Nobody has run a 2hr marathon in the morning and deadlifted 1000lb in the afternoon. And it is unlikely that anyone ever will.
You can’t be a coach who values strength and endurance equally. And the reason is not that you can’t allocate 50% of your client’s time to strength and 50% of the time to endurance pursuits. You can.
But, you can not ignore the impact one has on the other.
There is always a hierarchy. Something has to go on the top. It doesn’t need to stay stuck to the top, but something has to occupy the top position. Order matters.
The order in which things are done should also be situation-specific. Here are my coaching principles for Crawl. From the Ground Up. A coaching program that is designed to put fundamental movement skills at the front of the conversation.
- The body is sensory, one system. Crap IN, Crap OUT. Since we can control crap IN, that’s our focus.
- Order matters: Crawl, Walk, Run is not the same as Run, Walk, Crawl.
- Fundamental movements are fundamental.
- Creating change is a creative process. Learning to work with constructs is part of the deal, not part of the frustration.
Here are some great reasons for writing a coaching manifesto.
- Transparency. If you are a coach who values development, over a win on a Saturday, then we should know.
- Curating new information. Nothing sends a coach off course like new information. The order of your coaching principles will shape how you show up as a coach. Not to mention save you time and money when deciding on what information is going to help you grow as a coach.
- On the hook. You now have a list of numbered tenants. Concise bold statements of your thinking. That challenge and provoke both you and the reader. And the best bit? You get to rearrange them when they don’t work. Flippant? No, open and curious is better than inflexible and stuck wouldn’t you say?
- Clear standards and expectations. The crowd you run with, the environment you create and the change you seek are on you. Stand by your results.
- Problems and context. It is far easier to help a coach see a problem when the tools they are using are in order. A bad tradesman blames their tools, but the client’s problem remains.
- Qualifications. They may be part of the deal for some people. But knowledge accumulation is far less valuable than knowledge application. Learning about lego won’t make you an architect.
- Find the others. Your manifesto is an advert that makes it easier for people to find you. Homophily is a concept in sociology that describes the tendency of people to associate with similar others. Birds of a feather.
- Write a letter to your future self. A document on the leading edge of your thinking. A way of talking yourself into the room. It’s then on you to actively uphold the contents of the manifesto. You can always change the content to stretch you in a different direction, as a new perspective takes hold.
- Agent of change. Change is a result of a new perspective and a set of standards that you uphold. The beating heart of that change is a manifesto Wave after wave of change, each revision, a placeholder. A reminder to be consistent, persistent and assertive, until you know better.
- Collaboration. Closing the distance between people, finding the overlaps. Who better to work with than a coach who is clear on what matters to them?
The order might not be right. And I’m sure there are more than 10 good reasons to write a coaching manifesto. But starting is the only way your manifesto will get better.
Thanks to Dan John for the marathon and deadlift example (not challenge).