HIRING A QUALITY STRENGTH COACH
So, you have decided that you are ready to take your training to the next level and hire a strength and conditioning coach!
Hiring a professional to ensure you are doing everything possible to gain a competitive edge in athletics is not an easy task to tackle.
We all need coaches - we are where we are thanks in part to the teachings of people who have come before us. Coaches have put their time in, refining their craft over and over, and most continue to dedicate their lives to improving their clients and athletes.
The goal of this article is to empower you (athletes/parents) to find quality strength programs in your area. My mission is to end common misconceptions around strength and conditioning, and help people understand its importance, the processes and possible outcomes, and how to select a program that will fit your needs.
We will start by making a clear and potentially controversial statement - if you are not working with a performance coach on some level (individual, group or team) - you will not reach your full potential.
A trained coach can monitor your progress, study how you move and more importantly, discover how your body responds when the rigors of competition and training begin to accumulate. The first step in building strength and athleticism is properly assessing movement and mobility (or lack thereof) and this is something only an experienced, professional coach can observe (more on that later).
Let’s start with the phases of selecting a coach:
PHASE 1: Immediate Investigation
When researching strength coaches there are some immediate things you should be able to find on their website or social media.
#1 - Education/Certifications/Experience - What type of education have you obtained in this field?
An undergraduate or graduate degree in a health and fitness related stream is a simple standard that many coaches should have. In addition, it is important to also look at the certifications and courses (if listed) they have attended. For instance, certification such as the NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association), ACE (American Council on Exercise) and ISSA (International Sports Science Association) are just a few possible standards that you could look for.
Hint: When it comes time to interview your coach, ask questions to get an understanding of their knowledge and training background. It is often the case that experience far outweighs the plaque on the wall. A formal education is not necessarily indicative of the quality of the coach.
#2 - Location - How close or far is their location to you?
Let’s be clear - a fancy facility does not mean that you will be provided with the best care. Often, proximity is the first thought for families and athletes to ensure there is a greater adherence to training. In our experience, making the time to travel to someone that will have your success in mind, is a small sacrifice you should be willing to make.
PHASE 2: Interview Process
The best way to get to know about your strength coach is to actually speak to them. A coach will have a very clear understanding of their program and what it can do for his/her clients. On occasion, we have talked clients out of working with us because we cannot service their goals with our program (for instance, bodybuilding or physique prep is not our specialty; there are others out there that will have a greater impact).
There are a few things that you will want to inquire about that should align with your personal beliefs, values and goals:
#3 - Focus/Philosophy - What is your overall training philosophy?
This is by far the most important aspect of a coach’s “toolbox”! In fact, it is the toolbox. A strong and clear training philosophy is what defines a coach’s actions on training day.
Having said that, it is true that any form of training will have an immediate impact on your strength and conditioning capacity (generally a neurological adaptation to the training style). So, it is important to understand that there is not ONE training style that covers all the bases of athletic preparation. There are great methods out there like HIIT training, Olympic-style weightlifting, power lifting and strong man training, to name a few. If all of your training revolves around one method or style, you are becoming an athlete at that sport, rather than a well-balanced athlete.
Also, your workout is not always meant to be a non-stop, heart pumping, “butt-kicker” workout. Is there a place for it? Absolutely! But much like everything, when it is done under the right circumstances, it will have a tremendous effect; when done repetitively, it will not serve your specific goals as an athlete.
#4 - Assessment - What do they do to assess you?
At every level of competition, the ability to assess movement quality and physical readiness is of HUGE importance. As our Master Trainer, Steve Teel puts it, “If you’re not assessing, you’re guessing.” This mantra forms the foundation of our Mettle training philosophy - Assess, Prepare, Excel. When you are looking for a coach, ask them what they do as an assessment, and what they do with this information once collected. Many coaches (we are all guilty of it at one time or another) will simply record physical performance measures (speed, jump height, strength, etc.) as a marker of where the athlete compares to his/her peers and to track improvements in training. Without a firm understanding of the body’s movement and biomechanical limitations, weakness, and capacity to withstand repeated efforts, your program will be quite generic and less impactful. This is also an issue with doing any online based training programs (and there are a lot out there). If it is not based initially on your movement quality, it will not serve you as well as you may think.
To give an example using our system, when working with teams or large groups, it is extremely difficult to individualize programs for each athlete, so we utilize our movement assessment to categorize athletes based on similar movement dysfunctions. We then address these with specific training (stability & mobility), then come together as a team to work on the “7 Primal Patterns” as well as speed, agility and power development. Your ability to squat, lunge, deadlift (bend), push, pull, twist and walk (gait) is unique to your body, movement history and sport. This is important to understand as an athlete because when it comes time to select a coach, you must recognize that movement is the thread that links all sports together. Coach Steve strongly believes that, “Structure dictates function, function dictates dysfunction. Static posture (sitting, standing, *texting) correlates to dynamic posture. In essence, how you sit will have an effect on your dynamic movement (walking, running, jumping, etc.).”
#5 - Monitoring - How do they track your workouts? How do they assess your progress?
The phrase, “you don’t know where you are going, unless you know where you have been”, applies to the importance of tracking. Good coaches will track a workout and add important notes, progress or updates relevant to each program during or just after a training session. Any good coach will understand the importance of training adaptation to achieve optimal performance results, so ensure that they have a plan for tracking your progression as you navigate your athletic journey.
#6 - Planning - How will the session, month, 6 months or year look?
Depending on your time frame, you’ll want a clearly defined plan to maximize time and efficiency in each training window. Everyone NEEDS an off-season - a time to dial down the repetitiveness of sport, and train like an animal!
Our philosophy is that athletes should be athletes all-year-round and participate in as many sports as possible for as long as possible. Specialization most often limits an athlete’s ability to adequately prepare for competition. As athletes move out of general competition into sport specialization (typically 15-17 years old) the importance of a well-structured off-season training program grows. Until that point, athletes should be training regularly throughout the year to develop physical literacy, a solid movement foundation, and various strength capacities (look out for our next article on this specific topic).
When speaking to a strength coach, assess how they would develop a long-term plan for you. Whether they work with you for a month, a year, or your career, you will want them to consider your long-term athlete development, rather than focus on what can be achieved in a short time (vertical jump, bench press, etc.). Placing too much importance on immediate results can lead poor coaches to throw everything at athletes - including the kitchen sink – without considering the implications on overall athletic development. “This is practice. You have to learn to crawl before you can walk, and learn to walk before you can run…”
Here is a real life example:
One of our athletes who was a pro-rower was too specific in his approach to training. Under the direction of his coach and therapist/strength coach, his program was dominated by rowing specific exercises (partial squats followed by rowing on the rowing machine). By the age of 19 he dealt with a significant amount of lower body dysfunction, which could be linked to his specific training. He now has 3 fused vertebrae in his lower back.
*Take-away: Movement/exercise variety is a key factor in overall performance and must be planned.
PHASE 3: Making the Choice
#7 - Clear up any loose ends - What are their expectations with regards to time, money, travel, etc.?
Having clearly defined expectations is another key aspect of selecting the appropriate coach to manage your physical preparation. It is difficult to make informed decisions when the information you have is incomplete.
It is up to you to decide if what they are providing matches your expectations, so make sure you are clear in what you want. On the other hand, make sure they clearly explain their rationale if their program is rigid. For instance, “everyone must buy 10 PT sessions per month”, or, “the open gym fee with an instructor present is $X.” If it is just a simple way to track accounting, then it may not be the best for your goals and timelines.
FINALLY:
#8 - Follow your gut (and know what you are looking for)
Finally, what is your gut telling you?! Intuition is a powerful thing! Once you have all of the information in front of you, don’t ignore the feelings you are having.
• Does this person have a personality that meshes with mine? Make sure you like them!
• Do they come across as authentic? This is not so much what is being said, but how it is being said and their body language.
• Is this person going to be a “cheerleader” or an advocate? Remember that there is a time and a place for everything, so in this example - An advocate tells you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear in most situations. A cheerleader is that trainer in the gym that is all about the hype but lacks substance (“sizzle with no steak”). They make loud noises and counts reps as though everyone needs to hear rather than ensuring quality technique and giving purposeful feedback.
We hope that this information has been of value to you in your search for your first (or next) strength coach. Choosing a quality coach is truly one of the best investments an athlete can make. It will accelerate your potential and ensure that you are able to compete day in and day out, for years to come.
In your health,
Coach Rory
(adapted from an article originally prepared for the Ontario Volleyball Association and Mettle Sports Training)