Be Logical. Developing a plan and coaching is logical, cheerleading is emotional. There is a fine balance between both that allows for a coach/athlete relationship to work for the embitterment of the athlete.  Too much emotion (aka cheerleading) doesn’t lead to mentally strong athletes.  Athletes that look for the emotional cries, in my opinion, are in their sport for the wrong reason.  Great Athletes are NOT developed by the loudest coach. Great athletes are driven internally and look for their coach to lay down the MOST logical way to achieve their goal.

The point here is that regardless of what you do or don’t do, life will be hard some of the time. And sometimes that elicits fear. But if you’ve ever had the opportunity to walk through one of your greatest fears, you’ll already know that the gifts that await you on the other side are usually necessary and incredible because…

I have a friend who is writing a book about fitness training.  Awhile ago he was doing research for his book and he asked me what I believe is the most important component is when it comes to training people. Funny thing is that I’ve actually been thinking a lot about how much this piece has impacted my journey as a trainer.

The other day I was approached by my son’s track and field coach and she, in the kindest way possible, asked my son to leave the team.  As she put it: “His heart doesn’t appear to be in it”.  This was odd to me, because he had previously been enthusiastic, engaged and energized by his practices which are all signs of a congruent lifestyle alignment.I put myself in the coach’s shoes to understand her experience with him.  She explained to me that he use to come to practice and would try really hard but that in the last month he was coming up with excuse after excuse as to why he couldn’t participate.  She said she tried everything to get him engaged (and I’m sure she did), but that he was bringing bad energy to the team and she couldn’t have that around the other athletes any longer.  Fair enough.  I could see how from her vantage point it would appear that his heart wasn’t in it.

Know Where You Were & Measuring Improvement. Logging and tracking your results becomes like a time capsule for your time in the gym. Think about it: You spend a lot of time there, and like watching your own kids ‘grow up’—it’s sometimes hard to see the day to day changes, as opposed to when your parents come for their bi-annual visit and notice the noticeable changes in their stature, growth and development from this time last year. It’s easy to forget where you once were. A log allows you to reflect and acknowledge progress each and every step along the way. In addition, it gives you a baseline to work from—knowing that even 2-weeks ago, you bench pressed 185 for 5-reps with a 20X1 tempo, and this week, you are aiming to bench the same amount of weight, but this time with a 40X1 tempo. It allows for progress while preventing you fromovershooting (for instance: slapping 225 on the bench this week and attempting the same rep-scheme, or warming up with 135 lbs. on your backsquat when you know your 1-rep-max is currently 165 lbs.—that is not a warmup weight).

I was out practicing MAP 10 (#map10isthenewzone1) in North Carolina while there for CCP “program design” and “coaching” level 1. The night there was calling me to be outside. I walk often. Its not irregular for me to walk with my Titan Vest in the AM’s for 60 min as well as hike the Gateway Loop with my wife 2-3x/week for 1:09 – ish. (currently on track to beat Matt and Lindsay’s 1:08). Anyhow, I was out for a stroll and had to stop in this field.

On Monday, James, Mike and I spoke to a of a group of coaches outside of the world of “fitness” and what was a repeating theme of the discussion is the opportunity that coaches have to truly make an impact in someone’s life.

This past weekend we had a great group of coaches gather in Charlotte, NC for a weekend of digging deeper into what coaching is and what it can be at its best.  One of my favorite parts of the CCP Life Coaching module is when we spend some time discussing how to build trust with clients.