The Eddiesmethod
Whenever someone contacts me to start working together, I always schedule a call to ensure I am a good fit for the athlete and vice versa. I’ll ask some questions regarding their athletic history or background and how long they have been doing functional fitness before moving on to some lifestyle questions, including what an average day looks like, how their nutrition is overall and if a good night’s sleep is a priority (from experience this the one that is missed a lot by most people). Usually, I show examples of my work, including some of my athletes’ calendars and how I prepare them for upcoming competitions. Finally, I share some of my athletes’ TrueCoach, which is always interesting as the programs are highly individualised based on the athlete’s needs and level.
If we are a good match (which happens only to be 30% of the time), the athlete does a battery of movement assessments so I can filter any imbalances or mobility needs. The athlete completes 1 or 2 weeks of tests so I can baseline their fitness levels from the moment we started working together.
After that, the athlete starts an individualised training program built according to the volume they need and can accommodate. Like many other training metrics, work capacity is developed over time, so it is worth noting that not everyone can, or should, do high-volume training weeks and sessions at the start, regardless of availability. Athletes also log their nutrition on MyFitnessPal so we can review that together (usually in 4 or 5 weeks) and discuss if any details could be meaningfully changed. Whilst often overlooked, athletes, given their physical demands, should not be addressing nutrition in the same way as someone who trains thrice weekly and aims to stay in shape and be healthy and active.
The first training block usually lasts eight weeks, which is a small block, especially for the most advanced athletes. Still, with time, I have learned that an initial small partnership allows me to understand and see if the athlete is coachable, able to complete the agreed volume, what their rate of improvement is on different metrics and other coaching details that will be meaningful for the next more extended and more individualised block of training.
After that, we look at how many competitions we are doing in the next 12 months and break down those months into different training phases. I call them Base/Accumulation, Intensification, Pre-competition, Competition and Deload. However, various literature has other names for the same stages of training.
When asked about the competitive calendar, I advise that both beginners and the advanced should not compete too much. There are different reasons for this, but beginners usually develop quickly. Still, they often must focus on mastering the competitive requirements safely, especially when against the clock, to minimise the risk of injury. For advanced athletes, the reason is quite the opposite. These individuals improve very slowly and sometimes need to accumulate more work to marginally improve their times, lifts or skills.
I also carry out an individual monthly call with each athlete. During that call, we review the last month of training, paying close attention to what’s gone well, what hasn’t gone as well, their nutrition and any upcoming changes in training or their calendar.
As I write all of this, I realise how grateful I am to be able to do something I genuinely love. The athletic lifestyle was always a part of my life since a young age in combat sports, later with functional fitness and during the last eight years growing and developing the Eddiesmethod project.
Eddie
