Are you not entertained?

What is our primary focus as a Strength & Conditioning/ Performance Coach? Although there are a number of different roles and responsibilities we have as coaches the main 2 I believe are:

1. Improve Athletic Performance

2. Reduce Injuries

We must remember that we are not in the business of entertainment, but human performance. With social media having a big presence in the industry these days, coaches are looking to put their content out for the world to see and show just how advance, cool or crazy their program is, and that's fine as long as it serves its purpose. However this isn't always the case which leads me to my next point on the importance of critical reflection as a practitioner.

Critical reflection is defined as a reasoning process to make meaning of an experience. I'm a firm believer that everyday as coaches we need to critically reflect on the activities and program of that day and ask ourselves 'Did everything we do today help make our athletes better?' If the answer is no then you need to look back at your program and remove/adjust anything that isn't improving your athletes. Unfortunately as coaches we are very limited to how much time we have with our athletes, therefore it is vital that any moment we do get with them is going to benefit/ improve them. Critical reflection isn't easy, a lot of people do not like to be critical of themselves and it's not something that is often learned in schools, colleges or universities, rather something I believe you develop over time and experience. We need to be willing to listening and learn from other individuals, if we simply stick to our own little bubble we can never expect to improve ourselves as coaches. Surround yourself with knowledgable people and continuously look to challenge and improve yourself, like that saying goes 'If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room.'

Everyday there are new trends, equipment, exercises being brought into high performance which claim to improve performance, we as coaches must be critical of what we choose to incorporate into our program and with our athletes. Just because a certain coach uses a certain exercise with a basketball player from the NBA, it doesn't necessarily mean that exercise is going to be beneficial to a PRO14 academy rugby player for example. Often the most effective programs are the simplest, sometimes you or your athletes may think the program is boring but if it's effective in producing results and reducing injury, then why change it. Every exercise, set and rep we prescribe needs to have a purpose and be justified, if we simply put something in just because its cool, exciting or because you seen someone else do it then you need to take a look at yourself as coach and ask why are you in this industry? Is it to be entertaining or to improve your athletes?

The main point I want people to be able to take away from this is that every single detail of our program/ session either has a beneficial or negative effect on our athletes, from the main area of session all the way down to the rest, warm up, cool down. Be critical of yourself and each opportunity you have use it to make a beneficial contribution to your athletes athletic performance.

JD