By Shawn McQueen, Two Brain Group Coaching Mentor
You know what creates trouble for coaches communication wise?
Communicating to one specific group or category of people.
New members join our group classes all the time.
Those people can be side by side with people of 6 months experience, 1 year, to even 6+ years experience.
All of those people are at differing stages of development, comprehension, understanding and fitness goals.
A coach can easily isolate a specific group of people in how they speak or how they neglect to speak to an entire group.
An easy example is: A coach has 2-3 new people in a class of 12 and the majority of the rest are experience levels ranging from 8 months to 8 years.
If the coaches communication style is watered down so much so that they are solely addressing, communicating and catering to the needs of the newer people, they run the risk of neglecting the experienced members.
To add to that, they bring that experience level down for those who are not new and possibly even give the false notion that those with experience “don’t need coaching” because they are only hearing, seeing and feeling you coach to the category of the “new” people.
The coach never tailored their style to meet the middle of the room.
To avoid this mistake the coach MUST provide strategies for everyone to identify themselves with.
Expanded a bit:
Think of the members that make up your class for a moment in 3 categories:
- The New members
- The Intermediate members
- The Fittest members
We are not judging anyone, we’re simply categorizing based on what we know, have seen, their goals, and where they are currently.
Now let’s stay we are tackling the following workout:
5RFT
10 Power Cleans, 135/95lb
10 Bar Facing Burpees.
*This workout will look different for each of those categories.
The Coach knows the stimulus, and in thinking should ask themselves,
“How COULD each group approach this workout to achieve the best result for them?”
That is how we can better coach EVERYONE.
Important note:
I wouldn’t verbalize the categories to them directly, I would simply recommend options they can funnel themselves into.
Ultimately allowing them to make the choice.
Example:
Option 1 for the cleans today could be quick singles.
Where with good position, we can pick the bar back up every 3-5 seconds.
Option 2: could be a combination of some touch n go and some singles.
Option 3 could be challenging ourselves to go all touch n go throughout this workout.
If this isn’t clear to you yet, think of the bar facing burpee.
Most people loathe burpees.
Think of your 3 categories of people.
3 Different strategy approaches COULD and SHOULD be provided.
Option 1:
Step down, step back, step in and step or jump over the bar.
Option 2:
Combination of jumping back and stepping in, and jumping or stepping over the bar.
Option 3:
Jumping back, jumping in, jumping over the bar the entire time.
When shown in real time, they begin to formulate within their own mind, which of those is best for me and I can see myself doing.
The options hit every category of members within our classes. And the beautiful thing is based on the day, the workout, the accrued learning about themselves and with a great coaches guidance they’ll appreciate the options and filter themselves up or down as needed.