Coaching Philosophy

This is an essay I wrote for my Strength and Conditioning Masters degree. I decided to be specific to my individual strength and conditioning practice, plant a flag and state what strategies I believe in. Do bear in mind that I am more than willing to adjust or compromise depending on the context or what is best for the athlete. Ultimately, in my professional practice, my main goal is to help others be successful.

My coaching philosophy consists of four principles:

Strength and Conditioning is secondary to sport practice
Injury risk reduction is high priority
Time is precious
Start submaximal, build momentum

I’ve lost 12kg (over 10% of weight), almost all fat loss and i’ve also real_20241121_17433

Strength and Conditioning is secondary to sport practice

S&C is about gaining a competitive edge. But even the strongest and most conditioned athletes can only succeed if they play their sport well. They need to practice their sport and compete to a high standard, so it is essential that S&C programmes complement this and interfere as little as necessary. This means not creating excessive fatigue and soreness that bleeds into technical sessions. Coaches can lose buy in from their athletes and other coaches if they experience reductions in performance after S&C sessions.

In practice this means that lower set and repetition volumes will be better than higher volume bodybuilding or powerlifting style training. Aiming towards minimum effective doses of training loads allows athletes to improve their physical capacities, with minimum interference with technical sessions. Training microcycle should be structured appropriately to allow time for recovery between high load sessions.

Physical testing needs to be performed at appropriate times. Even though I am a powerlifter, I am not a big proponent of 1 repetition maximum testing, because it has a poor training stimulus to fatigue ratio. 3 or 5 rep max tests provide more stimulus. Often it should be obvious whether athletes have got stronger or not, from looking at their training logs, especially if tools like RPE or barbell velocity are used.

Injury risk reduction is high priority

I believe that athletes must be healthy to make progress. We must address injuries first, because they’re unlikely to go far if they have pain or pathology. We need to know when to pull back and give the athlete the opportunity to recover. I’ve found that the occasional lighter session, reduction of set volume or skipping an exercise entirely goes a long way to reducing injury risk from S&C. Injuries in the weight room are often due to overuse and poor load management or tolerance.

It’s very important to listen to athletes, ask questions, and pay attention to how they are moving so we can identify issues as early as possible and provide potential solutions. If an athlete has pain or injury, I ask them to rate how good it feels out of 10. I prefer this to a conventional pain scale as this encourages the athlete to incorporate function and confidence instead of only pain avoidance.

I also encourage athletes to listen to their body and stop an exercise if they are experiencing pain, even if I am telling them to continue, because they are the ones who best understand how their body is feeling.

For example, today a marathon runner that I train was experiencing mild knee pain while warming up for Bulgarian Split Squats. We tried to make some technique adjustments to make the exercise more hip dominant, and when that didn’t improve the symptoms, we moved on to the next exercise. There is a risk that this approach is over cautious, and we miss out on an opportunity to progress. However, as a coach, I am comfortable with this as I believe the risk didn’t justify the reward. Three days afterwards I trained the athlete again and his knee was feeling better.

Time is precious

Time is one of the few things we cannot buy. Once it is gone, it can never be reclaimed. Tony Mandarich said that ‘Success boils down to the concept of productivity. Applying the most amount of effort, to the best of your ability, in the allotted time that you have.’ So, understanding this, we need to appreciate that we only have a limited amount of one-to-one time with our athletes. When deciding how to use our precious time we should bear in mind the opportunity cost, of what we could be doing instead, and attempting to use our time in the most productive way that provides the most value. We need to ensure that our sessions are as productive as possible.

Exercise selection is probably the most important variable when designing a training programme. We should select exercises that stimulate many adaptations that the athlete requires. This is where assessing the needs analysis of the sport and athlete, and understanding the dynamic correspondence of exercise, can be very useful. We should also consider the time required to set up the exercise, and whether it is justified. For example, I believe Hip Thrusts are an excellent exercise, but they can be time consuming to set up, especially if the gym is crowded. Romanian Deadlifts from a rack, by contrast, are quicker to setup and probably provide a similar magnitude of stimulus for hip extension, but with additional stimulus for the lower back, upper back and grip strength. This is something to consider for the rationale of an exercise’s inclusion in the programme.

We need to evaluate if extended warm-ups are beneficial, or if this time could be better used performing an exercise. Warm up drills or exercises that accomplish multiple goals are preferable. For example, a yoga sun salutation mobilises many joints compared to isolated stretches, and performing front squats before power cleans allows the athlete to get comfortable with the front rack position and reduces the need for targeted mobility

We can’t afford to waste time, so we can fill rest periods with alternate exercises, rehabilitation or mobility drills. We should try and plan our sessions ahead, so they flow nicely. Put weights away or begin setting up for the next exercise when we have free time, being forward thinking for available space and equipment in the training facility. While building rapport is essential, we also need to be mindful to stay on task and not drift into idle conversation.

Start submaximal, build momentum

The final principle is to start relatively easy and build momentum with small increases in intensity or volume, if the athlete is adapting. Progressive overload is key to stimulating adaptation. However, I believe the threshold of progressive overload is relatively low when an athlete has not performed a movement recently. This means they will often progress similar to a novice, with a simple linear progression, and it is unnecessary to push close to the limit.

Higher loads and lower repetitions are generally better for maximal strength and high relative intensities are also better for hypertrophy (Cormie, 2009). However, there are also many adaptations that are best stimulated with relatively light loads (between 55 and 70% 1RM). Skipping these weights and jumping straight to 80%+ means that we miss out on the opportunity to refine technique and build neuromuscular efficiency. The aim is that athletes do eventually get to the most productive intensities, but gradually build to this point.

Microloading, by increasing loads by 1 to 2.5kg per session, is a very effective progression strategy. If the progression model of a training programme outpaces the actual strength gains of the athlete, then a plateau will occur. Taking smaller jumps allows athletes to make more overloads over a longer period.

Importantly, starting easy and building momentum fits well with the first two principles of prioritising sport practice and injury risk reduction, because starting with lower relative intensities and making smaller progressions will give the athlete the opportunity to adapt, manage load and fatigue.