletes that features present and alumni college students from each Cardiff Met and Cardiff College.
Along with his core coaching group, Thie additionally hosts a midweek ‘run membership’ – an open observe evening for runners of all talents inside the local people – and is a revered occasion organiser, announcer and commentator.
How did you get into teaching and who did you study from?
I used to be fortunate to have some superb faculty and membership experiences by varied coaches after I was creating, however I used to be pretty distinctive in that for many of my grownup aggressive profession I used to be self-coached.
Mark Rowland coached me for round 18 months in 2001 and I realized an enormous quantity in that point. I shortly realised that there was no straightforward path to success, no magic wand.
I began my very own teaching journey in 2008 whereas I used to be nonetheless competing [as a senior athlete]. The Scottish athlete David Bishop was trying to enhance his 1500m time and he requested me if I might assist him run 3:45 to get a scholarship to the US. I’d by no means coached anybody apart from myself, however I bear in mind considering: “Let’s simply do what I’ve been doing and tweak it”. It labored as a result of he hit the time and bought the scholarship. He was my first cost and it was good as a result of it went full circle – when he returned to the UK I coached him to the Commonwealth Video games in Glasgow in 2014.
James Thie (Mark Shearman)
I started taking care of college college students at Cardiff Met across the similar time as working with David. I ended up teaching athletes who different folks wouldn’t coach, or those that didn’t have coaches. I felt so lucky to have these athletes as a result of, though they didn’t realise it, I used to be studying by them. Each coach has to start out someplace, and by teaching somebody. It’s a type of issues; you solely ever study by follow, you study by folks and really very often you solely study by errors.
In the beginning I had foreign money as being an athlete so folks had been coming to me due to that. Though I’ve by no means stopped being an athlete, they’re now coming to me as a result of they consider me as a coach and that’s a pleasant feeling.
Reputations are arduous to construct up, however I prefer to assume that the proof is within the environments you create. If athletes take pleasure in what you’re doing, and in the event that they’re bettering or experiencing success due to it, then you definately’re doing one thing proper. For those who create an surroundings that’s not gratifying however individuals are having a great deal of success, the second that success begins to hit just a few street bumps then teams disintegrate. It’s the identical the opposite means; if folks benefit from the coaching surroundings however they’re not bettering or getting success, then these teams can disintegrate, too.
James Thie, Clare Elms, Andrew Ridley
What’s your teaching philosophy?
I’ve at all times liked serving to individuals who ask for assist, and that’s on the core of my philosophy. I feel it goes again to being self-coached; I wish to be the coach for others that I’d have wished for myself.
In the end it’s about being there for my athletes, supporting them to be the perfect they are often whereas additionally ensuring they’re wholesome, comfortable and having fun with the game.
Teaching student-athletes can current completely different challenges to these skilled by membership or skilled group coaches. What challenges have you ever confronted and the way have you ever navigated these?
It’s a captivating one and I’d prefer to assume I’ve principally bought it proper. When athletes come to college right here they usually have their very own coaches [at home], not like within the US the place their school coach turns into their coach. The thought of our group in Cardiff is that anybody can leap into classes, however there’s not an assumption that I’ll coach an athlete simply because they’ve moved right here.
Piers Copeland [2019 European U23 silver medallist] is an effective instance. On the time [he came to Cardiff Met] I used to be teaching Jake Heyward [2022 European silver medallist and Welsh 1500m record-holder] and folks assumed Piers would come to me, however he was comfortable together with his “house” coach Bob Smith who’s sensible, so he would simply leap in each few classes with us. That’s a win-win as a result of he had his personal set-up that was working very well, however he felt like he could possibly be a part of our group and will take part on coaching classes with us, too.
Piers Copeland beats Callum Elson and Adam Fogg (Getty)
It’s a little bit of a rotating door with college college students. You don’t personal any athletes. Athletes would possibly come to Cardiff Met or Cardiff Uni then go off to do a Masters within the US. Once they come again I would find yourself choosing them again up, or they find yourself going some other place, but when they’re nonetheless working, nonetheless progressing and nonetheless having fun with it – and if I’ve been a part of that – then that’s nice.
One other problem for student-athletes is transferring away from house and the transition to residing alone. As a college coach it’s one of many hidden points we have now to cope with. With coach schooling we speak about programming, planning, all of that, however pastoral care is essential and goes again to my philosophy of caring for athletes and looking for them.
We’re fortunate to have an incredible group in Cardiff and I prefer to assume that new college students really feel a part of one thing immediately. I maintain them on the grass for so long as potential and we attempt to keep away from the observe within the first few months as a result of it’s a bit too prescribed. I simply wish to maintain athletes wholesome and comfortable in that first block as a result of there’s nothing worse than choosing up an harm within the first two to 3 weeks of college.
Merthyr Mawr (Mark Shearman)
We go right down to Merthyr Mawr sand dunes close to Bridgend [made famous by Steve Ovett] nearly religiously each October, just a few weeks after the scholars begin college. After the session the athletes fiddle within the sea. I bear in mind years in the past one of many college students stated to me: “That is the perfect factor I’ve accomplished since I began college”. She nonetheless runs now and that sticks with me. It’s the change of surroundings, you’re out of Cardiff working barefoot on the sand. I used to like taking place there myself and it actually made me take into consideration the influence of that have, particularly for brand new college students.
It may be arduous as a coach since you wish to maximise a runner’s potential. I might throw 100 miles every week in any respect my athletes, however just a few would succeed. I feel I’m generally responsible of under-cooking folks however that always results in them having an extended profession within the sport they usually take pleasure in it extra. It’s about ensuring that they’ve at all times bought someplace to go, that there’s at all times room for development.
What, if something, has modified in teaching because you first bought concerned?
The basics haven’t modified, however I’m consistently studying. The Norwegian double-threshold, the impact of tremendous footwear. You must evolve, it’s a must to change, or in any other case you’re accomplished for as a coach.
James Thie in Budapest 2014 (Tom Phillips)
What’s the perfect piece of recommendation you’ll cross on to new or aspiring coaches?
Coaches, or individuals who wish to coach, have to get out and get teaching expertise. There are such a lot of completely different teams on the market that want volunteer coaches they usually don’t survive with out them. Folks have this unrealistic expectation that you just’re going to stroll straight right into a paid job or a paid teaching function, however there are so few paid alternatives on the market.
I look again on the time after I was teaching college students as an “unknown” coach and there was no strain, no expectations. I really bear in mind in 2010, two years after I’d began teaching, I all of a sudden had this huge group and I stated to my spouse: “I by no means deliberate for this to occur.”
It was by no means my aim to have such an enormous group or the driving power for my teaching, however the group simply grew organically. The athletes had been the voice of the group they usually grew to become the recruiters, fairly than me.
It’s additionally necessary to have a superb assist community round you – buddies, companions and so on, and to make use of mentors. Teaching is time-consuming, so these closest to it’s essential to perceive how difficult it may be.
James Thie (Paul Stillman)
What’s essentially the most useful lesson you’ve realized in your teaching profession?
It’s a rollercoaster of feelings however the highs are unbelievable they usually maintain you going by a few of the decrease moments in sport. In the end it’s essential to take pleasure in it and it’s essential to keep genuine to your self.
Don’t ever put success as absolutely the driver. For those who create the best surroundings and also you take pleasure in what you do then success will come from that, nevertheless it shouldn’t be to the detriment of the athletes, their well being, your well being or your loved ones’s well being. You need it to be long-term so it’s essential to have a stability to make it sustainable.
Lastly, although teaching could be all-consuming, there’s at all times time to coach! I nonetheless run [and compete] as a result of I like the game and I feel that’s a superb instance to set to my youngsters and the athletes I coach.
I really feel actually lucky that athletics has given, and continues to offer, my youngsters a constructive expertise, even unknowingly. My daughter Bella now involves our open observe evening each Wednesday with a few her buddies. I mainly simply blow a whistle they usually run, however there’s a pleasant collective of individuals – up-and coming younger athletes, dad and mom and their children – and it’s only a good means of giving one thing again to the neighborhood. For me, it’s additionally time with Bella and which means rather a lot.
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