Coach Bennett on Why It’s Cool to Care, the Difference Between Confidence and Arrogance, Why He Never Wishes His Runners Good Luck, and Coaching Athletes to Not Need You
About this episode
Chris Bennett discusses his journey as a coach and the principles of building greatness in athletes.
The most famous voice in running almost quit before he ever got fast. It took a bad workout (and a girlfriend on the verge of dumping him) to turn Chris Bennett into Coach B. Nike's Global Running Head Coach and the voice in millions of ears on the Nike Run Club app sits down with Dominic for a conversation about what actually builds greatness—and it's not what you think. Coach B traces his path from "incredibly lazy" college runner at UNC to architect of one of the great high school dynasties at Christian Brothers Academy, where his teams chased NXN titles knowing they'd fail more often than they'd win. That, he argues, is exactly the point.Along the way: the college teammate whose blunt ultimatum changed his life (he married her); why it's cool to care in a generation obsessed with being nonchalant; and the legendary Stanford story of Vin Lanana asking his team who would make the Olympic squad—and the three who stayed standing did. Coach B breaks down the difference between confidence and arrogance, why "weird" is a synonym for remarkable, why he measures athletes by their worst performances instead of their best, and why you'll never do the work required to…
People in this episode
Host: Dominic Schlueter
Guest: Chris Bennett
Topics covered
- coaching
- confidence vs arrogance
- athlete development
- running culture
- personal growth
- team dynamics
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Nike, Christian Brothers Academy, Stanford
Books & works: This Is About Running. This Is Not About Running.
More episodes of THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST
- "I Just Decided I Wasn't Going to Be Scared Anymore": Colin Sahlman on the Year He Won 3 NCAA Titles, Signing With Nike, and the Chase for Olympic Gold
- America's Best Marathoner On High School Cross Country: Jess McClain's Four Nationals Appearances, Summer Heat Training, And Advice For Chasing A Golden Ticket
- Sleep Science for Runners: Todd Anderson on Sleep Debt, Mouth Taping, and Marathon Performance — Plus the CO2 Tolerance You Build While Asleep That Changes Performance
- "I'd Spend A Million Dollars To Get Six Seconds Better At The 800": Riley Witt Of Bicarb 3.0 On Hot Baths That Rival Microdosed EPO, Threshold Reps At 4:00 Mile Pace & Other Science Truths
- "You Don't Go To New York For A PB, You Go There To Race": European 10,000m Champion Andreas Almgren On His Marathon Debut, 200k Weeks, 37K Long Runs, And The Workouts Behind His European Gold
- "Most Runners Train Too Hard": Marius Bakken, The Father Of Double Threshold, On What's Really Holding You Back, Advising The Ingebrigtsens, And The Golden Zone Behind The Norwegian Method
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST podcast page.