Athlete Training Feedback: Answering “How Was Training?”

"How was training?" is the most common question in a track and field club, and "good" is the most common answer. Both are useless. The coach learns nothing about whether the 6 × 150 m were run at the right speed, whether the hamstring that was tight on Tuesday is still tight, or whether tomorrow's hurdle session should go ahead as planned. Athlete training feedback only works when the answer has a structure, and the structure can be learned in one session.

This guide gives athletes a four-part answer and gives coaches a way to use it without turning every training evening into an interrogation. It works for sprinters, jumpers, throwers and distance runners alike, in person, in a group chat or in a training diary.

Why "good" is not training feedback

A sprinter who says "good" after 3 × 3 × 60 m from blocks might mean the times were fast, the technique felt right, or simply that nothing hurt. A thrower who says "fine" after 30 throws and heavy squats might be hiding a lower back that has been stiff for a week, because last time she mentioned it the session got cancelled.

Coaches fill the gap with assumptions. The plan continues as written until a performance drops or a physio appointment appears. The fix is not more questions from the coach. It is a shared format that makes the honest answer the easy one.

The four-part answer

Each part is one line. Together they take an athlete 30 seconds, spoken or typed.

1. Session and goal

What was the session and what was it for. "Speed, 3 × 3 × 60 m from blocks, focus on the first ten metres." This confirms the athlete understood the intent, which is worth checking more often than most coaches do.

2. Effort and duration

A session RPE from 1 to 10 and the time from warm-up to cool-down. "RPE 7, 90 minutes." Multiplied together this gives a session load the coach can track over the week, the method described in session RPE × minutes. A speed session rated 9 when the coach planned a 6 is a conversation worth having before the next one.

3. What changed today

One sentence on the body and one on technique or life. "Right calf felt tight from the fifth rep. Starts felt better than last week." This is where tight hamstrings, sore Achilles tendons and exam stress show up before they become a week off training.

4. Readiness for the next session

A simple green, yellow or red for how the athlete expects to arrive at the next planned session. Green: as planned. Yellow: can train, but the coach should know something. Red: needs a change. The athlete gives the signal, the coach makes the decision.

What it looks like in practice

Three examples from a typical training group, each in the four-line format.

Sprinter, Tuesday

• Session: speed, 3 × 3 × 60 m from blocks, first ten metres
• Load: RPE 7 × 90 min = 630
• Changed: right calf tight from rep five, starts better than last week
• Readiness: yellow, calf

800 m runner, Thursday

• Session: 6 × 300 m at 1500 m pace, rhythm
• Load: RPE 8 × 60 min = 480
• Changed: slept 5 hours, exam this morning, reps 5 and 6 slower than target
• Readiness: green for easy run, yellow for anything hard

Shot putter, Saturday

• Session: 30 throws plus squats 5 × 3 at 85%
• Load: RPE 8 × 120 min = 960
• Changed: lower back stiff during squats, throws fine
• Readiness: yellow, would skip heavy lifting on Monday

Compare each of these with "good". The coach can now decide the next session in a minute, and every decision has a reason both people can see.

How coaches use the answers without overreacting

Structured feedback is only valuable if the coach's response is predictable. Athletes stop reporting a tight calf when a tight calf means an automatic week off. Three rules keep the system honest.

Green and nothing unusual. Run the plan. Say thanks, move on. Most days are this.

Yellow once. Keep the session's intent and trim the part that touches the flagged issue. A sprinter with a tight calf can still do the block starts and skip the 150s. A thrower with a stiff back throws and leaves the heavy squats for later in the week.

Yellow for two or three days, or red. Change the session, not just the volume. Technique, mobility, an easy run or a day off. Then look at the last two weeks of load and sleep together with the athlete. The readiness check guide describes how to run this conversation.

The goal is that an honest yellow never costs the athlete more training than it should. That is what keeps the feedback honest.

Introducing the format to a training group

• Explain the why in five minutes. Show the group the "good" example next to the four-line example. Most athletes get it immediately.
• Model it. For the first week, ask the four questions out loud after every session until the format is automatic.
• Put it where the plan is. If the training plan lives in an app, the feedback belongs in the same place. A format that lives in a WhatsApp thread is lost by Friday.
• Keep it private. Feedback shared with the whole group gets edited for the group. Athlete to coach only.
• Refer back to it. "Your calf was yellow on Tuesday, how is it today?" shows the athlete that the 30 seconds were worth it.

Common mistakes

• Asking for a paragraph. Four lines is the format. Longer answers decay into nothing within weeks.
• Reacting to a single RPE. One hard rating is information, not a trend. Three in a row is a trend.
• Treating readiness as a request for rest. It is a signal the coach weighs, not a decision the athlete makes alone.
• Letting the format drift. If some athletes report load and others do not, weekly totals become meaningless.

How Athlog helps

Athlog was built for track and field clubs and puts this feedback where the coach already looks: on the planned session. The athlete fills in RPE, duration, a note and a readiness signal in under a minute, and the coach sees the whole training group's answers before planning the next day.

• Session feedback attached to the planned session, not lost in a chat
• Session load and weekly totals calculated from RPE and minutes automatically
• Readiness and pain flags visible per athlete and across the group
• Comment thread per session so the coach can reply in context

See how training groups run this on the Athlog track and field page.

FAQ

Should athletes answer right after the session or later?

Right after the cool-down, before leaving the track. Effort ratings are most accurate within about 30 minutes of finishing, and the technique note is still fresh. Waiting until the evening turns a real observation into a vague memory.

What if an athlete always says green?

Ask them to compare sessions instead of rating them absolutely: was this harder or easier than the last speed session? Most "always green" athletes are being polite or do not want to lose training. Make it clear that yellow usually means a smaller change, not a cancelled session.

Does this replace the daily training diary?

No. The daily diary captures sleep, soreness, mood and pain every morning. The four-part answer captures the session itself. Together they give the coach both the context and the response. The training diary guide covers the daily side.

How do I handle 25 athletes' answers in one evening?

Read the readiness signals first, then only the yellows and reds in detail. Greens with normal load take two seconds each. In a tool that sorts by readiness, a full group takes a coach about five minutes.

Do this in the next session

• Show your training group the "good" example next to the four-line example.
• Ask every athlete for the four lines after the next three sessions, out loud or in the diary.
• Reply to every yellow with a small change, never with a cancelled week.
• Read the week's session loads on Friday and compare them to what you planned.
• After two weeks, ask the group which part of the format they find most useful and keep that one sacred.