Darryl Benson in the coaching corner

Darryl Benson

WAIS head cycling coach

24 years as coach

WABN: Describe your preferred outdoor based training session that you do by yourself or with your team.

DB: “Perth-Fremantle river/coast group rides, suits two-hour training sessions. Hills motor paced (riders paced by motorcycle for race simulation speeds) with various circuits including Red Hill, Stoneville, Mundaring, Kalamunda, Bickley Valley, Pickering Brook, Karagullen, Roleystone and Mills Road East Hill, suits 100 to 160 kilometre training rides.”

WABN: What techniques do you use to motivate players?

DB: “Teaching of correct bike handling technique activities, skills and tactical sessions mixed in with both sub maximal and maximal efforts to build confidence based around enjoying their sport. When an athlete has confidence and is focused to perform well, and is enjoying him or herself and the challenges set in front of them, then the motivation will naturally occur.”

WABN: What is the best piece of advice you can give someone who wants to motivate a team?

DB: “Be positive, make the training program challenging yet enjoyable and rewarding, with realistic individual goals and achievements set in competition in both short-term and long-term planning. Building a strong positive ‘team of individuals’ can enhance both ‘individual’ and ‘team’ results and set a high standard for others to step up into.”

WABN: What other profession do you most often seek advice from with respect to you team’s performance and why?

DB: “At WAIS we are very fortunate to have some very dedicated and expert staffs in their chosen field who work above and beyond the call of duty. In support services to the WAIS cycling program I engage and work closely with staff in sports physiology, strength and conditioning, ACE (athlete career and education), biomechanics, nutrition, sports psychology and marketing. It is also important for me to engage my program consultant for all our budgeting, planning and programming issues as well as being accountable to management.”

WABN: How do you manage player egos?

DB: “Keep them as humble as possible and try to lead by example myself.”

WABN: How important is it for players to develop skills outside of their sport? What do you do to encourage it?

DB: “The biggest mistake athletes can make is to become one-dimensional in their chosen sport.

We encourage a more ‘holistic’ approach that includes developing outside interests and career and time management issues, while also making athletes aware there is a limited window of opportunity to devote the early part of their life to achieving in their chosen sporting career.”

WABN: What sporting identity do you most admire and why?

DB: “Chris Hoy, the Great Britain Olympic and world champion track cyclist. We are very fortunate to have our domesticated WAIS athletes train with the Great Britain sprint squad when they come out to train in Perth; the benefits for our kids to be training with them is huge. Chris Hoy is an absolute perfectionist; his dedication to the sport is inspiring and his achievements tell it all.”

WABN: Who has influenced you professionally?

DB: “Again many people, but I have looked towards Gary Sutton, the NSWIS head coach as a benchmark and enjoy working with him in my national team duties as well as the brotherhood developed working as an NTC cycling coach.”

WABN: Have you read a good book on management/leadership that you can recommend? What was so good about it?

DB: “I have read numerous books on leadership, preferring autobiographies on individuals and their life experiences. Russell Mockridge’s My World on Wheels has always stuck with me. He was a champion cyclist of legendary status in the 1950s and 1960s. I was 18 when I first read the book and it has had a lasting impression; simple but inspiring. I believe some people are made leaders and others followers, but all of us have a destiny.”