What Really Matters
As strength and conditioning coaches, it is easy (and fun!) to get sucked into talking and thinking about sets and reps, this exercise vs. that exercise, what periodization plan is most ideal, how functional anatomy influences training, progressions, and regressions, and all of the other minutia that makes us exercise science nerds. And while all of these things are important, we often forget or neglect to focus on the most important aspect of training, especially in the team setting. Culture.
“A poorly designed program run well, beats a well-designed program run poorly” Mike Boyle
I'm obviously not advocating for poor programming, but the reality is the above quote is true. The most important part of our jobs is coaching, and coaching is teaching, and teaching is a big part of developing and strengthening organizational culture. If we aren't keeping this in mind and continuously being conscience of it, we run the risk of missing the big picture. Just having bigger, faster, stronger athletes isn't going to make much of a difference in competition if those athletes don't work together, don't stay consistent to the team's goals, don't hold themselves and each other accountable to the details, and don't put the team first. We have all seen examples of a team full of star players that just doesn't get anything done. This is often because they aren't all bought into the culture (or the culture they are bought into isn't aligned with team success). Our most important role as coaches is to teach, cultivate, and advocate for the culture of our team.
Unfortunately, sometimes this idea of culture building gets taken out of context. The strength coach being required to be the disciplinarian. Training as punishment. Yelling, screaming, and all around idiocy. This isn't developing culture. Well, not a good culture, anyway. I'm not saying that we should let the inmates run the asylum, or that we need to all sit around a campfire and hold hands, but great cultures, great teams are built on trust, accountability, and ownership. Developing these ideals takes deliberate work, and maintaining them is even harder. Arguably the most important thing we can do as coaches is to try to instill these values in our athletes, and lead by example. It is crucial for team success, but even more imperative for our athletes to learn and embrace these characteristics for their life after sport.
Developing, nurturing, and sustaining a strong culture is hard work. Certainly, as strength and conditioning coaches, we are only one small cog within a team or organization, and we can only control what we can control. That being said, we are often the individuals with the most direct contact with the athlete. The relationships we can build, and the messages we can share go a long way to creating lasting and positive cultures within our teams. Keeping this in mind and making these values the core of our daily interactions are key. Using training as a vehicle for emphasizing what is right and should be what really matters.
