How to find the right Coach for you
I have been Coaching strength and conditioning since 2012. My clients have ranged from someone who couldn’t walk without the assistance of crutches, to D1 athletes, moms and dads, and everyone in between. I realized very quickly the perfect client for me is simply one who works hard to improve and does so with a positive attitude. Personally, I would much rather train a middle aged mom who simply wants to be healthier for her family who works hard with a smile on her face, than a world champion athlete who’s a shitty human. Effort and attitude is what I value and I believe anyone who shares that same philosophy, together, we will have great success.
How do you find the right Coach? Well, what is it you’re looking for from this Coach? I worked at a gym where we deciphered between Coaches and “Counters.” A Counter is simply someone who designs you workouts, perhaps even great workouts, but they are simply their to count and tell you, “good job.” Counters are the ones who will let you perform an exercise with improper technique, sometimes even so bad it’s guaranteed to eventually hurt you, but they continue counting your reps and encouraging you to continue. A Coach is not counting your reps because they’re too busy watching your every movement. From your feet to the top of your head, they are watching and dissecting every move looking for ways to make even great movers, BETTER! A Counter is one who lets you skip the warm up when you’re late for your session. A Coach is one who asks about your nutrition, how much sleep you’ve had, evaluates your current emotional state of mind, etc. A Coach may completely change an entire workout, week or even month they had previously planned because their athlete just went through a bad break up, so now the workout is a high intensity with lots of hammer slams to let out that built up tension. Or, maybe your client is more on the sensitive spectrum so you need to do low intensity with a lot of conversation between sets. A Coach will speak to every client completely different. The Coach has had time to get to know each individual and figure out what motivates them. Does this person do better from negative reinforcement or positive? Do I need to push this client more because they’re less internally motivated and more externally inspired? Or, do I need to at times pull them back because their so driven they are likely to push too hard and potentially injure themselves or over train? These are all questions a Coach will take the time to figure out because they’re not simply a clock puncher, they care and are passionate about their work. They care about your progress both in the gym and out of it just as much if not more than you. A Coach gets more hype than the athlete when they set a new personal record, beit in the gym or in their personal life. A Coach figures out your knee pain is actually due to an instability in your foot, because again, they’re constantly watching and dissecting. A Counter will simply say “ok, we’ll skip leg day this week.” A Coach will devise a whole plan to strengthen the instability in your foot and surrounding area and to also create an awareness in the client of their foot activation at all times, while in the gym and out of it. A Coach will design a plan to cure the problem. A counter will simply put a bandaid where there’s a broken bone.
So, the more important question is, which would you rather have? What are you looking for out of your training experience? Personally, I have trained people who truly prefer the Counter. Because, their ego will not allow for new and different methods of training. Or more easily put, they’re simply accustomed to doing things a particular way and have no interest in changing or evolving. I have trained people who when I suggested they make even a slight adjustment to their form, even when their form was truly dangerous to their health, refused to even try it. Needless to say, I no longer trained those clients. And not because they wouldn’t “listen to me” but because I am not what they’re looking for in a trainer and they’re not what I am looking for in a client. I want a client who is willing to not only try new things but give me feedback on how the new things felt! I want to learn and evolve as a Coach, and I can only do that if I have clients with the same goal. I cannot learn or grow and therefore cannot evolve and improve in my career if I am simply counting your reps and telling you “good job” when I know you could be making so many improvements but aren’t because you’re simply unwilling to try. In fact, not only will neither one of us improve but I will end up dreading the training session all together and it will of course bleed over into my programming, the session, and result in the client eventually dreading it as well.
I know this to be true because I have ran the experiment. I was the trainer who said yes to every client. Which was good because it taught me who my targeted audience was, but it also resulted in me trying to Coach a bunch of people who just wanted me to count. Once I figured this out it completely transformed the way I approached the initial consultation with a new client. I always first expressed what they could expect from me as a Coach, and then I would explain what I expected from them as a client. This single handedly changed the entire dynamic of our interactions from that moment forward for the positive because we both understood the expectations of our relationship. It gave the client an opportunity to say “thank you, but no thank you, this is not what I am looking for.” and gave me the chance to recommend another trainer. No hard feelings, sometimes you walk into a store but don’t buy a single thing, their products simply aren’t for you and vice versa.
Of course, there’s always a middle ground of people who are slightly better than a counter but light years from being a Coach. The beauty is there’s a need for everyone on every end of the spectrum and between and you get to choose what suits your personal goals the best. It took me years, but I now know that’s true for not only the client seeking the trainer, but for trainers taking on new clients. Trainer’s and gyms are no different than any other business or profession; just like you have McDonald’s and cooks, you have 5-star restaurants and Chefs. The choice is yours, my friends.
Health is Happiness
Coach Karli