Mel Marshall<\/strong> says that creating independent athletes is paramount for a coach if they are to succeed on the biggest stage of all.<\/p>\n

Marshall has coached Adam Peaty<\/strong> to Olympic, world, European and Commonwealth gold with the Briton having taken the 100m breaststroke into new waters.<\/p>\n

The double Olympian is also coach to Luke Greenbank<\/strong> who took 200m backstroke bronze at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju where he went on to swim the lead-off as Great Britain won the men\u2019s 4x100m medley relay.<\/p>\n

$\"GBRrio2016melmarshalladampeaty\"$
Photo Courtesy: Mel Marshall and Adam Peaty<\/p><\/div>\n
For Marshall the work done in the weeks, months and years before an event will mean that an athlete is physically and mentally prepared for what lies ahead.<\/p>\n
In a film for Team England, Marshall said:<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the one thing that needs to be remembered is, with any multi-sport event, there\u2019s the preparation coach and there\u2019s the arena coach, and I think if you\u2019re doing a good job as a coach \u2013 a preparation coach \u2013 then your athletes should arrive at these events responsible, independent, confident and capable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if you\u00a0 mollycoddle athletes and if you prepare the road for the athletes, rather than prepare the athlete for the road, they will get very lost very quickly and things will get very stressful in that environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s about making independent athletes, and then when you turn into arena coach mode, when you\u2019re actually in the environment with the athlete it\u2019s your job to quieten down the noise and flatten the waves, it\u2019s your job to bring it back to what it\u2019s about.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere can be 5,000 people watching, 10,000 people watching, a large amount of social media following, your mum and dad in the crowd, but it\u2019s about bringing it back down to the small things, which is your event.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe court is the same size, the pool is the same size, you\u2019ve been doing it since you were 10 years of age, and really making sure that athletes know that it\u2019s the same job, that it\u2019s the same business that they\u2019ve been doing every single day since they were a young kid.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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Ever wondered what it takes to coach a champion? To make sure they are prepared for the biggest stages in sport?<\/p>\n
To celebrate #UKCoachingWeek2020<\/a>, we spoke to @massivemel<\/a> to find out \ud83c\udfca\u200d\u2642\ufe0f<\/p>\n
— Team England (@TeamEngland) September 15, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n