Why You Need A Coach
I’ve paid people to coach me for years now. I’ve had coaches for business, for archery, for nutrition, for fitness, and for life. Right now, I have two coaches. And I can’t recommend it highly enough. Coaches who work with groups are good. Coaches who will work with you 1-on-1 are even better. Here’s why…
- A coach can see what you can’t see.
I tried to get a Bar Muscle-Up for years. I could kind of do it, but it was ugly. I’m a coach. I teach people things. I can often identify my own problems with movements. So I went to a friend of mine who’s also a coach and told him that my issue was that I was pulling too early with my arms. He watched me and told me that in fact, my problem was that I was setting up wrong. He gave me some drills and within a week I could do this skill I’d been chasing for so long. But I couldn’t see what I needed because I needed someone more removed from the situation. - A coach can teach you things you don’t know.
For several years, I would “throw my back out” every few months. It was maddening. I obsess about movement and technique and hydration and inflammation and all the things that are supposed to help, and even so, a couple of times each year, I’d get up off the couch weird, or tie my shoe too fast and be compromised for days. Until I met a guy who had an approach to joint training that I had never heard of, even with over a decade in the fitness profession. I’ve been working with him for almost two and a half years now and he has completely transformed my training and my understanding of joint health. - A coach can help you focus.
There are an almost limitless number of books, podcasts, Instagram accounts, and influencers out there. There’s Google and ChatGPT. There’s more information than ever in human history. If you want to achieve a goal, there are more tips and tricks for how to do it than you can possibly process. And a lot of it works. But most of it isn’t what you need to do for YOU for right now. A good coach knows you, knows your goals, knows your struggles, and knows what 1-3 things will move the needle most for you today. A good coach can tell you which 1% to focus on and the 99% to ignore. - A coach can bring out your best.
The first time I participated in an indoor archery league was with a 45-arrow event. You shoot 3 arrows in 15 different rounds. Each arrow earns points depending on where it hits the target and each arrow is worth a maximum of 10 points. That makes a perfect round worth 450 points. I was doing fairly well, and each week, I’d score somewhere between 421 and 428. I texted a coach I knew to ask about improving and said, “I’m pretty consistently making 420s, which I’m happy with, but what should I do to improve?” He texted back, “Stop being happy with 420s.” By the end of the league season, I shot a 432. This coach could see what I was capable of and he could see that I was settling for less than that. A good coach will hold you accountable and will ask more of you, which will help you go farther than you would go on your own.
All of this coaching I’ve been describing here has been 1-on-1, and that’s what I’ve found works best and works fastest. That’s been true for me as a client and is true for me with the clients I work with as a coach. Group coaching does all of this too, but it’s a little slower. But slowest and least effective of all is going it alone. Everyone I’ve ever heard say, “I know what I need to do, I just need to buckle down and do it” is also a person who struggles for years. I only know three people who, strictly speaking, I don’t think need a coach (though all of them pay for coaches anyway). And I would bet a whole lot of money that all of the successful people you know in any realm either have a coach/mentor now or have had one in the past.
It’s like a super power. And if you’re not using it, I’d love to help you find it. Just click HERE and let’s chat.