Speaker: Marc Riddell
Can you give 2 or 3 main improvements to your physical fitness since working with Ben? Relate this to your sport if possible.
Marc Riddell: Kara. So the main couple of things I've benefited really from working with Ben have been around my overall resilience, so in terms of injury prevention and my strength, I play prop in rugby, so I'm typically not the biggest prop on the field, so it will be as strong as I can for my frame. Um And in terms of my cardio, my fitness whilst working with Benny, um by the time I have been um in playing to my strengths, around having a strong engine, um being resilient and not having any kind of injuries and niggles, some available whole season um and then being as strong as I can um in my position.
How have you found Ben personally as a coach? Has he made the experience enjoyable?
Marc Riddell: since working with Benny, pretty work with him for the last couple of seasons, I've been at Tony Robbie will play, I'm now training within one on one um even though he's gone back to the UK um in terms of my experiences, positive sound very biased from mine and but I found it very enjoyable. He's always around, always feel the energy which is great um to have a conversation with someone uh that really lights up the room, it's a cliche to say, and in terms of my experience with him, I've been playing rugby working out for donkeys now um and he's actually made it fun, like it's cliche to say working out is fun, but I've really enjoyed just the workouts and the programming. There's never been a session where I've gone, god drag myself to the gym and do the dumb exercise. I've I've always enjoyed the workout and they always had good things that I'm good at, new things that I've never done before. Um and then a mixture of both, so it's been pretty much a positive experience the whole time I've been working with him both when I was at Tony and he was there as a strength coach and even now individually with his coaching
Why is Ben different to other S&C coaching/personal training you have or have had in the past?
Marc Riddell: so over the years I've been spoiled. I've been lucky to play some awesome clubs in the UK before I moved to new Zealand and they've had really great strength conditioning teams and I think the main difference I found being here and what I've worked with many going forward since then to now is really in his individuality, I think um his energy has been uh no, that's because he's a northern lad, I've got a soft spot for the accent, but he's real energetic and passionate about what he does and it's kind of infectious in terms of when you're looking to talk to him or you're gonna pick me up from your training and your, you know, just general life stuff getting on top of you and you just kinda wanna have that one on one check in. And it's been, it's always nice to have that beaming energy across the phone, just, it's infectious. I said earlier on, um I think from a training style training content, um it's all relevant, like all, you know, I've trained for a while and played rugby been like very for a long time um and there's all fundamental basis that he covers, but he's also showing me new things and different ways that I hadn't thought of in the past and I've always felt um that he kind of listens to what you do, which is great and the programs don't feel um here's your copy paste carter for you, it feels individualized, which is, which is really great because it has some stuff that I'm really good at, I like, and there's some stuff that I feel like an idiot trying in the gym, but I'm also keen to have that experience. We expose you to new exercises or new programs, which is kind of an exciting part, keeps it interesting. I think it would be my main couple of things that I think that he set himself apart.
