I personally think it is incredibly sad when I see an S&C Coach who was unwilling to evolve and stayed entrenched with their views on training. This is not a S&C specific thing; antiquated personnel who are unwilling to change to a rapidly changing industry have always become obsolete. This happens in every industry. The bigger question is: what do we do to avoid this same pitfall?

Developing a philosophy is important. Sticking to that philosophy is also important. There comes a time and a place when everyone has to stick their flag in the sand and hold their position. The question then becomes: what is that philosophy built off? 

I have seen a lot of Staff Philosophies. Some scream your personal preference in training. Anyone that says their philosophy is Barbell or Kettlebell Oriented training is assuredly setting up for failure. Anyone that includes methods such as weight lifting or powerlifting is going to become a victim of their bias. The reason why is simple – these are not universally true. 

My father told me a story when he started as an engineer that is relevant here. My father is an engineer. He has been an engineer for almost 50 years. He pre-dates computers. He would tell me that when he started, computers were making their way into engineering departments to help with complicated mathematical calculations. Prior to computers, people would calculators, pen and paper, and sometimes actually abacuses. 

Just like S&C coaches who are entrenched in one line of thinking, engineers were entrenched in their way of doing things. The veteran engineers that developed their method of doing things did not want to evolve. Management and anyone with any common sense were imploring their engineers to transition over to computers to simply be more efficient and accurate. Older engineers would fight the transition with cliche lines like “I have my own methods”, “a computer cannot do the job of a human”, or “by the time it would have taken me to learn this, I could have been done with all my work”. 

This story is all too familiar in our industry. As our industry has evolved, there are S&C coaches who are resistant to change, for the same exact reason that engineers were intolerant to advances in technology. The end result of those engineers is that were they are no longer engineers, which is the same for veteran S&C coaches who are unwilling to evolve using analytics, new technology, new methods, becoming more focused on the problem as opposed to their solutions. 

Change is good. It makes us better, not obsolete. The bigger, more fundamental problem is that people become lazy or complacent. The world is rapidly changing and we are still stuck with what we did when we first started. That is a problem. A younger, more willing, and now more capable coach will provide more value than an older, less willing, and less capable coach. Regardless of their experience, they can bring more value, and at this point, for a fraction of the cost. 

Taking a good look at someone’s philosophy of training tells me everything I need to know. It should be vague and non descriptive. This gives options to grow. It should be based on principles because no matter what innovation these will be true. It should be emblematic of the core ethos you want to serve your athletes and clients with. 

If you are truly passionate about S & C, you should embrace the rapid change this industry is undergoing. It is Pandora’s box of things to dive into. Appreciate that not everything is in flux; principles will always be true. Not everything should remain the same. An exercise or an implementation is not a philosophy, it is what we use to make philosophies work. Anything outside of principles should be constantly evaluated and adjusted!