“I’m going to open my final four slots up to the readers of the Gaelic Life!”

In the first of a four part series I’m going to clue you in on the ins and outs of online coaching if that is a route you’re contemplating going down. I’ve been on both sides of the fence here so before we get too deep I’ll give you some background. Having been active as a coach on the gym floor, a gym owner and heavily involved in GAA circles over a number of years my capacity to take on new clients was incredibly limited so the most logical step for me as a business owner was to expand my business online.

Having over ten years face to face coaching experience behind me I was pretty confident the expansion to online training would be fairly seamless, but to position myself in the best place possible I invested in a couple of online coaches myself. I jumped early onto the Joe Wicks steam train and got on board with his BodyCoach program. At the time I was a part of an online coaching academy, so approached one of the tutors and asked him if I could hire him as an online coach too.

Two incredibly different experiences, each of which showed me clues as to how to both be successful as an online trainer and inevitably how to fail. Whereas with the BodyCoach program it was a simple, cooker cutter program with very little substance and other coach was hugely detailed, more thorough than I’d ever experienced before and almost aggressively demanding.

With the first program I got nothing I couldn’t have Googled, never mind been able to produce better myself, and with the second I got a superb service but unrealistic goals which led to a breakdown in client/coaching relationship to the point where I said I’m going to pull the plug on the programming because I didn’t feel like it was serving me any benefit being demonised for not hitting microgoals, having a pint at the weekend with friends and not logging every second of my training sessions.

The experience moulded how I operated – in depth but not to the point of placing unrealistic restrictions – and I massively enjoyed my years offering an online coaching service. I limited myself to an intake of eight clients per six week program so that I could give them the suitable attention required. The different needs and goals challenged me to produce a wide range of programs to fit both the clients’ capabilities, access to equipment and underlying athletic ability.

As my gym grew the time I had for online coaching diminished, but thanks to the lockdown we’re all experiencing at the minute I’ve opened my books up again. I currently have four old clients who reached out to me back at it, and having found success working with a limited number in the past I’m going to open my final four slots up to the readers of the Gaelic Life!

If you would be interested in blogging/vlogging about your online coaching experiences then send your details to editor@gaeliclife.com

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