Excellent points, however, consider looking at this from a different perspective often overlooked by the player looking for a “good” trainer or coach.

Not all, but some, trainers simply adopt the title “trainer” or “coach” without actually possessing credentials, they do not operate legitimate businesses, most often have a history of not owning up to their financial responsibilities, do not pay their taxes, mislead or fail to make important information available to the player during the “hiring” process, etc. They operate under the wire so to speak.

If the trainer or coach is operating as a side job, player beware.

If the trainer or coach is operating as a business, player still beware and confirm it. If it dosen’t check out, search elsewhere.

Why would a “good” trainer or coach operate this way?

They may have testimonials that may seem impressive but it is the players responsibility to actually confirm them. All to often, the trainer or coach will say “I coached so and so” and if you actually contacted that player you would hear a completely different version of the “trainer” or “coaches” performance.

A good player would not give up a good coach and visa versa.

Test it out, research the coaches in this thread page, confirm if they are legitimate, etc. It won’t hurt you and it would be good practice.

Point is, if you don’t, you are cheating yourself and you may also be cheated out of your time and money. You should only pay money to absorb three attributes at the very least, character, integrity and perfect practice skill set development tools.

A “good” trainer or coach possesses excellent character, integrity and compliments those attributes with an excellent skill set of perfect practice development tools. A “good” coach strives to transfer all three of these to a player.

Ultimately, it is the players responsibility to “ask the right questions and then to do their due dilligence of confirmation of the information they receive from the “trainer” or “coach”.

There are many excellent qualified credentialed trainers and coaches out there that possess the character, integrity and skill set development tools required to be classified as a “good” trainer or coach.

I suspect that there are many self proclaimed “trainers” or “coaches” in need of “good” coaches.

And yes, it is ultimately the players responsibility to correctly select a “good” trainer or coach and absorb all three of the attributes delivered to them. With perfect practice, perfect performance may then be attainable.

Much of what is shared in the article is valid and realistic in terms of what a trainer/coach/guide provides. I am a shooting coach and convey to the players that I work the importance of continuing on their own the skills we have addressed and worked on in our sessions together.

I as a coach may plant a seed that does not sprout for many years or improvement may take place in a certain area immediately. My job is to accept the player where they are at the time of our workout and move forward from there with a program that helps that player accomplish their dreams and goals.

I may not see that player more than one time per week and many times months will go by before they come for another lesson. But hopefully my guidance extended beyond just the hour that we were together. Hopefully when something takes place in a game that is something we addressed in a worked out, that a dormant seed may sprout just in time to be of service to them.

I believe I do a good job as a shooting coach, but as far as evaluating myself and my effectiveness in working with players, I leave that to the player and possibly the parent who may have paid the fee for the lesson.

I have with ever player I have worked explained the importance of working out on their own or whoever paid for the lesson wasted their money. But if they do choose to continue on their own I can only hope that my guidance was there with them even though I wasn’t there physically. After all isn’t that the whole point anyway?

Mike Phelps,
Director of All Pro Shooting