When (& Why) to Hire a Coach

If your goal is to simply be “good enough” at something – hire a coach. Note – this doesn’t mean that being “good enough” is a bad thing. There are many aspects of your life in which you simply can’t, nor need to be, the best at. Especially if you are trying to be the best at something else. That is going to consume much of your time and energy, and leave you with little else to give in other areas. If you want to be the very best at something – you should probably go it alone. Now, hear me out. This doesn’t mean you should tune out the input of every other person – that would be dumb. But, there are a wide range of ideas, opinions, and evidence available to you. By hiring a coach or mentor, and using only their word, you are severely restricting the amount of information you are going to receive. They have taken info, whittled it down, and used it to form their own opinion about what is best.

“Read everything or read nothing” –Louie Simmons

Read as much as you can, and use that information to form your own philosophy and ideas. If your goal is simply good enough, you don’t need to know everything. You only need to know enough to get whatever the job is done. This is a bit how I view my role as a strength & conditioning coach. An athlete is putting a lot of time into becoming their best in sport – they don’t have the time or energy to read as much as they can about more training on top of that. My job is to take the information available, whittle it down, and put to use what I feel is the best way in that situation. I hope, one day, to be the best at what I do. This means I’m going to spend a shitload of time on that, and not so much on other things.

I love reading Jamie Lewis’ stuff –he’s clearly intent on being the best in the world at what he does – getting strong. In order to do so, he studies, tests, and walks the walk. That doesn’t leave him a lot of time to get good at doing his taxes, or fixing his car (he may do just fine at those things, I don’t know). But, he can hire somebody else, whose job it is to be good at those things, to do it. Now, I don’t expect that everyone wants to be the best at lifting weights – they just want to get better at it. If that’s the case, don’t be afraid to hire a coach. If you want to be the best, you may look for guidance, but ultimately decide to go it alone – that’s your call.