379 - The Keys to Successful Coaching: Lessons From 20 Years in the Trenches

Purple Patch Podcast

Matt Dixon

Humanpotential, Nutrition, Education, Empower, Fitness, Executive, Coach, Strengthtraining, Purplepatch, Sleep, Cycling, Performance, Running, Recovery, Health & Fitness, Ironman, Swimming, Timemanagement, Triathlon, Meditation, Yoga

4.8 • 647 Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon discusses the evolution and future of coaching on the Purple Patch Podcast. He emphasizes the importance of a holistic approach, integrating performance with life demands, and proactive coaching that anticipates challenges. Dixon highlights the need for mutual investment, collaboration, and simplification in coaching. He warns against the "magic method" and "will it work for me" traps, advocating for individualized training plans. Dixon also stresses the role of technology, particularly AI, as an assistant rather than a replacement for human coaching. The podcast is based on feedback from athletes, with high satisfaction scores and a focus on continuous improvement. If you have any questions about the Purple Patch program, feel free to reach out at [email protected].

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Matt Dixon and welcome to the Purple Patch podcast.
0:04.0	The mission of Purple Patch is to empower and educate every human being to reach their athletic potential.
0:10.0	Through the lens of athletic potential, you reach your human potential.
0:14.0	The purpose of this podcast is to help time-starved people a great sport into life.
0:33.2	And welcome to the Purple Patch podcast, as ever, your host Matt Dixon. And today, we thought we'd dig into a discussion around the current state of coaching.
0:40.2	Today's episode was born out of two things really.
0:43.1	Firstly, our quarterly athlete survey that we like to do so that we can have a litmus of how we're doing as a team.
0:49.6	And then the subsequent coaching roundtable.
0:52.8	About every two weeks or so, we have a big roundtable
0:56.1	amongst the team of coaches at Purple Patch, and we had a particularly thorough discussion last
1:01.5	week. It was fuelled by the direct feedback that we received from our own athletes, and the reason
1:07.2	that we do this, once a quarter, have a real real deep dive is that we have a key pursuit of
1:13.1	excellence it's kind of the equivalent of athletes watching game tape after a big game try and get
1:19.1	better improve see what we can do to build on for greater success a key aspect that we talk a lot
1:25.9	with our athletes is around having high expectations
1:29.1	and support. And so we set the standards high for ourselves and our athletes, but we also support
1:35.4	those athletes so that they can foster success. And so in many ways for us as a team, this was our
1:42.2	standards check-in. We measure ourselves consistently across the same metrics and check in to see where we can improve.
1:50.1	Now, as a leader, I believe in transparency.
1:53.1	We are a coaching team, not a set of individual coaches.
1:57.6	And I have a mission to unite the coaching team across broad success. I don't want
2:03.1	one athlete or coach to be successful and another to be struggling. I want us all to go on the
	...

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