Day in the Life - Danny Holdcroft

by Danny Holdcroft - EIS Strength & Conditioning Coach

I’m Danny Holdcroft and I currently work with British Skeleton as Lead on Training Science and Start development. In simple terms this correlates to leading research projects that offer potential training and performance gains in addition to leading the summer off season Start and Conditioning programme of the British Skeleton athletes.

The National programme is based in Bath, South West England, and during April through to October I am based their full time. For the remaining months of the year, October through to March, my work takes me on many travels around Europe and North America.

This time is spent across the programmes three performance squads with the objective of ensuring that the delivery standards of the start programme are maintained and that innovation is delivered as researched. This time also involves me taking a secondary back seat and helping technical ice coaches deliver what is required for sliding, this can be either through videoing corners or acting as a temporary performance analysts.

My typical working day has many strands to it but to give you an insight the below highlights a typical day during summer off season and during competition season.

Summer is a busy time for me, with a combination of practical delivery, management and sports science lead duties. I often arrive at work around 7am. From then on the first two hours are spent ensuring emails and simple coordination task are planned and that the days schedule is drawn up.

Our athletes typically train 2 – 3 times a day 5 – 6 days a week. As a result the first session delivery starts around 0930, often being fairly short in duration (30 – 40 minutes), we then have a short half hour break to mentally prepare and nutritionally load the athletes before leading into the main focus session of the day.
With this completed lunch will have fast approached which often means easting at my desk whilst working on logistical planning and research focus projects or meeting with coaches/performance director.

At around 1430 we start the final conditioning session of the day, after which all that is left to do is ensure all administrative and planning is completed before heading home around 1730 – depending on whether I have the self drive to follow my own lead and undertake my own personal training session.

In winter, season travelling for me brings a less packed but still relatively full day. A lot of the research work and planning has been completed and now simply need to be executed, in addition the days schedules and planning hand more over to the head ice coaches as sliding performance takes main priority. 

This said days can still be long, it is not unusual to start as early as 0630 at the track bringing with it minus 25’c temperatures and standing track side for up to two hours. Sliding training itself can take up to 3 hours depending on the group size.

Back at the hotel I throw myself into performance analysis work capturing video and feeding it through a software programme ready for athletes to be debriefed by their coaches.

Depending on the day athletes will then have a gym session in the late afternoon for about an hour, followed by a review of their start footage.

Typically then the day is then done by about 7pm, although sometimes there is work to catch up on from a planning perspective, but more often we have time in the evening to relax. However this being said as many coaches would testify, evening discussions often relapse back into work conversation and an informal review of the day and what may happen down the line.

Each competition last for 5 days before we pack up and travel on. It is a constant suitcase lifestyle but one that we all now accustomed to. It’s not quite the lifestyle that outside people imagine when you first say you travel to such places as Moritz and Bavaria, Whistler. Often a hotel and track is all we see, that said it is a fantastic job which I feel lucky and privileged to hold.

With Vancouver approaching the team and its dynamics have developed strongly over the past four years, a systematic approach of doing everything we can to an optimum level which instils confidence and if we can continue working from this platform then race day will bring what it brings knowing that we have done all we can.

Photography © Getty Images