The best thing

Had a bit of a meet up with a couple athletes today, one was one of my existing athletes and one was a prospective new one.

With the new athlete I took an unusual step for a coach, I didn't sign them up.

Don't get me wrong, I was impressed with this athlete, they have done a lot for themselves over the past 4 years. Training themselves up from the couch to the point where they have finished numerous marathons. I don't doubt that Front Runner could help him take the next step on his journey, improving his marathon PB and helping him achieve his goals. Yep, we could certainly help him outr, it is just that I am not the right Front Runner coach to do it.

The reason I didn't sign this athlete up is because there are other coaches at Front Runner who would be better suited to helping him than me. In my view part of coaching well is knowing when you are the right person to help someone achieve their goals and when you are not, in this case I was not. Telling somebody that you aren't the best coach for them can be a bit of a hard conversation but it doesn't have to be.

At Front Runner we function as a coaching collective, so we always have alternative coaches to lean on if necessary. This means that if somebody comes in looking for help, there is always a coach available who can do so. In the case of the athlete today he was specifically looking for guidance on the marathon. Now I know about marathons and I have coached a few athletes to complete them in the past, but am I the best marathon coach at Front Runner? No way. At Front Runner we have some of the best running coaches in Perth and definitely some of the most passionate, particularly about the marathon, so it makes perfect sense for one of those coaches to help this new athlete. That was exactly the recommendation that I gave this athlete today.

In my view the whole point of coaching is that the athlete is the center of it all, if you aren't approaching it with their best interest in mind, then I would question whether you should coaching at all. Sometimes the best thing you can do is put your own ego to one side and focus on what is best for the athlete, even if that means sending them to somebody else.