You Are the Head Coach

You have just been hired as head coach of a national endurance team — now you must convince your athletes to commit to a long-term daily training plan.

Your Scenario

Read your brief: your team has talent but trains in short intense bursts and then rests for weeks. The national federation wants results in three years. Your job is to shift the culture toward daily, consistent training — like the athletes in the article. Write your name, your team's main sport, and the one change you want to make first.

What Your Athletes Believe

List two things your athletes currently believe about training that you need to change. Think about what the article challenged — what assumptions do they probably hold?

Belief 1

Belief 2

Your Core Message

Write the ONE idea you must get across in your first team meeting. It should be simple enough that an athlete remembers it after training. Look back at what Kipchoge himself said — does it work for your team?

What to Avoid

What should you NOT say in this meeting? Think about what would make athletes switch off or feel defensive. Name two things you will deliberately leave out.

Avoid saying

Because it would...

Write Your Opening Statement

Draft the first 60–80 words you will say to your team. Use the present perfect continuous at least twice — show them what the data has been revealing and what the best athletes in the world have been doing differently. Make it honest, not a speech.

Read It as an Athlete

Re-read your statement from step 5 as if you are the most sceptical athlete in the room. What is the first objection they would raise? Write it here — then decide: does your statement already answer it, or do you need to revise?

Their objection

Does your statement answer it?

The One Change That Makes It Land

Look back at steps 3, 5 and 6. What is the single word or short phrase that would make your message land with a sceptical athlete — something concrete, not motivational? Write it and explain in one sentence why that word works better than anything else you could have chosen.

Why that word?

Discuss Share your opening statement with a partner — would you believe this coach?

Sport01