The Impacts Of Having A (great) Coach
The decision to hire a coach can feel daunting and conflicting, especially for athletes who are used to running everything solo. There’s so much knowledge, guidance, and information surrounding Powerlifting and strength training, and it’s easily accessible. Individuals who find passion in these topics will voluntarily seek them out, developing a solid base of what they need to progress.
It creates a perception of self-sufficiency, which is true to a certain degree. You can go far, on your own- and many athletes have done so. You can hit PRs, continue growing, and learn a lot about yourself through following online programs, consuming relevant content, immersing yourself in knowledge, etc.
This path isn’t inherently wrong- and it may be the one that aligns most with some, especially depending on finances & schedule. But, I will say, we must be clear that this method is not the equivalent of having a pair of eyes on you, listening to your words, providing feedback, and writing the movements that pair best with these evaluations- consistently. You cannot replicate another human being with technology.
Of course, I’m biased as a Powerlifting coach myself. I love my job, and I see the impact it creates. But, I got into this field by first hiring my coach, realizing the benefits it had on me. I witness distinctive differences between experienced & inexperienced athletes alike- who have coaches- and those who don’t. Could I, with my knowledge base and experience, coach myself? Yes, but it would rob me of the emotional support, community, continual technical feedback, accountability, off-setting of certain tasks, and increased progression- that having a coach provides.
On the flip side, some athletes will hire a coach for a certain season-whether it be peaking/meet prep alone, then go solo through the rest. This strategy, again, can cost you the potential increases you would’ve made during your development phase. The coach-athlete relationship is the most meaningful when it's a long-lasting one.
If hiring a coach is not something that you want or something that makes sense with your life (we want these services to be as accessible as possible to those who seek them out), I’m not here to tell you otherwise. Instead, I want us to assess and affirm the many advantages of that pursuit- for those already involved in the process- or considering it.
5 Benefits of Hiring a Coach
You gain insight around your body & needs.
You cannot be entirely objective with yourself, regardless of how self-aware or well-informed you may be. One of the roles of your coach is to point out your blind spots. They assess your weaknesses, patterns, and the cycles keeping you stuck and trapped in an ongoing vortex, hindering you from taking forward strides.
Whether it be:
your lack of proper fueling, decreasing your energy and performance in the gym,
the fact that your hips shoot up out of your squat, throw off your bar path, and make it hard to grind through heavy ranges,
your need for more single-leg work, volume, or timed rest- to build your work capacity and technical proficiency,
your compromised positioning off the floor in your deadlifts and specific cueing to address it-
Are these solutions you could’ve arrived at on your own, eventually?
Sure, it’s possible.
But you’ll be far less likely to come to these conclusions- as efficiently or effectively- within yourself. In turn, your rate of progression, satisfaction, and enjoyment of the process are sacrificed.
The bandwidth you have for yourself, taking care of your needs, the brain space you have to give to coaching yourself, and all that being an athlete entails- are limited, and you can acknowledge that. Things will fly under the radar, and you won’t notice these details for months. Your coach’s entire role is to be that person for you- the one who can see what you can’t, assess your situation, and provide unique insight.
We all have egos, we’re all deeply tied to and invested in this sport. We have our preferences and dislikes- that will influence our technique, our programming, and the choices we make. Yes, these traits can be changed- to a certain extent, but again- that’s hard to do on your own. Your coach can acknowledge these aspects of you, recognize them, and help you use them to your advantage- while also prescribing the things you don’t want to do. When someone else writes it for you, you’re far more likely to do it.
The idea that we, alone- are all we need to progress in this sport- that we can rely entirely on ourselves- is warped and shortsighted. Asking for help can be difficult, and it feels validating to “take credit for” everything individually, to hold the badge of honor of being self-sufficient. But- are you in this sport to brag about your hyper-independence- or to have the best, most successful experience possible?
There’s always more to learn. Science and programming are ever-changing, bodies are never fully constant, and you’ll continue altering technique & approach to the barbell for years into your career. There are so many factors at once- and when you have someone else to bear that all with you, helping you navigate each area, you’ll learn a lot more and make better progress long-term.
2. You get structure and accountability.
Another distinct benefit to having a coach is the structure and accountability it provides.
Powerlifting is a hobby sport- so it’s logical to assume that we all enjoy lifting weights, at least in some capacity. It’s easier for us to get into the gym than general-population clients with little interest in working out.
That doesn’t mean that making it in for a session, pushing yourself on a heavy week, adhering to your programming, maintaining it in your life- when you’re dealing with extra stress- isn’t hard at times. Doing all that in the back of the room, by yourself, every time? Even more difficult to get to.
It is potentially unrealistic to expect yourself to maintain the same level of effort, intensity, and structure in all phases of life- regardless of whether you have a coach. But when you’ve got another individual (and multiple others, in the form of teammates) counting on your attendance, the part of you that doesn’t want to let them down can be a powerful force in guaranteeing you show up. You won’t suffer as much instability during difficult periods when you’ve got someone to outsource some of that for you. It will be easier to maintain as a consistent practice in your life. You’ve got an established routine, and while adjusting for schedule changes is important; when you’re riding solo, it’s easier to procrastinate and move things around. When you’re working through a coach’s schedule, you’ve got dedicated time to prepare for and uphold.
You’ve got a human on the other end to:
check in with you when you’re not feeling it,
uplift you when your brain is sporadic,
keep you on track when you’re feeling excited.
The bottom line here is that you don’t have to do all of that yourself. You can benefit from having another person help you sustain this for the future.
3. You gain community and support.
As lifters and as humans, we’re extremely hard on ourselves. Not sure what I mean? Read almost any meet recap on Instagram, it's a caption flooded with “not the day I wanted,” “I’m disappointed in myself,” and “I must do better.”
That’s how we view our training, and to some degree, we can’t help it. Powerlifting is a sport of always wanting more, especially because it’s built on self-competition, and it’s so objective. It’s you and the bar, and you know whether you lifted it. It attracts people who are addicted to feeling successful within themselves.
When you’re internalizing your quote-unquote “lackluster” performance, you won’t be objective with your training. It can cause you to fall down a path of whataboutism, unsure how to proceed, whether it’s worth it, whether you’ve even progressed, etc.
While many benefits of coaching arise most during the difficult moments, the same can apply to the medium and high phases, too.
When you’ve just hit a lifetime milestone PR, you know what that means- but your coach does, too. They can offer individual words of appreciation & reinforcement to you, reflecting on all the work entailed to reach that, how much you’ve had to endure, and how this demonstrates your growth on a deeper level.
When your training is going “average”/”okay,” they can help get you excited and keep you on track. Their guidance can help you get into the training mindset, even when it doesn’t come as readily.
Their role is to care about your success and invest in you. When you have someone like that in your corner? It’s a pretty powerful thing.
You’ve got a consistent and reliable source of support that you can lean on and connect with, whatever emotion you may be currently experiencing. When we rely solely on ourselves to process our emotions- without ever voicing them or feeling them collectively- we can become trapped within our brains, running through the same cycles, and important details can go unnoticed.
Your coach is the person to help you escape from that, provide a unique and positive perspective on yourself, and be alongside you- in all of it. Having a human next to you, serving as a leader, paving your path ahead- improves whatever you’re already going through. In turn, you’ll see yourself enjoying the process to a greater extent- feeling the joys more significantly, remaining objective & optimistic during the lows, and remembering why it all matters and where you’re going. If that’s not a performance enhancer, I don’t know what is.
4. You benefit from positive energy, deriving a greater work ethic.
Building off of the points above, when you’ve hired a coach, you’ll probably push harder. Said and done.
Not only will you exert greater effort, but you’ll also be more likely to do it at the correct points. Not every session is about pushing high RPEs and throwing more weight on the bar, but some are, and in either situation, your coach is there to tell you.
When you’ve got someone else writing your program, you’ll inherently do things you wouldn’t necessarily program or consider for yourself. You’ll be challenged to follow that percentage, execute the intention of each movement, remain consistent, know what’s next, and mentally prepare yourself to get there.
When you’ve got someone spotting you, showing up for you on your testing weeks, keeping the energy and engagement high, and encouraging a hardworking environment, you’ll be more inclined to eke out a few extra reps, accept the request for more weight, break your barriers and self-imposed limits.
Your coach can help increase your self-efficacy. By having you slowly strip away the walls that you’ve perceived around your strength journey, increasing your intensity and proximity to new numbers over time, and changing your frequency/volume as you progress, you’ll begin to realize what you can really do. Moreover, all of this is planned and intentional.
A good coach looks at where you want to go in a few months,
when your next meet is,
when your last one was,
and works backward from there.
With this mentality, every training day, week, and block is strategic in merging you into your future self, the one you aspire to. It’s not the same as going to failure on a random Tuesday by yourself. You’ve got someone with your best interest in mind- who can see the larger perspective and meet you with that goal ahead.
Your training is more meaningful.
Your reps have more effort and objectives underneath them.
Your brain must reshape its old patterns, undoing the ones that are no longer helpful- because you’re constantly approaching new experiences, put under the exact challenges that you require at this moment, face-to-face with your shortcomings and your strengths, addressing both simultaneously. That’s what it is like when someone else takes leadership over your training.
5. You build impactful relationships
On this final point, your coach knows you on a deeper level. With time, they’ll be able to read & assess how you’re feeling, even when you walk into the room. And they care about that. They’ll want to know what’s going on in your life, where your head’s at, how your body is feeling, etc.
Your coach is not your therapist- and is not qualified to help you directly overcome trauma or deal with your relationships. Seek out separate help for that. But they do (should) have empathy for you, working to build rapport that goes beyond just lifting: understanding you as an individual.
The truth is, they see you in some of your most vulnerable times. The gym brings out some of our most authentic emotions all at once. It can become an extension of ourselves, tangible into the things that matter to us, and everything outside of it impacts how we feel when we step into those doors. Those feelings become evident in your training days, and you cannot fully separate the two.
When you’re distressed & overwhelmed, maybe you're dealing with pain, and your squats show it- your coach sees that.
When you’re elated after you’ve finally reached that 400-lb deadlift- after years of chasing it and failing it in the past- your coach sees that.
The connection that you two build is rare because there are few people who “get it” in the same way, if any. What other relationships are comparable, where you:
see the same person two or three times a week,
they act as a leader who takes ownership of your success,
their sole job is to build you up, help you reach your potential, and care about you,
they witness you through every wave of emotion in each training session,
and yet also want to know how you feel during it all?
The answer: likely none. It’s a special experience for both parties and just simply having that support system in your world can do wonders for you elsewhere.
You’re getting your cup filled.
You’re deriving more fulfillment from your training.
You feel less isolated and alone.
Some of that anxiety, stress, and uncertainty around your performance & workouts can fly off to the side because you’ve got someone to take care of those variables.
The impacts are countless, and it’s an experience worth having. You’ll see it transform you as an athlete and potentially even extend to other areas, too.
What to look for in a coach
Note that all of this assumes you have a GOOD coach. Having a coach who doesn’t meet your standards can decrease your performance & self-confidence and leave you feeling unsatisfied and confused. That is not an experience we want anyone to have, and if you’ve been there, I’m sorry. Know that that does not reflect the character of every coach in this industry, but unfortunately, far too many exist. Exercise caution when picking a coach. Here are some green and red flags to help:
Green Flags:
clear communication and expectation setting from the initial meeting,
remains engaged with athletes during sessions, stays present and focused,
checks in with athletes frequently, and it genuinely seems like they care,
programming/check-ins/emails/etc. are delivered on time,
experienced, has a relevant background to qualify them (not always measured in certifications, but also internships/coaching experience/education),
they care about their job & enjoy what they’re doing,
listen to you, openly accepting feedback, inviting the client to be a part of the process
Red Flags:
poor communication and organization, as a pattern,
no-shows a client more than once,
isn’t transparent about money/billing/coaching processes,
distracted during sessions, doesn’t talk to or interact with clients very much,
only talks about themselves,
brags too much about certifications/intelligence/achievements,
complains about work/stress/personal issues,
closed off when clients provide feedback or ask questions, becomes defensive,
makes clients feel like a burden
Etc.
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Hiring a coach can be a challenging and potentially anxiety-inducing experience. For many of us, we’re used to having autonomy and control over our training, and we hold it close to our hearts. Yet, involving someone else in that experience can enhance your own- in every way. You don’t need to embark on it alone. With a coach, there's more structure, it feels more ingrained into your life, less up in the air. You have a consistent source of encouragement and guidance. You’ve got objective feedback, providing introspection and helpful knowledge you otherwise would not have gained. You foster new relationships. You recognize your success on a more consistent basis. Be choosy and careful in picking who you hire, and ensure it’s a good fit. When you find that one, it’ll transform you as an athlete.
