On Line Coaching

There was an article in the Thursday New York Times on online coaching. I know that some of the readers of this blog do that, but I am not a big fan of online coaching. To me it is not coaching. It is advising, that may be semantic, but it is an important distinction. Coaching is not necessarily high tech, but it is very personal and high touch. To be effective as a coach you must be physically present. It is more than writing workouts and getting the results of the workout. For example I have had two athletes do the same running workout and achieve the “target time”, but one athlete was really straining and the other athlete was cruising. If I had not been there I would not have known that, I would have moved to the next level of training, which was not appropriate for the athlete who was straining not training. I speak from personal experience having tried to coach by mail several times, it just does not work for me. I would be interested in your comments pro and con and how those of you that make it work do make it work.