Over the last few years the online “coach” has become a more and more popular choice for athletes to get their coaching. Don’t get this confused with programming – this is something I offer and believe is a worthwhile service. Online programming consists of a coaching discussing the needs and goals of an individual, developing a program, explaining the individual through it and letting them crack on. This I believe is a valuble service for compotent individuals whom don’t have the skills, time or inclination to write their own programs or if they simply want to out source that task for a new or different perspective. In this scenerio it is important that the indvidual receiving the program is competent in perfming the tasks that the program asks for.
This is where online “coaching” comes in. Supposedly a step up from programming the coach offers phone calls, text messages and even video feedback to help you get the most out of your program. The problem with these coaches is multifacitied. A few of the big ones… 1) Many are unqualified and eneducated and have no business being in the business. Becuase of the way instagram and the like work it can be very difficult to filter out who is a real and who isn’t. 2) and it’s a biggy, the whole set up of a online coaching is a farce. I can see the attraction for coaches to do it, it’s quick easy work that pays pretty well when you get busy with it. The loser is the athete. For example a movement error that could take days of to and fro with videos, emails and texts to address would take me 60 seconds face to face in the gym. Instructing an athlete into position for a lift and ironing out the creases to get the best movement pattern is a fluid and living thing – sometimes they fix one thing and it causes a different issue for example. This is to be expected and real time it is relatively quick and easy to work through – using video and email would take ages just isn’t an effective way of doing it. 3) Personalisation – A huggggeeee number of online coaches will use cookie cutter programs, copied and pasted with very very little variation from person to person. As an paying athlete you might not realise unless you were to see someone else identical program. I have seen this done from supposedly high level online coaches.
So ultimately if you want my coaching, you get me with it! But I see that as a good thing!