The Refined Art of Coaching

Coach Tip of the Day #138 -

While coaching at the gym today, a group of high school football players came up to me to share some recent progress that they were incredibly proud of.

“Coach, now I don’t get pushed off the ball so easily.”

“Coach, I can outrun my defenders finally!”

“Our coach commented on how much stronger he can tell that I am.”

Then, they all said, “We just wanted to say thank you. We can tell that what you’re doing with us is working.” 

In typical Coach Josh fashion, I praised them and told them how proud I am of them. Then I said, “But really, I haven’t done anything. You guys did all the work. You come in and do the reps. Be proud of yourselves.” 

And that is honestly my heart about these things - being a coach is wonderful, but the athletes are the ones who do the work and perform on the field.

So color me surprised at what these high schoolers said next. They stopped me before I finished and told me, “No coach, you are responsible for this. You might not do the reps, but you make sure we do. You are here for us, encourage us, support us, and challenge us. So thank you.”

And in that moment, it was my high school athletes that taught me a lesson - sometimes we coaches just need to be quiet and take the compliment.

So to all the athletes that have ever told their coach something kind like that, thank you.

Coach Tip of the Day #137 -

Afternoon showers are ubiquitous in Florida during the summer. And once the back half of summer starts, so does hurricane season.

The past 24 hours have been comprised of nothing but torrential rains and wind gusts here and there. Not a hurricane by any stretch, but still more than the normal afternoon showers.

Then it dawned on me - I don’t even need to think about what sort of substitutions we need to make for our training, because we created that process years ago.

Now if it snows, we’re in big trouble because most of us (myself included) would have no idea what to do should that happen!

But the good thing about weather is that it repeats seasonally.

So wherever you live, pay attention to the patterns and be sure to have a plan for when the inevitable poor weather rears its ugly head.

It’s only a matter of time, might as well be prepared.

Coach Tip of the Day #136 -

Sometime in 2017, I popped into an evening class at my gym to say hello and check in with folks. As I was making my rounds before class started, an older guy came up to me and said something along the line of: “Hey Coach! Looking at the workout tonight, I’m wondering what I should do? My shoulder is still giving me problems and my knees are killing me. Should I just do less weight on the overhead squat, jump to a lower box, and drop the reps on the pull-ups? What do you think is best?”

After hearing him out, I thought for a minute and said: “You know what, I think the best thing would be for you to just take a 30-minute walk outside.”

His face showed how shocked he was, and his response only amplified it: “But that’s not CrossFit.”

Me: “You’re right, but you asked me what I thought would be best for you.”

Now, before you throw the pitchforks at me, you could insert any other workout program in place of CF, but that was my reality at that time.

The heart behind this is to show the difference between being a client-centric coach and a workout-centric coach.

The latter starts with a workout and reverse engineers a false ‘why’ that it is the best choice for their client. This coach either writes the workout session or gets it from an external source, but the workout is the central part of the story.

The client-centric coach intentionally begins with considering their client’s capabilities and has them do what is best for them, whether that’s a training session or a 30-minute walk.

Here’s another way to think about this: Not everyone gets the same dose-response from Fran or assault bike sprints.

And it’s not because the client isn’t going hard enough or things weren’t scaled properly.

It’s because dose-response isn’t dictated by the workout, it’s dictated by the person, his or her intention, and the modalities used.

Want to maximize your longterm impact as a coach? Be a client-centric one.

Coach Tip of the Day #135 -

The best way to see no progress is to stick with nothing long enough for change to take place.

People get distracted by shiny objects all the time, so when this happens, your role is to redirect your clients focus back to what is actually in service of their goals.

Keep the main thing the main thing.

Coach Tip of the Day #133 -

There are countless people who do what you and I do.

Coaching is nothing more than being a bridge to help someone get from where they are to where they want to go. I don’t say that to diminish our role, but rather just boil it down to the very basics.

But in order for a bridge to be crossed, someone has to walk across it. Those steps come from the client.

The different sides of coaching (social, psychological, and biological) make each coach unique in their own way. This helps them define their bridge, what it looks and feels like, aka how they coach someone.

But at the end of the day, the coach doesn’t do the walking.

Coaching only works if the client takes action.

Coach Tip of the Day #130 -

Chest up, knees out, core tight, weight in heels, drive up, sit back, look forward…

Surely I’m not the only coach who has cued clients like this, right??

Much to my surprise, all that cueing did exactly zero when it came to correcting whatever fault I was trying to fix.

Over time, I figured out that less is more.

It made me think more clearly about what was most important and impactful in the moment.

Less words, said more clearly, yielded better absorption and implementation of what I was trying to get across.

One cue, one area of focus at a time.

Coach Tip of the Day #129 -

I’m currently working with two female athletes who will be entering their freshman season at D1 schools, one at the University of Central Florida and one at the University of Kentucky.

I’ve had other coaches (and parents) ask what my work with them looks like. How am I preparing them for the next step up?

At that level, its standard practice for their college strength and conditioning coach to send over a training program for them to follow in the months leading up to them reporting to campus.

My role here is to translate that into something they can understand. Every S&C coach has their own style, but they stick to tried and true principles for the most part, so I simply get the athletes comfortable executing each movement with a high level of competence.

Having worked at that level myself, I also talk to them about what sort of expectations they have. There are a LOT of unknowns that these young athletes are facing so I try to impart some wisdom on how to best navigate these upcoming changes.

With my time as their primary coach coming to a close, I hope to have set them up with a base level of confidence that they know what they’re doing in the gym.

While it may seem small, one less thing for them to worry about allows them to focus on what really matters - playing well on the field.

Coach Tip of the Day #128 -

Progression and challenge in training can come in more ways than just more weight on the bar.

Modulating sets, reps, rest, tempo, and even exercise selection are all great options.

Just don’t change all those variables at one time.

Instead, do this:

1. Measure where someone is today
2. Change ONE variable (sets, reps, tempo, rest, ex select, load) and let it ride long enough for an adaptation to take place. One day or one week is not enough.
3. Measure the outcome
4. Refine and repeat over time

This is how someone can continue to make lasting progress over a lifetime.

Coach Tip of the Day #127 -

Beware of defeatist language.

Voice inflections, tone, and body language all help paint a relatively clear picture of someone’s thoughts and feelings, but I’m also a big believer that words matter a whole bunch too.

Yes, how you say something matters immensely, but so does what you say.

With that said, one of the phrases that I’m trying to rid the world of is:

“BUT I ONLY…”

As a coach, I hear it when people finish a workout and feel that their effort isn’t worthy compared to someone who:

finished faster,
or lifted more weight,
or did more rounds,
or did a more complex movement,
or hasn’t missed a day in the last month,
or…or…or…or…

It’s also something heard when you consider your result on the present day relative to what you did in recent (or distant) memory, reminiscing the days when you:

Used to lift more
Used to be faster
Used to have [insert movement here]
Used to have more cardio

I wrote about this at length before, but comparison really is ‘The Thief of Joy,’ and that’s what is at the heart of the ‘But I only…’ phrase. Comparison to others as well as yourself. The words you tell yourself matter, a lot. So much so that Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu has something to say about their power:

“Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”

A final note for the parents among us: pay attention to what you say about your own accomplishments, because you never know who you are influencing. If you find your kids saying the ‘But I only…’ phrase (or some iteration of it), let me hit you with an uncomfortable truth: they’re learning that from whomever has the greatest influence over them.

Join me and commit to helping rid the world of the ‘But I Only…’

All you gotta do is rid it from your vocabulary.

Coach Tip of the Day #126 -

I was recently asked if there are any topics that are off limits in my conversations with my clients.

For whatever reason, there’s a popular sentiment that if you sell health and fitness related results, then you should stay in that lane and only discuss topics solely related to that.

I couldn’t disagree more.

That doesn’t mean I’m discussing these issues publicly or in my marketing.

But you better believe that in my daily interactions on the coaching floor, I’m discussing current events, and whatever else comes up, with my clients.

Why? Because I’ve realized that the most impactful conversation you have on the coaching floor might have nothing to do with health and fitness.

Now it’s also worth mentioning that these chats don’t distract from what we’re doing in the gym. They don’t sideline the task at hand or derail the reason people showed up.

If anything, it enhances it.

And yes, I realize that there will be people that want no part of those conversations.

Guess what? That is A-OK!

Part of being a world-class coach is being in tune with things like that and ensuring that everyone present feels seen, heard, and understood.

If you want to be transactional, by all means restrict what is discussed and entertained.

But if you want to be a human and the service you sell is coaching, you can’t be a robot who just offers movement cues and corrections and talks about weighing and measuring food.

If you want to truly impact people for the long term, you have to embrace the relational aspect of coaching.

And part of that is having conversations that have nothing to do with health and fitness.

Coach Tip of the Day #125 -

There is a time to glow and a time to grow.

Throughout the year, call it a season, there will be things that your athlete shines while doing.

Other things will provide a dose of challenge, or even frustration.

It’s important to deliver both as this is how progress and fulfillment are found.

Looking for ways to allow them to glow?

You can do this on a micro and macro scale.

Exercise selection and rep schemes that they do well with, and like, would be a micro-representation.

A full week or cycle of training of things that they are predominantly good at would be a macro example.

But balance it with doses of things that challenge, as this is where they will grow.

The same micro and macro examples apply, just on the opposite end of the spectrum.

But as I said yesterday, it’s also important to communicate what’s coming around the corner. Are they in a season, or session, of glow or grow?

Coach Tip of the Day #124 -

Hard times will come. 

Days or weeks with seemingly no perceivable progress will show up.

Over the years I’ve found myself in reactive mode, where a client hits a low point or a snag in their training and progress, and I’m left scrambling to help them move forward in spite of circumstances.

This doesn’t usually work too well.

Thankfully I learned to take these experiences and front load my conversations with these bits of wisdom.

(It’s not all doom and gloom though. You can highlight wins that you see approaching on the horizon too.)

Part of the benefit that a coach has is being “around the corner” before a client gets to it, where we can see upcoming obstacles and potential downturns.

Now this doesn’t mean that they are be avoided, though some can. Often, helping them navigate through these difficulties is far more beneficial to their long term progress than any alternative.

Lessons learned in these times are quite effective at etching desired behavior into someones daily life.

Peer around the corner and prepare your client, for the good and bad.