About twice a month I'll be thumbing through Facebook and someone whose job is essentially sales, will be trying to sell people on the ideas of:
1) You don't need a coach
2) Just spend some time on it, you'll figure it out yourself
Honestly, all I have to do is thumb down through Instagram videos for a minute and I can point out a lot of people that really REALLY need someone helping them. And when you do try to help them in the comment section they get really upset about it, which is a completely different topic...or is it?
Will you figure things out on your own? Maybe. You just might. I've told people this before "Just give yourself time, you'll figure stuff out" but I really don't have that many lifting years left in me to comfortably wait to figure stuff out. I want to freaking learn! When I go back in time and look at points where I learned a lot in a short time period, I was always around other people (often times I had a camera running collecting hours of video that I could study when I got back home). I've learned more in a 2 paragraph email from Dave Tate (that is a long email from Dave) at times than I have learned in a full year of training by myself. I learned more about the bench press during a bench press session with Dave, Matt Smith, Vincent D, Joey Smith, Rhodes, etc...than I have pretty much at any other point in my life.
If it was any other sport rather than Powerlifting, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Basketball, Baseball, Football...the coach is important and you need a great one.
But...I will tell you that there is a powerlifting federation "In Europe" that requires each athlete to have a certified coach with them at their meets. How do the coaches get certified? They pay and take a course with the federation. And then the athlete is forced to pay the coach to walk them through attempts at the meet. You are flying your coach to the meet and paying him to help you get on your raw singlet and call your attempts. Powerlifting. And you have to pay someone who simply got a certification. to call your attempts. For a powerlifting meet. Let that sink in.
I have a feeling this is just a start to a series of posts.