Coaching Tips for the Coach: It’s Time to Reprogram

If you're a coach, your clients are the clocks, and you are the timekeeper. Sometimes clocks need adjusting, and it's your job to help them with that. Learn how to be the best coach you can be!

If you're a coach, trainer, physical therapist, or just about anyone in the fitness industry, you have known someone who has had a client that just can't seem to grow in ability or to push past certain levels. Their diet is in line, their programming and progressions are on point, yet there is still no progress. Maybe they can easily deadlift one hundred pounds, but one hundred and five just won't happen. Perhaps they have lost twenty pounds, but that extra two pounds seems so far out of reach. Why? Well, it's up to you as the coach to find out.

We all have programs, both good and bad. Each and every one of us is the way we are because of the way we have been programmed. The best part about that is if we find programs that are not working for us, we can reprogram ourselves.

How to find programs in your clients:

Discover Their Goals

If you don't know what your clients’ goals are, or worse yet, they don't know what their goals are, you're setting the both of you up for failure. Ask. Tell me about your goals. These five words make them think in a way they likely never have. This simple question could be its own program. If your client, friend, or you have never stopped to think about what they want to achieve, it won't ever happen. This could pertain to fitness, relationships, career, anything. If they don't have goals, find out why! This could be a program. Are they afraid to set goals? Are they unclear of what they want? Do they have expectations for themselves that someone else put into place for them? The first step is to ask.

Observe Their Progress

Once your clients have goals set, monitor if they are being put into action. If not, why? Have you, as a coach, laid out a game plan for them? Have they been following it? If they have but still no achieve no progress, it's time to search for more programs. Example: a client says they want to be a starting forward for a team on a local recreational soccer league, but they keep "forgetting" to sign up. You need to ask if there are any major incidents that occurred when they were younger that could be holding them back now. This question may throw your client off guard or, at first, they may say no. Give them some time to think. Maybe when they were children, something happened to form a block mentally for them such as a dad always telling them they made a better goalie or that they got tackled in football and broke their collarbone and now the thought of running towards the other team’s defenders is terrifying. If they give you a little bit of information and you can feel they are holding back, try asking something like, "Do you mind if we go a little deeper to get to the core of it?" There is a reason people are the way that they are. As a coach, you need to play the role of investigator and help them find out why.

Be Grateful

After every conversation you have with your client, be sure to thank them. They may have just shared something with you that they have never shared with anyone before. "I know that we just uncovered a lot today. Thanks for being willing to share that with me. I really appreciate how you talked about (insert topic here) and now you're willing to work on (insert action step here)." Even a quick compliment can go a long way. "That was a really great conversation. I'm glad I got to learn more about you today." Or "It was brave of you to dig deep and figure out which programs aren't serving you anymore. I can't wait to watch you progress!"

Your role is much bigger than a trainer or coach or whatever your title may be. Anyone can demonstrate how to do a pushup or tell someone to eat more vegetables. The advanced prescription comes into play when you begin asking the bigger questions. Understand someone's why by finding the programs that work. What makes them tick? Your clients are the clocks, and you are the timekeeper. Figure out what needs to be reprogrammed, reprogram it, and get ready to present the world with your newly renovated masterpiece.

Help your clients by giving them healthy meal plans liek with this cucumber avocado soup!

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