I recently started helping some of the younger, less experienced coaches write programs, which led to an interesting discussion. The coach was writing a program for a women’s badminton team that has been training for years but never on a good, organized strength program so I would still consider them to have a low training age. When looking at the program, I noticed advanced exercises such as ‘bosu ball lunges’ and ‘single leg balance chops.’ When I asked the coach to explain the WHY behind each exercise being in the program she described her desire to “impress the coach” and “keep the players engaged and prevent boredom.” I reminded her that the MBSC system is based on progressions and regressions, that’s its well thought out and proven to work. She further went on to describe that she believes our system is very good but was concerned its not “exciting” enough and that eventually the athletes and sport coaches would get board.
While I understood her concerns to please the sport coach and keep the athletes engaged I told her that its important to trust the system, believe in the results we are going to get and focus more on coaching the athletes than listening to anyone doubting what we do. We might get criticized from time to time for not being flashy or exciting but part of the reason for our success is that our coaches at MBSC believe in what we are doing, buy in to the system and coach our athletes to be brilliant at the basics.
Getting Coaches to Buy In:
Although its important to believe in your system and trust your knowledge as a strength coach, it is critical that you are able to communicate and have a cooperative working relationship with the sport coaches. This goes back to an article Mike wrote titled ‘Learning to Speak Coach.’ This is an area that’s fairly new to me.
Coming from a private facility like MBSC we deal more with parents than coaches and, for the most part, everyone goes to MBSC because they already know how good we are. However, being new and a foreigner here in China I have to find ways to make sure everyone buys in. We have started making progress reports at the end of each 3-week training phase where we write a brief summary of what we accomplished that phase and how the athletes are progressing. Included in the report are graphs showing how areas such as vertical jump, bench press and the timed 10 yd dash have improved from original testing. I also meet with each coach and a translator once a month to talk about any concerns they have, the upcoming competition schedule and what the players’ strengths and weaknesses are. This way everyone is on the same page and we make sure there is tangible proof that the training is getting results, even if they are unimpressed by its lack of flash.
Keeping Athletes Engaged
I believe this has more to do with the culture we create than our exercise selection. The sport and training culture China is very strict and disciplined. The athletes at the center are given free housing, food, clothing and in exchange have two- a- day practices, six days per week, year round. Most of these practices are very strict and done with very little conversation. While I want our athletes to have focus and intensity when they enter the weight room I also want to create an environment that they enjoy being in. I have found that little things such as letting athletes choose the music that gets played goes a long way. Other things I once considered to be “stupid” like team breakdowns after each training session or making up handshakes with the players puts everyone in a positive mood and lets them have fun while they continue to work hard and master the basics.
The attitude here at the center, and a lot of places in both China and the U.S. is that difficult and new exercises equals better training. Many people here want to see athletes doing flashy and extreme training that they see on YouTube. People have a hard time believing that with all the success we have at MBSC we don’t do anything flashy or fancy, just smart, consistent and hard training. Video’s of us doing things like hang cleans, split squats, pushups and dumbbell rows are not going to get a lot of views on social media, but with good coaching they will get results in the weight room and on the field, court or ice where it matters most.
My advice to any young coach is to develop or adopt a well thought out system that you believe in, trust and can implement effectively. New information that you think can improve the system should be implemented where appropriate, but the foundation will remain the same. Don’t waiver because of pressure from other people. Its important to trust yourself and your knowledge and respect the fact that you are the expert, not the sport coach or the other people that may be questioning your methods.