I hate to break it to you…… but you are not Bob the Builder.
While Bob’s positive mental attitude is fantastic, when someone asks (or you even think to yourself) “can you fix it?” when it comes to injuries, YOUR answer should be a resounding NO I CAN’T!
Many coaches would see this recognition of limitations as a weakness or a problem, but they’re missing a golden opportunity..
Sports and fitness coaches are not therapists.
We don’t have the same skills as them, we don’t even work in the same discipline as them (they deal with bodies laying still on a table, we deal with them moving around).
So we should stop trying to be like them when it comes to injuries too.
Let them deal with the pain… that’s AFTER the problem has already happened.
If we try to follow this, our coaching guidelines simply tie our hands so we’re left with two choices:
1. Overstep our role as a coach and invalidate our insurance (putting ourselves and our participants at risk)
2. Specialise (which is expensive and time consuming and probably not what we really wanted in the first place)
But if we DON’T try to follow them – that’s when our skills really shine!
We are excellent at non-painful movement – something that most therapists don’t actually know very well at all.
We are excellent at spotting small discrepancies in movement.
We are excellent at many things that are different to therapists – so let’s use them to our advantage!
When we know what to look for, spotting the signs of potential injury isn’t any different to spotting technique problems.
When we know how, improving joint movement to reduce the risk of injury isn’t any different to adapting exercises.
And when we know how, building resilience against future injury isn’t any different to writing a programme for someone..
So, which would you rather do? .
Run the risk of invalidating your insurance with misplaced but well meaning good intentions, pay for expensive and time-consuming specialist courses, or simply learn how to use the skills you’ve already got to make the coaching you’re already great at, even better?
If you’re ready to supercharge your coaching skills, then I’d like to invite you to check out my bestselling book “The Coaches Guide to Long-Term Injury Prevention Success” over on Amazon, where I’ll outline the EXACT steps you can take to make life-changing differences to every single participant you coach!