Former world 1500m finalist nonetheless likes to drag on his racing spikes when he isn’t main coaching classes, lecturing, occasion organising, asserting or commentating
On the peak of his monitor 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 monitor evening for runners of all talents inside the area people – and is a revered occasion organiser, announcer and commentator.
How did you get into teaching and who did you be taught from?
I used to be fortunate to have some superb faculty and membership experiences via varied coaches after I was growing, 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 discovered an enormous quantity in that point. I rapidly realised that there was no simple 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 seeking to enhance his 1500m time and he requested me if I may 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 acquired 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 identical 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 via them. Each coach has to begin someplace, and by teaching somebody. It’s a kind of issues; you solely ever be taught via apply, you be taught via folks and truly very often you solely be taught via errors.
Originally I had foreign money as being an athlete so folks have 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 onerous to construct up, however I prefer to suppose 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, you then’re doing one thing proper. If you happen to create an atmosphere that’s not pleasurable however persons are having a great deal of success, the second that success begins to hit a number of street bumps then teams collapse. It’s the identical the opposite manner; if folks benefit from the coaching atmosphere however they’re not bettering or getting success, then these teams can collapse, too.
James Thie, Clare Elms, Andrew Ridley
What’s your teaching philosophy?
I’ve at all times cherished 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 need to be the coach for others that I might have needed for myself.
In the end it’s about being there for my athletes, supporting them to be the very best 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 workforce coaches. What challenges have you ever confronted and the way have you ever navigated these?
It’s an enchanting one and I’d prefer to suppose I’ve principally acquired 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 faculty coach turns into their coach. The thought of our group in Cardiff is that anybody can soar 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 other people assumed Piers would come to me, however he was comfortable along with his “house” coach Bob Smith who’s good, so he would simply soar 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 may very well be a part of our workforce 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 may 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 selecting them again up, or they find yourself going some place else, but when they’re nonetheless operating, 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 shifting away from house and the transition to residing alone. As a college coach it’s one of many hidden points we’ve to cope with. With coach training we speak about programming, planning, all of that, however pastoral care is essential and goes again to my philosophy of caring for athletes and searching for them.
We’re fortunate to have a fantastic group in Cardiff and I prefer to suppose that new college students really feel a part of one thing immediately. I preserve them on the grass for so long as doable and we attempt to keep away from the monitor within the first few months as a result of it’s a bit too prescribed. I simply need to preserve athletes wholesome and comfortable in that first block as a result of there’s nothing worse than selecting up an damage within the first two to 3 weeks of college.
Merthyr Mawr (Mark Shearman)
We go all the way down to Merthyr Mawr sand dunes close to Bridgend [made famous by Steve Ovett] nearly religiously each October, a number of 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 very best factor I’ve achieved since I began college”. She nonetheless runs now and that sticks with me. It’s the change of atmosphere, you’re out of Cardiff operating barefoot on the sand. I used to like taking place there myself and it actually made me take into consideration the affect of that have, particularly for brand spanking new college students.
It may be onerous as a coach since you need to maximise a runner’s potential. I may throw 100 miles per week in any respect my athletes, however only some would succeed. I feel I’m generally responsible of under-cooking folks however that usually results in them having an extended profession within the sport and so they take pleasure in it extra. It’s about ensuring that they’ve at all times acquired someplace to go, that there’s at all times room for development.
What, if something, has modified in teaching because you first acquired concerned?
The basics haven’t modified, however I’m always studying. The Norwegian double-threshold, the impact of tremendous footwear. It’s important to evolve, you need to change, or in any other case you’re achieved for as a coach.
James Thie in Budapest 2014 (Tom Phillips)
What’s the very best piece of recommendation you’d cross on to new or aspiring coaches?
Coaches, or individuals who need 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 and so they don’t survive with out them. Folks have this unrealistic expectation that you simply’re going to stroll straight right into a paid job or a paid teaching position, 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 truly bear in mind in 2010, two years after I’d began teaching, I abruptly 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 purpose to have such an enormous group or the driving power for my teaching, however the group simply grew organically. The athletes have been the voice of the group and so they grew to become the recruiters, reasonably than me.
It’s additionally necessary to have an excellent 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 good to perceive how difficult it may be.
James Thie (Paul Stillman)
What’s probably the most beneficial lesson you’ve discovered in your teaching profession?
It’s a rollercoaster of feelings however the highs are unbelievable and so they preserve you going via among the decrease moments in sport. In the end it’s good to take pleasure in it and it’s good to keep genuine to your self.
Don’t ever put success as absolutely the driver. If you happen to create the precise atmosphere and also you take pleasure in what you do then success will come from that, however 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 good to have a stability to make it sustainable.
Lastly, regardless that teaching may be all-consuming, there’s at all times time to coach! I nonetheless run [and compete] as a result of I really like the game and I feel that’s an excellent instance to set to my kids and the athletes I coach.
I really feel actually lucky that athletics has given, and continues to provide, my kids a optimistic expertise, even unknowingly. My daughter Bella now involves our open monitor evening each Wednesday with a few her buddies. I principally simply blow a whistle and so they run, however there’s a pleasant collective of individuals – up-and coming younger athletes, dad and mom and their youngsters – and it’s only a good manner of giving one thing again to the neighborhood. For me, it’s additionally time with Bella and meaning loads.
» This text first appeared within the November concern of AW journal. Subscribe to AW journal right here, take a look at our new podcast right here or signal as much as our digital archive of again points from 1945 to the current day right here
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