Why Do I Coach?
I love what I do. I always have. So I guess the question isn’t necessarily “Why I coach?” but why I coach the way that I do. What is it about me that makes me see such value in this job and makes me love it so much.
I still have not come to a perfect conclusion as to what makes me love this work so much, but I did learn a lot about myself while reflecting on this. Mainly, I learned more about what I hope to do within my role as a coach.
I started powerlifting as a 14 year old. I was mainly on my own, although I did get some help from some coaches along the way. (Shoutout Matt Bertrand and the crew from the Merivale YMCA!) Although on paper I was fairly successful as a powerlifter in the short time I competed (breaking multiple national records and winning a U18 National Championship) I realized later in life I was NOWHERE near as successful as I could have (or should have) been. So the question then arose again… WHY?
It was really tough facing this fact, but the #1 reason I was not even close to as successful as I should have been in my athletic career was a lack of self awareness. I loved training, I loved pushing heavy weight and I was OBSESSED with competing. So what could have possibly gone wrong?
Where I went horribly wrong in my athletic career was worrying about others. Comparing my numbers to what other people were lifting. This led to me constantly trying to add more weight to the bar just so I could say that I was lifting more than this guy or that guy and was on my way to another big record or championship. I let my ego take over and focused more on what I could tell other people I was doing in the gym instead of focusing on actually improving what I would be able to bring to the platform when it mattered most.
In my career I didn’t have someone there consistently to call me out on my shit. I didn’t have someone who knew better and could show me that if I just shut up and focused on improving the quality of my training I would be able to not just settle for U18 National championships, but move on to Junior & Senior world championships as well.
I could have had SO much more success as an athlete if I had been smarter. If I had been able to put my ego of “Look how much I have on the bar” aside and focused on small, consistent improvements one day at a time I am confident I could have re-written record books for years.
I don’t regret any of this however, because it has since given me SO much more clarity into what I want to do within my coaching career. I have the privilege of being able to help young athletes from a variety of different sports work towards achieving their athletic potential and dream. By having made the mistakes I have made in my own competition career, this allows me to better help them avoid those same mistakes.
My goal as an athletic performance coach is to educate. Educate athletes on what it truly takes to reach elite level competition and stay there once you reach it. Yes, I am obviously coming at it from a physical standpoint for the most part with strength and conditioning, but I hope to do much more than that. I hope to be able to teach athletes the valuable skills they need in life (time management, accountability, stress management, etc.) to help further their careers. I hope to help athletes adjust and improve their mindset & approach to training, to sport, to leadership within their sport and life as a whole. I hope to help create a next generation of athletes that are focused simply on being the best they can be and helping others be the same.
The earlier you can learn the lessons that I did not learn until later in my own life, the more successful you will be in anything you put your mind to.
So I guess what I’m saying is that I coach to help build not only better physical athletes, but better people & leaders as well.