Coaching is super rewarding, but it can also have its tough moments. Being a coach for several years, I’ve come up with some of my top tips – Coaching Essentials – that will make your life a whole lot easier, and help you be the best coach you can.
Mix up your playlists:
Country, rock, classic rock, pop, hiphop, rap, k-pop, dance, DNB, house. There are so many different genres of music and a lot of varying tastes within your class. Get to know your members, ask them what music they like, then create a playlist that has a mixture of everyone’s favs. Not only does this create a great environment that your members will enjoy training in, but it shows that you listen and absorb what they are saying. This is a simple yet effective way to gain your member’s respect.
Nutrition & hydration:
Coaching is a very energy depleting role as you are constantly customer facing, always on the lookout for maintaining the best health and safety practices, managing multiple human attitudes/mental states/physical capacity etc, and maintaining a high energy demeanor in order to create a positive learning and training environment. Eat a nutrient dense meal before you coach and stay hydrated through your sessions, so you are sharp mentally and physically for your members. Yes, not every coach does the same amount of hours, so adjust this accordingly to your situation.
Constantly learning:
“I do not know” is a phrase coaches tend to be afraid to say if asked a question by members. You will gain more respect from someone if you say “I do not know the answer to that right now, but I will go away and get the answer for you”. Lying or stumbling your way through a made up answer is easily read by members and is a quick way to lose their trust in regards to asking coaching based questions. Be constantly upskilling. Chase knowledge and learn always. If you do not have an answer, confess that you do not know, go away and learn, then come back with your new found knowledge.
Look after yourself:
We all have different things going on in our lives that can be tough for us to handle. Because of the high emotional demands and mental demands coaching can place on you, it is important to do all the foundation work to keep your cup full – such as; get enough sleep, eat the right foods, talk if you’ve got something going on that’s making it hard for you to focus on your work, make sure you are mixing quality coaching with fun. You need to keep your cup full in order to fill others.
