It may sound like a marketing slogan, but in coaching, art truly is the soul of the process. It is the understanding and internalization of the science that results in the art, the creation.
The greatest artist may have been taught to mix paint. The sculptor may have been taught how to hit the rock. That can be learned in schools. It was not until they discovered how translate their feelings, experiences, passions, and knowledge into the rock or canvas, that they become tangible.
Some say that statues have always been in the rock, waiting to be crafted and polished. Talented artists could efficiently remove the rock debris covering them, avoiding breakage, and removing just the right amount of material in just the right places.
So, who were the artists who could discover these sculptures within rock? They were the ones that could recognize, read, and feel the full potential beneath the layers of rock.
Coaching experience is the same process. Today there is so much information, knowledge, technology, and systems that contain the exercise science required to produce, in theory, the physiological changes the body needs to perform any kind of sport – such as endurance sports.
Every new athlete is a rough gem waiting to be polished. The coach must discover the individual potential and successfully translate science into a successful athlete, which is an athlete who accomplishes their goals and objectives in an efficient, safe and joyful way.
Good coaches combine their experience with continual education and study into areas like aerobic and anaerobic training, strength, stretching, and sport psychology. They can feel and visualize the process of translating knowledge into personal, efficient and functional training plans. The gifted coach can then help polish the rock and reveal the successful athletes within.
Remember,
The art becomes reality when:
“We write what we would like to read”
“We compose the music we would like to listen”
and……….
WE COACH THE WAY WE WOULD LIKE TO BE COACHED.
~ Manuel Delgado Gaona, MD.