Be an Elite Coach, Build Elite Athletes

Things to develop your coaching and have a greater impact on your athletes. You define what your “elite” is!

By Isaac Leung, Athletic Skills

Hey reader,

In this edition of the newsletter, I'm diving into my top four reasons why I decided to step away from professional sport—a world that many see as the pinnacle of coaching.

Plus, I'll be sharing one of my favorite coaching techniques: movement flow.

It's a dynamic way to integrate strength, mobility, and creativity into your sessions.

Lots packed in this newsletter with things to reflect on and practical insights to take in to your coaching.

Plus a bonus video you can watch below!

Be an Elite Coach:

My Top 4 Reasons for Leaving Professional Sport: Realising It Wasn’t the Pinnacle of Coaching as Many Believe

1. Lack of Control - your work is dictated by many factors such as finances, time, other coaches and directors, schedules, player egos and more. You aren’t fully in control of your coaching.

2. Time Constraints - especially in a busy season, your time to coach may be small with many sessions needed to be done. In my situation as a S&C coach, I had 30 mins or even less to develop my group physically at times with technical sessions taking priority. Also, when fixtures are busy, time to train can be minimal.

3. Management Challenges - your work can often be dictated by decisions above such as funds available, your contract, general mood around the group can be influenced by uncertainty above, player signings and more I know full well the difficulty of your work being in control by those above by losing my job for a month with a wide spread sacking of every member of the coaching team overnight in a situation I wasn’t even involved in but that’s another story to tell (I did get my job back after 6 weeks when they realised I had no involvement in what had gone on, in fact not even at the club when things happened.

4. Limited Time to Learn and Implement Your Own Ideas - When you are working long days and on the road, the last thing you feel you want to do is read more about coaching. When you are coaching day to day, you can get stuck in your ways and struggle to lift your head up and be creative.

While professional sport offers better facilities, more equipment, and the chance to work with advanced players, the camaraderie of being part of a team, and the thrill of winning and losing together are why we love sports. The opportunity to learn from a great group of coaches was invaluable as well.

But do the barriers above outweigh these benefits?

For me, after seven great years in professional sports, I reached a point where I realized I needed to step back, take control of my schedule, and explore opportunities that I couldn’t pursue while working in professional sports, such as traveling, attending social events, and choosing where I want to work.

That’s when Athletic Skills began. And I haven’t looked back!

I wouldn’t have had the opportunities to meet and chat with so many of you if I had stayed in professional sports.

My main message is that while professional sports can be a fantastic environment where you learn a lot and feel part of a team, it may not be for everyone. It's more than just wearing the team’s t-shirt—people don’t always see the hard work and dedication that many staff members put in to get a chance to do the more glamorous aspects of the job.

You can be an elite coach working for yourself and building your own business.

You can be an elite coach working with youth athletes and developing the next generation.

You can be an elite coach in a school, driving forward your school’s PE program.

You can be an elite coach in your local gym, working with different audiences.

You decide what you want to be and what works for you.

What are your goals as a coach?

Build Elite Athletes:

Heard of creating movement flow?

So one of my main things I like to use in my coaching is movement flow.

String 2 or more exercises or drills together and transitioning between.

Flowing between movements in your session can develop strength, mobility, trunk control, and more! 💪🤸‍♀️

Here are some examples:

➡️ Inch worm into Spiderman 🐛🕷️

➡️ Bear crawl into a Crab 🐻🦀

➡️ Squat into Gorilla walk 🦍

➡️ Hop into Single-leg Deadlift 🦘⚖️

➡️ Press Up in to a roll and throw a ball.

Also when providing movement flow, you can create problem solving, challenges and allow your athletes to find a way to get from A to B in their own method.

There are no real rules other than keep it safe and ensure movement technique.

Here is a short video I recorded on animal movement flow to give a little taster!

You also save time and can integrate more movements and areas of development in to your session!

Give it a go in your next session and try put two movements together!

Need help to take your coaching forward? Want to chat more and learn how you can develop in your role? Reply to this email and lets book a free call in!

Speak soon,

Isaac 🙂 

JOIN MY FREE WHATSAPP COMMUNITY WITH 40+ COACHES IN ALREADY AND SHARE THE JOURNEY IN LEARNING TOGETHER!