Coach Patrick Sang Reveals Why He Never Discusses Training Plans With Faith Kipyegon
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Coach Patrick Sang has shed light on the unique training philosophy he uses with 1500m world record holder Faith Kipyegon.
Guiding an athlete of Faith Kipyegon’s calibre, winner of four world titles and three Olympic gold medals over 1500m, is one of the most demanding responsibilities any coach could face.
Faith Kipyegon also boasts Olympic silver in the 5000m and both gold and silver medals in the same event at the World Championships. She previously held the 5000m world record and remains the current record holder in the 1500m.
Yet, Patrick Sang explains that he has developed an approach that relies less on constant interaction and more on observation. By closely studying Faith Kipyegon’s rhythm, body language, and training habits, he can instinctively determine what she needs without saying much.
Patrick Sang: I Don't Speak So Much to my Athletes
Patrick Sang explained that he does not dictate detailed race plans to his athletes, including Faith Kipyegon and Eliud Kipchoge.
Instead, he studies them closely to understand what they want for themselves, saying that body language and interaction often reveal how far their minds and bodies are prepared to go, allowing him to design a programme that guides them there.
Sang admitted that this philosophy comes from his own experience as an athlete, when having race plans discussed in advance made him anxious and caused him to waste energy thinking about a competition that had not yet taken place.
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The veteran coach noted that he has borrowed that lesson and applied it to the way he conducts technical training today.
“I don't discuss what I planned for them, but I get what they want for themselves. You know, you can see by interacting with somebody, this is where their minds, their bodies are willing to go to, and then you craft the training plan to take them there,” Patrick Sang said in an interview with Citius Mag.
“I have a belief, I mean, maybe this is a problem and maybe a shortfall on my part, that having been an athlete before, I never wanted anybody to discuss with me a race plan because I would get so anxious.
“I would end up wasting a lot of energy thinking about the race that had not happened. So I've borrowed this way of looking at things and transported it to how I conduct my technical training.”
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Patrick Sang added that his method involves quietly studying an athlete and then designing a programme that guides them to their next level without lengthy discussions.
He noted that even when transitioning Faith Kipyegon from the 1500m to the 5000m, there was no formal conversation about the change.
Instead, he simply adjusted her training to accommodate both events, and the result was a world-record 1500m run at the Diamond League Meeting in Florence in 2023, after which she reported not feeling fatigued.
He explained that the groundwork was laid from the start of the season, since long-term planning is done at the end of the previous campaign.
According to him, talking too much about such transitions can create unnecessary psychological pressure, which is why he prefers to handle the planning himself.
“So what I normally do is I study the person without asking them, and then craft the training plan to take them where they should go or where they want to go without discussing,” Patrick Sang said.
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“We do plans for the season at the end of the season, and that's when we had planned to see a possibility of trying the longer distance.
“So, I mean, that is left now to me to plan. So, if you engage the athlete and then you start talking about the training that will entail, then psychologically they can be somehow disturbed. Yeah.”
That approach has clearly paid off for Patrick Sang, who has guided some of the world’s greatest athletes, including Faith Kipyegon and Eliud Kipchoge.