18
Jun 2019
Episode 165 – My joy as a coach
Episode 165 – My joy as a coach
What brings me joy in my profession as a coach?
In short, it’s about “Winning championships.” I love winning.
In respect to the process of coaching, it’s about finding all the 1% efforts required and putting them together to build up to a championship win – basically it’s like solving a large, dynamic puzzle that culminates for a moment in time.
It’s these moments I really enjoy because they can change not only a person’s or communities life direction but even a nation of people – forever.
As a National Team’s Performance Manager, I’ve been privileged enough to be able to be apart of this over and over – making history they call it.
I call it coaching.
Let’s start with a human truth
I think everyone (all athletes and transformation clients, etc) are trying their best in life but their energy and efforts could often be better utilised by following principles that are proven.
In short, they often don’t have the right “truths” to act upon (ie. some people have all the enthusiasm but just don’t know what to do with it).
For example, most athletes think they know exercise because they have a body and can “copy” others just by watching videos. But really, they haven’t had the exercise movement customised to their body or their level of development.
This also happens at the mindset level for athletes.
Most athletes believe they know what it takes to get to a certain level of greatness on the playing field. But in reality they don’t – it’s in the very nature of humanity to be overconfident and therefore underestimate the gap between where they truly are and where they need to be – not to mention the time it will take to bridge that gap.
Only an experienced coach can help you through this process.
I also see this phenomena in the mindset of inexperienced or contextually inexperienced coaches or experts.
Finding this truth early is easier with a coach.
As a coach it’s about identifying opportunities to help another person and matching the right strategy to the right person – at the right time – and help them to enhance who they are on their path to what they want to achieve.
My joy comes from seeing a well matched strategy help the athlete or client achieve their goals. This is a fantastic feeling especially when they begin to progress at a surprisingly faster rate than they expected!
At an even higher level it’s also about getting all athletes ready to perform at their best for their given strengths and roles at the right time so the team can achieve their goals – be it an athletic team winning a championship, a corporate management team succeed in a campaign or new enterprise or, even an organisation fulfilling an organisational vision.
Are you a coach? Read on below.
Its like solving a puzzle.
Here’s a quick observation with athletes during my time in sports performance coaching.
Habits over highs
I’d often have one of three scenarios as an performance coach/manager.
1. new or intermediate athletes come to me for advice on how to make it to the national team or,
2. One-time national athletes wanting to transform from being a national athlete to being a core national player (one that becomes a regular face on the national team).
3. Core players looking to solidify their greatness
In the first scenario, the athlete often comes with the false truth of, “I need to do something amazing to get into the national team.” They see the highs of a highlight reel but not the consistency of basic habits done well.
To be honest,
These three types of athletes are essentially the same (ie. fringe player, one-time national athletes and core athletes) but it’s the small 1% tweaks that will get a fringe player into the team, and a one time national athlete to become a core player.
And so upon coaching these three types of players through their respective journeys and then helping them find the keystone habits that will get them to progress to the next stage is exciting because I know the athlete is essentially good enough to do so – it’s just that they are missing one or two habits such as better sleep hygiene or eating better foods or exercising a slightly different way – that makes the difference.
The other thing is seeing it work consistently – if it works once, it’ll work regularly. So seeing it become consistent is also another joy – particularly with core players solidifying their greatness.
Mind over matter.
If it’s not a physical habit or technique sometimes it’s a mental habit. The joy of coaching then becomes a game to find the right mental strategy to get the athlete to progress from an amateur mindset to a professional mindset – often it’s just having them believe in themselves.
But sometimes it’s a little more complex and the excitement of finding the right mental strategy and seeing that work is even better than say – finding a nutrition or exercise tip – because it’s more subtle and “hidden.”
As a coach, it becomes a challenge of asking the right questions and looking for the right clues – that is the other joy of it – solving a more complex puzzle and seeing it finally manifest in a key moment such as a goal being scored or a trophy being earned or a championship being won! Or multiple championships won back to back.
In mindset coaching, it’s about breaking those previous false truths and replacing them with new more accurate truths or simply shifting their perspective. Other times, it’s about helping organise and simplify their thought processes.
Joy
I guess the joy of a coach is the joy of solving problems, the process of it and the service of helping another on their way and seeing it successfully unfold over time – and of course winning!
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Need extra help?
- My PURITY Protocol is an amazing resource packed with 6 secrets to detox your life and supercharge your energy. It’s my personal wellbeing philosophy. Check it out here.
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- Want live coaching? Click here to contact me. I look forward to working with you soon.
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Chris Everingham lives and breathes health & fitness.
Hi, I’m Chris Everingham.
I’m sharing the holistic performance secrets that I both personally used to overcome racial scrutiny, escape poverty and depression, AND taught others so that they too could bring proven success and happiness into their lives.
Learn more about my time competing in international sports, in front of media and speaking with live audiences of thousands of people to discover my high performance secrets. Click here to grow your mindset, rewire your habits and transform your life.
