Listen To Reason

I simply had to post this section from Dave Tate's book The VAULT,
 I see and read this this stuff all the time and couldn't agree more!


Your Program Sucks!


The New Breed
We have entered into a new age of strength and conditioning. I have seen this coming for
some time now but tried to dismiss it as a fad. Actually, this has been evolving since the
first strength coaches were put into place but it has picked up speed with the popularity of
personal training over the past 10 years. I began to see this first hand five years ago when
I began giving seminars, but at the time it was very infrequent. Today I see it everyday. I
see it on the internet, in journals, magazines, on TV, you name it. I have termed this new
breed The Savvy Strength Specialist, or SSS for short.
Here is an example of what I am speaking about: While conducting a seminar, a thin hand
goes up in the front of the room. When called upon, I get asked a question like, “So what
are your thoughts on the inverse bio-sequential process?” This is then followed with,
“Have you ever used imbalanced adductocentric patterns?” This causes my head to spin,
as I have no freakin’ idea what he is talking about.
It then dawns on me that this guy has done his homework and is much more educated than
I am, but at what expense? His program still sucks!




Ability to THINK 


It seems to me that we are now in the age of the over-educated under-trained strength
coach and trainer. This new breed owns and studies everything they can find on training
to the point it has become too much and they have totally fried their ability to think for
themselves and use common sense in the development of strength programs.
They have also developed the ability to take these concepts and package them into articles
and seminars to make themselves appear as experts in the field, but the program
still sucks!


The Great Process


Their published articles and concepts then hit the market and become “the next great
training process.” The circle continues and training becomes more and more complicated
for the average coach and trainer to understand and implement. This is coupled with the
fact that the concepts are usually based upon theory with little or no application. What
we are left with are dozens of self proclaimed experts who have little to no training experience
to back up their theories coaching thousands of readers on the “best” way for them to train.


Three Steps


I was once told that the way to truly seek out a good coach or trainer involves a three-step
process. These three steps include: education, ability, and action. I do not hold each of
these three steps at the same value because each step can be more important that the
other depending on the profession the coach or trainer wishes too seek. For example,
a professor would need a higher education base to teach in a classroom while a coach
needs to have a very strong ability. Ability, in short is getting the job done in the weight room while action is showing you believe in your process.



Balance


Let’s examine these three steps in regards to the strength and conditioning coach or 
trainer. I am very close to these professions and feel I know the market from both ends of
the spectrum. I have put my time in as a coach, trainer, writer, speaker, and small business
owner. I have also come to know many athletes, trainers, coaches, and professors
from the fitness field. Not only do I know these markets, but I can tell you the average
age, hobbies, income, and dozens of other demographic variables associated with these
groups. The one thing I have found is there are no experts. Not one, nada. I also know we
are all looking for the same things: To better ourselves, our teams, and our athletes. As
long as these three are kept in balance, things move forward.
When the desire to better yourself becomes greater than the desire to better your client,
team, or athlete, then your program sucks!



Education

Education is very important to the strength coach and trainer. Education also comes from
many forms, styles, and places. You should look everywhere for new ideas and thoughts.
These can be found in trade journals, conferences, networking opportunities with other
professionals in the industry, magazines, web sites, forums and discussion groups, seminars,
and books. You should also look outside of the strength and conditioning profession
for other ideas you may have never thought about. Staying in your own field will also place
limits on your growth because you will only be using what has already been done before.
You want to position yourself as a leader not a follower. Do not overlook the educational
resources at your local gym or private training center. If you want to learn strength then
you have to get to the source and talk with those who possess it.
The most common problem I see with trainers and coaches today is that their education
is over-killed to the point of being ridiculous. They look like they have spent thousands of
hours reading with no time in the gym. This is great if you wish to be a professor but if you
want to get great results as a coach you need to realize that there is a huge difference
between “book smart” and “gym smart.” To this day I still hear remarks about very smart
people such as, “Yes, he’s smart as hell and has a very high IQ, but he has no common
sense.” This is the same with coaching and training. “Yes, he really knows his stuff but his
exercise technique is the worst I have ever seen.”
Education is important but it all has to work into what your own training philosophy is. We
all come from different places, with difference experiences, so why do so many try to copy
others’ training philosophies? Strength training is a much an art as it is a science and the
only way to have a high level of success is to build upon what you truly believe is correct. I
am blown away by the number of times I have asked a coach or trainer what their training
philosophy is and all I get in return is a blank stare. Yet, they still have a ton of questions
to ask. How can you ask a question when you have no idea how you will use the answer?
Your questions should always be building upon what will help your philosophy and keep in
mind your philosophy can and will change over time.
In short you may think you have a great program but without a real base of education you
are training in the dark and your program sucks!


Ability

You must have the ability to make your team or clients stronger. By this I do not mean taking
someone who is below average and making him or her good; anyone can do this. You
have to have the ability to make a good athlete great.
Ability is taking your philosophy and making it work. If your training philosophy holds
strength at a very high level, then you have to be able to make your athletes or clients
stronger. This determines the success of your program. I am amazed at the number of
times I have heard, “We have a great program, it is from so-and-so university and it
always works for them but it didn’t work for us.” No, it worked for the coach who had the
ability to implement the program because it was based on his philosophy. How can you
be expected to have the ability to implement a program that is not based on your own
philosophy? This is also true for all those who say, “We tried the Westside program and
it did not work for us.” I would also bet these same coaches have also tried many “other”
programs and they also did not work for them. If they do not have the ability to make it
work then no, it will not work.
So how do you develop ability? First pick a program you believe in and know. This will
be a program based on your training philosophy. Second, you must learn communication
skills ranging from the verbal to non-verbal. You have to be able to read your athletes and
clients to know how they feel about the program and what they are putting into it. You also
have to know when to push them and when to back it off. These are skills that come with
time and can’t be taught in any classroom or books because different people will react
differently to the same stimulus.
In short you can have great education but without the ability to put it to use your program
sucks!

Action

Lastly, the coach themselves must be above-average in the weight room. I personally feel
that this is the most important of the three. This is my biased opinion because I have been
training for powerlifting competitions since 1983. I can honestly say everything I have
learned about training has been directly related to my time under the bar and the people
I have met along the way. When you passion in strength, you always find a way to get
better. Let’s look at it this way. The average personal training client will not last one year,
the high school strength coach will have an athlete for 3-4 years, and the university-level
coach will also have the athlete for 4 years. Most of the time you get these athletes and
clients with a very limited training background and knowledge. If this is all you have, then
the only knowledge about training you will have particular experience with is with athletes
who have only 1-4 years of training experience. This cycle continues over and over and
what have you really learned? Compare this to training yourself (seriously, not some get in
shape fitness crap program) for the past 10 years. You would have ten years of evolving experience to build off.


you will also gain the ability and experience of:
1. What real straining should feel and look like.
2. What being in shape really is really about.
3. How to set the bar for each lift.
4. What it means to stay tight.
5. How to breathe under tension.
6. How to grip the bar for the best results.
7. How the slightest correction can make all the difference.
8. That strength can be limited depending on who is coaching it.
9. What bar speed feels like. 10. Plus a million other things you will not read in books.


When you train yourself you also gain the respect of your clients and athletes. They will
look up to you for what you can do. They will want to seek your advice to be better. I can’t
count the number of times I have had conversations with athletes and clients of other
trainers about strength development. They all want to know what they should be doing.
At the same time I hear the coaches saying that their athletes do not care about training.
Funny how many times I have spoken with their athletes and they seem pretty damn serious to me. I often wonder, if the coach did not look like a pencil-neck, maybe their athletes wouldn’t be asking me questions.
If you look like a pinhead and could not lift a heavy weight to save your life, then your
program sucks!


Summary


Get educated, put a weight on your back, develop the ability to implement your training
philosophy or your program will suck!