I really like the stages of coaching Mike Boyle had posted a few years back. Don’t take it literally though, every performance coach and personal trainer’s path will be slightly different and go through various principles but then HOPEFULLY they’ll come out of it and become their own coach.
Squat
Let’s take the all mighty squat for example. Many dogmatic coaches will state that XYZ form is the ONLY way to squat. However an experienced and quality performance coach and personal trainer will adapt the squat to the client themselves. There are just too many various body types, contraindications, and forms of squatting to develop a one size fits all approach.
With that said, not everyone should squat….gasp! Before you scream blasphemy and get your panties in a bunch, let me explain. Weighing the risk vs reward will assess the benefits of squatting. Take for example an athlete that has a lower back disorder and squatting irritates him/her. Should the strength coach take time out of the athletes limited time of training and focus on developing the squat or focus on other skill sets to develop their leg strength?
Weight-Room Strength
A lot of dogmatic coaches like to think that strength is the cure for everything. While at a lower level, say high school, strength will MAY you a big advantage but will this help with your on field performance against higher tier athletes?
I too used to think that strength is a big key factor. However, after working with great strength and conditioning coaches all over the country that this is isn’t the case. The athlete’s needs and sports demands are multi-faceted. While strength is beneficial it’s only a small piece of the whole pie. Focusing your off-season only on strength training and 400m repeats is NOT the most optimal training for a running back. Yes they’ll get strong, YES they’ll get conditioned but will they be prepared for the demands of their sport? The running back needs to develop many skill sets aside from just strength and linear sprinting.
Think about this for a moment, if the running back only focused on linear sprints and strength training in the weight-room, what happens when they go into summer camp? Their practice will have them change direction side to side, backward to linear angle, reactive ability, and so on. All these requirements will beat up the athlete that isn’t prepared for these demands. More than likely the running back’s joints are going to be aching, develop blisters, be extremely sore, and so on because their body was not properly prepared for the demands of their sport.
To top that, off-season training that is heavily focused in the weight-room doesn’t optimize their power out put, maintenance of power, and elastic strength capabilities.
Dogma
The probably with dogmatic training is that not one method will work for all. Yes a PRINCIPLE may work for most, however knowing when to move away from that principle or focus is what makes the coach a great coach. An experienced coach that knows how to and when not to apply principles, understands the needs of the athlete, and demands of the sport will be a far better coach then a one that is focused on only ONE way of coaching.
This doesn’t just apply to programming, but cues, coaching style, communication, and so on. We as performance coaches, strength coaches, and/or personal trainers MUST adapt to the client. Otherwise, we are doing them a big disservice.
So be water, my friend. Do not try to force an athlete to do a power clean if they can’t rack it properly, don’t focus only on max strength but look all spectrums of performance.
Train smart,
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