“If you teach a client to squat, 1/3 will get it, 1/3 won’t get it, 1/3 can’t do it.”
I was lucky enough to attend a great workshop this week and get some continual professional development. While I must admit I like to think I spend a significant amount of time developing my knowledge, I have not spent in comparison hardly any time looking at how I deliver sessions.
Reflection of our practice should be a regular process in which we delve a little deeper into the mechanics of our session delivery. I was filmed delivering a simple session to a small group of 8 individuals – the task itself was simple, however, I spent just shy of 3 hours analysing 5 minutes of coaching. While this may seem excessive, I learnt some very interesting things about how I deliver content, especially in comparison to other coaches who participated in the session.
Now to do this I wouldn’t reccomend you walk into this blind; a great place to start is ask yourself the following questions:
- What were your objectives of the session?
- Where did the objectives come from?
- How do objectives from the session build from previous work, or what are they working towards? What’s the bigger picture?
These questions fall under the category of “session objectives”. All too often I see clients that have trained for years and literally still move poorly. Even if it is simply a client looking to lose weight, developing movement competency of squats, hinges, pushes and pulls is essential as they will run, row, cycle and lift significantly better in training. Next we must answer:
- What exercises/ drills / activities were planned during the session?
- How was each activity structured?
- Do the different activities relate to the bigger picture?
Here we start to bring in some training rationale; once again if you’re doing movements/ programs simply for the sake of it, why? For example, should we do single or double leg lower body movements? Should we be doing lower body movements at all? If I do this lower body movement, should I do another exercise to balance out the development of the initial movement? There are thousands of questions that fall into this category.
- What behaviour strategies did you use before, during or after the session to support the objective?
- Did you have a balance between allowing the client to develop solutions or did you just dictate solutions?
- Did your behaviour promote learner understanding? If so, how do you know?
- During moments of interaction, what were you and the client doing?
Now we start getting into the nitty gritty of the session; I think if you record yourself you’ll be amazed at how much you sway one way or another. At the time of delivery you may believe things are going great, look at it again afterwards and you’ll pick yourself to pieces. This questioning of your own delivery is what drives us forwards as personal trainers and coaches.
- How much time did you spend on task?
- How often where the individuals required to think?
The last questions refer to what the client is getting out of the session apart from doing some squats, or sprints. Getting to this level of detail in session delivery makes for a progressive learning enviroment, one that will foster a rich environment of development and progress. Seek to always enhance your clients’ undertsnading of what and why they’re doing what they’re doing.
To complete this, simply record yourself and review. Make sure you get your client’s permission first.
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