Who's in Your Corner? A Practical Guide to Finding a good Coach
A good coach can change your life.
That being said, the whole coaching thing is a bit funny. Trust me— I’ve been doing it for over 15 years now and have produced multiple national level Muay Thai fighters, coached athletes in the biggest promotions in the world, and even coached celebrities and Royal Families.
Unlike other professions which require you to undergo some sort of formal training, becoming a Muay Thai coach has virtually no vetting process. If you want to be a coach, you just have to proclaim, out loud, “I’m a coach” and people will start automatically listening to you... and maybe even more dangerously, respecting you.
And that’s where it can all get a bit sticky.
This absurdly low barrier of entry means that there are a lot of unqualified and/or unsavory characters out there in the combat sports coaching world. The world of martial arts is filled with charlatans who will at best take your money while offering little in return, or at worst get you killed or seriously injured. The dangers of competitive combat sports are real and should never be overlooked. And I'd know this as well- in my 15 years of coaching, there are numerous times where I WAS, unknowingly, one of these charlatans. I didn't know enough to know that I didn't know, and by not being aware of my limitations it's very likely that I risked my fighter's health by coaching at competitive levels beyond my capacity. If you're reading this and I've done this to you, I'm sorry. It's a problem I suspect all ascending coaches face as they progress professionally, but at least I can say that none of my fighters have ever been seriously injured and that's something I take great pride in.
Here's some good news: I've spent the last 39 years making almost all the mistakes you can possibly make so you don’t have to. Here are 4 steps on how to find a good coach in combat sports:
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Step 1: Determine your goals
Fitness, confidence, community, self defense, or even professional aspirations are all phenomenal reasons to start training in Muay Thai. But successful competitive coaches and successful hobbyist coaches require very different skill sets. If you clearly understand what your actual goals are, you’ll be much better positioned to assess whether a coach is in a position to help you meet those goals.
Step 2: Determine if potential coach has the ability to help you achieve your goals
Wait a second… How can you know if a coach can help you achieve a goal without the perspective of having actually achieved that goal yet? Hindsight is always 20/20, but we need foresight here. It’s difficult to know if your coach can help you become a world champion if you don’t actually know what becoming a world champion requires. Here’s a useful framework for determining someone's ability to help coach you:
First, has this person done thing you want to do? If they have, they can share their own perspectives and experiences which may be valuable to you.
Second, has this person taught others to do the thing you want to do? If they have, it rules out any exceptional personal attributes that might not be able to be recreated (e.g., great genetics). It also means they have a level of understanding and perspective that exceeds their own individual experience and this is an extremely important quality as a coach.
Finally, has this person taught multiple other people to do the thing you want to do? This further rules out unique situational factors and is a better reflection of overall coaching ability. Consistently repeated success over a wide array of changing variables is a great case for strong coaching. But strong coaching, no matter how valuable, isn’t always the most important thing…
Step 3: Determine whether you will enjoy spending large amounts of time with this person.
It feels obvious, but this one is a big deal. When you think about seeing your coach, how do you feel? Do you enjoy being around them?? Is there mutual respect??? If you’re a hobbyist and only spend a few hours per week with your coach this isn’t a huge deal, but if you are a professional fighter you are going to spend a LOT of time with your coach. I see most of my full time athletes more than I see my wife or kids. If you don’t like (or at least respect) your coach the relationship won’t be sustainable. A coach’s skill level is obviously important but their skill is also relative to your ability to be coached, and it’s easier to be coached by people you like and respect.
Step 4: Realize that this person might not be nearby
The truth is that a good coach or teacher or mentor is an incredibly rare thing. If you find one near you, consider yourself very lucky. For the rest of us though, you now have 2 options:
one: Move to them. If you're trying to make a career out of Muay Thai, I promise you it will be worth it. A great coach will change your life. Packing up and moving your entire life isn’t for everyone though. If you're a casual hobbyist who trains 2x a week, good luck explaining to your wife that you want to move the family to Thailand just so you can get continuously swept by Trainer Gae…
TWO: Don't move to them & do Muay Thai anyways. Let's be honest, a good coach was never going to be the only thing that made you enjoy the greatest sport on earth. Even if you dont have a coach, there are plenty of fantatsic online resources that you can use as a refernece in leiu of one. Shadowbox, hit the bag, and enjoy becoming a stronger version of yourself.
Oh. And burpees. Don't forget to do your burpees.
written by: coach nick
