This is a segment from Daniel Coyle's The Little Book of Talent. The particular chapter referenced is entitled "5 Ways to Pick a High Quality Teacher or Coach."
I usually try to adapt principles I see from authors and direct them toward coaches. I don't like to just regurgitate generic concepts but provide specific examples as much as I can. Reading this chapter from Coyle got me thinking about how they pertain to coaches and trainers from their perspective. So, allow me to paraphrase...
1.) Avoid Someone who Reminds you of a Courteous Waiter
Next time you go to a restaurant, and restaurant, listen to what every single waiter or waitress says. "My name is Mark and I'll be taking care of you this evening." Every time.
Coaches that constantly want to take care of their athletes and want training sessions to go smoothly and avoid any conflict may be missing a crucial piece of athlete development. Trainers are often guilty of this and ensuring that "everything will take care of itself" and not to worry is short-changing the athlete.
The moment I figured out I didn't have to "sell" what I was doing or sell the training system to the athletes; I became a better coach. I am now saying you shouldn't teach "the why". I am just saying you don't have to convince the athletes they should be doing what you want them to. If you have the athletes best interest in mind, you will not need to justify yourself.
This issue is prevalent in the private and school settings. Semi-Private training of athletes could be identical to a collegiate team training session. The difference is in the motivation and the choice made. Athletes don't get to choose their strength coach unless it is a small factor in recruiting. There is also a huge difference in training athletes paying to be there and athletes who 'have' to be there.
2.) Seek Someone who Scares you a Little
I have made this mistake in several different ways. First, I have been the coach that would try to impose my will and set a tone of intimidation. That doesn't work on college athletes. I was better off treating them like grown men and women. No one was scared of me yelling at them. Athletes tune that out almost immediately.
Second mistake I made was trying to be everyone's buddy. (See #1). Once you try to play the friend card, it is difficult to be the hard-ass afterwards. That also lead me to the worst mistake and that was being both of those inconsistently. When the athlete never knows what version of you they are going to get, they block you out and don't take you serious.
Some of my interns would tell me stories about their first day. Things like me telling them they should have known the warm-up from the e-mail I sent and take a team through it. Talk about putting a young coach in a bad spot. I was also told I would chuck a kettlebell across the weightroom and literally lose my mind confronting a team for not doing the right thing. Talk about being a jack-ass. Knowledge + Experience = Wisdom. Add some real-time soul-searching reflection and you have no choice but to grow.
Just like anything else, you don't really figure things at first. I finally got to the point where I made athletes a little nervous for the right reasons–For being meticulous about details and passionate about doing the right things. I finally learned how to be brutally honest without being overly confrontational.
Sometimes truth is scarier than threats.
3.) Seek someone who gives short, clear directions
Man to man, best advice I got when I was a coach: It's not about you. Some coaches coach so they can hear themselves coach. Trainers are guilty of making their training programs and cool exercises and diet plans about being a representing their brand and not about helping their clients. Results end up being a by-product of their display of self-promotion.
As soon as I started to figure out that athletes weren't really impressed about my knowledge, I started to coach better. Most were under the impression that I had a good knowledge base (mostly from lecture classes). But they performed at their best for me because they know I cared. It's the age-old adage. They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
Getting athletes to do more by saying less is about the point you realize that you don't need to impress anyone with what you know. Most athletes don't know who Verkoshansky is or what Prlilepins chart is. They just want to jump higher and run faster. Most clients could care less of why things work, then just want to lose weight.
4.) Seek Someone who Loves Teaching the Fundamentals.
The basics are boring. Most coaches aren't wired to spend weeks on basic athletic positions and the simple movements. Another one of my mentor's who is the head basketball coach at Denison, Bob Ghilioni, would often talk about the best coaches from any sport are sticklers for the basic fundamentals. This isn't just about the act of teaching, but the act of letting the athletes develop those basic fundamentals skills by providing them structured time to do so. Jack Hatem would always say if you are teaching someone to shoot free-throws, you must instruct, demonstrate and then let the athlete perform. If you were to shoot 100 free throws, you would not make technique corrections after every rep, You would never get anything done. But, we as strength coaches and trainers do this all the time. (see #3). Overcoaching is the best way to frustrate your athletes or clients.
5.) Other Things being Equal, Pick the Older Person
Coyle admits there some very good young coaches and some very bad older coaches. That is not the point. Older coaches have an opportunity to gather more knowledge and attain more practical experiences. Again, Knowledge + Experience = Wisdom.
This can be contradictory to how you treat athletes. In athletics, with all else equal, play the younger player. I will admit, even with coaching, you always want an ambitious, hungry coach who you need to reel back in than someone who is set in their ways who you need to kick in the ass.
I was a fraction of the coach my first year compared to my last. In that 15 years, I improved because of the mistakes I made, the people I met, and the books I read. The longer I coached, the more I knew I didn't know. One of my best friends, Derek Fry who is the Head Athletic Trainer at Denison helped me figure out an important fact which echoed what Dave Tate has been saying for years. Knowing what you don't know.
TRAINING
Wk 1: Eccentric
Wk 2: Isometric
Wk 3: Dynamic
Wk 4: Circa Max Effort
Wk 5: Repetition (Volume)
TUESDAY
SS Yoke Bar Sqaut
- 310 x5
Buffalo Bar Bench Press
- 300 x3
- 300 x2
- 300 x1
supersetted with...
Neutral Grip Pull-Ups
- Grip 1 x5
- Grip 2 x5
- Grip 0 x5
Glute-Ham Raise
- Pin 2 x5
Elitefts™ Erect-a-Rack™
Elitefts™ SS Yoke Bar
Elitefts ™ 0-90 Incline Bench
Hi-Temp Bumper Plate
Croc-Lock Collar
Elitefts™ Deluxe Glute-Ham Raise