Special Coaches: Roberto Cejuela Anta

In Triathlon News we want to introduce some of the most important coaches in Spain, who work and forge great triathletes to improve their results.

 

This is our small tribute to all the coaches who strive every day to improve the performance of their athletes.

Today we interview Roberto Cejuela Anta, head of the triathlon section of the Club Deportivo University of Alicante, club of the international triathletes Jesús Gomar and Roberto Sánchez among other young people who aspire to shine in the near future.

Good morning Roberto, to start this interview we would like to know how were your beginnings as triathlon coach

In the year 2004 while studying 4º course of Bachelor of Science in Physical Activity and Sport at the University of León I met the sport of triathlon when we started preparing Championship University Spain that year was played in Gorlitz (Bilbao) It was an authentic adventure together with 3 compañeras (Bea, Naza and Jeni) and Iñaki, we experimented with ourselves and we began to discover this wonderful sport.

There was not much scientific literature on this and little informative that above all explained personal experiences of different athletes or coaches. I had previously trained road race, as a sportsman from junior class to Elite-sub23 and until I met triathlon, was the trainer and 2º sporting director of cycling team (Master Cadena) junior categories and cadets Bembibre (León ).

So after knowing the triathlon in that year 2004, in the year 2005 create the triathlon team of the University of León, where we started to train a little more seriously and we continue discovering this wonderful sport.

I have very fond memories of those years, it was a new world to discover that the triathlon then was something unexplored full of possibilities, combinations of workouts, formats competitions, distances, very interesting people who gathered in competitions any part of Spain, it's like the new world, after having been cycling for 10 for years, the triathlon was completely different.

In the actuality, where do you carry out your professional career?

At the University of Alicante. I am the Head Trainer of the triathlon section of the Sports Club University of Alicante. I am also a Professor and researcher in the Degree of Science of Physical Activity and Sports of the same University, where I teach triathlon and sports training.

Could you quote a coach or coaches with whom you have trained and / or have good professional relationships?

Many, in chronological order, first my teacher of Theory and Practice of Sport Training when I studied at the University of León, Dr. Gonzalo Cuadrado, followed by the current teacher of the same subject Dr. José Antonio Rodríguez Marroyo, who taught me and He teaches a lot in the world of cycling as a trainer and researcher, Alberto García Bataller, whom I met in the national swimming coach course and I was impressed by his clarity to explain and make understand the training, he has been and is a reference for me because I have had the fortune of learning with him, not only in the trainer courses but in different stays in the Sierra Nevada CAR where just seeing him work with Ana Burgos was a true spectacle, and now I have the honor of being his thesis director doctoral.

Also the Spanish coaches pioneers, Cesar Varela coach Ivan Raña in his day, and José Ángel Rioseco, coach Javier Gómez Noya in his day, the first time I saw them and I was able to talk to them, because it certainly was exciting .

At methodological level I learned a lot from Ivo Clotet, with him I realized the amount of training sessions that a high level triathlete was able to perform in a week, so at 2005, it seemed to me an authentic barbarity. My colleague, Dr. Jonathan Esteve, from whom I constantly learn. And finally to quote one of the international training group I would like to quote Jamie Turner because we can observe the trajectory of the triathletes he has trained and how they have evolved their performance over the years when before starting to training with him had much less sporting level.

For me that is a good measure to calibrate a coach, rather than the absolute results of the athletes who train, if not, as has been the evolution of the performance of their athletes over the years of training with that coach.

Who are the main triathletes that you work with today?

Currently Jesus Gomar is the sportiest level triathlete who is competing in the World Series, followed by Roberto Sanchez Mantecon, 4º C.Mundo junior and junior champion Spain, and with them, we have a group with great future prospects with Alberto Parrilla , Guillermo Ferrer, the Croatian junior champion Luka Paliska, Carlos Ferrando or Javier Magallón, along with other young people who work a lot.

Can you cite any quality or characteristic of them?

Jesús Gomar is the brightest tactical intelligence in career that I have ever seen, he reads the competitions perfectly and he is capable of taking the opportune decisions, he has reached a degree of maturity that allows this development. He also has an incredible talent for high intensity rhythms in all segments.

Roberto has also managed to read the races in the junior category very well, now he has to face the step to international elite level, he is very young but with enough experience to face it. Alberto Parrilla is an extraordinary swimmer, his progression in a year of training in the cycling segment has been very good, and in the future he will have to talk in the triathlon.

Guillermo Ferrer is a born competitor, a gladiator in the competition, he has it in his blood, very young, little experience, but he will also reach the elite. Luka Paliska is discovering a new world of training in Alicante, compared to Croatia, she is very young and will also arrive because it is her dream and you have qualities. Carlos Ferrando is a hardworking ant, a balance of the group, a serene coffee after each workout.

As a coach What are your goals for 2016?

Those of my athletes, I work with my athletes to achieve their individual goals and as a team. And keep learning.

Can you give us some advice for the coaches who start working with triathletes?

Patience, learn each day from your athletes and other coaches, read scientific literature from reference journals (indexed in international databases, mainly in the Journal Citation Report), do not spend too much time on sources of misinformation, only the necessary ( social networks, blogs, websites, popular magazines, etc.), personality and being happy.

And as a coach ... Any advice for those who start practicing triathlon?

That they do it for enjoyment, as a trip to a new world, an adventure, and that they live intensely each experience, being careful not to injure themselves in the attempt, consult a coach for it. If by chance they are good, that they already consider starting to organize themselves in a systematic way, if they like it, that allow them to reach the maximum of their possibilities.

Thank you very much for the interview and for having spent this little time with the readers of Triathlon News.

Thank you very much, greetings.

Website, facebook, instagram and twitter

www.allinyourmind.es

www.uatriatlon.com

Facebook: Roberto Cejuela Anta

Triathlon at the UA

Instagram: @roberto_cejuela

Twiter: @RobertoCejuela

(Photo Roberto: Allon Sports)

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