Connection Before Construction
As S&C coaches, personal trainers, and movement practitioners, it is imperative that we take the time to connect with the individuals we’re working with. This is probably a no-brainer to many of you, but I do think the importance of it is overshadowed by the ‘hard’ skills of our industry. Of course it’s important we understand anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, periodization, and more, but the skills that are seen as ‘soft’ are normally the ones that allow us to get the adherence we’re looking for. It’s important that we learn how to connect with someone in order to construct a program, or coach them through a training session.
Building a connection with someone means that you’re establishing a relationship and common link amongst yourself and them. It can be as simple as learning someone’s name, making eye contact when you speak with them, or asking how their day is going. When you’re in the field of servicing others (like strength & conditioning, personal training, movement therapy, etc), you’re more often than not in a situation where you need to establish trust and mutual respect between you and the individual(s) you’re working with.
Building rapport is a similar concept - you’re establishing a relationship, building a foundation of trust, and finding common threads between you and them. This creates an environment and culture where people feel seen and heard, and in turn, this allows people to show up as they are when they enter the space (this is key).
Simple Ways to Build Rapport:
Learn Names (using someone’s name goes a very long way)
Ask Check-In Questions (helps break the ice at the beginning of a session, and helps find common threads)
Eye Contact (depending on the environment, this can be powerful)
Follow-Up (if someone shares information with you, follow-up after a couple days to check-in)
Actively Listen (this falls in line with eye contact)
Show Up Authentically (when you show up as your genuine self, it gives others permission to do the same!)
When we take the time to build rapport and connect with someone, it makes our job much easier. If you have an established relationship, it’s much easier to seek out the appropriate information to help support that individual. For example, if you’re looking to build a program for someone, it’s important to go through a Needs Analysis - in many cases, you’ll need to have a conversation with the person to see where they’re at and where they’d like to go. If there’s trust between you and that individual, they’re more likely to be honest in the information they share which will allow you to appropriately develop a program for them.
If you’ve taken the time to connect with someone and build trust, they are more likely to adhere to the plan in place. When they adhere to the plan in place, they will likely be more successful in pursuit of the goals they are working towards.
A ‘soft’ skill like connecting or building rapport, may seem far from a ‘hard’ skill like programming, but they are more aligned than you think!
Connection —> Learning and using someone’s name, finding common interests, asking questions, actively listening, following up on things they’ve shared, etc.
Programming —> Performing a needs analysis to gather information, having conversations about past experiences, setting goals, establishing a plan to get that individual there, selecting appropriate exercises/drills, knowing what motivates them, etc.
Adherence —> Following the plan you’ve put in place because you’ve taken into consideration information they’ve shared with you, they trust that you are looking out for them, being consistent to respect the effort you’ve put in, following the path you’ve set up for them, etc.
I believe connection is a foundational piece to coaching, so much so, that I created an entire webinar about it (with even more information than this blog post!), you can get access to it HERE (for free!).
Taking the time to develop tools and strategies to help you connect with the individuals you work with, may serve you better than reading another article on niche training strategies - you won’t have anyone to test those strategies on if you can’t hold a conversation!
Yours in Strength,
A