June 6, 2025 • 17 mins
Welcome to Gill1918, the track & field coaching podcast powered by Gill Athletics. Since 1918, Gill has been dedicated to empowering coaches with innovative equipment—now, we're bringing elite coaching education straight to your ears.
Our goal is to create the Ted Talks of track/field podcasts bringing the annual track clinic to your ears DAILY! Topics will include but are not limited to covering key strategies, techniques, and training principles to help you improve athlete performance, structure better workouts, enhance team culture, and more!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
coaches, for coaches powered by Gill Athletics.
Think of this as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
you grow as a coach. We'll bring in the once a year
track clinic straight to your ears daily.
Interested in creating your own episode?
Everyone's welcome to participate.
(00:21):
Check out the show notes below For more information.
Now let's get into today's topic.
Hello everyone, My name is Clayton O'Callaghan.
I'm the associate head coach at the University of New Orleans
for cross country and track and field primarily work with our
middle distance, distance and cross country athletes here at
Uno. This is rounding out year 8 for
(00:45):
me. In my coaching career, majority
of those have been spent at the college level, but have also
spent one year at the high school level as well.
For those that don't know much about Uno, we're small mid
major. That's part of the Southland
conference. Before I get started today,
(01:07):
wanted to take time to thank Mike, of course for for reaching
out and giving me the opportunity to speak today.
As someone that's listen to him on the Gil Connections podcast
for a very long time and been able to take a lot of notes and
Nuggets along the way that have really helped me throughout my
(01:27):
coaching career. Whenever he reached out asking
if I would be interested in doing a podcast episode for him,
it was a very quick yes for me. So I appreciate him for having
me here on Gil 1918. And with that, I hope you guys
are able to take something of value from today.
(01:52):
And if not, then I guess we can blame Mike for that.
But the topic I kind of want to talk about today, I wanted to
pick a topic that's, I guess relatable for for everyone and
not just, you know, one event specific type of deal.
And that's just kind of identifying the limiting factors
(02:17):
that have an effect on on your training program.
One of my favorite phrases from listening to Mike over the years
is, you know, if you aren't in the huddle, you don't know the
play. And I think especially like
being a young coach, it's very easy to to look at, you know,
(02:38):
watch a workout video or maybe get a a copy of a training plan
from someone and to say, like, oh, this, why are they doing
this? Like they could easily change
this around and, and it would make it so much better.
I think as I've gotten older, you know, I no longer just look
(03:00):
at specifically what it, what workouts they're doing, but more
trying to figure out like what are the themes that certain
coaches and, and programs that have had sustained level of
success, You know, like what, what are the themes of sessions
that they're trying to get accomplished at, at certain
points of the year? And once you kind of find those
(03:23):
themes, then kind of go into, OK, well, how can I implement
that into my training program and, and, and go from there.
And, and I think that once you have that a good understanding
of those themes and then you're able to identify the limiting
factors that your program has todeal with, you know, that's
(03:47):
where I think you'll see performance really take a bump.
So today I'll go into some of the limiting factors that I'm
always accounting for that kind of play a big role for us here
at Uno and our training environment.
So I, I tried to break the limiting factors down into two
(04:11):
categories, an exterior categoryand an interior category.
So for the exterior category, there's kind of I guess 3 big
topics that that I'm looking for.
First and foremost is going to be the health of of the athlete
or, or athletes in in our group.You know, are we coming back
(04:34):
from an injury? Are they a high volume person or
a low volume person? Do we have to cross train quite
a bit from them? You know, are they in year 1 of,
of college or, or in our programor are they an upperclassmen
with multiple years, you know, kind of have been through a
(04:55):
season, know what to expect things like that.
Are they someone that we need tokeep on soft surfaces a lot
more? And then this one, especially
while they may be at home over summer or, or winter break, is
what types of facilities and resources that they will have
(05:16):
access to what while they're at home?
We have a couple athletes that live in very rural areas of, of
their countries. So for them to get to a track or
to a gym, it may be an hour or more drive for them.
So if that's the case, you know,what are some things that we're
(05:38):
able to do for them, you know, to, to kind of make up for that
in their training if that's not really a feasible option.
Another super important factor is, is weather, especially I,
I've lived in South Louisiana myentire life.
(06:00):
If you know anything about SouthLouisiana, it is very hot and,
and very humid. And that is absolutely a, a huge
factor that we have to take intoaccount whenever we're writing
training. We often refer to the humidity
here as the poor man's altitude,especially throughout the summer
(06:23):
months, August, September, and even as we get into May, you
know, that stuff really starts playing a factor.
So these are some of the things that that we have to do in order
to kind of make up for that or get the still get the most out
of our training. We have to break up our, our
(06:43):
reps probably a lot more than than people.
I, I would love to be able to give my, my men cross country
athletes, you know, a 10 mile tempo run.
That's just really not feasible for them to do that effort
continuous in South Louisiana, especially in the summer.
(07:03):
You know, we're going to get to a point where we're going to
have far more negative effects than anything positive that we
would have gotten out of that session.
So that's something that we haveto adjust to.
We have to practice extremely early in the morning, especially
in those early months of the school year because we're trying
to not be in the heat and humidity for for as long as
(07:27):
possible. You know, we want to avoid that
as much as possible. If we have athletes coming in
that are not from South Louisiana, we typically start
them on the treadmills for theirworkout days whenever they first
get here, just because we want to slowly introduce them to that
environment. And there's it takes a little
(07:49):
bit of time to get used to. I don't know if you ever really
get fully used to the heat and humidity here, but you know,
we'll, we'll put them on the treadmills for those first
couple weeks, let them get adjusted to that.
We'll still do our easy runs outside so they're getting
exposed to the humidity and how how their body responds to it.
But we don't want to overcook them and work out early in the
(08:13):
season by being outside and exposed to all the elements.
We'd rather bring them along slowly but surely and help them
build some confidence going intothat.
But you know, there's other factors that affect different
areas. You know, some places it's super
cold. You know, some places it rains a
(08:34):
lot, obviously you have places that are at altitude.
So these are all factors that you know, you want to take into
consideration because they'll, they will affect, you know,
your, your training session on the day.
So kind of keeping those things in mind as you're, as you're
writing training. The last one on the exterior
(08:58):
factors that I have is performances.
We are a small roster program, so our athletes probably race a
lot more than some other programs.
So, you know, with competitions and stuff also come travel,
which you know, can definitely take a lot out of athletes,
(09:20):
especially as we're getting close in in the spring to finals
week and you know, you've been going since indoor season, it's
very long. So you may need to and take that
into account whenever you're writing training.
You may need to add in some morerecovery days then then you
might think, just because you know, you don't think that
travel takes a lot out of them. But I promise you, you know, as
(09:43):
the season goes on it it definitely begins to wear on
them and and starts affecting things.
So, so keeping an eye on that asyou go forward on the interior
factors. The big 1 is, you know the
academic load that that your athletes are are carrying.
(10:05):
We have quite a few athletes that are in pre Med programs or
engineering. So some very tough strenuous
class loads. So understanding like they may
be under a lot of stress, you know, throughout the semester
with different exams. Wednesdays for us is usually a
(10:27):
very heavy lab day for majority of our athletes.
So try to keep Wednesday very, very easy for them throughout
the semester. Even have added in a couple
using that as our off day or, orallowing the athletes to go run
(10:47):
on their own at a time that fitsa little bit more into their
schedule. So that way they they have
enough time to study and and be prepared and, and working on
that. And then also the other factors
as in, you know, just general life stress that's going on.
If you have an athlete that you know, is a family is not
(11:10):
anywhere close and, and really able to, to get to them to see
them throughout the time, you know, that's probably going to
have an effect on them. You know, making sure that you
allow or have those check insurance with those athletes
just to make sure that they're doing good, especially, you
know, if it's their first time really being away from home and
kind of just, you know, letting them know that, Hey, it's OK,
(11:31):
you're going to have some of those days and that's fine.
Don't freak out about that. And, and we can adjust training
as as we need. So with some of these factors,
it, it's very easy to track, right, Like whether you always
can look and see how how weatheris going performance.
Obviously you're looking at the results to go and, and making
(11:55):
the adjustments as you need to go.
But some of these factors, you know, it really takes being able
to communicate with your athletes and, and them providing
feedback for you that that's very valuable to do that.
And, and a few ways that I've noticed that it that help is
(12:17):
either through a training log where you know, they'll log what
they did for the workout, what they ate, things like that.
Just notes about their day and, and giving them that space to
kind of feel like they can actually speak.
And if there's something that's bothering them that maybe
(12:37):
they're a little worried or don't want to necessarily talk
about in front of everyone, theycan go from there.
This year I started, I created aquestionnaire that is sent to
our athletes, ask them to fill it out at least once a day, but
twice a day is more preferred, one in the morning and 1:00 at
(12:58):
night. And just kind of asking them,
you know, how are they feeling? Are they feeling stressed right
now? Or how do they, are they feeling
any pain from injuries and things like that?
You know, what are, what are they eating?
What are they drinking throughout the day?
Little things like that. The only person that sees their
(13:20):
responses is me, you know. So again, like that's a place
where I find that today's athletes, they feel comfortable
that they can open up and, and talk to you about, you know,
things that may be bothering them.
And that's a good way to to start making those adjustments
with some of those factors that that are going to play in
(13:44):
throughout the year just as the semester goes and and things go
from there. So that's definitely a resource
that that I like to utilize with, with my group.
You know, other people may do something a little bit
different, but you know, kind offinding what, what works best
for you, where you feel confident that OK, I'm giving
(14:06):
the athletes a chance to come inand talk and, and give them to,
to open up and, and let me know what's going on.
So that way I can make the adjustments that's going to be
best for them. So just summarize, I guess
everything. There's always going to be
limiting factors regardless of of where you are and in your
(14:30):
training environment, so you shouldn't shy away from them,
acknowledge them and embrace. Embrace the challenge, figure
out, you know, what's the best way to work through it and go
from there. Identify, you know, the themes
that you're looking to get accomplished throughout the
throughout the weeks and and years and stuff.
(14:53):
And then, you know, create the best plan with your factors.
Thank you for taking a couple minutes to listen.
If you have any questions or or comments, please feel free to
reach out to me on social media.I'm on Twitter, threads,
Instagram at under score coach, under score OCI recently started
(15:20):
kind of a little mini series that I titled thoughts from a
track coach. And there I just go over give a
couple bullet points on some certain topics of things that,
you know, I think we encounter on the regular basis as track
coaches. So if you'd like some more
information on those or, or maybe hear some more or
(15:43):
different topics like please leave.
Let me know what you would like to hear and, and happy to talk
with you more or create a video about it or or another podcast,
whatever works best. Thank you as always to Mike for
for one putting this together for, for all of us as coaches to
be able to use this resource andhave access to such a a wealth
(16:07):
of knowledge is incredible. And we we definitely would not
be where we are as coaches without people like Mike kind of
leading the way for us. Best of luck to you throughout
the rest of your seasons. And, as always, go privateers.
Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here. Hey, I hope you enjoyed this
(16:28):
episode of the Guild 1918 Project series.
It's really my mission, my passion to bring you massive
amounts of value and I hope thisone hit the mark.
The Gilt 1918 Project is really dependent on you if for you to
build your own episode, to hear your voice, to have your voice
heard you have something to say and teach other coaches out
(16:50):
there. So please get a hold of me,
e-mail, text message, Twitter, smoke signals, get a hold of me
and let's help create your episode of the Guild 1918
Project. Hope you enjoy today, they will
see you tomorrow.
Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
coaches, for coaches powered by Gill Athletics.
Think of this as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
you grow as a coach. We'll bring in the once a year
track clinic straight to your ears daily.
Interested in creating your own episode?
Everyone's welcome to participate.
(00:21):
Check out the show notes below For more information.
Now let's get into today's topic.
Hello everyone, My name is Clayton O'Callaghan.
I'm the associate head coach at the University of New Orleans
for cross country and track and field primarily work with our
middle distance, distance and cross country athletes here at
Uno. This is rounding out year 8 for
(00:45):
me. In my coaching career, majority
of those have been spent at the college level, but have also
spent one year at the high school level as well.
For those that don't know much about Uno, we're small mid
major. That's part of the Southland
conference. Before I get started today,
(01:07):
wanted to take time to thank Mike, of course for for reaching
out and giving me the opportunity to speak today.
As someone that's listen to him on the Gil Connections podcast
for a very long time and been able to take a lot of notes and
Nuggets along the way that have really helped me throughout my
(01:27):
coaching career. Whenever he reached out asking
if I would be interested in doing a podcast episode for him,
it was a very quick yes for me. So I appreciate him for having
me here on Gil 1918. And with that, I hope you guys
are able to take something of value from today.
(01:52):
And if not, then I guess we can blame Mike for that.
But the topic I kind of want to talk about today, I wanted to
pick a topic that's, I guess relatable for for everyone and
not just, you know, one event specific type of deal.
And that's just kind of identifying the limiting factors
(02:17):
that have an effect on on your training program.
One of my favorite phrases from listening to Mike over the years
is, you know, if you aren't in the huddle, you don't know the
play. And I think especially like
being a young coach, it's very easy to to look at, you know,
(02:38):
watch a workout video or maybe get a a copy of a training plan
from someone and to say, like, oh, this, why are they doing
this? Like they could easily change
this around and, and it would make it so much better.
I think as I've gotten older, you know, I no longer just look
(03:00):
at specifically what it, what workouts they're doing, but more
trying to figure out like what are the themes that certain
coaches and, and programs that have had sustained level of
success, You know, like what, what are the themes of sessions
that they're trying to get accomplished at, at certain
points of the year? And once you kind of find those
(03:23):
themes, then kind of go into, OK, well, how can I implement
that into my training program and, and, and go from there.
And, and I think that once you have that a good understanding
of those themes and then you're able to identify the limiting
factors that your program has todeal with, you know, that's
(03:47):
where I think you'll see performance really take a bump.
So today I'll go into some of the limiting factors that I'm
always accounting for that kind of play a big role for us here
at Uno and our training environment.
So I, I tried to break the limiting factors down into two
(04:11):
categories, an exterior categoryand an interior category.
So for the exterior category, there's kind of I guess 3 big
topics that that I'm looking for.
First and foremost is going to be the health of of the athlete
or, or athletes in in our group.You know, are we coming back
(04:34):
from an injury? Are they a high volume person or
a low volume person? Do we have to cross train quite
a bit from them? You know, are they in year 1 of,
of college or, or in our programor are they an upperclassmen
with multiple years, you know, kind of have been through a
(04:55):
season, know what to expect things like that.
Are they someone that we need tokeep on soft surfaces a lot
more? And then this one, especially
while they may be at home over summer or, or winter break, is
what types of facilities and resources that they will have
(05:16):
access to what while they're at home?
We have a couple athletes that live in very rural areas of, of
their countries. So for them to get to a track or
to a gym, it may be an hour or more drive for them.
So if that's the case, you know,what are some things that we're
(05:38):
able to do for them, you know, to, to kind of make up for that
in their training if that's not really a feasible option.
Another super important factor is, is weather, especially I,
I've lived in South Louisiana myentire life.
(06:00):
If you know anything about SouthLouisiana, it is very hot and,
and very humid. And that is absolutely a, a huge
factor that we have to take intoaccount whenever we're writing
training. We often refer to the humidity
here as the poor man's altitude,especially throughout the summer
(06:23):
months, August, September, and even as we get into May, you
know, that stuff really starts playing a factor.
So these are some of the things that that we have to do in order
to kind of make up for that or get the still get the most out
of our training. We have to break up our, our
(06:43):
reps probably a lot more than than people.
I, I would love to be able to give my, my men cross country
athletes, you know, a 10 mile tempo run.
That's just really not feasible for them to do that effort
continuous in South Louisiana, especially in the summer.
(07:03):
You know, we're going to get to a point where we're going to
have far more negative effects than anything positive that we
would have gotten out of that session.
So that's something that we haveto adjust to.
We have to practice extremely early in the morning, especially
in those early months of the school year because we're trying
to not be in the heat and humidity for for as long as
(07:27):
possible. You know, we want to avoid that
as much as possible. If we have athletes coming in
that are not from South Louisiana, we typically start
them on the treadmills for theirworkout days whenever they first
get here, just because we want to slowly introduce them to that
environment. And there's it takes a little
(07:49):
bit of time to get used to. I don't know if you ever really
get fully used to the heat and humidity here, but you know,
we'll, we'll put them on the treadmills for those first
couple weeks, let them get adjusted to that.
We'll still do our easy runs outside so they're getting
exposed to the humidity and how how their body responds to it.
But we don't want to overcook them and work out early in the
(08:13):
season by being outside and exposed to all the elements.
We'd rather bring them along slowly but surely and help them
build some confidence going intothat.
But you know, there's other factors that affect different
areas. You know, some places it's super
cold. You know, some places it rains a
(08:34):
lot, obviously you have places that are at altitude.
So these are all factors that you know, you want to take into
consideration because they'll, they will affect, you know,
your, your training session on the day.
So kind of keeping those things in mind as you're, as you're
writing training. The last one on the exterior
(08:58):
factors that I have is performances.
We are a small roster program, so our athletes probably race a
lot more than some other programs.
So, you know, with competitions and stuff also come travel,
which you know, can definitely take a lot out of athletes,
(09:20):
especially as we're getting close in in the spring to finals
week and you know, you've been going since indoor season, it's
very long. So you may need to and take that
into account whenever you're writing training.
You may need to add in some morerecovery days then then you
might think, just because you know, you don't think that
travel takes a lot out of them. But I promise you, you know, as
(09:43):
the season goes on it it definitely begins to wear on
them and and starts affecting things.
So, so keeping an eye on that asyou go forward on the interior
factors. The big 1 is, you know the
academic load that that your athletes are are carrying.
(10:05):
We have quite a few athletes that are in pre Med programs or
engineering. So some very tough strenuous
class loads. So understanding like they may
be under a lot of stress, you know, throughout the semester
with different exams. Wednesdays for us is usually a
(10:27):
very heavy lab day for majority of our athletes.
So try to keep Wednesday very, very easy for them throughout
the semester. Even have added in a couple
using that as our off day or, orallowing the athletes to go run
(10:47):
on their own at a time that fitsa little bit more into their
schedule. So that way they they have
enough time to study and and be prepared and, and working on
that. And then also the other factors
as in, you know, just general life stress that's going on.
If you have an athlete that you know, is a family is not
(11:10):
anywhere close and, and really able to, to get to them to see
them throughout the time, you know, that's probably going to
have an effect on them. You know, making sure that you
allow or have those check insurance with those athletes
just to make sure that they're doing good, especially, you
know, if it's their first time really being away from home and
kind of just, you know, letting them know that, Hey, it's OK,
(11:31):
you're going to have some of those days and that's fine.
Don't freak out about that. And, and we can adjust training
as as we need. So with some of these factors,
it, it's very easy to track, right, Like whether you always
can look and see how how weatheris going performance.
Obviously you're looking at the results to go and, and making
(11:55):
the adjustments as you need to go.
But some of these factors, you know, it really takes being able
to communicate with your athletes and, and them providing
feedback for you that that's very valuable to do that.
And, and a few ways that I've noticed that it that help is
(12:17):
either through a training log where you know, they'll log what
they did for the workout, what they ate, things like that.
Just notes about their day and, and giving them that space to
kind of feel like they can actually speak.
And if there's something that's bothering them that maybe
(12:37):
they're a little worried or don't want to necessarily talk
about in front of everyone, theycan go from there.
This year I started, I created aquestionnaire that is sent to
our athletes, ask them to fill it out at least once a day, but
twice a day is more preferred, one in the morning and 1:00 at
(12:58):
night. And just kind of asking them,
you know, how are they feeling? Are they feeling stressed right
now? Or how do they, are they feeling
any pain from injuries and things like that?
You know, what are, what are they eating?
What are they drinking throughout the day?
Little things like that. The only person that sees their
(13:20):
responses is me, you know. So again, like that's a place
where I find that today's athletes, they feel comfortable
that they can open up and, and talk to you about, you know,
things that may be bothering them.
And that's a good way to to start making those adjustments
with some of those factors that that are going to play in
(13:44):
throughout the year just as the semester goes and and things go
from there. So that's definitely a resource
that that I like to utilize with, with my group.
You know, other people may do something a little bit
different, but you know, kind offinding what, what works best
for you, where you feel confident that OK, I'm giving
(14:06):
the athletes a chance to come inand talk and, and give them to,
to open up and, and let me know what's going on.
So that way I can make the adjustments that's going to be
best for them. So just summarize, I guess
everything. There's always going to be
limiting factors regardless of of where you are and in your
(14:30):
training environment, so you shouldn't shy away from them,
acknowledge them and embrace. Embrace the challenge, figure
out, you know, what's the best way to work through it and go
from there. Identify, you know, the themes
that you're looking to get accomplished throughout the
throughout the weeks and and years and stuff.
(14:53):
And then, you know, create the best plan with your factors.
Thank you for taking a couple minutes to listen.
If you have any questions or or comments, please feel free to
reach out to me on social media.I'm on Twitter, threads,
Instagram at under score coach, under score OCI recently started
(15:20):
kind of a little mini series that I titled thoughts from a
track coach. And there I just go over give a
couple bullet points on some certain topics of things that,
you know, I think we encounter on the regular basis as track
coaches. So if you'd like some more
information on those or, or maybe hear some more or
(15:43):
different topics like please leave.
Let me know what you would like to hear and, and happy to talk
with you more or create a video about it or or another podcast,
whatever works best. Thank you as always to Mike for
for one putting this together for, for all of us as coaches to
be able to use this resource andhave access to such a a wealth
(16:07):
of knowledge is incredible. And we we definitely would not
be where we are as coaches without people like Mike kind of
leading the way for us. Best of luck to you throughout
the rest of your seasons. And, as always, go privateers.
Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here. Hey, I hope you enjoyed this
(16:28):
episode of the Guild 1918 Project series.
It's really my mission, my passion to bring you massive
amounts of value and I hope thisone hit the mark.
The Gilt 1918 Project is really dependent on you if for you to
build your own episode, to hear your voice, to have your voice
heard you have something to say and teach other coaches out
(16:50):
there. So please get a hold of me,
e-mail, text message, Twitter, smoke signals, get a hold of me
and let's help create your episode of the Guild 1918
Project. Hope you enjoy today, they will
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