In this episode, the guest is Matt Dixon, a former professional triathlete and elite swimmer who is now the founder of Purplepatch Fitness, a performance training and coaching support business. Purplepatch focuses not only on world-class triathletes but also on “time-starved” executives looking for a health and performance goal.
Matt begins by discussing the intellectual challenge and work ethic required in triathlon. He notes the value of failing as a learning experience and emphasizes the importance of balance through proper recovery. He criticizes traditional approaches that mainly emphasize more work or dropping weight, pointing out that important subjects like strength & conditioning, nutrition, and recovery often only get lip service.
He introduces the four pillars of his coaching philosophy: consistency, endurance, nutrition, and recovery, and discusses the importance of managing stress and adaptation. Matt’s mission with Purplepatch is to change the way endurance sports are coached. He aims to scale his business without diluting its quality and speaks about the role of content marketing and a culture of sharing in achieving this.
Matt also addresses how Purplepatch has adapted to serve “time-starved” high performers, many of whom are executives. He stresses that training programs must be designed around individuals’ lives rather than trying to fit lives around training programs. The ultimate aim is to empower athletes to understand the “why” behind their training, enabling them to make necessary adjustments.
He wraps up by stating that while Purplepatch primarily focuses on triathletes, it is extending its reach to performance-driven individuals globally and talks about habits that help maintain high performance.
Thanks to Andy Blow from Precision Hydration for putting me in touch with Matt. I caught up with Matt at his family home when I was speaking over in the US.
4:14 Triathletes – performance driven people
6:40 The intellectual challenge of triathlon
11:30 How to do a triathlon poorly!
12:20 The value of failing
13:45 Work ethic
14:24 Not allowed bottles on the pool deck…
16:54 It’s great to work hard but in order to maintain balance you need to recover
18:01 Why do we train?
19:23 Drop weight, drop weight drop weight…poor behaviours
21:19 My actions, my behaviours, my mistakes that proved fruitful
21:32 Subjects like strength & conditioning, nutrition and recovery were only given lip service
22:10 The barometer of success is more work
22:30 The four primary subjects of consistency endurance component, nutrition, recovery and strength & conditioning as an educational. Recovery is part of the programme – the Recovery Coach
24:22 Stressors – the components of recovery
25:40 Stress, recovery & adaptation
26:50 Supporting people that are ‘time starved’
29:45 How did Purple Patch start?
30:53 I want to change the way endurance sports are coached
33:24 The scaling problem – without diluting quality
33:49 Set up your business with multiple oils wells
37:28 Content marketing opens an environment of sharing globally
39:10 The best coaches to have worked with are those which have an environment of sharing
40:03 Elite and professional athletes unapologetically driving towards world class performance
41:19 Amateur athletes to improve but not at the expense of the other areas of your life
42:25 Purple Patch attract people that are time starved and high performers
43:56 Redefining what it takes to be successful
44:54 the classic sense for many coaches is to take a training programme and dump it on top of life
45:27 We don’t start with the training programme we start with life
46:40 The growth of executives searching for a sporting outlet
49:44 A training programme cannot be just about the prescription of training
51:04 Empowering athletes to make adjustments
52:04 Prescription is the first act of coaching, but it’s the execution of the why that is imperative
52:34 Purple Patch focus on triathletes but also globally performance driven individuals
56:58 Which habits keep you performing well?
You can follow Matt on twitter @Purplepatch
Tweets by purplepatch
If you’re interested in more from Matt, have a listen to his podcast episode 59 and 66 are particularly good !
https://www.purplepatchfitness.com/podcast
He also offers squad based training support, that you can look up
https://www.purplepatchfitness.com/squad
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