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Christopher here - this posting is going to be coming at you like the Tasmanian Devil – fast, furious & in a flurry of motion, so keep up and follow along as some serious New Years knowledge is about to be dropped. Check it out; what’s the number one thing this time of year brings about for all of you fitness nuts and fitness enthusiasts out there? That’s right, RESOLUTIONS. This is the year for you to do it up bigger, better and faster – the only question on your mind right now should be – How?
The best way, in my humble opinion, to reach your fitness goals more efficiently (whether professional, intermediate or beginner) is to find a “good” coach – wait a second, I said bigger, better faster didn’t I? Correct me if I’m wrong but you don’t need “good”; you need “great”! How do you find a great coach? What’s the difference between a great coach and a great trainer? Well, that’s why I’m writing this posting boys and girls out there in cyberspace – I am hoping this message takes your training this New Year from “good” to “great”!
The “stuff” that separates “good” from “great” can be measured on such a minute scale, it really does come down to the details. The details I speak of in this particular instance are you; but before we get to you, let’s take a closer look at the difference between a great coach and a great trainer. From my vantage point the difference between being a great coach and a great trainer comes down to a simple matter of form versus function. Trainers (and I am not knocking the profession, rather the semantics of the title) can teach the form of exercises; they are often in great physical shape – billboards of perceivable health and wellness but quite often, not in all cases, a vast majority of trainers out there lack the expertise to teach the finer points of exercise performance based on the best interest of their audience.
The vast majority of exercises I see trainers use in a traditional commercial gym setting with general population fitness members serve no real purpose (blanket statement – I know). Usually it’s the newest, latest fad that is going to aid more in client retention initiatives than client results. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few shake weight group exercise classes started to emerge in the New Year – ugggh, I digress. A good coach I feel is just that because they have the expertise to increase performance (function) to higher levels. Coaches have put in countless hours to master the most minute of details and more importantly have made a craft out of “teaching” this knowledge – regardless of who their audience is.
In the MMA world it’s like having Greg Jackson in your corner. You can be a good fighter but because of Greg’s coaching he brings your game to the level of a “great” fighter. Charlie Francis (God rest his soul) was the same to the sprinting community here in Canada. Say what you want about Charlie – he was one hell of an amazing Coach and I consider myself fortunate to have been able to watch him coach on more than one occasion. To expand a bit before getting back on point (here’s the Tasmanian-Devil coming out as I digress yet again) Charlie was actually a distance runner himself; so how then did this guy rise to become one of the most sought after speed coaches in the world? I am going to argue it was his expertise that arose from a sense of pride in his job; a need to know the details and the recognition that performance (function) was based on more than physical form. Performance was actually the result of the harmonious integration and interaction of the spiritual, mental and physical self (I will talk more on this in later postings – I promise)
To the task at hand; now that we know the difference between a coach and a trainer, there are a few short hurdles to keep in mind that a competent coach should be able to jump through with relative ease and they are:
Certification: In this area you want to insure that your coach has the proper credentials and that they are constantly updating their knowledge. I believe that constant professional growth through professional development, be it a certification, a workshop or continued independent reading demonstrates a level of care and professionalism toward you the client. More importantly it demonstrates a certain sense of self-respect and pride that the coach has both in themselves and in their chosen profession. A little known “black secret” in the Canadian Fitness Industry – it’s unregulated; which means that it doesn’t matter if your Coach is Can-Fit Pro ™ Certified or not. What matters is that they are certified and demonstrate due diligence to seek certification from an organization that requires continuing education credits to maintain eligibility of accreditation.
To this end does your Coach have any specialty certifications or areas of expertise? For example Kettlebell or Speed Conditioning for Sport – with specified knowledge your performance will improve that much faster because your Coach can give you an edge over athletes that may not have exposure to the same training methodologies employed by your coach.
Education: When it comes to formal education the strongest coaches will always be the ones that have a background in Kinesiology or Health and Fitness Promotions – that’s just my opinion. The trouble with certain certifying bodies is that they do not screen their applicants for educational background; so anyone can gain accreditation through a weekend long course (3 days).
How can an individual who completes a 3 day course have anywhere near the same amount of knowledge of the human body as someone that has spent 4 years or more studying Kinesiology? Does your Coach have a particular interest in a specialized area of research? Have they completed a certificate stream concurrently with their declared major?
Having some sort of formal education demonstrates that your Coach has a passion to accrue knowledge in their chosen field – it also demonstrates that they are able to think critically and problem-solve, to me, having a post secondary education simply demonstrates that when your Coach takes on a project where they have established a certain expectation they will see it through to completion.
Experience: The final wheel on this tricycle is experience. I believe that there is no substitute for the education that life itself brings – this is the practical aspect of training; the education is the theoretical and the certification is the technical but it is experience that takes a good Coach to the level of a “great” Coach. Failing fast but recovering faster and learning from previous “mistakes” is the secret to accruing knowledge through experience. A good Coach will find a way to reach the audience; I firmly believe that there is no such thing as bad students just poor teachers (coaches in our case).
Experience carves our teeth and provides the appetite needed to instill the sense of excellence needed to illicit an increase in performance. An important component of experience is results – the proof is always in the pudding. Does your Coach have a proven track record of getting people results? Has anyone ever been injured following training protocols that were laid out by him/her?
Finally everything above boils down to what I call the “you factor”. I believe that if you do not connect with your Coach and feel confident in their capabilities then you will never really approach the training with the needed abandonment to achieve the results you’re after. Your Coach has to be able to reach you spiritually, mentally and physically and motivate you to want to do better for yourself and no one else.
At the end of the day regardless of who you chose as your Coach the onus for results falls on your shoulders – so the end game is really about finding a competent Coach that can hold you accountable to yourself and provide the steps necessary to achieve the results you desire. Certification; Education; Experience and YOU are what take a Coach from good to great! These are just my insights but I am no expert. I want to hear from you. What were some of your funniest, best or worst experiences with a Coach? The best comment will receive ONE MONTH FREE training at Empire Fitness courtesy of Cygen Labrotories.
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