This piece was inspired by a weekend recently spent in Melbourne. It made me reflect on who I am as coach, the service I offer, what kind of gym I run, and the direction in which I want to take it. It was a weekend spent being surrounded by my peers, and made me realize we aren’t JUST coaches, we are unique individuals. I hope this blog gives clients an insight into what a “coach” does (apart from the 1hr a day they spend with us), and to tell other coaches how amazing they are, and what they do everyday doesn’t go unnoticed by other coaches – we feel the struggle with you, and we are here to celebrate the wins and successes with you too!
Over the weekend we trained at a gym that I have admired and followed on Facebook, not only is the social media content and visual representation of this gym on point – but its even better in real life. This is the kind of gym a coach dreams to own, or coach in. It’s not just aesthetically pleasing, it’s well equipped, and extremely functional. What’s even better than a kick ass gym? Coaches who know their shit!!! We were welcomed with open arms, jumped into a class, where we were put through our paces by highly motivational coaches, who kept an eye on us, checked in on us, and most of all ….we had a blast!!🥊 I’ve trained in boxing gyms all over the world – and the one thing that remains universal is the extended feeling of family. We are like minded, we are passionate about our sport, we are a global family.
As individual coaches, we are highly trained, passionate, dedicated individuals.
We aren’t just employees with freakish amounts of abundant energy, never ending supply of smiles, nor do we get paid by the hour if there are no clients in the gym, and no we aren’t paid just to stand around in gym clothes (This seems to be the perception of most clients.) We too are human, we have days where the smiles might not shine as bright, where motivating you and giving you our energy almost depletes us. There are late nights spent programming workout sessions, studying new developments in the fitness industry, researching movements or adaptations because one of our beloved clients has presented with an injury, fostering our professional relationships and networks with other gyms and trainers, lodging our BAS or looking over finances, maintaining our presence on social media – Facebook, Instagram, website, marketing, blog, podcast, creating content, replying to messages, checking in on clients – how was your first session with us? Where have you been we miss you? How’s your new baby?, endeavoring to accommodate all of our clients needs – rescheduling appointments for them – confirming appointments – chasing up after missed appointments – chasing those unpaid sessions, maintaining our gym and equipment, nurturing new leads, coming up with in house challenges and competitions, checking in with our trainers and providing support to them, brainstorming and plotting our next move to take our business to the next level. This is all in between the time spent actually coaching, between the 6am starts and 7pm finishes. Then there are personal needs, fitting in our own training, making time for our family and each other, running our household, having downtime and ensuring we are well rested, so we can continue to provide the best possible service we can. And if you ask almost any trainer, they will tell you they wouldn’t trade jobs for anything! We are a different breed, you won’t find us in offices, or without the opportunity to move or exert ourselves, to see what our bodies are capable of, the countless hours we love to spend researching diet trends and nutrition, or some new training system that can take our clients to the next level, rehashing the old basic staples and how to teach our clients to perfect these moves, being creative, admiring the success and achievements of our peers – knowing all too well how hard they have worked to get it, and reveling in the fact that we have the capacity to share all of this, our knowledge and passion with anyone who will listen. Yes we are lucky bastards, but we are also human.
So the next time your at a gym, smile at your coach, tell them you had a good session, thank them for the time and effort they invest in you – most of that is unpaid time, they go the extra mile cos they care about you. Have pride in your gym by keeping it clean and respecting the equipment – it’s all there for YOUR benefit, leave a comment or a like on social media posts – the hours spent writing and posting content is also unpaid, its done to keep you up to date and engaged, leave a review on google or Facebook, or repost! – tell the world how freaking amazing your gym and your coaches are – cos there’s no doubt they think YOU are pretty fucking amazing too!!!
COACH T
