KAIZEN- CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
KAIZEN- AN APPROACH TO TRAINING, LIFE AND DOING THE RIGHT THING:
Years Ago when Toyota was one of my partners, I learned about a philosophy that they believe in for all aspects of their business called Kaizen.
The idea is simple in theory, harder to practice but instrumental for success: You are always looking for continuous improvement, whether that is micro improvements or large scale improvements. And in this quest, micro improvements can quickly lead to macro changes. This theory permeates all aspects of their culture and is something I think should be an integral part of all athletes and people’s lives. The question you have to ask yourself to take this a step further is: how do I bring specificity and purpose to my quest for continuous improvement? This is something I will address in further issues of Coaches Corner. But for now, let me diverge a little….
At AP Racing we are always looking for ways to improve and every year we have 2-3 big goal ‘improvement’ projects. These projects have lead to things like our camps, the elite team, our online master class and much more. When we sat down in August, we took a hard look at what we were doing and realized that we still had a few ‘gaps’ in our coaching offerings so that we could address the entire triathlon community, help the most people, and provide world class service to all.
So, let me take you into our minds a bit here so you can see where we are going:
Our #1 Goal since day one is to Provide Access:
Access to the best coaching, experiences(camps, clinics, team events), partner discounts, and knowledge(share our experience and years of learning) at the most affordable rates. Simply put- Access for everything and for all.
When we looked at what we offer, we believed we were really close-
Our Completely Custom Training Programs are like nothing else out there. There is no other place where athletes can get a completely customized plan for under $400, for their entire year, and combined with our partner discounts and team events. There is simply no better deal in triathlon. What makes this even more valuable is when athletes work with us for multiple years, our coaches really get to know who these folks are and the customization goes even deeper.
1:1 Coaching: A lot of folks offer 1:1 coaching but we truly believe in what we offer and the value we deliver for the price is bar none(if I do say so myself). When you work with our 1:1 coaches, you are assigned a dedicated coach but benefit from our whole team, including me. We review all athletes as a group so that each athlete can benefit from our collective knowledge.
Pottsheads Club: For folks who are comfortable with their coaching/training programs but want access to our community, support network and partner discounts; this program is virtually ‘free’ for all.
Elite Team: We wanted to provide a platform for elite athletes to create a close knit group that can help each other through mentorship, increased partner support, private camps and training events, professional mentorship and all things that folks who might one day make the jump to be a pro athlete could want and need.
While that seems like we got it pretty well figured out; COVID gave us a chance to dive a bit deeper and find a ‘gap.
A lot of folks who were part of our Completely Custom Training Program saw their schedules completely up-ended and in constant flux this past year. Unlike our 1:1 athletes, these athletes also found themselves a bit ‘lost’ in terms of where to focus their attention. We did everything we could to support all of our athletes with programs such as reduced rates for training plan changes, live weekly workouts, the AP Racing Challenge Series, online seminars and more. But, one thing that we realized is that we could provide a more flexible and even more ‘support’ based system for the custom plan athletes. And, from this notion, our POTTSHEADS PLUS(+) Program was born.
This program offers a nice ‘in-between’ for folks who need more than the completely custom training program but are not ready or able to commit to 1:1 coaching. How does it work:
You are assigned a dedicated coach, just like our 1:1 athletes.
Your coach builds out the first 3-4 months of your year or until your first milestone event.
As we approach your first milestone, your assigned AP Coach checks in with you, answers questions, and builds out the next phase of your training. At this time they also adjust your training zones, help. you with your season roadmap, and give you an overarching plan for the next few months.
Then, you go out and execute!
You might be saying to yourself- ‘that’s great, but that has to be really expensive.’
It works out to about $100 per month. Yup, you read that right! Like all of our coaching options, we have priced them so that they ‘pay for themselves’ if you take advantage of any of our partner discount programs.