Our Methodology
The science behind the results.
The Athletic Ascent methodology is built on a simple principle: effective coaching requires understanding before prescription. Our evidence-based approach ensures your training is always informed by data, tailored to your needs, and focused on sustainable progress.
The Continuous Improvement Cycle
This isn't a one-time process—it's a continuous cycle of refinement.
As you train and compete, we gather new data, analyse your responses, adapt your programme, and track your progress. Then we start again, each cycle building on the insights from the last.
Monitor
Analyse
Adapt
Progress
Why This Approach?
Too much coaching relies on generic programmes, gut feelings, or “this is how I was trained” thinking. That approach might work sometimes, but it fails to account for what makes you unique: your physiology, your goals, your life circumstances, and how your body responds to training.
Our methodology puts evidence at the centre of every decision. We don't guess—we observe, measure, and respond. When something isn't working, we know it quickly and can adapt. When something is working, we understand why and can build on it.
This approach is particularly important for junior athletes, where generic programmes can be actively harmful. Growth, maturation, and development all affect how young athletes respond to training, and ignoring these factors risks injury and burnout. Our methodology ensures we're always coaching the athlete in front of us, not the one in a textbook.
Monitor
Comprehensive Data Collection
Effective coaching starts with understanding where you are. We collect meaningful data across multiple dimensions of athletic performance: training load and volume, session quality and intensity, recovery indicators like sleep and energy levels, and competition results. For junior athletes, we also track growth and maturation markers to protect them during vulnerable developmental periods. This isn't about overwhelming you with numbers—it's about gathering the information we need to make smart decisions about your training.
What this includes:
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Training load tracking (sessions, volume, intensity)
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Recovery indicators (sleep, soreness, energy levels)
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Performance markers (session quality, competition results)
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Growth and maturation tracking for junior athletes
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Regular communication and feedback systems
Analyse
Evidence-Based Interpretation
Data without interpretation is just noise. The Analyse phase is where we make sense of everything we've collected. We look for patterns in your training responses, identify what's working and what isn't, and understand how your individual physiology responds to different stimuli. This isn't guesswork—we use evidence-based methods to connect the dots between your training inputs and performance outputs. Every athlete responds differently, and this phase helps us understand your unique profile.
What this includes:
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Pattern recognition in performance data
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Identifying individual training responses
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Understanding your unique physiological profile
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Connecting training inputs to performance outputs
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Evidence-based decision making
Adapt
Personalised Training Adjustments
Generic programmes deliver generic results. The Adapt phase is where your training becomes truly yours. Based on what we've learned from monitoring and analysis, we tailor every aspect of your programme to your individual needs, goals, and circumstances. This means adjusting for life events, growth spurts, exam periods, or simply how you're feeling that week. We manage progressive overload carefully, modify recovery protocols when needed, and ensure your training evolves as you do.
What this includes:
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Tailoring training to individual needs and goals
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Responding to life circumstances and commitments
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Adjusting for growth spurts and development phases
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Managing progressive overload appropriately
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Modifying recovery protocols as needed
Progress
Sustainable Athletic Development
Progress isn't just about getting faster—it's about building an athletic foundation that lasts. We focus on long-term development rather than short-term gains, setting meaningful goals and tracking milestones that matter to you. You'll see visible, measurable improvement in ways that are meaningful: not just race times, but technical proficiency, training capacity, and athletic resilience. Our approach prioritises sustainable, injury-free progression because the best ability is availability.
What this includes:
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Long-term athlete development philosophy
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Goal setting and milestone tracking
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Building strengths while addressing weaknesses
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Visible, measurable improvement
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Sustainable, injury-free progression
How the Pillars Work Together
The four pillars aren't isolated steps—they're interconnected parts of a single system. What we learn in the Monitor phase directly informs the Analyse phase. The insights from Analyse shape how we Adapt your training. And the results we see in Progress feed back into what we Monitor next.
This creates a feedback loop that continuously refines your training. Early in our work together, the cycle might reveal big opportunities for improvement. Over time, as we dial in what works for you, the adjustments become more subtle—fine-tuning rather than overhauling.
The cycle also means we're never locked into a programme that isn't working. If life circumstances change, if you pick up an injury, or if you're simply not responding as expected, we have the data and the framework to adapt quickly and intelligently.
