It’s easy to be fit . . but being a good triathlete also requires good technique! Darren Smith

Simon Ward, The High Performance Human Triathlon Podcast

In the last 6 years I have chatted with many great coaches, and today's guest is right up there with them! Darren Smith is arguably one of the best triathlon coaches we have seen working with Olympic triathletes. I first met Darren when he was appointed as head coach for Scottish Triathlon, and our paths crossed at regular coaches meeting at British Triathlon. After 4 years at the helm of Scottish Triathlon Darren left and set up his own private nomadic triathlon group which became known as the D Squad. At the 2012 Olympics in London he had 6 triathletes from 6 different countries competing in the triathlon event. He gained a reputation for taking triathletes with an average swim and turning them into world class athletes. In 12 months he guided Annie Haug from a world ranking of around 60 to 2nd. Some of the many topics we discuss today are:

• swim technique and why triathlon swimming is very different to the pool and requires a different technique
• the importance of working on run technique
• does gym based strength training have any value for triathletes?
• total training load, and overtraining markers
• how to build athlete consistency over many months/years

To follow Darren, please check out his LinkedIn profile and also follow him on Twitter (X) LinkedIn Twitter - Coachdaz We also talked about: Alex Popov Swim technique video DISC profile test used by Darren with all of his athletes and mentioned by Sue Reynolds in her podcast. Darren presented at the Science Triathlon Conference in 2015. You can see his presentation HERE. One attendee said, "I learnt more in a few days with Darren than I had done in years of my triathlon career. An incredibly intuitive coach - not afraid to think and apply outside the box. Bravo Darren."

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