Starting a new training relationship with athletes is challenging for any trainer or coach.  The challenge arises when an athlete comes in expecting one thing and gets something different.  If you have ever worked with a young football player you know they would bench all day if you allowed it.  So how do you manage their expectations and give them what they need and not just what they want?

I believe the best way to begin a training relationship correctly is to set clear definitions on what my roles and skills as a performance coach are.  This leads into the conversation regarding the direction we will take when working with that athlete & sets clear expectations of training goals and methods.

It’s like pre-marriage counseling.  The husband and wife to be take the all-important step of discussing core values and life aspirations before the union to get on the same page together and avoid potential catastrophic future conflicts.

This sets good expectations and can be a powerful moment to help educate athletes and parents to proper & effective methods for developing athleticism.  You get a chance to dispel some training myths and assign correct definitions to commonly used performance terms to control expectations of what a session will look like and accomplish.

Getting the athlete and parents on board with our process is the single best way I have found to help an athlete be successful.  They begin to take ownership in the workouts and exercises because they understand the purpose.  You will see more effort and focus out of your athletes which will help them move more effectively towards their goals.

I would like to share with you a couple topics that always seem to come up in those early conversations and some of the talking points I use to help share information with prospective clients to get everybody on the same page before the relationship begin.

“Will your workouts be functional?”  -or- “Do you do functional training?”

This is actually a pretty easy one to address; sharing the idea that functional training is used to develop better human movement seems to connect with most people.

Functional is not specialized and is more “common” than most people think.  I share with them that all human beings move the same; knee flexion in a NFL player is the same as knee flexion in a 90 year old; the general variables that change are the forces in the equation, environment and speed of movement.  The goal of functional training is to help the body move better.   For athletes; “cleaner” movements mean higher performance and less chance of injury. In my view here are the elements that make a training program functional;

• Balanced training in 3 planes of motion
• Developing all the body’s energy systems (anaerobic, alactic, aerobic) and skeletal muscle fibers (1a, 2a, 2b)
• A focus on absorbing force (deceleration) before producing force (acceleration)
• Developing strong neuromuscular communication and proprioception through balance and instability training
• Developing linked strength from the ground up and inside -out (core before limbs)
• Focus on core stability before core strength with a strong focus on posture

For athletes function training is really defined as increasing overall athleticism through more efficient movement.  Another key component of functional training is a balanced approach to development.  It is not specialized; we train the body to “work” in all situations and environments because that’s what it was built to do.  Too much specialization can lead to overuse injuries and chronic pain caused from unbalanced development.  Which leads us to our next point……

“We would like to do some Sport specific training”

My personal stance on the subject that I share with potential clients is you don’t want sport specific training from me and here’s why;

As a performance coach I am an expert on developing the human machine and increasing athleticism, I am not a golf, basketball, baseball, track, (or whatever sport they play) coach.  I have the skills to make you a better athlete, pair that up with a knowledgeable coach in your sport and you are going to be a rock star.  I can try to “help” you be a better golfer but I don’t think you’re going to like the results.  However I can help you increase thoracic mobility, improve rotational hip power and mechanics and keep your body in balance from all the one way motions you do on the golf course.

There is a twofold danger to saying I offer sport specific training; Frist The only thing that is sport specific is playing your sport.  I am fairly confident that if an athlete works with me for 8 weeks but does not pick up a basketball during that time their on-court skills will not improve (their athleticism will but athleticism is not “sport specific”).

The second danger is that they might encounter a time when their sport skills actually decrease for a short time.  If you teach their body how to move differently (better is still different) they will go through an adjustment period where they will have to “relearn” their sport skills with these new movement abilities.  Think of when Tiger Woods hit his slump after learning a new swing.

Finally when dealing with in season and endurance athletes it is important for performance coaches to balance out their training off the court/field/road to avoid overuse injuries and imbalances.  Going by the sport specific label these session would be counterproductive because they are working on developing physical skills and abilities that are not the dominate ones they need for success in completions.  However these sessions are very necessary to keep athletes performing at a high level and injury free.