Don’t Call Me Coach
Photo taken by Kegan Dillon
The debate over which label is “better,” regarding a coach or professional is like a shovel relentlessly digging a hole in the strength and conditioning field, especially in the tactical realm. I know those close to me would laugh at this because they know I am a lover of grouping words together and labeling them as different spheres. Frankly, these two words leave me with a feeling of cotton mouth.
I accept that ruffling the hornet's nest from time to time is a part of my genetic makeup and I am rebellious at heart. And yet ironically, this makes me a fad starter myself, whoops. I also believe that I am great at manifesting new ideas getting them started and handing them off to those who will continue to evolve whatever it may be into a beautiful collaboration of evolution. I am neither just a coach nor a professional. These are not labels I solely stand on or the ground I take a knee on, or where I lay my head down at night.
I believe I am neither of these two. I was built by billions of these tiny bits of atoms that conjoined as one to make me a human. So the question beckons, when did the concept between coach and professional become so important that one label justifiably sounded cooler or carried more creditably than the other? It’s not that I am trying to be the sandpaper against these ideas, that is not the case at all. It does not matter what label you carry or the set you rep. Those are ever-changing and especially if you are someone who has spent years in this domain. You know that the details and job descriptions become a junk of words that mean nothing. The real meat and potatoes of what you will be doing as a professional or coach in strength conditioning would come with time, experience, and exposure.
And I know that time is not an indicator, but it does help tie together the amount of time a human spends doing something and building consistency, which brings powerful characteristics of depth and a wide range of lessons learned and practiced. A true modern-day craftsman’s heart, hardened with exposure to trial and error.
At the end of 2022 is my thirteenth year of working in the field of strength and conditioning, the human performance world, or whatever we want to call it. Up to this point in my career, it continues to charge my heart to work with all types of humans chasing extraordinary feats in their lives. These same humans have gifted me with the trust to guide them, rarely in a linear pattern.
I find that I never specialize for too long in one specific realm and this has ultimately forced me to learn new skills to keep up with those who enjoy fighting for a life worth living. Providing the light to find the proper tools that fit their true self and engineer their own life in a way that brings them happiness and peace is perhaps the most rewarding piece of my, dare I say, profession.
As time went on, connecting more dots, came a shift of intention to view them as humans first, not as the external world does with their professional labels or sport. But a question does pop up for me, “George, aren’t you training them for their sport or profession?” My answer is, well of course, but in their world of specialization and the other modalities of specificity that each person chases. Recognizing this choke point gives me the ability to release pressure by breaking a pattern in the mind and offers me the space to focus on the foundation of being human first. And what does that look like exactly? Well, in my humble opinion, it comes from shifting our headspace and how we cultivate that over time, which creates a change in the heart and universal landscape to learn.
To be better in one's profession or sport, I must help bulletproof their humanness. It becomes an orchestra of chain reactions that strengthens the spirit and soul, allowing for a better understanding of who they are when it is time to label themselves for the world to see.
After my last deployment, in the midst of it all, I reenlisted and volunteered to be a tactical reconnaissance instructor at my next duty station. Surrounded by titans of my time who helped guide and inspire other humans in all areas of life. They showed me that it took hours with my boots on the deck to truly lead, educate, motivate, and influence learning, practice, and play in a sport called warfighting. As an instructor, I fell in love with building the next warfighter and it gave me life and a way to help influence these young men to hang onto their humanity. This turned into a feeling that I wanted to practice and expose myself more too also, and strive for even more. And if I can help humans no matter the profession or sport, that is what matters most - no matter the label deemed necessary to operate in this external realm.
Trying to separate the coach and professional suggests that they are not interchangeable. It implies that you can’t be one without the other. The idea that one person is better than the other only takes away from making the strength and conditioning space better. It slows down the evolution that comes with time. Why must we keep wasting energy on the person the world sees? Time will showcase who you are. If more attention flowed into improving and strengthening the person on the inside, then we would see that the label you deem necessary for your external being will fit naturally without resistance.
