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Life Long Learning


What is one of the most frustrating aspects of being a powerlifting coach to me ?


Today new wannabee powerlifters join the gym - armed with "knowledge" obtained passively by watching slews of videos online - and training at a commercials gym for a few month - making enormous gains in those few month. They determine a few things due to that :


  • Since I am progressing that fast

    • I know everything - I am my best coach

    • I am a genetic monster

    • Extrapolating my progress - in 12 months from now I will crush all national and world records


This phenomena has a name "Dunning Kruger"


As a coach it is super difficult to get through to this athlete to tell him/her :

  • You success is based on beginners gains

  • If you keep training like you do know you will get hurt

  • Your progess will go slower as you get stronger

  • There are many aspects to start to develop NOW to create a solid platform for longevity and long enduring sports success.


All this - 99% of the time- falls on deaf ears ... during the first 2-3 years you might be lucky as a coach to make sure the athlete does not severely hurt himself and gets out of this phase still loving powerlifting and sticking to it -- as here usually phase 2 sets in "there is more to this" - "I will never make it" ...


If you are able to get through this phase with the athlete - and you get him into the "it is starting to make sense" phase --. life gets a bit easier as a coach - as a dialogue ensues and the athlete realises that it is worth listening to you as an experienced coach.


How do you manage getting though this with beginning athletes ?


I take an educative approach from the start - as it "takes a whole village to raise 1 child" we insist on a gym culture where proper form and proper loading is the only accepted way of training - ie clear boundaries (preventing injuries) and we are harsh on debriefing the effects of mistakes that the athlete is making (active feedback, allow him to make his own mistakes within a safe tolerance).


We assure to assign "1 - go to - coach" from our team to the athlete- to not create confusion about the required feedback - if it comes from many sources it would create a conflicting and confusing info setting for the athlete.


He/she will still not listen to you in this phase no matter what you do - but this feedback loop will accelerate the realisation that there is a lot more to learn - and after the initial phase - the athlete starts to put 1+1 together - and realises (faster) that "the coach was right". As it can hardly be avoided in my experience without having shouting matches- the goal is to shorten this phase and overcome it without physical or emotional damage (for both the athlete and coach)


To give it a final push - when the athlete enters the second phase - I enjoy giving this athlete a newby coachee - to create deep learning about how obnoxious a newby can be - and now have her/him try to talk sense into this newby.


It takes years to get into the 3rd phase "easy- no, complicated - yes" - and once in it you stay there forever. The best coaches I know are always humble and realise there is always new things to learn, try, absorb, experiment with.


I am now active in strength sports since 1981 - and still need to seek knowledge every day to be able to help my athletes to get ahead. I collaborate with national coaches, the LUNEX university, read a lot of books - and more over experiment everyday in my own laboratory which is called ATC Sport and the Silverbacks competition team.


There is no finish line.


Mark Notschaele

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