You Should Pay For a Coach

You Should Pay for a Coach

Short article by Andrea Zerbe

04/27/2021

I’ll be completely honest; this is a total advertisement and marketing strategy for AZPC. That being said it’s also a PSA to all athletes trying to stay in the game. So, I hope you stay tuned, I think you may just learn something.

For the longest time I could not figure out why or how my teammates and competitors were outperforming me in competition. Why was it that we went to all the same practices, put in the same amount of effort, but they consistently beat me? They had some outside help. These serious competitors went and hired a coach to improve their performance, and it worked. They consistently outperformed me and progressed further and faster than I could. They learned fast and early the benefits of strength and conditioning coaches (CSCS). Their increased performance and reduced injury rate put them far ahead of me in sport. It is not an accident that elite and professional athletes pay professional strength and conditioners (CSCS) hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to work with their team. This is something I wish I knew when I was highly competitive so I’m telling you now. Hire a coach. There are so many reasons why you should hire a coach and I am about to discuss why in three sections: there is a lot of bullshit on the internet, a coach knows what you don’t know you don’t know, and it works.

There is a Lot of Bull on the Internet

I’ve heard it many times pertaining to coaching and I’ll hear it again, “why would I pay someone for something I can find on the internet?”. This section is an answer to that question. When I program for clients, I include demonstrational videos with the exercise that will be performed. Usually, I search for these short videos on YouTube. The videos must showcase the exercise being done with correct form. Sounds like an easy quick search, right? If only. I go through about 2-20 videos of people doing some of the most basic exercises before I find one that I deem adequate. There are a lot of very influential people on the internet who discuss things they don’t know anything about. There is so much of this false information covered up by confidence and popularity that it is overwhelming. This overwhelming amount of false information, or “bull”, is precisely why athletes hire CSCS’s as opposed to doing it themselves. A professional CSCS can sort out the “bull” and find those little knowledge nuggets of gold much more efficiently than someone untrained and inexperienced. This is not to say that this individual who is untrained and inexperienced can’t do this. They can, but it may be very time costly (years), and that’s if they don’t get injured from doing these exercises incorrectly. So, while the DIY individual may have saved a bit of change, they have spent 1000s of hours researching while their competitors with a coach have spent 1000s of hours training making leaps and bounds in their athletic performance. Time is of the essence when it comes to competition, don’t waste yours. Hire a CSCS who knows how to maximize your time with safe and effective training.

A Coach Knows What You Don’t Know, You Don’t Know

A CSCS knows things about sports performance enhancement through training that most people don’t even think of. A CSCS analyzes sport from biomechanical forces to metabolic demands of sport to common injury sites of specific sports and how to prevent them with training. A CSCS is a professional who is up to date on cutting edge sports performance research via their membership with the National Strength and Conditioning Association Journal among many other scientific sources. These are things that have not hit “Men’s Health” magazine yet and are not always accessible to the general public. Articles and scientific studies posted on these sites and read by a CSCS includes injury prevention, sports psychology, nutrition for performance, and training techniques. Everything and anything is valuable knowledge to the CSCS. It’s all on our “radar”, even things you haven’t even thought of. This is an indispensable wealth of knowledge about sports performance that is accumulated over careers. Any athlete that is serious about competition should hire a coach to tap into some of this knowledge.

It Works

Finally, and most importantly, it works. Hiring a professional CSCS works. Like I said before, it is not a mistake that almost all elite and professional athletes pay upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for a top notch CSCS. A top notch CSCS will not only drastically increase sports performance but can also dramatically reduce injury rate from sport. This is extremely valuable for any serious, or even recreational athlete, thus why all the good athletes have one. A good CSCS is definitely an effective tool for athletes if they want to get serious about improving their sports performance.

So, to recap, you should hire a coach! If you want to train in a timely and effective way, hire a coach. If you want to train safely, hire a coach. If you want to tap into professional knowledge on sports performance, hire a coach. If you want to train like successful athletes do, hire a coach. If you want to train, even if it’s just for your own general health, hire a coach. Now that you’re going to hire a coach, how will you find a good one? You’re on my website… All jokes aside, the best way to find a good coach is to find one that fits you. Finding a coach is a lot like finding a good therapist or doctor. Find a CSCS that fits your personality, your beliefs, who is certified, knowledgeable, safe, trustworthy, fun, and most importantly, passionate. You’ll have to do some digging but you’ll be glad you did. End of PSA/advertisement.