One Skill Needed To Be A Great Fitness Coach

There is one skill that will ultimately determine how great of a coach your are. You can read all the books, attend all the workshops, and attain the highest levels of education, but without this one skill you will never be a great coach.

This skill is: The ability to focus on your client.

This means that when you walk onto the training floor you are 100% focused on the clients in your session. Not what you are doing later, not what is going one at home, nothing about your life matters when you are on that floor with the clients. It's all about them and your focus needs to be completely on them.

This means being prepared before your session starts, starting on time, and knowing what you are going to have each client do in that session. Nothing is random, everything is planned.

This may sound easy, but it's a huge area of struggle for many coaches. They are too focused on themselves and sharing their lives that they aren't giving the client what they are paying for. Yes, the clients will ask about your life, this is fine. You should share what is going on in your life WHEN THEY ASK, not because you think that they might be interested. If they don't ask they aren't interested - they are only acting interested because they are too nice to tell you to shut up and focus on them. And when they do ask answer, but then get the conversation back to being about them. Most people ask to be nice, not because they really care. And even if they do truly care no one wants to hear you going on and on about your life when they are paying you to help them.

Body language goes along with this. Even if you are focused on them, poor body language can make you seem disengaged. Do you smile and greet them each by name when they come in? Do you look bored when working with them? Do you stand with your arms crossed and lean on the equipment? I don't care how focused you may be on them your body language suggests that you aren't and that you are just going through the motions.

Learn to focus on your client and put your life on the shelf and you will become a great coach.