Understanding coaching: a series

La version française de cet article est disponible ici.

As winter started to come to an end, I started thinking about the parallels between skiing and coaching. I realised that analysing my favourite sport could provide — even for non-skiers — an effective way to explain the benefits of coaching, and to help people to understand why it works. It also gives me an excuse to keep thinking about skiing even as the snow melts. This article is part of that series.

For many years, I was not only a bad skier; I was a terrible skier. When I started skiing at around the age of 13, I was young, stubborn, and reluctant to take group classes because I was worried about embarrassing myself. I figured I would do just fine on my own, and after having skied long enough, I would eventually ski as well as my friends. Alas, progress was slow, and at times nonexistent. 

Then, one day, my frustration got the better of me, and I decided to invest time and money in ski lessons. Everything changed pretty quickly from that day forward: first, I improved more in two days than over the course of the five preceding years of skiing under the informal guidance of friends. More importantly, those two half-days of lessons gave me the keys to continuing advancing at an accelerated rate in the years that followed.

So what exactly happened? Why did I struggle to make major improvements when skiing with friends, and how did those two mornings completely change things for me? Over the next few weeks, I’ll analyse this example from several different angles with the hopes that it will help readers to understand why, even if you are aware of your weaknesses and what needs to be done to overcome them, working with a professional coach can help you to achieve your goals more quickly and effectively. 

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