It is so easy to find a coach nowadays. Whether you are interested in Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, sport specific training or fat loss, there are 1000’s of online coaches, and most gym’s you walk-into have 5+ ‘certified’ personal trainers ready to sign you up. Unfortunately, most of these people have no idea how to actually coach. They may be able to write you a workout that makes you sweat, but this means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things AND you probably could have figured out how to make yourself sweat on your own. If you are paying for a coach, make sure they aren’t ripping you off. If you fall into any one of these 3 groups, it’s probably time you get a new coach.
Group #1
You’ve been training with a ‘coach’ for a few months and you can’t perform basic movements.
If you still can’t do a pushup, hit depth on a squat, have no idea how to brace your core or root your feet, or can’t achieve full range of motion on lifts, your coach sucks. These are some of the skills that form the basis for all athletic development. If you really want to achieve your goals, you are going to need these skills. If your coach hasn’t taught you the basics, it’s either because they don’t know how OR they are too lazy to actually coach you. Either way, you end up losing. Don’t be a loser, make a change.
Group #2
You aren’t following a program/tracking your lifts OR your coach has no idea how to write a program.
If you want to achieve your goals, you’re going to need a program and you’re going to have to track your lifts. This is the only way to ensure progress is being made, you may remember what you did the previous workout, but what’d you do 3 weeks ago? 2 months ago? Nobody can remember everything, so if you or your coach aren’t tracking your lifts, how do you really know you’re making progress?
The other bad case scenario is this: you have a training program, you are tracking your lifts, and you aren’t making progress. To be clear, what I mean by this is going 2+ months without seeing any improvement in your lifts or technique. I am not talking about missing a lift here and there, everybody does. Going 8 weeks without seeing any form of improvement is simply not how this works. ASSUMING YOU ARE NOT INJURED, you should be able to make some form of progress every single week. If you aren’t, why aren’t you?
Group #3
Your coach has never been coached.
Your coach may have the fanciest certification around, and they may even have a degree in an exercise-related field, but this does not necessarily make them a good coach. School is important, and I do not want to dismiss that. But you can’t learn everything inside the classroom and unfortunately, a collegiate degree does not necessarily mean someone is fully prepared to train people, let alone competitive athletes.
All of the greatest strength coaches in the world have learned from someone else, and they have spent countless hours in the gym, learning how to coach, from someone who already knows how to be a coach. The vast majority of people who call themselves trainers/coaches have never gone through this process. When I first got certified as a USAW (usa weightlifting) coach I thought I was ready to go, I had already been training the movements for 2 years and I passed the test no problem. So naturally I’d be able to start teaching snatches and cleans ASAP. Then I met a 9x Russian national champion by the name of Vasiliy Polovnikov and realised I had a lot to learn. It took me about a year before I felt confident enough to actually start coaching people. I am not saying everyone needs to train for 4 years, then get certified, then learn for another 3 years before they can coach, but you do have to put your time in.
If your coach has never gone through this learning process, there is no chance they are going to be capable of actually helping you. They may be able to keep you safe in the gym, but you won’t make any long term progress.
If your coach is making any of these mistakes, you need to think long and hard about what you are paying for. It doesn’t matter if you're an athlete or not. A good coach is going to get the best out of you no matter what. If you aren’t making progress after a few months, or have no idea how much progress you’ve made, you are essentially doing the same thing, over and over, and expecting a different result. That is way too close to the definition of insanity for my liking. Don’t train insane, use your brain, and hire a good coach.