Can You Go? by Dan John, (08) Coaching 101, notes

Post date: Feb 29, 2016 2:01:34 PM

Can You Go? by Dan John

Chapter 8: Coaching 101 - Good coaching involves an understanding of the goal setting process and constant assessment. The two live in a constant feedback loop, keeping the coach and student on the right path. It is an art as much as a science. It’s nice to have the recipe but you may not have all of the ingredients. To acquire the ingredients:

• 1. Assessment helps in three distinct areas: (1) it clears out basic risks, (2) it highlights problems to address and (3) it outlines a programming map. (final step: The bulk of men need mobility and body composition work. Most women need strength and body composition work.)

  2. There are three qualities of a good teacher:

     1. The Know: mastering the vast body of info regarding subject matter. This can take years (even after acquiring an advanced degree.)

     2. The Do: having a number of ways to teach and deliver the information. This is four fold: be able to tell a story, show a picture, ask questions and spend to time studying and memorizing blocks of information.

     3. Savoir Faire: Being able to swiftly adapt in order to convey information in a way that feels innate. (Finding the zone. Channeling the muse. Letting the creative spirit work through you.)

  3. Be hands on. Assess while addressing goals. Listen. Gather the general attitude towards training of the student. Get inside his/her head during assessment in order to judge what works best for each individual. Always stop for a moment and categorize the student’s relationship to training:

• • 1. The untrained are the easiest to work with: they are not much baggage from poor training programs, overtraining etc. Corrective work usually means teaching the techniques of training and doing fundamental human movements.

    2. The detrained are the hardest to work with. The more: “I used to ___,” you hear, the harder that person will be to work with. For these people, regress to fewer movements and fewer ballistics and demand adherence to beautiful technique.

    3. The over conditioned and undertrained. These are the hardworking, those who always demand to be puking or sweating hard to call it a ‘good workout.’ Often, the technique and level of mastery of fundamental human movement is hurtful to watch in this type of training, especially as fatigue sets in. It takes lots of convincing that, long term, there’s a better way to do it.

    4. The dazed and confused. This student reads and listens to everything and is not too sure what’s good or bad. Talk to this athlete about what grandma cooked and how people stayed in shape before the advent of the information age. Walking the dog and eating home cooked food is not a bad place to start for anyone.

• 4. The Road to Mastery - Be on the road to mastery. Use pen and paper to prioritize training into achievable, doable, smaller, goals. An effective program and system requires savoir faire but adherence to basic principles. The reasonable thing is not nearly as exciting as the bigger, better, deal (B.B.D) but little and often leads to mastery. A reasonable approach will always be challenged by the excitement and enthusiasm of the next big thing so sit with students and calmly explain what’s going on in their training. Assessment provides the evidence to get people to focus on what’s missing as assessment illuminates the path to the goal.

  5. No matter what, you will be fine as a coach (and happy) if you: (1) Do no harm: do what people need before allowing them to do what they want. (2) Keep the goal the goal: assess, do what’s needed, design an appropriate program, finish the program and reassess. (3) Follow the path -someone’s already done it for us. Look to the best and the brightest both from the present and the past.