The basis of this article is centered around a concept I read about during quarantine (remember that period of time?). I’m paraphrasing, but basically the quote in the article said, “Have you coached 10 years, or have you coached 1 year ten times?” I cannot remember where I read this, and if you’re the person who said it I’m really sorry I’m not giving you credit and thank you for your wisdom.

The premise of this quote is rather simple: are you continually trying to get better, or are you simply collecting paychecks and “doing what you’ve always done”? This is truthfully something that bothers me. “Oh you’re ready for that position you just have to be patient”. Position becomes available, and it’s given to someone who has simply “been around longer”. This is a ridiculous hiring practice that I’m sure happens in more than just strength and conditioning.

Don’t be that guy (or gal) who has coached 1 year many times. If you’re programs look the same now as they did 5, 10, 15, or 20 years ago, I highly doubt you have progressed much as a practitioner. I understand the value of “being able to connect with others” and that “players who buy-in will get more out of an average program over players who don’t buy-in to the perfect program”. I’m not trying to downplay those points at all (in fact, in professional baseball having “feel” is a major factor in keeping the guys in the clubhouse working for you throughout a long season). However, if this is how you are justifying “improvement”, what exactly are you using to measure buy-in and quality connection with others? This becomes a much more grey area (again, I’m not saying you should not work on connecting more with others). The purpose of this article is to have a justifiable (aka quantifiable) approach to improving.

You can easily quantify your improvements in areas such as: program design (for strength training and conditioning), mobility, nutrition, hydration, etc. The key is to find an area in the field that is valuable, put some thoughts on paper, give it to your athletes, and evaluate how everything went. One of my good friends said that his staff will sit down twice yearly for a 2-3 day window and audit everything in their program (essentially evaluating their off-season program and their in-season program). This is a great way to quantify improvement for yourself and your organization. An example would be the following: We are looking to improve a given quality on our force plate testing. First and foremost, do you understand the force plates (the data you are collecting, the intricacies of standardizing your testing, how certain training variables will affect jump data, etc.)? If you do, great, it’s time to move on. If not, start there and take a deep dive into better understanding the force plates (talk with others who use force plates, read research, watch videos on YouTube) – this deep dive in itself is an attempt to improve your abilities as a coach. Now that you understand force plates, it’s time to start testing athletes. You test your athletes, write your program, and after 4-8 weeks you retest them. This is where you yourself can improve as a programmer. After this retest period you can sit down with your program and audit yourself – Did we have improvements? If so, where/what variables? If not, why not? Will I continue this trend of programming moving forward? Are there any exercises that I can keep from this program? Any I should discard? Have someone you trust sit down with you and start brainstorming for the future. Repeat this cycle again for the next month. After a few months/years of doing it, you should have a system that is well-oiled (to the point that you have specific exercises paired to specific adaptations that you want to elicit).

This process can work with anything – audit nutrition with players (“Are we improving body compositions?”), audit conditioning programs (“Has he been able to improve his output on the Beep Test?”), mobility programs (“Has her range of motion improved?”)…you get the idea. The point is: when someone asks how you have improved or what you have done to get better at your craft, you should have a solid answer that is supported with concrete information (articles/books you’ve read, conversations you’ve recorded or watched, programs you’ve audited, etc.). Your answer should stay away from being vague (“Well I improved relationships with the players”…”Okay…how?”…”Well..ummm…”). If you don’t have a definitive answer to “How did you get better?” then you’re probably someone who has worked the same year many times.