(I sent this post to many of my colleagues – over the next few days I will post their comments and reactions. I think you will find it informative and enlightening. Some of these people are icons in coaching; all who responded are coaches who are coaching – no keyboard coaches.)
We have a whole generation of people who claim to be coaches that never get off the keyboards on their computers. They are the keyboard coaches. They measure their success by the number of hits on their website and how many e books they have sold. These are the people that the younger generation of coaches are following and listening to. They have never had to put their ass on the line and get a team or an individual ready to compete but they know it all. They can recite the Krebs cycle forward and backward and talk all about HRV curves and draw neat charts and graphs, but bottom line is they can't coach and most have never coached. The younger generation of coaches looks at coaching as an industry rather than a profession – A fundamentally flawed assumption. What can we do to change this?
I am writing this to all of you as rant out of frustration with what I see. All you have produced at the highest level. You are true coaches. We must speak out and be united to get back to the essence of coaching, which is based on practice based evidence and sound pedagogy. Help me, support me. I am going to blog extensively on the state of coaching and what needs to be done any of your ideas and thoughts would be appreciated.
Tim Exeter
Hi Vern
Hope you are well, yes couldn’t agree more. Like you I have been in this profession which I am passionate about for a longtime and seen massive changes, I am happiest when I am in the gym or on the field with athletes whatever their level or ability. Unfortunately the keyboard is a necessity but I became aware I was getting stuck behind it too much. Not why I got into this field!
There are an awful lot of bright youngsters very good with technology but lack the most fundamental skills, communication, to analyse, coach and improve athletes. Like most of society it’s about numbers and quick results, producing fancy graphs etc.
be interested to see the reactions!
Regards
Tim
William Kirousis
I am that, and yet agree.
I get to do hands on work with my athletes (some, not all) periodically… But it’s not the norm. I love when it can happen… It is, bar none, the absolute best way to coach.
The athletes I coach are largely age group endurance athletes. They have jobs, families, other hobbies. It’s literally impossible to be with them when they need to train, given the variable lives they live.
The reality, is that what I do is consulting / mentoring. I view and provide feedback on video, I speak on the phone to provide information and help them adjust their course in the best direction for them, I use email / sms to check in and instigate communication or answer simpler questions.
The issue, is that the term “coaching” includes my genre of work. So I’d say under the coach umbrella, I’m biased to “the keyboard” but love and enjoy the face time (literal, not the apple app).
The biggest issue though is the one of pedagogy. A sport science background and some cert’s does not teach you to teach. I’ve managed 15 years full time and 5 prior part time in this field… and my teaching skills were developed solely via a rabid love for training / racing and athlete development… and living with a special ed director dad, second grade teacher mom and middle school teacher sister… So some of what I know was osmosis. I gained some via professional conferences… But knowing that pedagogy background was lacking was the motivator for me to take on grad school to improve my knowledge base in that area.
I enjoy gadgets that can help me communicate better. If I’m with an athlete and they have no pop, they have a tired posture or describe a lot of stress in their life, I can pick up on how they are adapting and adjust if needed fast. But, if they are 2500 miles away… incorporating solid logging, sometimes including HRV, various power or HR and velocity data, heart rate recovery can really help complete the picture of how they are responding. It can be simple, and can help me better understand how they are doing, but also, understand how to help them change what they are doing so they gain more skill/fitness and enjoyment from training.
Those gadgets also click with a lot of adult athletes today who believe, thanks to the proliferation of data, that they can statistically change their life. If I can use tools like that to help someone improve their intuition, and to communicate better with them via a distance – awesome. I just helped them. AWESOME!
I love that you always keep me thinking Vern – thank you!
Will Kirousis
Kyle
Will,
I believe you’re misunderstanding what he means by “keyboard coach”. That or I’m misunderstanding both the article and your understanding?
Either way, when I first started reading the main article I thought it was going to be about primarily online coaches (that includes you and me), however I don’t think that’s the case.
I believe he’s referring to people who “walk the walk but don’t talk the talk”? All of my athletes are online, I’ve never even met any of them in person but would consider them all friends. Am I what he’s writing about?
For myself, I’ve simply chosen the path of online coaching because in my experience as a COACHED athlete it has been extremely rewarding. I would frankly not want to have a coach in the same town as me. Online coaching does not require meeting times (no 6am track sessions), it’s cheaper for the athletes (because it takes up less of our time), I feel we can comfortably work with more athletes (more income), and we have access to a infinitely greater number of potential clients.
The quote from above, “They can recite the Krebs cycle forward and backward and talk all about HRV curves and draw neat charts and graphs, but bottom line is they can’t coach and most have never coached.” really struck home to me because I know a coach who know far far more of the science and training philosophy behind running than I do, but simply put he’s not a great coach when it comes to working with the runners.
Again, I hope I’m understanding the OP in my thinking. Looking forward to further comments.
Jamoosh
Vern – I am not really a coach although for a period of time I technically helped people prepare for a marathon and I took it very seriously. I am glad to see you have taken this on because I personally am appalled at the number of people on the internet who call themselves coaches and purport to provide advice and\or services to runners without ever having seen them run in person much less get to know them so they can properly motivate and prepare them based on their personality, their goals, their current level of fitness and so on.
Wesley Hall
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