How To Find A Coach

Coaches and Coaching, you see it everywhere now – I'm almost expecting to see coaching toothpaste at some point.

BY KENNETH LUNDGREN

Realize that you come to a coach not for a magic pill but for genuine wisdom in this particular niche of the world. Life is short, you don’t want to settle for average or good – when you pay for something, you expect it to be great. We all put our energies into different things, and great coaches certainly bring a huge benefit to those with probing antennae.

Today, everyone seems to be a coach. There are more and more coaching services popping up. Are there more coaching universities now generating more coaches?

Are there legitimately more good coaches in the world? Or are some men and women just hanging up shingle signs that have the word, COACH? I’ve had some great coaches in my life — and also some bad. Time moves forward not back, you have zero time to WASTE. The best athletes commonly have great coaches and they learn how best to maximize their time and repeat this system, and this is why they are the best athletes.

What makes a great coach?

I will tell you right now a great coach inherently feels that you are faster with him/her than you being coached by another person — for the most part, this is a valid truth. You sense this quiet confidence.

Great coaches yearn to help interested athletes and have a proven system of training or a distinguished system that works, a clear idealogy they can explain clearly and with confidence — a confident coach creates a confident athlete.

You cannot fake confidence, so value it when you see it.

Great coaches have a respectable history of coaching experience and real coaching results, a primary drawing factor. A coach’s magical powers cannot be invented, this cannot be fast-forwarded, this cannot be pretended, a coach’s resume is not “legendary” or abstract.

Fame does not make a good coach, celebrity doesn’t make a good coach, over-the-top word-of-mouth, personal racing results do not make a great coach, these things do not matter — the only thing that really matters is how your coach can cultivate a meaningful relationship with you.

With meaningful relationships, you see that we are faster as a team. You are faster with me than without me, and I am better because of you.

Meaningful relationships are not part-time jobs. Coaching is 24/7, 365 — a great coach lives being a great coach every single day, it is all they do, a full professional dedicated to constantly exploring this craft.

A great coach is also a great listener, which I find most coaches to NOT be, way too much vanity and arrogance and rigidity and pride.

The best coaches listen: every day, we train this personal training system, and over time the coach better learns and you get better, and your coach gets better.

Communication is effortless and intrinsic –a great coach has a razor-sharp way of both understanding how the training is affecting you and analyzing raw power data with alpha intuition (yes, for all you non-power purists out there — you are faster on a power meter generating ride files for a good coach — FACT).

Your coach 100% understands your unique power curve, 100% sees themes and rhythms to your physical power output.

A great coach understands your race objectives and your lifestyle goals — 100% particular to YOU. Great coaches bring out what athletes alone could not bring out of themselves. Only great coaching does this.

A strong athlete/coach relationship leads to improvement, and with improvement comes strength. New strength means courage to try new things… and courage leads to confidence.

And a genuinely confident athlete is a truly scary one, capable of the dream.

So make sure to dream big.

(pictured is Peter Warner of BIKE Doctor Racing Team winning the 2012 Pro/1/2 Morgantown Road Race)

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Coach's Diary | Sunday, March 15th, 2015 | | |