I had a heart to heart with two of my clients last night. They're brothers, high performers in their professional careers, and passionate about powerlifting. Their relationship and vocations create some interesting challenges/opportunities in the way that I approach coaching them.
The issues I had to address with them:
1) Not finishing training sessions over the last few weeks
2) Not filling out their sheet so I can update them
3) Not communicating with me at their end of their training week
These two have been with me for about two years now- through new jobs, big family changes, a new house, a proposal- point being A LOT of shit that most certainly has affected their training along the way.
As their coach, I need to know WTF is going on in their life, otherwise I'm looking at their updates and text messages thinking "something isn't adding up here." There isn't a whole lot I can do as a coach to adjust sets/reps/weights/schemes to account for their stressors without knowing WHAT their stressors are. Each stressor brings with it it's own LEVEL of stress, LENGTH of stress, and CONVERSATION that we need to have with each other to move forward.
What I need from them, and what any coach needs from their clients (remote or in person), is as follows:
A clear understanding of where training falls in their list of priorities (and this can and will change). This lets me know just how hard they're willing to push themselves, and how much time and effort their willing to devote to their recovery outside of training. If training is top 3- then I know a tough training day feels good for them. If it's not, then as we string together a few tough training days, motivation may wain. And sometimes, training may fall out of the top 3 or move into the top 3. So communicating that is necessary along the way. Knowing when this has changed for a client is the Art of Coaching.
The ability to take constructive criticism. If you've hired a coach and they're telling you everything you're doing is great, you need a new coach (or you don't need a coach at all)! When a coach tells you that you're fucking up, accept it as truth regardless of how it feels. Now if you don't trust what they're telling you, why are you paying them money? Move on for everyone's sake.
Open, honest, and TIMELY communication. Knowing that you moved last weekend is great and all, but it really would have helped to know that two weeks prior going into the move. Are you picking up what I'm putting down? (Dad jokes)
This is not a comprehensive list. And the gentlemen I'm referencing are great clients, they're just going through a lot of life changes all at once. So it is my job as a coach to support them while holding them accountable to the goals they have committed to.
