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  Southern Cycle Coaching
A LOOK BEHIND THE SCENES

My Story

Dr Chester Hill

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I have been an avid cyclist since I was 11 years old. I was inspired by my Dad, who after buying a wreck of a racing bike from a junk shop showed me how to strip a bike, and rebuild it. This led to many a father-son Sunday bike rides and the inevitable joining of the local cycling club. This led onto racing at local circuits and road races, as well as testing myself against the clock. During my teens, I took on my first cycling related job, testing bikes for a newly formed cycling magazine called Cycling Plus. By the time I was 16, I was totally infected by the cycling bug.

Chasing Legends
At 18, I sauntered off to University following in the footsteps of Peter Keen and Chris Boardman. This was a pairing of coach & rider who had started achieving pretty miraculous conquests for a British rider of the time. They were based in a little known teacher training college called Chichester Institute of Higher Education. By the time I arrived however, they had moved further east to Brighton. None the less, I was still privy to learn from the likes of Simon Jones, and Louis Passfield, both based at Chichester during my undergraduate years. In time, though, both also moved onto roles at British Cycling in Manchester, themselves in pursuit of Peter and Chris - all part of the Lottery funded master plan that Keen had devised. Undeterred, and still keen to learn more about this subject called Exercise Physiology, I was extremely fortunate to meet and work under Prof Roger Harris. For those non-academics out there, think Creatine and Beta-alanine supplementation - both are Roger's patented ideas. After a number of years of training and racing as a first cat, casual lecturing, gaining an M.Sc. and assisting with various research projects, I was given a bite of the proverbial research apple myself. On the first of January 2003, I set to work on my own thesis - to prove or disprove that Beta-alanine, when ingested in the appropriate quantities, would enhance human performance. A hundred or so muscle biopsies and a few thousand digested journal articles later, I'd proven what Roger had long since suspected, that Beta-alanine was in fact an ergogenic aid to athletic performance. It was now 2007 and the likes of Nigel Mitchell (Nutritionist for British Cycling & Sky Pro Cycling) and various other dignitaries from UKSport, EIS and British Cycling came knocking on our lab door. They were on a quest to find as many ways as possible of improving human performance; someone might later call this 'the aggregation of marginal gains'. After I had spent a while carrying out consultancy work, around the use of Beta-alanine, for UK Sport, EIS and British Cycling (while, doing up a new home, writing up my thesis, regaining my first cat racing licence and working in the local bike shop), I ended up with a nice place to live, a first class PhD thesis, no racing form and no proper job.

THE RAAM - The Race Across America 

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My career now started to evolve, and a few months later ended up in California, heading up a small band of riders and support crew, focused solely on racing from one side of America to the other on push bikes no less!! The race was the Race Across AMerica (RAAM). The RAAM was a pretty amazing experience, and although not the best way to make friends (stress & tiredness), we did win our category (4 man team). This was a fairly short term project, and although a great experience, it wasn't going to pay the bills. So after a multitude of rejections for lecturing posts at a variety of universities (the script went along the lines of, great to meet you, love your CV, but there is another candidate with more lecturing experience, or, already working in an area of research we have an interest in), I applied for a role at British Cycling myself. It seemed to be the done thing that if you were a cyclist and studied to any kind of level at Chichester, you ended up working at Manchester Velodrome; I was not to be the exception!

British Cycling

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So in September 2008, and recently after Team GB's amazing success in Beijing, I turned up for work at the Coaching and Education offices, located along one of the grey corridors of the National Cycling Centre. And even more amazingly, right next door to Team GB. Anyway, I got on with my job, which was not as glamorous as many led themselves to believe. Essentially, the role was to learn about how to coach cyclists, author coaching manuals for wannabe cycling coaches, and put together resources and coaching programmes to teach people how to coach cycling. Obviously, the velodrome was a hotbed of information, which during the near on three  years I commuted to and from Manchester, I engorged myself on everything cycle coaching I possibly could (to all those Level 2 coaches out there, imagine doing your course for about a 1000 days, and you get an idea of what my job was). So with a PhD in exercise physiology done, a fair bit of knowledge about sports nutrition and supplements, a 1,000 day Coaching & Education course completed, plus flirting a bit with the GB cycling and paracycling teams for a while, (not to mention a yearning to stop the crazy 500 mile round trips to Manchester each week), I decided to moved home and see what the south of England could offer me. 

UCI Southern Cycle Coaching

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I had decided I didn't want to work in an office environment again and I had more qualifications than an Oxford Don, so in 2011, I decided to set up in business as a cycling coach, and founded Southern Cycle Coaching. Although, I had been coaching a few riders during my time at British Cycling, so I had the basics. It was just getting to grips with the other stuff. Generally, I work in three areas, (1) I train and assess cycling coaches for British Cycling's Coaching and Education Department and the UCI, (2) I coach a number of riders on a one to one basis for a monthly fee, and (3) run a number of varied group coaching sessions for local cyclists, at local venues.      

UCI & British Cycling Coaching & Education Tutor and Assessor
I have tutored British Cycling Coaching and Education courses since early 2009, this is an aspect of my life that is rewarding both commercially and personally. Teaching coaches is not that far removed from coaching riders, and standing up in front of groups is something I enjoy doing. Teaching a group how to coach, ensures that I am constantly reviewing my own coaching practices and ensuring I adhere to the best practice methods that the Coaching and Education team in Manchester expect of British Cycling Licensed coaches. I tutor the level three programmes for British Cycling, which touches on aspects of my degrees, so it's nice to have the chance to lecture a bit of physiology once in a while.

World Cycling Centre and the World Cyclign Centre - Korea Satteilte
I also work in a similar role for the UCI World Cycling Centre, as a UCI Coaching Expert. This role involves working with developing cycling nations to train and up skill local coaches and riders, to help them compete effectively and competently at international events. I have now worked at both the World Cycling Centre in Aigle, as well as the Satellite Centres in South Korea & Japan. To date I have delivered 18 international training camps to riders and coaches from 50 different nations. My highlight of 2014 was helping several nations prepare and perform at the world Junior Track championships, as well as working closely with the Vietnam road team who went on to secure a Silver medal at the Asian Games.

I'm also use my experience and knowledge to help local teams and clubs develop their own pathways for both riders and coaches. It's great to have a massive uptake into the sport, but I feel it is important for people to see a way forward and thus something to aspire towards. Seeing the likes of Chris Hoy, Chris Froome, Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish winning is a really amazing source of inspiration in the short term, but being able to work effectively toward achieving one's own coaching or riding ambitions is a lot more powerful and helps sustain motivation for the long term.

One to One Coaching 
Coaching a rider on a one to one basis is about a rider and coach working together to achieve a number of agreed goals. To effectively achieve these goals, it is important to understand the rider as a person, their motivations, their circumstances and their cycling aspirations. To understand these things, it is important to get to know them as individuals and see cycling from their point of view.  Thus a tenet of Southern Cycle Coaching is to coach riders I can easily communicate with to plan and review their coaching. This gives me a good overview of the person and it really helps to ensure both coach and rider are on the same page. I am really pleased with the way the riders I am working have performed. Most goals set at the start of the year are achieved by the end, and it’s incredible to see how the riders develop over the course of each season. As a coach seeing success across the range of individuals I am currently working with is inspiring and also gives me confidence that what I am doing is highly effective.

Group Coaching Sessions
Don't be fooled into thinking that coaching a group of cyclists is straight forward; it’s not. It's not something that someone becomes an expert at overnight, and it's not always done particularly well. A good coach is a joy to watch, the way he or she crafts the session to meet the needs of the riders, the rider understanding what they are supposed to do, and the smile on their face when it clicks! It can be a real buzz to see a rider achieve something they didn't think was possible at the start of the session. A coach needs confidence in his or her own ability to convey information in a dynamic setting, competence in their understanding of the technique or tactic they are conveying and finally competence in breaking the technique down into bite sized pieces of information the rider can put back together in their own mind - coaching points! Coaching points are the currency of coaching sessions, whether coaching a basic or advanced aspect of the sport, these are the essential pieces of information the rider will need to advance. If you ever watch a coaching session, in any sport, ask yourself what are the coaching points, are they being conveyed clearly - and do you think the riders are getting 'it'! 

You will have seen from my coaching page, I run a range of varying types of coaching activities, and I hope the above information gives you confidence in the broad skill set I have. It ensures I can meet the needs of a range of riders, as well as meet the needs of riders I work with regularly. Locally, what seemed to be missing was the opportunity for riders to attend sessions that helped them meet the demands of the events they wanted to achieve in. Examples of how I have addressed this include running Wattbike sessions for riders attending GB selection events; competition coaching sessions at local tracks, looking at the specifics of match sprinting or pursuit racing for riders competing in these events at regional and national championships, or getting riders to play out different race scenarios, that they may encounter during races. So, the sessions I run are all part of the bigger picture for many riders, who tend to more easily move towards their targets, whether these are based upon local, regional or national competitions. Thus, I am always open to suggestions from riders on what they want to learn, but don't expect it there and then, as a good sessions is always planned well in advance!

Dr Chester Hill 
Founder of Southern Cycle Coaching

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  • The Aspire Package (Home Page)
  • Progressive Coaching Package
  • Lifestyle Coaching Package
  • Further Info on one to one Coaching
  • #CalshotTNT Sessions
  • About
  • Qualifications
  • Publications
  • Testimonials
  • Talks & Webinars
  • Contact SCC
  • SCC Store