Richard Pickering is a UKA qualified endurance coach, personal coach, and NLP Master practitioner and Volunteer Club Coach. He works as a Coach on the England Athletics Youth Talent Programme (for talented young athletes of Sixth Form age). He has been coaching athletes for over 20 years and now volunteers with Beat (Eating Disorder Charity)
Richard brings with him a keen interest in the development of others after 25 years of professional coaching and development experience gained while working for John Lewis Partnership. Some years ago now, he achieved a Master practitioner qualification in Neuro Linguistic programming (NLP) and it was during this course that he made the decision to provide personal, psychological based coaching for athletes as well as practical training programmes. More recently he has become involved with ‘Beat’, an eating disorder charity and it is this work along with the struggles of some of the athletes he has worked with that have ignited the desire to support the psychological thought process of those with any form of disordered eating.
He didn’t run seriously when he was younger but played football throughout his 20s and really just ran for fitness. Although he was always a big fan of athletics, he didn’t get into running until later in life. He is did his best to make up for it and ran 17 marathons with a modest personal best of 3.06. He would probably happily admit that, due to a recurring knee injury (sustained initially playing football), his running days are all but at an end. However, his passion for coaching and the development of athletes has never been greater.
Richard has worked with athletes at all levels from club to international. He has worked with many athletes who are preparing for marathons along with those focussing on 5k, 10k and X Country. As well as coaching on the England Athletics Youth Talent Programme he has also been an England Team Manager on several occasions.
He has worked with a number of charities, delivering coaching days for their marathon runners and has run training weekends for the John Lewis running club for most of the last 15 years. He used to run young athletes’ Summer camps for about 5 years based initially at Winchester College and then at Stowe School, Buckingham. Several of the athletes who attended these camps have gone on to represent Great Britain.
As a volunteer coach, he works with a junior group of boys along with the top senior endurance group at Colchester Harriers and organises the County Road Relays along with Colchester Harriers’ own 5 mile race. He lives in Fordham Heath on the edge of Colchester in Essex. If he is not at home, he can generally be found at his beach hut on Mersea Island from where he carries out some 1-1 Coaching sessions as well as some quality down time.
Richard believes that everyone has the opportunity and right to be as successful as they want to be, with their running, mental health and in life. This, however, does not come easily and requires dedication and hard work. Richard is fully committed to supporting that journey but believes this needs to be matched by the athlete/client who also needs the commitment and desire to succeed and is prepared to take responsibility for their development…
Generally, with running performance and mental health, there is no short cut or magic formula for success. With running performance, it is often the ‘accumulation of good days’ and hard work that makes the difference rather than one particular good or indeed disappointing session. The aim is generally to do the most you can in training, at the effort level asked for and not harder, while striking the balance with work, family life and rest. With a focus on staying healthy as the main priority. Sitting alongside practical training is a ‘healthy mind’. If you are aiming for something but there is some kind mental barrier or voice telling you to do something else, you won’t achieve the thing you want until you have dealt with what is going on or re-framed your thoughts and quietened the voice. A happy athlete, or person, with a relaxed and calm yet focussed mind will always perform better.
