Kaarle McCulloch is a former Olympic Track Sprint Cyclist with a 15-year career at the top of her sport including Olympic Bronze and 4 World Championships. Retired in 2021, Kaarle went on to coach the British Women’s Sprint Team from 2022-2023 with great success and recently returned to Australia in late 2023 to fulfil the same role as Australian Women’s Sprint coach and QAS coach. Kaarle has a degree in Health and Physical Education and is a former level 1 ASCA coach.

David Watts has been preparing athletes for competitive success for well over 10 years. Beginning his career at the QAS between 2011-2016, David has since spent time at the Geelong Football Club as a rehabilitation coach and also at the Melbourne Demons as the head of strength and power. More recently he has returned to the QAS and is currently working with track and field, cycling and beach volleyball athletes. David is accredited with the ASCA as a Master L3 Coach and this will be his fourth time presenting at the ASCA international conference

QUOTES

“I am from a family of teachers and I believe really strongly that coaching is teaching and teaching is coaching. So a lot of my coaching philosophy centres around pedagogical practices and trying to create learning environments for athletes”

“For track cycling, I feel very strongly that its foundation is in strength. So gym forms the first and probably the most important part of becoming fast and I work off a sort of a triangle model where strength is at the bottom. To be powerful, you need to be strong. And then to be fast, you need to be powerful.”

“I don't like to call it taper because I think taper has some connotations around it and athletes think that they're going to feel good and that everything's going to go amazing but it never ever happens that way. And so, unload for me is all in its title. It's about taking out work as we get closer to the event.”

“I'd say 90 % of time the gym and bike loading is aligned. So if we've got a de-load week or a low week, it's low in the gym as well.”

“So in the team sprint cycling, we've got three types of acceleration, we've got low range, so from zero, we've got mid-range which is our high power and we've got, you know, high range acceleration, which is our speed. So that's how the week looks. Work high torque, high strength in the start of the week. We work high power midweek, and then we work that sort of back end speed at the end of the week. And that doesn't really shift through all of the periodized phases. What shifts is the specificity of it.”

“We have a monthly catch up with my group and every month they have to present something back on what they've learned through the month and that gives them accountability and ownership over what they're doing.”

SHOWNOTES

1) Kaarle and David’s backgrounds as athletes and coaches

2) What type of collaboration is needed when developing athletes and Kaarle’s philosophy on sprint cycling performance

3) Benchmarking events in sprint cycling and periodization approaches from the macro- to the micro-cycle

4) What base building, general prep, specific prep and unload phases can look like for athletes in sprint cycling

5) Different weekly structures and adapting the structure around different athletes and their experience and fiber typology

6) Physical benchmarks for athletes in sprint cycling and 220kg full squats

7) Pedagogical approaches to developing athletes and session planning considerations and creating conditions for athletes to both fail and play

8) One legged box jumps and the power of vulnerability

PEOPLE MENTIONED

Anna Meares

Matthew Denny

Brene Brown