4 Strategies for Coaching the “Tough One”

Jason Price, MS, CSCS, ATC, LAT, CPT, USAW Club Coach

I was asked an interesting question earlier today in regards to coaching.  It was how I go about coaching the one who is unfocused or uninterested.  I call this individual the “Tough One”.  The Tough one can drive you crazy as they don’t understand the opportunity they have.  They could be the one who thinks their “talent” is so great they don’t have to train.  Or it could be the one who just doesn’t want to train because it is “too hard”. Or it’s the one who just seems to be in left field uninterested and not caring.  The fact of the matter is that they are there and you are the one in charge and it is your job to get them on task to train.  My number one rule for all of my athletes/client is that if you can handle coaching then I am not going to coach you.  A question I get often from parents is how young is too young for being coached in a sports performance program.  My answer is if they can handle coaching for their sport then they can handle my coaching.  To be honest their sports coach it is usually aw part time job to coach.  My full time job is coaching.  As a coach it is your job to understand the “tough one” and get them motivated and focused.  So, how do you do that when they are just fighting you all the way?  Here are four strategies that I have had good success with.

Strategy 1 – Give it value.  This is important for the youth client or athlete.  Often they are being told they are going by their parents.  They parents see the value in it but the kid doesn’t they just see one more thing they have to do.  Also, they often see training as a punishment.  Now, I have to blast some sport coaches here.  So I apologize if I offend you here.  Often you see youth athletes being punished by doing push ups, sit ups, sprints, suicides and etc.  If you are doing this to the youth age group and by youth I mean under middle school you are a Moron and please get out of coaching.  All you are doing is reinforcing with negativity the importance of training and getting the body strong.  Conditioning and strength is important in all sports so why on earth do you use it for a punishment.  It just doesn’t make sense.  Do you think if a kid is punished all practice with the stuff they need to be doing out of practice to be prepared for their sport they are going to do it.  I can’t tell you how many times I have instructed a youth athlete that they are going to do some push ups they turn to me and say “what did I do” or I hate these.  No kid should hate push ups!!! Sorry for the rant.  Giving training value is important as you are instructing exercises pull from their experiences in sport to show them why this drill is going to support their activity.  Once they see the value in it you will see a huge turn around in their behavior.

Strategy 2 – Set up an Exchange System.  This is not an ideal practice to have but it works.  It may screw up with the flow of your training program but it gives the individual some ownership of their training.  I will ask the trainee for what they like doing and what they dislike doing.  If they dislike something and it really is not that important then we drop it.  But, if it is something vital to the training then I will say lets get this one thing you hate out of the way then you do something we do that you like.  So you may end up doing things out of order and it may take away from the over all program but if it gets results the person will come around and start training with more purpose and you will see their effort flow.  Because if you see them giving lack of effort in the drill they choose then it just means they are being lazy that day and you can encourage them  that they picked the drill so they can’t dog it on the drill they picked.

Strategy 3 – Give positive feedback before coaching.  People will shut down if all they hear is what they do wrong.  Many individuals of all ages have serious complexes about confidence and achievement.  When in the weight room training it is not about failure and not doing something right.  It is about building and getting strong both physically and mentally.  Before you say don’t do this or you did this wrong find something positive about the rep or set.  It doesn’t matter what it is it may not even pertain to the drill at all but most importantly it gives the individual training a positive feel that you are really focused on getting them better and stronger not just telling them what they do wrong.  Lets take an Olympic lift of example.  I have some people I try to coach the lifts too and it is a nightmare.  But, each and every rep I give them something positive to chew on.  I may have someone do the thing completely wrong with zero positive technique but I can still say “Man you gave some solid effort on that one.  Way to go. Now keep your arms straight and don’t try to muscle it with your arms.”  Now that just sounds positive instead of me going “Ok you bent your arms too early and tried to muscle it.  You don’t want to do that.”  

Strategy 4 – Always finish on a positive note.  I try to always make their last 5-10 minutes with me the most fun and enjoyable time of the workout.  The reason for this is that this time is going to be what they remember.  So if they remember leaving excited and having fun then guess how they are going to feel when they come back.  You got it! Excited and ready to have fun.  I do this by finishing with a game of some type or an activity that is just fun.  It may have nothing to do with what I am training them for but they don’t need to know that.  The key is to have them walk out the door with a positive attitude about the time they just spent with you.

I hope you found some value in these strategies and I have often had the “tough one” become one of my favorite trainees.  Just because one individual may be hard to coach doesn’t mean they can’t be.  Find a different way and get it done.  The true reward is that the individual you are coaching will improve and come to enjoy spending time with you and you will become a much better coach by coaching the “tough ones”.