This week’s education session consisted of revisiting the subject that was broached in my Walking the Walk (click the link) post from a couple of weeks back. This time around, the format of the education session was switched-up a bit. Instead of evaluating each other’s performance and coaching of strength program movements, the interns were the “performers” and Sarah was our evaluator.
This was a very different position for all of us to be in, yet it brought home the point I have touched upon before, that being on the flip side of the coaching equation, and performing the movements rather than instructing them, provides great insight into what the athletes experience on a day to day basis. Whereas the last education session was instructing each other how to improve, this session was strictly us performing the movements, such as squat, chin-up, push up, deadlift, clean, jerk, among others. While we performed, Sarah evaluated us based on our start position, our demonstration, and whether we exhibit evidence of compensation while performing the movements. No feedback was given for any of the movements until the session was complete in its entirety.
While this experience was very different than any I have had as a collegiate athlete or coach, for me, it reiterated the power of coaching. Because we do it every day, all day, as often as we can, I think us interns, and maybe professional coaches in the field, become unaware of the impact of our non-stop coaching and how it influences athletes. When performing exercises during this session, I found myself listening for Sarah to give me pointers, probably because I have been coached during every athletic season since about first grade. The athletes we work with are not different. They, too, have been continuously coached. And while we want them to learn the movements and lifts we teach them, and corrections they should make themselves, how awkward would it be if we did not coach and cue the things we know the athletes are aware they should be doing.
On this same note, we coach the movements every day, yet there is always something to improve on. Top-tier athletes are at the level they are at least in part because of their drive to be better. Our insistent coaching helps them to achieve these goals.
If anything, the education session this week not only informed me of improvements I can make while performing specific movements and lifts, but it also highlighted the importance of what we do day in and day out: coach. But then again, I am an athlete, too.