Hi y’all - I’m looking for YOUR thoughts on what traits or attributes make a coach a GOOD (or hopefully GREAT) coach. Any traits of a BAD coach are also most welcomed 
THx,
AP
Adaptability and a willingness to learn.
Poor grammatical syntax and fluency (i.e. Brett Sutton)
I’m assuming that’s re: “bad” coach ?
I guess he is pretty good as a lot of his pros are fairly good, especially females. Ddue has some serious issues talking in cryptic language though.
Adaptability to their athletes, yes? So a good coach adapts their programme to their athletes’ abilities/weaknesses? what about to the athlete’s goal(s)? how would that play in to “adaptability”?
AP
Adaptability to their athletes, yes? So a good coach adapts their programme to their athletes’ abilities/weaknesses? what about to the athlete’s goal(s)? how would that play in to “adaptability”?
AP
Yes for the first part although also being able to adjust based on any new developments. Not sure if I completely understand the last part or at least not in which way you mean it because I can see a few different angles.
Fair nuff. I’m thinking about athlete’s who may have goals that while achievable/noble at the start of the season, become less so as the season progresses - either thru injury, life events, or just inflated perceived ability on the part of the athlete. Does a good coach tell it straight? “Look buddy, it’s great you want to crack 10h at IM*** but that ain’t gonna happen.” Does a good coach adapt their programme to the athlete’s abilities OR the athlete’s goals?
I think especially for an AGer coach, they need to be able to fit the program to the individual’s other life schedule… work, family, etc.
They have to quickly understand the athlete’s strengths, weaknesses and capacity for work in each sport and how to fit it together in a way that the athlete improves, stays healthy and enjoys the experience.
For someone like me, I like to know how the feedback I’m providing is impacting how we tailor the program. I also like to know my workouts in advance so I can plan them into my other life schedule. So the week in advance and maybe a skeleton of the next block of training.
For us weekend warriors, someone who understands that sporting endeavors are not necessarily our first priority and/or life gets in the way of the best laid athletic endeavors. My former cycling coach was highly adept at that, and his characteristics as part coach, part psychologist made him exceptional, IMO.
Fair nuff. I’m thinking about athlete’s who may have goals that while achievable/noble at the start of the season, become less so as the season progresses - either thru injury, life events, or just inflated perceived ability on the part of the athlete. Does a good coach tell it straight? “Look buddy, it’s great you want to crack 10h at IM*** but that ain’t gonna happen.” Does a good coach adapt their programme to the athlete’s abilities OR the athlete’s goals?
I think for the most part they should be straightforward or at least honest about that type of stuff. Let’s say a coach should partially build a plan around an athlete’s goals given that they are SMART goals, but more or less the coach should simply try to maximize the athlete’s performance based on how much time they’ve got to train.
Results
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makes you as fast as possible in as many races as possible while injuring you as little as possible while charging the least possible.
Now what sorts of personalities, skills, knowledge, etc manage to do the above? Seems to be all over the map.
So many coaches can meet your first statement or come close enough (do you want it good? fast? or cheap? pick two). But you and I know there are coaches that are a level above the others - I’m curious what folks think are the factors or attributes of those coaches? Or if there are some traits or attributes that clearly drop a coach down to the lower rungs… what are those?
AP
According to this thread, Lionel Sanders, because, you know, he’s fast and shit.
Getting an athlete to believe in themselves, without any hesitation, all the time, no matter what.
I just need to know if they have trucker hats…
And have they ever fired an athlete???
So many coaches can meet your first statement or come close enough (do you want it good? fast? or cheap? pick two). But you and I know there are coaches that are a level above the others - I’m curious what folks think are the factors or attributes of those coaches? Or if there are some traits or attributes that clearly drop a coach down to the lower rungs… what are those?
AP
well, I guess some of the coaches who meet all three get to pick their athletes wisely, most who are “good” and “fast” (i.e. producing consistent results) but cost more also get to pic their athletes.
Maurice
Many of these traits boil down to listening skills. A good coach needs to understand where the athlete is at in terms of training load. I think that for the AG crowd in particular, training is so much more than a specific TSS score. A hard week at work with sick kids is really going to compromise the training load an athlete can handle, but I don’t see too many coaches that “get it”.
We should probably divide clients into two groups. For the type A motivated athlete (like 90%), training too much or too hard is the biggest problem. For this group the true value of a coach is convincing the client to rest. No idea how to handle the other 10%.
bad: multiple pricing structures - i don’t want to get told they can’t talk to me this week or can’t adjust my schedule because i didn’t pay the highest pricing structure.
good: well read, stays up to date on research and trends
good: understands my goals, and has demonstrated experience in taking similar athletes to similar goals
bad: biggest selling point for their services is that they are a self-coached pro