You Gotta Coach It

Today’s thought comes from something we’ve been doing in our offseason program; we’ve added some new exercises into the mix. I believe it’s important to keep evolving in programming. Not just to keep things fresh for the athletes, but to avoid becoming the coach who has one year of experience 20 times in a row. That being said, I hate how some exercises look at first. Take Landmine Rotations, for example. We introduced them last week, and despite working with D1 athletes who grasp new concepts quickly, these did not look good. Choppy. Slow. Stiff. The exact opposite of what we were aiming for. Now, it would’ve been easy to scrap the exercise and go back to what we know works. But instead, we took a step back as a staff and asked ourselves: Do we need a better explanation during demos? Do we need a better visual demo ourselves? Did anyone find a cue that stuck with the athletes? Fast forward a week, we coached it harder, and the improvement was night and day. Some of that is just repetition, but a huge part of it was our effort and intent as coaches. This was a reminder of something we all fall into at times we get caught up in the X’s and O’s, the sets and reps, the drills and exercises. But at the end of the day, none of that matters if you’re not coaching it. The best exercise in the world won’t matter if it’s not coached well. Your system, your programming, your progressions they’re only as good as your ability to teach and reinforce them. Never forget that coaching will always be the difference maker. Keep the Fire Burning, Leech

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