I have been observing new and
incoming coaches for a long time now and I wanted to give a few tips and advice
for those coaches who are new to the field. After working with a new coach and
shadowing the class, I sat down with the coach to provide some feedback on the
lesson. The first reflective question I asked the coach was,
"If you were just in that
class, would you come back to workout with you again?"
Basically, I’m encouraging the coach to reflect…
·
Did I have fun?
·
Did the athletes have fun?
·
Did I meet my objectives?
·
Did the athlete progress?
As a director, I am evaluating my
coaches from a number of different perspectives. First, from a business
standpoint I am looking for professionals who can master the entire realm of
this industry. I am looking for coaches who have credibility, knowledge and the
ability to effectively relay that knowledge to others. I am also looking for
coaches with energy and personality to keep the athletes engaged. Lastly, I am
looking for the coach that can recognize when a lesson is not meeting the
objectives effectively and can adapt to fix it to make it better.
Let’s start with energy and
personality. As new coaches come in and shadow my classes, sometimes I will go
into an acting mode. I will show them how my demeanor, attitude, and energy can
change the atmosphere of the class and how it can impact the effort and
attitude of the athletes. For example, if my attitude is lazy and paltry then
the effort my athletes will give me will match that ‘bare minimum’ request. I
have a personal philosophy that I take from coaching sports, which is, if I need
my athletes to meet my expectations, I need to meet theirs and that starts with
motivation. Energy is what keeps the class going and that needs to start with
the coach. Stirring up motivation and maintaining energy in the class are two
extremely basic components necessary for a successful class atmosphere. Let me
keep it simple and remind you of Newton’s First Law of Motion:
An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion
unless acted upon by another force.
Therefore, if my athletes are
constantly stopping or bringing down their energy level, I then need to double
my energy to be the force to get them moving again. Constantly having to re-gain
the momentum of the class will be exhausting! Instead, I have my athletes jog
everywhere. It might sound over-the-top but body language, discipline, and
momentum as a competitor is crucial. Whether my athletes are getting equipment,
water, changing location, etc., they are jogging and moving quickly to where
they need to be. Keeping the class moving and engaged makes for more effective
learning and progress. I’m sure many of you can relate that in school there
were always ‘favorite’ teachers, and it was not always based on subject matter
but more on teaching style, effort, and energy. I don’t always remember what I
learned but I certainly remember how I felt in the class. A high-energy
atmosphere will give my athletes momentum to progress through the daily
objectives. Also, from a personality standpoint, I expect coaches to be able to
look at our daily schedule, recognize each athlete and know what sports they
play, where they are from, and something interesting about them without looking
at their file. Having a little bit of personal knowledge about each athlete
helps strengthen the relationship. People feel special and important when they
walk through a door and are greeted by others who are excited to see them and
know a little bit about them.
Finally,
from every class that is coached, the coach is also learning. If the coach
isn’t learning too, they aren’t doing a very good job. I know this is starting
to sound uber-philosophical, but bear with me for a moment. If a class isn’t
going the right way, fix it!!! If you don’t know how…ASK! The biggest key to
teaching is progression and regression. If you are not ready to take an
exercise and modify it so that your athletes have success, that means they will
fail more times then not.
I explain
to my coaches, its important to be able to ‘wear different hats’ while out on
the floor. Athletes and students alike may not always be able to learn the way
we teach, so instead we need to be able to teach in a way they can learn! For
example, you cannot train an eighteen-year-old middle linebacker the same way
you would train an eight-year-old middle linebacker.
I believe all the things we spoke
about above hold true, at the end of the day we are teaching more than Sports
Performance. Our athletes learn how to train and improve, they learn how to
spot other athletes and train safely and they learn how to lift properly. Every
athlete should leave your class better then when they walked in. Coaches are
expected to monitor the class and recognize when progressions or regressions
need to take place. It makes me sick when I see a video online of some
"Coaching Guru" who is lifting a young athlete and filming it to put
on their website, and it is such poor form you just want to vomit. I saw a
video like this last week and I was appalled. This “Coach” proudly displays a
video of a young athlete lifting and all I saw were the detrimental flaws:
knees are valgus, spine is flexed, depth is inadequate, load is too heavy, etc.
This coach is clearly doing more harm then good for this athlete and
unfortunately someone with little experience will watch it and try to learn
from it. Fortunately, as I read the comments below, someone else had already
commented on what my frustration was about to spill on the board. There is a
difference between right and wrong, and if you are getting away with wrong
lifting technique you are increasing the likelihood to get hurt.
I wrote this after I read Eric
Cressey's Article, but I wanted to take more of a philosophical approach. I
like his ideas and concepts and I highly recommend you take a look
Be a coach you would
want to train with!
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