Training, Performance & Human Factors - Articles for Endurance Athletes

Stress has a bad reputation. We hear the word and immediately think of overwhelm, fatigue, or burnout. But in both sport and business, stress is not the enemy - it’s the stimulus for growth . What determines whether we thrive or crumble under pressure isn’t how much stress we face, but how well we manage, recover, and adapt from it. That principle sits at the heart of the Performance Reservoir Model , a simple yet powerful framework that explains how humans convert stress in

We, as humans, are creatures of habit. It’s a mindset embedded within us from our days as hunter gatherers (and probably well before that). Habits and routines are good for us, as we operate more efficiently on ‘autopilot’, with our prefrontal cortex not having to work overtime making every single decision we make on a daily basis. It also keeps us safe. Being predictable, always collecting the same tried and tested wild fungi that didn’t kill us, taking the same hunting rout

In today’s fast-paced world, we send more messages - but understand less. Whether it’s a WhatsApp from a coach, a safety note in aviation, or an email to your boss, written communication is efficient… until it isn’t. Without tone, context, or instant feedback, even well-intentioned messages can cause confusion, mistrust, or worse - critical mistakes. In high-stakes environments, relying solely on written communication isn’t just risky - it’s reckless . The Illusion of Clarity

How many times do we see it in our day-to-day lives? Whether its an email to our boss that they took the wrong way, or a text to a family member where our dry sense of humour is misconstrued for being confrontational, we find that communication breaks down quite frequently. As it happens, that second one happens far too often between my mum and I… Despite technological advancements and decades of Crew Resource Management (CRM) training, communication failures in aviation are

While flying recently, I was handling the aircraft on an instrument approach in for a touch and go. I was wearing the oxygen mask, as we had practiced the smoke and fumes drill, and I hadn’t landed wearing the mask for a while. It was a good training opportunity, however in itself it provided a bit of a distraction. Additionally, the weather was quite poor, and the cloud base was close to the minima for the approach. On reflection, it was one of those approaches where the hol

Communication always comes with its challenges, but there are ways we can overcome these and avoid ambiguity.

Investigating accidents and incidents serves one sole purpose; to identify the causes and prevent recurrence. Over time, this data can be analysed to identify common issues and precursors to events, which could be used to predict cases of human error in the future. It’s not quite as cut and dry as it sounds, but human behaviour is actually surprisingly predictable. The US military have used this concept to devise an AI programme called Raven Sentry , which was employed in Afg

On 1st June 2009, Air France Flight 447 was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. During the flight, the Airbus 330-200 flew through some weather and ice crystals began forming in the three pitot tubes. These measure the differential between static air pressure and the dynamic, to provide airspeed readings to the cockpit. As these became blocked with ice build-up, there was a disparity between measurements from the three tubes, which disconnected the aircraft’s autopilot and a

In most walks of life, people find themselves in high pressure situations. This often builds over time, with increasing workload, or responsibilities, at home or at work. Pressure builds and people’s fight, flight or freeze (also known as the acute stress response ) kicks in. Some crumble under the stress, some thrive and use it to motivate them. However, the aviation domain is one where pressure does not always build consistently. The Yerkes-Dodson Law, also referred to as t

I’m not always making errors; despite whatever picture these articles may appear to paint. But I am open about them, as I genuinely believe that’s the only way to prevent their re-occurrence. That being said, the latest slip came just last week. While deployed, we have air conditioning carts to keep the aircraft cool before we start engines. As it was being moved to our other aircraft, my captain (in the left-hand seat) was telling me to check out on the right that the cart w

Sitting in a Grob 115A cockpit, at the hold on an empty airfield I ran through the pre-take-off checklist. It was my first time taking a passenger flying, after completing RAF flying training and finishing off the final elements of my civilian licence. I was eager to get airborne, and although there was no pressure to get going, I did feel the pressure of the responsibility of someone else’s life who didn’t have a clue how the aircraft worked. I’d only ever flown next to an i