Craig Winrow: the former athlete turned coach is a huge advocate of training with a partner
MARK SHEARMAN
MO FARAH and Galen Rupp are fierce competitors when they have a number on their chest. But in training they are great partners. It sounds counter-intuitive, for you would think it is risky training with a rival. What we know as psychologists, however, is that the right people working together can bring out the best in each other, spurring each other on to better and better results.
The benefits of a training partner can be extensive. Studies have suggested that just the presence of an audience or being in competition with other athletes when training can improve performance. The improvements could come from trying to match your partner on effort or outcome, wanting to impress your partner, copying better technique from them or from simply being really inspired by them. So how can you pick someone who will help, and not hinder you?
Super couples
Craig Winrow is the endurance performance coach at St Mary’s University and a big fan of training partnerships. This, he says, is partly down to having such a successful partnership when he was competing as an 800m runner. “I had a training partner, Paul Burgess, and a big part of my success came down to him,” Winrow recalls. “If I didn’t have him pushing me at times I wouldn’t have done as well as I did. When I won the European Juniors 800m in 1989, Paul came second. I left that training group when I was 19 and didn’t break through as a senior for four years. It may have been a co-incidence but the year I did break through I’d started training with Paul again.”