“What If My Coach Makes Me Worse?” | Part 3 (Interviewing Your Coaches)
I’ve written this series because it pains me so much to keep hearing tragic stories from athletes who have been failed by their coaches. That pain inspires a lot of my writing, and it’s why I don’t think I’m being too harsh on coaches. I know it might seem that way.
I wrote this third and final post to give you a foundation in evaluating the coaches you want to hire or further audit the ones you have. (It’s also an awesome list of questions for parents who want enough knowledge to evaluate potential coaches for their children effectively.)
Let me remind you that I lump sports coaches, strength coaches, physical therapists, massage therapists, etc. into one term: coach. Yes, it’s more simple for me to write and for you to read, but I have another reason. It’s closer to the original meaning of the word.
In the early 1800s, the word “coach” emerged as slang for a tutor. It referenced the kind of coach pulled by horses, rolled on wooden wheels, and carried people who wore paisley-patterned shirts and bell-shaped skirts. These tutors would carry you through an exam like a coach would carry you to your destination. That’s no different than the list of providers in the previous paragraph. All these people are supposed to help carry you to your goals. They’re all types of coaches.
Mo’ Money, Fewer Problems? (Interviewing Coaches)
If you have money to throw at your problems, do so wisely. Before you open up that Apple Wallet, I have a few “don’ts” for you. I dislike these kinds of lists, but too many athletes get swindled, and I’m as protective as a mama bear.
Don’t pay your usual coach for private lessons. Hire someone outside your club or team.
Don’t be hypnotized by any ol’ personality (“influencer”) with a blue checkmark and 10k+ followers on whatever social platform is your poison. (They’re all poison.) Efficacy over popularity.
Don’t work with someone just because she works with pro athletes. Hire someone because she is effective. If she’s good, you’ll see real results, often quickly. If she’s great, she continues to deliver results. What kind of results? The only two that matter are staying healthy and improving your skills. (Getting more powerful is only a means to improve your skills.)
Whenever you hire a coach, you’re handing over a lot of stock in your career. So when you interview the prospects—because you should definitely interview them—they need to prove that they deserve a seed of your trust.
Here’s a list of questions and the general answers I’d recommend you look for. I wish the athletes I interviewed would ask me questions like these, ones that reflected the seriousness of what we’re trying to accomplish.
I’ve organized these questions into three sections: for all coaches, skill coaches, and movement coaches.
All Coaches
Q: “Do you read research? If so, what kind? How did it change your practice?”
A: You want someone who knows some proven processes and is curious enough to advance his education. If he doesn’t read research, thank him for his time and end the call. If he does, ask him to teach three concepts to you. If he can’t explain them to you in terms that you understand, end the call. He gets extra credit if he can explain how he’d apply that research to you. Again, no matter your age, you must understand it. If he babbles polysyllabic word salad to sound smart, but you’re confused, end the call. You’re taking ownership of your career, which means you should understand whatever any coach asks you to do with your energy and your body. It’s your scholarship, salary, or ACL on the line. Not theirs.
Q: “What does the coach-athlete relationship mean to you?”
A: You want someone who values and nurtures relationships. Ideally, you find someone you like and who is smart enough to help you. It’s hard to get better when you don’t like your coach. And speaking for myself here, I know I’m a better coach when I have a great relationship with the athlete. Do yourself a favor and find a coach who likes you for you, as you are—not for who he thinks you’ll become. Do not underestimate the value of a great relationship; it’s one of the most important factors.
Q: “Who have you made worse, and what did you learn?”
A: No matter how prestigious her resume is, all coaches have made mistakes and made athletes worse. You want someone confident and humble enough to admit her mistakes and smart enough to have learned from them.
Skill/Sports Coaches
Q: “Do you know what “repetition without repetition” means?”
A: You want a sports coach who has read and understood at least a little bit of skill science, and that phrase is one of the most commonly repeated. It’s seriously low-hanging fruit. If she’s never heard it, end the call. If she has, she should explain it in a way you understand and how she has applied the concept in her practices. If she doesn’t explain it well or neglects the concept, you know what to do. Your skills. Your career.
(Here’s what it means: Living things, like humans, repeat the same task differently each time. Every time you kick a ball or write your name, your body takes a slightly different path. The more skilled you are, the less those paths differ and the more consistent you are with the endpoint. Your movement and sports practices should respect, reflect, and encourage this variation.)
Q: “What do mistakes mean to you, and do you punish them?”
A: Mistakes are when your intentions do not match the outcomes. Errors must happen for you to learn and get better. For most of you, the mistake itself is the punishment. They don’t feel good. If this coach punishes mistakes, that will only make your life harder and your dreams more difficult to achieve, so show her the dial tone.
Q: “Do you teach a technique or principles?”
A: You want someone who is principle-based and can explain them in ways you understand. You should come away from the conversation with a vision of what working with him would look like. Remember, few recipes work for everyone. Some principles can be widespread, however. You want someone who will maximize who you are instead of squish you into a mold of who they think you ought to be.
Q: “Tell me your coaching philosophy and what it looks like?”
A: Her philosophy should be clear and concise. You need to be able to envision what practice would look like. If it sounds like this is the first time she’s ever thought of her philosophy, or if she’s using terms you don’t understand and she can’t clarify them, she is not your coach. The more variation in her practice plan, the better. The more monotony, the worse. Oh, and ask for results. Her philosophy needs to have worked for people like you.
Movement Coaches (Strength and Conditioning Coaches, Chiropractors, Physical Therapists, etc.)
Q: “How many of your current athletes have noncontact injuries? What did you learn from those injuries? How are you changing your practice and their training to prevent future injuries?”
A: Ideally, he has very few or zero injured clientele. In his history, he surely has had athletes who have suffered noncontact injuries. If he has remained ignorant despite his dear clients severing parts of their bodies, sever your phone from his.
Q: “How many of your clients are athletes, and at what level?”
A: Athletes are almost a different species. Now don’t let that go to your head. I didn’t say better. Just different. What works for the general population often fails the athletic. You need a coach who has experience getting results for athletes. It’s easy to mention his achievements with a high-school string bean who’s never lifted weights before or his soccer mom. It’s more impressive and relevant if the coach has gotten results with athletes who have had five to ten years of training.
Q: “Tell me about your training routines and past injuries?”
A: If she doesn’t have a movement practice herself but advises your movement, I have a hard time trusting her. It’s like going to a chef who refuses to taste her cooking. I also have a hard time trusting movement coaches who can’t resolve their bodily issues but are paid to resolve yours. Beware.
Q: “How are you going to keep me healthy and/or make me a better athlete?”
A: Refuse blanket answers that sound legit:
“I’m going to make you hella strong.”
“Clamshells, core bracing, monster walks, latex bands, and stretching.”
“We’re gonna show up every day and grind, bro.”
“You’re gonna lift fast and do tons of plyos.”
“I have these agility drills where you move your feet super fast. Like super fast.”
These are just examples of unspecific and bland answers that get widely accepted without question. I have something against most “agility” drills, stretching, and grinding, but nothing against lifting heavy, fast, jumping, or bros. They’re all just tools. But tools have better and worse ways to be used. Anyone you’re paying should figure out your strengths and weaknesses and specifically address them in ways that—all together now—get you results. Run away from anyone who shoves recipes in your face that aren’t tailored to you.
If you’re returning from injury: You want a movement coach who has not only returned countless other athletes to their respective sports but has kept them there. If keeping them healthy isn’t her specialty, I’d hope and expect she has someone trustworthy in her network whose specialty is keeping athletes healthy. Find that person.
You must interview your coaches because:
Some injuries heal.
Some don’t.
Some surgeries work.
Some don’t.
Some therapies work.
Some don’t.
Some practices work.
Some don’t.
You must find what works—for you.
There are no replacements for the energy you waste.
You have a finite amount of calories to spend.
You cannot transplant a donor’s minutes to your ruptured timeline.
You play a game of chance, not only in your sport but with your health and career. Nothing is guaranteed. If you use your coaching wisely, you can sway the odds in your favor. Either you become the silver-tongued trickster who must craft her or his own agenda because you can’t (yet) escape those vigilant eyes, or you’re lucky enough to choose someone wonderful who has earned the honor of affecting your fate. Whichever path you choose to wander, you stand at the helm of your athletic future.
The Bigger Picture
Don’t hold your coaches to a standard of perfection. Most of us are trying our best, despite what it may look like. Do make them accountable for learning. You want a coach who learns when she succeeds and when she doesn’t. Learning might be the most important factor to look for, honestly.
Believe it or not, I haven’t given you a comprehensive list of questions. But this list will sort the useless from the useful. They might be hard to find, but you deserve a coach who passes this test. If you think this list is too hard, you may need to reconsider the importance of your body, mind, and career.
You deserve a coach who spends your finite time and energy productively: his practices must result in your improvements. You deserve a coach who you can trust with your one athletic career and the one body you’ll ever get, including its two ACLs, four labrums, one irreparable brain, and other irreplaceable parts. Stand up for what you deserve. Let me remind you that your coach’s career will continue even if he ends yours.
Bigger than your career are the countless athletes and coaches who are failed by the current culture of sports, in which they are so deeply entrenched. Those of you who have money to spend can help revolutionize the coaching economy and our culture. Stop paying coaches who don’t deserve it! Do not be complicit in their failures. Demand more of them or find someone else who can trust with your precious body, mind, and career.
The two problems of sports are solvable: people can prevent noncontact injuries and make skill and movement practices exponentially more productive than today’s norms. (Seriously, exponentially.) We are just scratching the surface of human potential, which means you have much more to gain than you realize. Find someone who will help you actualize it.
If you stand up for what you deserve and make your coaches earn your trust, you will have done your part in solving these two problems for future generations. Hey, you might even solve these problems for yourself. Imagine that, a healthy career and knowing you did all you could have done when you lace ‘em up for the last time. How serene.
— AE
If you liked, loved, or laughed with this post, share it. You know I’m on a mission to make noncontact injuries extinct and evolved performance. If just one more of your friends reads this post and then subscribes to this newsletter, you’ll help make this mission a reality. And I do need your help. This ain’t easy.