Why everyone needs a coach in life…
Last weekend I did a competition. It wasn’t very good. After sulking a bit, I text my coach to update him. The conversation went like this:
Me: Disappointing day, not sure what’s going on… [plus blah blah blah a million possible reason why I think I might have performed poorly]
Coach: You need more comps
Me: OK. There’s one next weekend, one the following weekend and one in 4 weekends time… Which one?
Coach: All of them
Me: Um, really? I think I need more training, less comps
Coach: You need more comps.
Me: [ridiculous excuse why I can’t do all three comps]
Coach: Do them all
Interestingly, I know he’s right. I’m faster and stronger than ever. I’ve worked hard on technique. And I’m better.
But it hasn’t translated in good competitions. So, I’m losing faith in myself. In this last competition, I approached the runway like I was about to have my head chopped off. The gremlin in my head was saying: you’re not talented enough, you’ve taken too much time off, you don’t know what you’re doing, your run up is not robust, you’re not lean enough, etc, etc
And I let this bloody gremlin win.
When I had my last magical competition day, I was happy, excited, positive and up for it.
And that’s why this conversation with my coach is so important. Because otherwise I’d bury myself in more training and less competitions. The gremlin would win. Because I can only get better at competing by competing.
This is why having a coach is so important. Not just for athletes, but in life generally.
Because a coach is not influenced by your gremlin. They don’t have doubts and emotional responses to events. Often we find it difficult to follow through with things in life because, in our subconscious minds, we have limiting beliefs that are holding us back. A coach is instrumental in helping you to identify those limiting beliefs so that you can push forward rather than changing course or giving up.
Here’s another example: some of the ladies I train in our group session have limiting beliefs such as “I can’t lift heavy because I have a weak core” or “my back is dodgey”. Often this is a story they’ve been repeating for years or decades and it’s my job to get them to let go of this, through a safe, sensible, step by step approach…
And another reason we all need coaches is because we just need to be told what to do!
For example, many of the mums who train with me simply do not know where to start with weight loss. There’s so much confusion and conflicting advice that we just don’t know how or where to even begin. A coach’s role is to clear that clutter and help you get started.
This was also me in my million possible reasons that I didn’t do well in the competition. And notice how few words my coach responded with. Just do the thing…
So that’s me told.
I’ll keep you posted on how things turn out!
