Know That You Don’t Know

“Know that you don’t know.”

This statement is one that really hit home for me when I heard it at the Central Ohio Strength and Conditioning Clinic at Denison University just over a few weeks ago. As a young professional in the field of strength and conditioning, I've had many learning opportunities and many teaching points, but none of them provoked as much thought as this. My current supervisor, Coach Todd Hamer (author of the “For the Coach by the Coach” article series), spoke these words. I'm very lucky to work with Coach Hamer every day. He has helped me grow as a professional, a coach, and a person through lessons just like this one.

A Plan

Notice first that he didn't say, “Know what you don’t know.” He said, “Know that you don’t know.” As a young coach, there are many things I don't know, but I'll be the first to tell you that when I arrived at Robert Morris University a year ago, I thought I had everything figured out. I knew what type of program I would run, what type of coach I would be, how I would run my groups, and how I would manage my athletes and sport coaches. I had a plan and a darn good one at that! Or so I thought...

Changing

During this past year, I've almost completely changed that plan because I did not know. I didn't how what the expectations of my coaches were, I didn't know what the schedule of my teams would be, I didn't know what the culture of the university was, and I didn't know what the culture of my teams would be. I also didn't know what their previous level of training was. I didn't know anything! I was also too young to have an opinion. All my opinions were based on those who I had worked with in the past.

A coach from UTEP recently wrote an article on elitefts^™ in which he said that a young coach’s views are those of his previous employers. This is entirely true. I've been lucky to work with great coaches both in Canada and at the University of South Florida, where I completed my internship. My views when I arrived at Robert Morris were my interpretation of theirs.

As a young strength coach, this isn’t entirely a bad thing. As the coach from UTEP said, you must be loyal but not stupid. You must be loyal to the program being run, but you must form your own opinions. When I arrived at Robert Morris with my plan, Coach Hamer allowed me to put it into work. He would never tell me, but I'm absolutely sure he knew that my plan was gravely flawed. Never-the-less, he allowed me to figure it out on my own. My first training cycle with my teams had mixed results. Some teams took well to the new things I was doing, while others didn't.

A Great Coach

At this point, I realized what a great coach is. A great coach knows that he didn't know and does everything in his power to figure it out. I realized that I didn't know why my program didn’t take well with some teams or how to meet the expectations of my sport coaches while also remaining true to who I am and what I believe in. I didn't know how to fit into the culture of my teams and my university as a whole. I couldn't continue to do things my way and achieve any type of success.

You may now be asking how I went about knowing that which I didn't. To be completely honest, I drew from another one of Coach Hamer’s quotes (which he seems to say every day)—“Improvise, adapt, and overcome.” I tried new things. I adapted to the feedback I was receiving from both players and coaches alike. Finally, I overcame any stubbornness or preconceived notions I may have had regarding what it is I do as a coach. It was this last point that was most important to my growth as a coach. I realized that I don't know. Because I don't know, who am I to have any type of preconceived notion of what works? Obviously, a program needs to be grounded in science, but there is so much more to it than that. You have to find what works and not assume that because what you’ve done in the past had positive results, it will have the same results in your new situation. As a young coach, you need to realize that you don't know, and you need to do what you can to find the answers for your specific situation.