To qualify to be a: Trainer, Coach, instructor within anything! should this person ....

[Alex Burden]

So the question is, to qualify to be a coach, trainer or instructor within sports should this person also be able to correctly visibly show whatever they want the person/persons to do? or is it sufficient that the person understands the fundamentals?

This is a tricky one and I expect a wide range of answers, so what do you think?

What do you think qualifies a person to be a coach, trainer instructor?

I know that within some sports such as martial arts/budo the person instructing is normally a sensei with all the experience so lets leave those out.

[Steven Wingo]

I would suggest CrossFit has crafted a very good answer to your questions in the latest additions of their Level 1 and Level 2 materials. There are 6 qualities listed as "foundations of effective training."

1. Teaching
2. Seeing
3. Correcting
4. Group Management
5. Presence and Attitude
6. Demonstration.

In regard to Demonstration, which directly addresses your first question, CrossFit gives the following definition in the materials:

"The ability to provide athletes with an accurate visual example of the movement at hand. A trainer may do this using himself or herself as an example or by choosing another athlete to provide the example. This requires a strong awareness of one's own movement mechanics. This also includes the concept of leading by example; a trainer should follow his or her own advice and be an inspiration to others."

I think that is a pretty damn good answer. I would interpret it to mean no, you don't have to be able to perform all the movements. But you better understand your own mechanics, whether they are deficient, and how they are deficient and be able to identify other athletes (maybe even in video in some cases) to provide quality visual examples to show the intended movement performed correctly.

Here is an example from sport: Could Bela Karolyi personally demonstrate all the movements he coached to his long line of ultra successful female gymnasts? I seriously doubt it, even though he was a gymnast himself. But he probably knew exactly how to visually demonstrate things to his athletes through others means.

[Alex Burden]

Originally Posted by Steven Wingo

I would suggest CrossFit has crafted a very good answer to your questions in the latest additions of their Level 1 and Level 2 materials. There are 6 qualities listed as "foundations of effective training."

1. Teaching
2. Seeing
3. Correcting
4. Group Management
5. Presence and Attitude
6. Demonstration.

In regard to Demonstration, which directly addresses your first question, CrossFit gives the following definition in the materials:

"The ability to provide athletes with an accurate visual example of the movement at hand. A trainer may do this using himself or herself as an example or by choosing another athlete to provide the example. This requires a strong awareness of one's own movement mechanics. This also includes the concept of leading by example; a trainer should follow his or her own advice and be an inspiration to others."

I think that is a pretty damn good answer. I would interpret it to mean no, you don't have to be able to perform all the movements. But you better understand your own mechanics, whether they are deficient, and how they are deficient and be able to identify other athletes (maybe even in video in some cases) to provide quality visual examples to show the intended movement performed correctly.

Here is an example from sport: Could Bela Karolyi personally demonstrate all the movements he coached to his long line of ultra successful female gymnasts? I seriously doubt it, even though he was a gymnast himself. But he probably knew exactly how to visually demonstrate things to his athletes through others means.

What about the ability to evaluate and ADAPT? in general, not just CF

For both adults and especially children where the learning process for that individual are different or special needs. When something is not working for an individual or group of people the coach, instructor, trainer must be able to evaluate and adapt to either help in the progress or break things down for the group to be able to progress.

How do you get them through the difficult time and also get them to remember what they have learnt?

[Steven Wingo]

Originally Posted by Alex Burden

What about the ability to evaluate and ADAPT? in general, not just CF

For both adults and especially children where the learning process for that individual are different or special needs. When something is not working for an individual or group of people the coach, instructor, trainer must be able to evaluate and adapt to either help in the progress or break things down for the group to be able to progress.

How do you get them through the difficult time and also get them to remember what they have learnt?

Well I think you are hitting on the difficult aspect of the art of being a really great coach. We work with all kinds of people who learn in different ways, have varying abilities to learn, have wide ranging physical abilities, and just don't all respond to the same thing.

Some people are easy to coach. You show them a movement, or give them a simple cue, and they just get it and pick it up right away. Sometimes a few just don't seem to get it and can be incredibly hard to reach. What do you do? I think just bust your *** thinking and trying and planning and improving so you find a way to get through to every single person you coach. Maybe that includes bringing in colleagues or referring someone to another coach if you can't find the solutions yourself.

My day job is as an attorney. I help people make critical decisions all the time, sometimes life altering decisions when there is often no clear right answer. It sometimes is not easy. I would have thought coaching someone to be a better athlete would be a piece of cake--but I've found it is not it can be every bit as difficult if not more so.

[Alex Burden]

Originally Posted by Steven Wingo

Well I think you are hitting on the difficult aspect of the art of being a really great coach. We work with all kinds of people who learn in different ways, have varying abilities to learn, have wide ranging physical abilities, and just don't all respond to the same thing.

Some people are easy to coach. You show them a movement, or give them a simple cue, and they just get it and pick it up right away. Sometimes a few just don't seem to get it and can be incredibly hard to reach. What do you do? I think just bust your *** thinking and trying and planning and improving so you find a way to get through to every single person you coach. Maybe that includes bringing in colleagues or referring someone to another coach if you can't find the solutions yourself.

My day job is as an attorney. I help people make critical decisions all the time, sometimes life altering decisions when there is often no clear right answer. It sometimes is not easy. I would have thought coaching someone to be a better athlete would be a piece of cake--but I've found it is not it can be every bit as difficult if not more so.

I agree with you totally on your comments. Taking a coaching course is one thing but actually instructing is a different matter. If you coach 1 on 1 then it is quite easy but when you have a group in front of you it is hard to help everyone and your mind is working overtime to look at multiple people at the same time. It takes years to gain this type of experience.

This is definitely something for people to think about before they think they think it is easy to be a coach.

When it comes to kids it is even harder and the younger the more difficult. You need to use different techniques depending if it is a boy or girl and what age they are...