There are a lot of coaching courses out there, but few are designed specifically for group class coaching. Instead, most are geared to personal trainers or individual design coaches.
Group coaching is its own beast. And while some of the same principles apply to coaching a group as an individual, the skills required to coach 12-20 clients is vastly different than when there’s a one-to-one coach-to-client ratio.
This is exactly why the Two-Brain Group Coaching course was created: To provide coaches the skillset to overcome the challenges of coaching a small or large group of clients, and ultimately to be able to provide results to each member of the group as effectively as you can in a one-on-one environment.
5 Reasons to take the Two-Brain Group Coaching Course
1. Beyond the Technical
It’s easy to get caught up in trying to be the most technical, scientific coach you can. But, while learning about anatomy and physiology, and developing an understanding of the energy systems in the body is important (and is covered in the Two-Brain course), coaching a group of athletes is about way more than being the most technically-sound person in the room.
That’s why the Two-Brain course delves as deep into the social and psychological consideration to coaching a group as it does the biological ones.
One key takeaway from the course on the topic of psychology: Coach Josh Martin explains the importance of connecting people’s WHY (and their goals) to the workout each day. In short, when you do this, your clients will buy into what is on the whiteboard that day and will be more compliant. In other words, if they WANT to do the workout because they see a connection to HOW it will give them more of what they want, and how it will get them closer to their goal, their intrinsic motivation will increase. And doing this consistently will lead to better results long-term.
But how do you do this in a group?
Martin explains that most of our clients’ WHY can be broken into three buckets:
- Clients who want weight loss/lean up
- Clients who want to build muscle/strength
- Clients who care about their performance for performance sake
When you break clients down this way, it becomes a lot easier to take a group of 20 clients in a class and find ways to motivate them intrinsically to be excited about any given training day.
2. Addresses an Elephant in the Room
One unique feature of the Two-Brain course is how it addresses an elephant in the room in a way I have never seen another coaching course do: It talks about the very real possibility, arguably inevitability, of dealing with challenging, difficult, dare I say, asshole clients?
Like different clients’ WHYs, the difficult clients can be grouped into three buckets:
- The Chatty Cathy: This is the client who never stops talking, even when you’re instructing.
- The Big Britches Bart: This is the client who thinks they know it all. They don’t listen to your cues or advice, and they’re always throwing too much weight on the barbell. Sometimes, they step out of bounds and start coaching the other clients around them.
- The Sly Stallone: These are the unreliable rep counters, or the (cough) cheaters.
Martin cleverly lays out solutions to each of the above type of client, and gets you thinking about how to get through to these clients in creative ways you probably have never considered.
3. Addresses Coaching Nutrition in a Group
There’s a saying that says you shouldn’t ever talk about politics, religion or nutrition, unless you’re looking for conflict.
Yes, nutrition is a touchy, emotional subject, and even a dangerous one for a fitness coach to tackle at the best of times, even in a one-on-one setting, let alone a group setting. Further, coaches need to be mindful of staying in their professional lane as they’re coaches, not registered dietitians.
That being said, Coach Martin offers some great tips about how you can get the nutrition ball rolling in a safe, yet effective way, even in a group of 15 people from all different backgrounds.
Here are five of them:
- Take a few minutes at the start of class to talk about water intake.
- Take a few minutes at the start of class to highlight local restaurants that have healthy options, or ask a question to the group: What is your favorite restaurant with healthy options?
- Take a minute at the start of class if anyone has a specific nutrition-related question.
- Share a new healthy recipe or dinner idea with the group.
- Give a pre or post-workout recovery tip.
Not only will bringing up topics related to nutrition to the group potentially get some people making some better decisions, but it’s also an opportunity for you to encourage them to book a one-on-one consult with you or your nutrition coach if you have one, or to remind them that there are options for additional one-on-one nutrition help if they want it.
4. Bonus Section: How to Coach Online
Though the course is mostly focused on in-person group coaching, there’s a bonus section with modules related to becoming an online coach, and how online coaching can be a great addition to a coach’s career.
This section lays out four very clear, structured steps to finding success as an online coach. Read more about this part of the course here.
5. Will Help you Improve Client Retention
When you put all of the skills into practice that Martin lays out in the course—from the technical coaching skills, to the social skills, such as how to improve group cohesion, to the emotional and psychological considerations, such as helping people increase their intrinsic motivation—your clients will see better results. Period.
And better results are the golden ticket to client retention. Speaking of client retention, here’s another article that delves into how to improve client retention in a group class facility.
Final Food for thought: Have you ever had a client lose 50 pounds, or get their first pull-up, and quit the next day? The point is RESULTS increase RETENTION.
Improve your client retention today.