Owners: Are You Developing Your Coaches? Part I

Members of affiliates are charged a premium for our services, and in exchange they expect to be provided with value for that premium, manifested through the programming, culture, facilities and equipment, etc. Most of this is understood by affiliates who have survived their initial growing pains. As an owner or head coach, you have the added responsibility of providing value to your coaches. Much like a corporate office, coaches are employees and expect to be paid, recognized for hard work, mentored, and developed. Do you provide value to your coaches the same way they provide value to your paying members? In this 2 part series we look at a few ways to develop your coaches.  Ultimately, taking ownership and caring for your coaches can make the difference between a long term, reliable coach who is willing to work for you and your members, or a coach looking for a paycheck in their spare time.

Attend classes. This can often give you the most information about your coach and where their strength and weaknesses lie. Is your coach excellent at demonstrating movements but fails to explain them in layman’s terms? Does your coach manage the time/space/logistics of the class well? Do members seem to respect the coach, or does he/she allow the athletes to run the class while simply ensuring no one is injured? This can also be revealing if your gym is experiencing retention issues or stunted growth.

Evaluate. Evaluate your coaches using a common system. CrossFit defines an effective trainer as possessing capacity in six different abilities: teaching, seeing, correcting, group/class management, presence and attitude, and demonstration. Using the associated definition of each, it’s very simple to create a 5 or 10 point grading scale that you can use to evaluate each of your coaches. This can provide a quantitative measurement for their development coaches and give them a quantifiable goal to work towards. If you have other ideas, create your own evaluation system.

In Part II we will discuss the importance of continuing education and mentorship, two elements that are the hallmark of a strong leader. Stay tuned!

To help you get started, we created our own Coach’s Evaluation Tool, the TMF-140. Download it below.

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Written by Hunter Wood