What it Takes to Coach the Fittest Athletes in the World
I often get asked what it takes to coach the fittest in the world. Over my coaching career, I have definitely gone down various stages of my coaching as I tried to examine what I thought was needed to coach the fittest CrossFit athletes.
In the beginning of my career, I was more technician-based. This meant that the predominance of my focus was on the craft of writing a program. I felt that if I was to coach the fittest athletes in the world, then I needed to be the best programmer in the world. This journey took me down a fifteen year rabbit hole of dissecting, analyzing, and conjuring training parameters around every modality with the sport of CrossFit. Now, was I wrong by doing this? I don’t think I was because of the knowledge that this brought me.
Then somewhere along the line I started to realize another aspect of what separates good coaches from great coaches: that aspect is human connection. The great coaches create dialogue, buy in, and communication in a way that leads to more effective coaching and a deeper level of effort by the athlete. Within this realm comes language (verbal and physical), the art of communication around archetypes, as well as the psychosocial skills that can both limit and free athletes.
Now, I do not think one can lead to greatness without the other, because what is needed to coach the fittest people in the world is TRUST. Trust is earned through knowledge and connection. Coaches need both in order to blend the sciences and human emotions in a way that creates, builds, and fosters optimal genetic performance.
So, for the coaches out there, if you want to train the fittest and be the best possible coach you can be, then become a technician of the sciences and a student of human emotions. As you grow as a coach, you will create your own tool belt on a level that will drive you to being a craftsman within your niche. As this occurs, you will be able to build TRUST with your athletes. Trust is the single most important factor between a coach and an athlete… at any level.
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