The quickest way to become world class: Get a coach
Many of us think we can teach ourselves - on YouTube, with feedback among friends, or by studying others. Here's 10 reasons you should scrap those strategies and get a coach.
‘What’s the one piece of advice you’d give us?’
That’s the single question I always get asked when I speak to young people. They are just starting their professional careers, whether in sport, in startups, or in the corporate world. And they are hungry to succeed.
‘Get a coach,’ I say.
To an athlete the value of a coach is obvious. Growing up, my sporting coaches were as pivotal in my life as my parents (and as a teenager I certainly listened to them more!)
To anyone pursuing something besides sport - negotiation skills, a career progression, a new hobby, AI skills, better nutrition habits or anything else - here’s why this remains the top piece of advice I always give.
1. Coaches personalise training
Remember when Simone Biles withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics with the ‘twisties’? Any athlete who does a gymnastics based sport has had the same problem.
Trampolining was my first sport. Every day I did complicated flips 10 meters in the air. Two of my most common tricks were:
Half-out: A double front with a half twist
Rudi-out: A double front with a one and half twist
The takeoff is identical for both. The only difference is a minute adjustment mid-trick to twist a little further. I’d done each of these tricks thousands of times with no problems.
But just once, the wires in my brain got crossed. I took off to do a half-out and did a rudi-out instead. Upside down, 10 meters in the air… suddenly I was doing the wrong trick.
‘C’mon,’ said my coach Jarrod. ‘You know the best way to get past it is to try and do it again straight away.’
Easy for him to say. He was on the ground.
I jumped, tried to take off again. And balked. Too scared to try.
Again, I started jumping. And simply stopped.
‘Let’s try tomorrow,’ said my coach.
When I came back into the gym the next day, he had prepared a challenge for the entire month ahead. Each time I did the correct trick once, I could skip one strength exercise. Go the whole session without stopping in fear, and the entire squad got to skip strength that day. Go the whole week without balking, and he’d give me a surprise gift.
I was terrified.
But I went for that trick every single time that month. And my teammates celebrated everytime they got to skip strength workouts.
My coach knew me. Knew how to push me past fear. And he changed my training to match that.
A great coach will personalise training: to your pace, your learning style, and what motivates you.
Get a coach.
2. Coaches hold you accountable
‘I can teach myself on Duolingo,’ said my friend. He was trying to learn German.
‘But will you?’ I asked.
‘Of course. I’m going to study every day.’
But eventually the ‘ding’ of a successfully maintained streak wore off. The lessons became tougher as he had to learn verb conjugations. And if he took it easy… well, no one really noticed.
He still can’t speak German.
With a coach, you’ve committed to show up. With a coach, they force you to work on the hardest parts of what you are trying to learn.
You’re accountable.
(And if that doesn’t do it - you’ve paid them and you don’t want to throw your money away!)
‘Coach Belichick holds us accountable every day. We appreciate when he’s tough on us. He gets the best out of us.’ ~ Tom Brady
Get a coach.
3. Coaches point out your blind spots
I live for pressure.
In beach volleyball, when you are down 14-8 in the third set, an impossible situation, and you find a way to win. In trampolining, the deep breath in the moment after you present to the judges, but before you start your first bounce. In CrossFit, standing on the competition floor, with 20 seconds to lift, and the barbell loaded with more weight than you’ve ever done before.
These are the memories that I look back on most.
I thought I was good at pressure. I thought my teammates could count on me as the clock ticked down.
In my first sport - trampolining - I was good. 17 years of training coming down to a 17 second routine. I had that. When I felt nervous I would squeeze every muscle in my body as tightly as possible and perform even better than training.
When I first switched to beach volleyball, at the end of a big game, I would do the same.
‘You’re not playing well under pressure,’ my coach told me. I didn’t believe him.
‘I love pressure,’ I said.
‘But your body is doing the wrong thing,’ he doubled down.
He was right.
Turns out, that in a ball sport squeezing every muscle as tight as you can is the worst reaction to pressure. You want to be loose and free.
Coaches relentlessly point out your blind spots.
Get a coach.
4. Coaches are character building
Early in my speaking career, I hired a speaking coach.
We worked on the script for my first keynote, and he cut whole sections, and redlined everything else. It was brutal, but insanely helpful.
We worked on pacing, like when to add humour, when to slow down, and when to race through a story to build tension.
We worked on stagecraft, where to stand, what gesture to use, how to handle a microphone.
It was great, until he made me practice.
Not in front of an entire audience. But in front of just one person… my mum.
Yikes.
If you can do a speech to your mum in your living room. Then doing one for Richard Branson feels easy in comparison!
(Many years later, my mum came and sat in the front row of one of my speeches. I was ready.)
Coaches choose the tasks that are character building.
Get a coach.
5. Coaches know how to prioritise
Since retiring from professional sport, I’ve tried a crazy variety of new sports. Surfing, kite surfing, fencing, circus, axe throwing, padel, pickleball, tennis, Brazilian ju jitsu, ballroom and latin dancing,
You know what I didn’t do? Just go and play with friends. Every single time I got a professional coach.
I don’t want to start a new hobby with a bunch of bad habits. But I also want to get good quickly.
And coaches know what order to coach in.
Tennis: How to hold the racket, then footwork, then the arm swing, then topspin.
Surfing: Pop-ups on the beach, then learning to read the waves, then paddling, then standing up on the board.
Latin dancing: First stance, then footwork, timing to the music, and then hips (for the record, I have abs not hips, and I remain clueless on how they make all the moves look so sexy).
Coaches help your prioritise what to learn when.
Get a coach.
6. Coaches make you work on your weaknesses
If I go to the gym on my own, you’ll find me doing squats, abs, and rowing. All the things I’m good at.
When I competed in CrossFit my coach didn’t let me do much of those things.
‘You’re upper body is weak,’ he told me.
‘Weak? I can climb a rope without using my legs, I can do 10 pull-ups…’ I countered.
‘I need you to strict press 60 kilos, do at least 30 pull-ups in a row, and multiple rope climbs.’
Our training sessions were already hard. 2 hours of heavy lifting, and workouts that make you want to puke. And then at the end of every single training session, before I was allowed to go home and collapse in exhaustion, he programmed extra upper body work.
Every single training session.
I got to 30 pull-ups before we were done.
Coaches won’t give up on fixing your weaknesses.
Get a coach.
7. Coaches see around corners
I had a tough spot in my career. And to help I hired an organisational psychologist - basically a coach for work.
I was upset, stressed, not sleeping well, and working 12-14 hour days. I was being treated unfairly, and I wanted to just react against my manager.
She helped me lift my head up and imagine how he might react if I did that.
She helped me play the long game, and not torch my career in the short term.
She helped me understand how deeper office agendas were at play, and it wasn’t just about me.
She helped me see around corners.
Get a coach.
8. Coaches help you break through plateaus
I’m a good writer. And if you’ve read this far, you’d probably agree with that statement. My mum is an author so I got a lot of training growing up.
But it’s been a while since I took a big leap forward in my capability.
And so I’m looking for a writing coach. I want to learn more styles of prose, different structures to outline a piece, new techniques to make you laugh and feel and think deeply.
Coaches help you break through plateaus.
Get a coach.
9. Coaches know what world class is
‘You must float upwards after the kick-out,’ the instruction came with a strong Russian accent. I was 14, was the youngest athlete selected to compete in the Youth Olympics, and was at a training camp with the Australian national coach. Who had been hired from Russia.
‘Float upwards?’ even at 14 I understood gravity. ‘How is that possible?’
‘Here, look at the video,’ he pulled up a grainy video of the previous World Championships. ‘See, see’ he gestured at the screen. ‘The athlete finishes the trick whilst they are still going up in the bounce. The kickout happens on the way up. Then they float.’ He looked back at me. ‘You must float.’
‘People don’t only use a coach when there is a problem with their technique; they understand that no matter how good their technique is, there is always room for improvement.’ ~ John Perry
Coaches know what world class is. And if you want to be world class…
Get a coach.
10. Coaches celebrate with you
My first ever international gold medal was on the line.
I stood in front of the trampoline. A few breaths away from beginning my final routine. And this routine had a trick that was new, just a couple of months old. A trick that I’d landed in practice maybe ten times. A trick that I’d never done in competition.
‘When you’re ready,’ said the judges. I wasn’t ready, a few months more practice would have been ideal. But I was out of time.
I presented. Stepped onto the trampoline. And began. The trick was a double front somersault, with a full twist in the first somersault, and another half twist in the second. You flip and twist simultaneously the entire time.
I stuck the landing.
And the first person I looked for was my coach. He was running towards me, a huge smile on his face, arms outstretched for a hug.
No one understands exactly what that moment means except your coach. No one understands the sacrifice, suffering, pressure, and what it takes more than your coach.
Coaches celebrate with you. And they commiserate too. They are part of your team.
Get a coach.
Summary
10 reasons you should get a coach - for sport, for your career, for any skill you want to improve:
Coaches personalise training
Coaches make you accountable
Coaches point out your blind spots
Coaches are character building
Coaches know how to prioritise
Coaches make you work on your weaknesses
Coaches see around corners
Coaches help you break through plateaus
Coaches know what world class is
Coaches celebrate with you
Thank you to the coaches who’s job was to help me build skill, and who in the process have changed my character, and my life.
Get a coach.
‘A good coach can change a game. A great coach can change a life.’ ~ John Wooden
Where is the best place to find great coaches?