How do you realize a trainer is not a professional? 8 signs that you are paying the wrong person

There are a lot of coaches, but it is difficult to get to a professional. After all, it is not easy for a beginner in sports to distinguish a good instructor from a bad one. Especially since almost every second one works without proper skills – research confirms it. And some of them do not care about the client’s health, but about themselves. These signs will help you realize that you’ve come to the wrong place.

What distinguishes a bad coach from a good one?

Once the specialty of a sports coach was almost exotic, but now it is becoming mass. But, as is often the case in the service industry, sometimes the quality of work of some leaves much to be desired. There is no unambiguous answer to the question – who should be considered good and who should be considered bad. Rather, there are some characteristics that make you question the coaching work. Here are a few of them.

No result from the classes

MD, founder and coach of the running club ERA

If there is no progress after a few months of working with a trainer, you should be wary. Most likely, something is wrong with the training process: the load is insufficient, excessive, directed to the wrong place. Or something else that the coach should see, understand and be able to correct. At the same time, of course, it is important to honestly fulfill all his tasks – it is understandable that sometimes you have to miss training sessions, and you may get sick too, but still.

No clear training plan

There are no perfect programs, but even the worst methodology is better than its absence. The foundation of any plan is systematic and cyclical training. And the presence or absence of these criteria can be easily determined by any practitioner. Systematicity implies a clear distribution of tasks in training, and cyclicality means a certain repetition of the same type of training (most often used weekly microcycles).

Physical training coach at the Ural soccer club

For example, you do fitness training three times a week. On Monday you work on your leg muscles, on Wednesday – on the muscles of the upper torso, and on Friday you have a cardio workout. And you repeat this cycle at least 3-4 times, and maybe even much longer. Then you can be calm, the trainer knows what he is doing. But if you don’t know when your next training session is and you have no idea what you’re going to do at it, it’s a red flag. Especially if, when you come to the class, the coach comes up with a task for you on the fly. In this case you should definitely think about the level of his professionalism.

Coach does not develop himself

Over time, many amateur athletes accumulate their own body of knowledge, comparable to that provided by a specialized coaching education. Almost everything that should be included in the mandatory arsenal of professional knowledge of a coach can now be found in open sources. Therefore, it is easy to come across someone who demonstrates ignorance or, worse, turns out to be a source of distorted information.

Alexander: Adherence to unproven theories, tendency to experiment without any (theoretical or empirical) justification is a serious risk for the wards of such a coach. Naturally, athletes have the right to expect that their coach knows how to use, for example, a sports watch. But if he doesn’t know how to use a watch and offers to count the pulse by fingering an artery in the neck, his knowledge and skills are probably outdated. Loyalty to good old-fashioned methods can hide laziness and unwillingness (or inability) to learn.

The coach can’t hear you

The next sign that a trainer is not right for you is a difference of opinion. For example, if you want to lose weight and he offers strength training, most likely the trainer does not understand the task at hand or does not know how to do it. In both cases, it is hardly worth working with him. This approach often leads to injuries and breakdowns due to overload.

Coach imposes paid services

Alexander: It is equally risky to work with a coach who aggressively sells his services, lavishing loud promises. Unfortunately, newcomers to the sport find it difficult to assess their realism, especially if the instructor himself does not follow basic sports principles. Breaking rules, circumventing restrictions, doping, selling supplements – all these are incompatible with the work of a coach.