Day 88: Remote Coaching

Coach Mike Practicing his OH squat. CrossFitters are quick to post videos of successful lifts. On the other hand I think it is necessary and very to post unsuccessful lifts, not just successful ones. In Training there should be more failures than success if you are truly training with the proper intensity/skill.These videos are just as important and amazing as videos of successful lifts. Watching an unsuccessful lift helps the viewer look for what was wrong with the lift and what the lifter can do to be able to successfully lift it the next time. People tend to look at perfectly accomplished lifts to try and learn. Sometimes I think people have to learn by seeing someone miss a lift and look to see why that person missed the lift.

With that said, what can Coach Mike do differently to be able to complete this lift? 

"Is even a minute too long 

to wait for feedback?"

We are in the middle of a technological revolution and this revolution is changing the way coaching is done. In almost every sport we are starting to see a new coaching model; remote coaching aka distance coaching. Coaches are coaching many athletes that are from another city, state, our country. I have been seeing many CrossFit athletes turn their training regime over to remote coaches. I have been writing this post off and on for about 2 weeks now and think it is now relevant to post since the CrossFit Journal has just posted a similar article. 

Is the remote coaching method of coaching beneficial? Is this method of coaching better than face to face coaching? One person comes to mind when I think of this topic; the person behind The Outlaw Way remote coaching program. 

In my opinion I think that remote coaching in CrossFit (or any other sport) is much less beneficial than traditional face to face coaching. A coach is one of the most important elements to the athletes training regime. An athlete hiring a coach is relying on that coach and the knowledge of that coach to help the athlete become the best he/she can be. When it comes to remote coaching, the coach is not watching the athlete as he/she practices. Instead, a remote coach looks at a recording of the athletes practice. To me this takes away from the value of what a coach offers. A traditional coach will be able to offer immediate feedback during practice so that athletes will be able to correct his/her mistakes as that athlete is making them. An athlete coached by a remote coach will perform an entire practice without any feedback on what is done right or wrong. To me this is a huge disadvantage. As a result an athlete coached remotely will have much longer time to practice bad habits before any advice on correction is made. 

In addition to the problems of not having immediate feedback remote coaching also has another problem; most of these so called high grade remote coaches have dozens, if not hundreds of remote athletes. Imagine watching 20, 30, 40, 100 videos of your athletes practicing every day, day in and day out. These videos can add up to hours and hours of video. As a result I am certain that these popular Remote coaches do not pay attention to much detail compared to coaches that are present at the scene of practice. I cannot imagine the coach from The Outlaw Way having enough time in the day to accurately coach his dozens of athletes which he remotely coaches. I will not pay $200 a month for this kind of diminished version of coaching. Even if the remote coach is a great coach I would rather pay for a decent coach that will be present at the scene of my practice so that I can have immediate feedback. If I do something wrong I want to hear it right then and there as I make the error. 

Of course there are numerous amounts of other problems I see with remote coaching but the above ones mentioned are just a couple of them. 

There is one coach behind NoX Training. His name is Michael Hernandez and he is my brother. At NoX Training you will be coached face to face and not remotely. At NoX training you will receive face to face coaching with immediate feedback. THERE IS NO COACHING METHOD BETTER THAN THIS!

Below in this CrossFit journal is another view on remote coaching.