9 years of powerlifting coaching philosophy distilled down to a few words.
The best way to coach is using a “system of systems”
After 9 years of coaching powerlifting full time both in Vancouver, BC and as an online powerlifting coach, here’s the summary on my coaching philosophy.
One of the more common questions I will get from lifters who are looking to work with my team and I for powerlifting coaching is something to the tune of :
- “what is your coaching philosophy?”
- “what school of thought do you follow?
- “how do you coach your lifters?”
With the internet being somewhat dogmatic within the powerlifting space, it can be easy for coaches and lifters to fall into specific schools of thought and end up hyperfocusing on one discipline.
Starting Strength Coaches, Westside/conjugate systems (Yes, I know these are different things), block periodization, undulating periodization, etc.
The list goes on.
Most disciplines will let you help a majority of powerlifters, but certainly not 100%.
With that in mind, here’s exactly how I will answer the question when it’s asked.
“We coach powerlifters using a system of systems”
So what is a system of systems? Well, in simple terms, we fit the coaching process, periodization strategy, exercise selection, etc to the athlete INSTEAD of fitting the athlete to the system.
This allows us to keep the parts of the system that are most impactful to the lifter as a core component to the approach while omitting the dogma and crap that won’t work for said lifter.
The above lets us intricately customize the powerlifting coaching program to the athlete. By doing this, we are able to fine tune and also adapt more easily since the whole process is tailored from the ground up instead of using a templated “system” to coach with. This makes the small adjustments along the way that are necessary to have much easier and faster to implement.
Now, this is a much harder system to START using because you need to be educated and proficient in a variety of strategies instead of just one (lots of tools in the toolbox), BUT this does allow you to pick the best tool for the job in each aspect of the training program.
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
If you only ever learned about one periodization scheme, everyone should probably use that periodization scheme because that single scheme is what periodization means to you.
So, to answer the above question again in slightly different wording:
“we coach according to the belief that taking small aspects from individual systems to build a comprehensive approach will yield better outcomes (strength gain, technique, injury mitigation) than dogmatically following one single strategy.”
3. Join the “Momentum Program” and become a case study. I’ll work with you 1-on-1 to develop a customized coaching strategy, get rid of your current pains and consistently add pounds to the bar. Just put the word “COACHING” into a message HERE and I’ll get in touch to see if you’d be a good fit.