Darren Smith - "Recovery on Demand"

I had the great pleasure this weekend of meeting Darren Smith, one of the best triathlon coaches in the world. You may not have heard much about him, because he maintains a low profile, but you have certainly seen/heard of his athletes and their performances, including Lisa Norden, 2010 ITU Sprint World Champion, who accompanied him here to our camp in Switzerland.

Darren and I spoke a bit about junior development, as he has extensive experience in both elite and junior development, and I was happy to hear him reinforce a lot of what I'm thinking currently. He also gave me some fresh ideas and even helped clarify a missing piece of a tapering strategy and philosophy I've been working on with a number of my athletes for a few seasons. I'm excited to try it out!

I also heard him talk about a popular new concept of "Rest on Demand," which is also something I've been working with my athletes on, especially my juniors, over the past few seasons.

Here's a great post by Joe Friel, on Darren and the topic of Rest on Demand:

http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2011/06/recovery-on-demand-for-the-advanced-athlete.html

For an interview on Darren:

http://www.slowtwitch.com/Interview/Picking_the_brain_of_Darren_Smith_1893.html

Coach Vance