Programming is Easy, Coaching is Hard
We’ve all been there. You spend hours building the perfect session — %’s are spot on, the progressions make sense, and the Excel sheet looks decent.
Then the group shows up late, one athlete’s carrying a knock, another is clearly distracted, and half the squad has forgotten their kit and foam rollers. Suddenly, that “perfect” plan? Doesn’t feel so perfect anymore.
And that’s the part they don’t tell you enough: programming is easy — coaching is hard.
Designing training is the straightforward bit. It’s clean. Predictable. It lives in the controlled world of spreadsheets and textbooks.
But coaching? Coaching lives in the messy middle. It’s reactive. Human. Unpredictable. That’s what makes it so challenging — and so rewarding.
It’s the art of adjusting on the fly when the session doesn’t go to plan.
It’s knowing when to push, and when to pull back — even when the numbers say otherwise. It’s spotting the athlete who needs a bit of a lift that day, and giving them just that — without saying a word.
The best coaches we know are less obsessed with being right, and more focused on doing right for the athlete at that time.
They listen more than they talk.
They ask good questions.
They connect. That’s not something you can download in a PDF or pull from ChatGPT.
So if you’re ever feeling like you’re behind because you haven’t read the latest paper, or you’re not using VBT yet, take a breath. Most of what matters in coaching isn’t found in JSCR — it’s found in people. And in the reps you put in day after day.
Food for thought Food for thought
Michael
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