There are many mentors and coaches who get us moving toward our goals and Coach Samantha Nadel is one of them. She has progressed up through the ranks while maintaining her passion. While she was a student-athlete attending Georgetown University and the University of Oregon, numbers of honors were earned. She also trained professionally with the Boston Athletic Association. 

Nadel coached track and field at the University of North Carolina and, in August 2021, she joined the coaching staff at George Washington University in Washington, DC.

One of the important messages is that training can keep you moving to reaching your potential.

The information can be related to other sports as well as. Make the commitment and develop that strong mental toughness to achieve your goals. 

Coach Nadel has taken her years from the student-athlete to professional runner back to coaching. Read and digest the words and she how all of this can apply to you.

If a person is starting in a sport not to be competitive, is there any value to having a coach?

 I believe there is value to having a coach, as part of the role of a coach is to motivate, inspire and drive a culture within a team. Even if a person isn’t interested in being competitive initially, working with the right coach may inspire him/her to want to compete. When I was getting started in the sport of running, I was a naturally competitive athlete, but my high school coach did a great job of creating a competitive culture within our team. This made everyone want to reach their potential and strive for success both individually and collectively.

 What should a person be looking for in a coach? 

A person should look for someone they foremost connect and communicate well with. Both athlete and coach should have similar goals of what they want out of the partnership and the coach should have a well-developed plan of how to get the athlete to their goal. The coach should provide positive feedback on progress towards the goal and be willing to challenge the athlete to push outside of their comfort zone in pursuit of that goal.

The athlete should communicate feedback on the training to their coach and the coach should be open to receiving the feedback and making any necessary adjustments. There should always be a two-way dialogue between coach and athlete.

 As a coach, what do you expect from a person and are there any moving criteria that you would use?

 As a coach, I expect athletes to have buy-in to the training program. Athletes would have an openness to learning and challenging themselves within the training program. I would also expect to receive feedback from athletes if they feel something in the training isn’t working. This will allow the coach and athlete to always be on the same page. If athletes truly believe in what they are doing, they will show up to the starting line feeling confident that they will succeed based on the work that they have done. Confidence in distance running is a huge factor why some athletes reach their goals and others do not.

 How important is it for a person to be mentally committed to their program? 

As mentioned above, it is extremely important for an athlete to be mentally committed to their program. If an athlete believes in what they are doing, he/she will show up to the starting line feeling confident that he/she will succeed based on the work that has been done. At a certain point, an athlete’s competitors are all at a baseline level of fitness. I believe the mental aspect separates competitors from the results.

 What was your transformation from the athlete on Long Island, New York, North Shore High School to coaching at George Washington University?

 I feel like a completely different person from my high school years to now. I have matured, both mentally and physically, and gained a lot of knowledge of the sport over the years. I now apply my knowledge, both as an athlete (as I am still competing) and as a coach. It has been a journey, but I truly believe that everything I experienced as an athlete and as a coach over the years has given me the tools to succeed where I’m at right now.

How do you respond to, “I am not athletic, and I am not good at anything.”

I have gotten this statement before, and I always say that hard work goes a long way, regardless of talent level. I always believe that if athletes put the work in, day in and day out, they will improve. It’s consistent work over time that leads to improvement. I also say that the mind is a powerful thing–your thoughts are your reality.

Meaning, if you tell yourself that you are not athletic or good at anything, usually that will manifest itself to be true. Openness and commitment to a training program are key to see that improvement. A growth mindset, rather than a fixed mindset, is crucial.

 Is there a certain amount of trust between the athlete and the coach?

 Definitely. There needs to be trust between coach and athlete in order to see progress in the training plan. Without trust, there is no progress. 

In 2021, you wrote an article and use the term “identity foreclosure”. What is the meaning and how does it relate to a sport such as running? 

Identity foreclosure is when a person commits to a particular identity/role without exploring any other options. I believe this relates to running due to the intrinsic drive and commitment that the sport entails. I see it a lot at the higher levels of the sport.

For example, runners that have been serious about the sport since high school and then graduate college and aren’t sure what else they are interested in because they’ve invested everything into running up until that point. Their identity has always been “the runner;” they haven’t explored any other identities.

If I am in the sport of running, how can I define success? Is it how fast I can run or just the amount of effort that goes into a workout?

I believe everybody is different in how they define success. However, it is my personal opinion that success should be defined using variables that you can control. For example, you can’t always control the how fast you run (the time, place, etc.), but you can control how you approach your training each day–i.e. your attitude and effort when it comes to your day-to-day workouts.

It’s my belief that if you define success in the process rather than the outcome, you will enjoy the sport more and have more longevity in it, rather than getting too high or too low based on race outcomes. A process-oriented mindset goes a long way.

Is always winning the desired outcome?

I wouldn’t say so. As mentioned above, success can be defined in a myriad of ways that have nothing to do with the outcome of a race. Additionally, losing can be beneficial in the sense that it can make an athlete a better competitor by forcing the athlete to approach the race with a different strategy or improve on certain aspects of their training. I believe an athlete should always strive to improve each day. Always ask yourself,–How can I get better today? 

What is your philosophy when it comes to coaching? 

My overall coaching philosophy is centered around getting to know my athletes as overall people, not solely as athletes. I believe that when you have the total picture of who someone is, that is how you’ll be able to best help him/her achieve goals.

People are not just robots who execute training day-to-day. There is so much more to a person and what they experience day-to-day that needs to be considered when creating training plans and helping athletes achieve their goals. Each person is different, so the unique aspect of coaching is figuring out what makes each athlete tick and how each will reach their goals. 

What is your motivation to coach?

My motivation to coach is to help others reach their goals using the knowledge that I have gained in the sport through my own personal experiences. Looking back at my career, there were many aspects of the sport that I now know and wish I would have known back then (for example, certain injury-prevention measures).

My goal is to give back to the current athletes utilizing what I have learned with the goal for them to reach their potential and be as successful as possible. It is always rewarding to see the progress that athletes make when they are fully committed to their plan that we have helped them sketch out. 

Is there a correct way to process poor performance when the outcome does not match the expectations?

I believe athletes should give themselves 24 hours after a poor performance to feel upset and reflect on what they learned/could have done differently. After 24 hours, athletes should move on and focus on what’s ahead, utilizing what they’ve learned. It’s not beneficial to get stuck feeling upset for an extended period, as that will impact future training sessions and races. The best way to view a poor performance is that it’s good feedback/a learning experience. It only makes you a better athlete at the end of the day.

*If you are interested in reading more about running and the Army 10 Miler Program, please click on our expert George Banker’s Author Page.

*For more information on Samantha Nadel, click here.