Stefan Stankovic
Coach Profile
- BSc Sport & Exercise Science, University of Nottingham
- Certified UESCA Running Coach
- Certified UESCA Ultrarunning Coach
- TICTA Emergency First Aid at Work (CPR/AED/First Aid)
- WADA Coaches of High-Performance Education Programme
- Licence to Practise the Profession of a Coach from CSO
- Running (marathon or shorter)
- Ultrarunning
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Expert/Advanced
- Strength and Conditioning
- Injury Prevention
- Sports Nutrition
- Form Analysis
1-3 years
The reason I decided to become a coach is mainly because I love the competition and camaraderie that the endurance community provides. I was a kayak athlete for 9 years before turning to running and participating in multiple long-distance races, with my most notable achievement being a hilly 215km road ultramarathon in Greece! Evidently, I love all things endurance-related and spent most of my time reading on the latest science and how it can be applied to the human body. When I am not coaching runners, I take the role of a Strength & Conditioning coach at a known fitness studio franchise.
Any training plan needs to take into consideration various elements and not just 'I want to accomplish x race in x time'. This is one of the reasons why preformatted programmes simply do not work. My philosophy when coaching an athlete of any level is focused on where they are today, not where they want to be (which many times is unrealistic because we have x weeks to train for that goal). Training, in my point of view, is simply a balance of providing specific physiological stressors at the right time while balancing that stimulus with enough recovery time. If this balance is not in symphony, adaptations do not occur efficiently, and we risk the possibility of injury or even overtraining. At BFL, the specific sessions are not determined more than a week in advance, simply because training needs to be adaptive to the person and based on their life stress, health and schedule!
