How many people out there have a coach or a trainer that they don't like, or should I say they don't think knows what they are doing? How many people have kids that have coaches that you think don't know what they are doing? If yes, why are you still with that coach? Having a coach that you trust is the most important part of training. Especially at an elite level, if you think your coach is steering you wrong, you will never reach your potential and most likely you will regress. There are a lot of great coaches that work near me and we all compete for the same athletes. If one kid moves from one gym to another the only thing they are going to get different is new personalities. We are all just as good as the next guy. Granted there are some that are not as good, but this is not the point. The point is, that if you are going to get a coach first you need to do your research. Find the best coach you can find. If you are going to spend money on someone to teach you something don't you want to get it from the best. Once you have found that great coach, drink the cool-aid. If you don't, why did you choose this person to train you or you child? If you don't believe with all your being that this person can make you the best YOU can be, why pay them? Having a coach that takes you to YOUR best is all that anyone can ever dream of. Some people's best take them to the Olympics, or World Championships, while others can run a 5K or win a chess tournament. As long as your coach pushes you to your limit then they are a great coach.
Don't get a coach that is nice to you! This person should not be your friend, and if they are, you need to keep the two relationships apart. Great coaches have to push and pull you to places that you have never been. They take you places your body and mind tell you, you should not be. They push the limits that you have placed on yourself and show you a new world you never knew existed. But without trust, without faith, you will never get there. There is only so much a coach can do. They cannot move your legs for your, they cannot think for you, they don't get to be on the field competing for you. You have to do all these things on your own and you; the athlete, or competitor, are the one responsible. You have to execute what you have been taught or you have just wasted your time and the time of your coach.
Elite athletics is mental, if you want to be elite you have to believe you are elite. And then you have to work, and work harder than everyone else. This is very true in any field when you are at the top. Finance, science, medicine, all the leaders in these fields know they are the elite. They are talented people that knew that talent would reach a point and then they had to work. Some elite athletes can get there on their own, there are sports that you don't really need a coach all the time. But I bet those people are few and far between, and I also bet that at some point they did have a coach. Someone that showed them what it was like to work harder, longer, faster, than they ever thought possible.
So the next time you think that the person coaching you sucks and you want to get a new coach, realize that it was most likely your fault you are in the situation you are in. Not the coaches. You chose this person, you chose to not follow the plan, you have the final say. If you had done everything that person had said to do would you be where you are today? Could you have been better if you just listened? Does this coach have other athletes that have improved when you didn't?
Just FYI this is not about me but about a conversation that I had with another coach, just got me thinking.
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