1. People quit fitness in the first 6 months due to lack of motivation, time conflicts, boredom, and lack of support.

2. A good idea if a coach or trainer wants to reduce a client’s aggressive behavior is to have him/her do an activity like yoga, tai chi or Pilates.

3. Coach and client share 50-50 responsibility for program implementation.

4. Coaching and personal training rely on the same communication skills.

5. Coaches can easily switch back and forth between coaching and training roles.

6. Converting your club to a “coaching environment” is simply adding another line of business to your operation.

7. A great trainer will make a great coach.

8. Great coaches are charismatic, high energy motivators.

9. Clients generally know what their motives are. It’s the coach’s job to discover them.

10. Clients who are effectively coached will spend more time training at your club.

1. People quit fitness in the first 6 months due to lack of motivation, time conflicts, boredom, and lack of support.
People usually quit because they don’t understand that moving from a sedentary to an active lifestyle impacts all dimensions of life – and they simply haven’t accounted for it.

2. A good idea If a coach or trainer wants to reduce a client’s aggressive behavior is to have him/her do an activity like yoga, tai chi or Pilates.
While this seems like a good idea, the client won’t adhere to the new program. It’s too contrary to his/her style. You need to gradually shape new behaviors – and the client has to be strongly motivated to change.

3. Coach and client share 50-50 responsibility for program implementation.
The client is 100% responsible for program implementation. The coach “holds the agenda” and reminds the client of commitments, but the action part is up to the client.

4. Coaching and personal training rely on the same communication skills.
Coaching involves an entirely different communication paradigm than personal training. Training involves instruction, direction, and strong motivational communications, while coaching relies heavily on dialogue, inquiry and self-determination.

5. Coaches can easily switch back and forth between coaching and training roles.
The key word here is easily. Since the style of a trainer and a coach are different, it takes great skill for professionals to switch back and forth effectively. It can be done – and often it should be done, but it takes serious training to do it well.

6. Converting your club to a “coaching environment” is simply adding another line of business to your operation.
When your organization makes a full commitment to being a coaching center, it will impact the culture of your organization – in a positive way! Your staff will want to be more involved. Their communications skills will improve. They will want to co-create with you the best club possible.

7. A great trainer will make a great coach.
Not necessarily. Some trainers simply can’t or don’t want to make the transition. And that’s okay. Great trainers will always play an important part in a club’s success. However, if they want to evolve their careers toward coaching, they will have to learn new ways of interacting with clients – and their successful history may be their greatest impediment.

8. Great coaches are charismatic, high energy motivators?
It may seem that way, yet great coaches are the quite, powerful movers – who help the client change in such a manner that the client feels empowered rather than awed by how great the coach is.

9. Clients generally know what their motives are. It’s the coach’s job to discover them.
Not really. When clients are in a significant period of change that provokes them to hire a coach, they may have only identified the surface reasons for wanting change. It’s the deeper motives that have to be identified, and that is the coach’s job to discover along with the client.

10. Clients who are effectively coached will spend more time training at your club?
Not necessarily. They will certainly need to train at the club, but coaching will help clients explore movement options outside the club so as to sustain their life-long motivation.