I’ve been in sports my whole life and have had dozens of coaches all with different strength philosophies. As a gym owner, I have also interviewed and spent significant time with other strength experts so I could later implement their best practices. Today’s post is a two-part piece on providing a researched-based conclusion to why every athlete deserves a professional strength coach.

Let’s start with the obvious: A program is effective when it improves performance. That’s it. The effectiveness of a program must depend on results of the athlete. If the athlete is non-compliant, it’s the wrong program. If the athlete doesn’t improve, it’s the wrong program. If there is anything but improved benchmark data, it’s the wrong program.

KPI’s: Benchmarks

After identifying what success will look like, the coach and athlete must identify a handful of key performance indicators (KPI’s). Every experienced strength coach uses sport-specific KPI’s that they can then benchmark their athlete’s performance against. Appropriate KPI’s for a football player might include his back squat, bench press, and a 4-yard dash whereas a CrossFitter’s KPI’s might include workouts like Fran, Fight Gone Bad, and Helen.

So far as the KPI is in alignment with the athlete’s goal, the coach cannot error.

The next step is to gather data by which you can benchmark athlete performance. If the athlete’s goal is to play linebacker at BYU, the coach would need to gather data on what BYU linebackers squat, bench, and sprint. Additionally, if a CrossFitter’s goals is to compete at a Sanctioned-event, the coach must put together data on those athlete’s Fran, Fight Gone Bad, and Helen scores. The end goal may be to “play linebacker at BYU,” but with this new data the measurable goal now becomes to squat 455, bench 330, and sprint 40-yards in 4.55 seconds.” Quantitying the goal allows additional focus and ability to make changes along the program’s plan.

Focus on Weaknesses

After determining appropriate KPI’s, gathering a sample size of data for which the athlete’s goal applies, testing your athlete with those same KPI’s, and benchmarking your athlete’s scores against that sample size, you can then look for trends. Consider a few of the following questions:

• Where are the biggest weaknesses?
• Can I cluster together any of the weaknesses to tell me something not so obvious?
• Are certain ratios off between my athlete and the sample size? (i.e. consider the back squat:deadlift, power clean:front squat, or body fat percentage:pull-ups ratio.)
• What might be some realistic goals over the next 12 months to ensure that my athlete stays healthy and on track to hit these KPI’s? 

Macro-, Meso-, and Microcycles

Elite coaches always program in “cycles” for their athletes. These cycles provide opportunities to measure objective data and determine if the path the athlete is on is correct. This constant evaluation further customizes the program to each athlete’s needs, giving them a better shot at reaching their goal. Consider the picture below of a competitor’s program.

Notice the use of macro-, meso-, and microcycles in the picture: they vary based on length. A macrocycle generally lasts up to one year. A mesocycle breaks up the macrocycle into divisible chunks, usually lasting between 4-12 weeks. And the microcycle breaks up the mesocycle, usually lasting up to a week at a time. The diagram demonstrates time periods when the program can be reevaluated.

A common mistake here is to place too much emphasis on the duration of each cycle instead of the end goal of each cycle. Remember, the athlete is chasing objective performance metrics along the way. For example, if the CrossFitter wants to compete at a Sanctioned-event, the goal may be to hit a 455 lb. back-squat at the end of the macrocycle. The individual mesocycles will break that 455 lb. goal into chunks throughout the year (i.e. “Goal for Mesocycle #1: reach 435 lb back squat.”, “Goal for Mesocycle #2: reach 440 lb back squat.”, etc.) Then, coaches can program a specific “stimulus” for each upcoming workout within a microcycle so that the end goal of the mesocycle is hit. Simply put, think of cycles as a structured goal-setting method: