Lionel Sanders lists off all the training mistakes he’s made, but he’s still determined to to coach himself
"I want to be a professional coach of professional athletes trying to win the world title"
Photo by:
Kevin Mackinnon
In a video posted on his YouTube channel, Canada’s Lionel Sanders recaps his 2023 season and explains “what he learned” from his up and down year of racing.
While most pros would be thrilled with the results the 36-year-old posted last year, for Sanders 2023 was a year filled with frustration and ill-informed training decisions.
Things started off well for Sanders at the Super League Arena Games event in Montreal (pictured above), where Sanders impressed us all by making the final against a field of short-course pros. A few weeks later, though, Sanders was sidelined when he crashed at Clash Miami, after which he got sick. From there began a series of up and down performances that, according to Sanders, saw him do too much training at certain times, while woefully ignoring his body’s recovery needs at others.
Inspired by Jan Frodeno, though, Sanders believes that he can still attain some top-level results.
“I can still have a peak performance – I didn’t have a single one in 2023, but I know I can still have peak performance,” he says. “It’s going to take a different approach.”
With words we’ve heard many times before, Sanders reiterates that he’s ready to push hard to achieve his goals.
“I am more motivated than I’ve ever been right now,” he says. “It’s do or die, back against the wall.”
While most would argue that Sanders could likely alleviate many of the poor training decisions by working with a coach he can trust, Sanders doesn’t appear to be ready to do that. Citing that when he’s done racing he plans to work as a coach, he’s determined to organize his own training.
“I’m the coach, I’m in charge,” he says. “You’re going to see this season my coaching on display. When all this is said and done I want to be a professional coach of professional athletes trying to win the world title. This is me proving that I understand what I am doing. I am motivated to show you what I can do.”
