A good coach is someone who makes themselves progressively unnecessary.
That has always been my own focus. I work hard to make myself redundant. I think I’ve done a pretty good job of that over the years.
I now go to races and see many coaching squads run by successful athletes I have coached. People love to point this out to me as if it were something I should resent.
But I don’t. I feel proud of them. As it comes down the line, it strikes me that this is how we pay it forward.
There’s a lot of talk about AI and its role in creating programs. Effective coaching is the outcome of experience, not book knowledge. Yes, we can punch in metrics and extract a program, but its kind of like eating a piece of toast without any topping, it’s bland and tasteless.
As a coach matures into their own style, their ability moves from basic coaching into mentorship and, unconsciously for most, this is where the coaching rubber meets the road. Because effective coaching in all its forms is mentorship.
An athlete who is committed will quickly work out whether they feel safe with a coach or not. If a coach is about their own ego, it won’t work!
You’ve got to have your own ground that is not shaken by either success or failure.
You are an island, people need to be able to depend upon it. A mentor is trusted with every aspect of the athletes' journey, whereas a coach can at times be nothing more than a tour guide.
Personally, I am not into contiki type tour guiding, I’m in this for something human, deep and real. It’s a given that not everyone will want to go that deep, but when you want the very best from yourself and the coach, that is the requirement.
AI can’t hold you, a tour guide can’t hold you.
The need is basic, an athlete will need someone who won’t flip when you flop. If the coach has their center, they will have the capacity and the space to hold your journey, both as a human being and an athlete.
That takes an innate ability to remain calm in the eye of a storm.
Your job as an athlete is to simply want it!
I am actively taking athletes for this mentorship journey right now.
If the interest takes you or someone you know, please contact me for a free chat.
Gilesy
grant@aeromaxteam.com