The role of a coach

So what is a Professional Coach and why do I need one?

We have all heard of a coach. We may have had one when we were a child and played footy, soccer, hockey or netball. They helped us get better at what we loved to do. We may have heard about other sorts of coaches like life, career, business and executive coaches and we know that they are not the same as a sports coach but are not quite sure what they do. So let us have a look at what it is they do.

One helpful way to look at it may be this. A Professional Coach is like a physio. We might go and seek the help of a physio when something in our body is not quite right. It is not exactly broken or damaged to the point of needing surgical intervention that a hospital might provide but it is not allowing us to experience the quality of life we know we could have.

Let’s look at how the physio helps us. We may explain the issue we are having. The physio may ask us a little more about it and may ask us to demonstrate the problem or ask us to do some physical movements that may help show them what might be causing the discomfort or pain we are experiencing.

Then might come the work part and the physio checks in each step along the way to see how we are going and what adjustments may be needed as we progress.

Sometimes the main issue might be going ok but we may experience discomfort somewhere else which may need attending to before resuming work on the original issue.

Things begin to change and we notice the quality of our life is improving.

Why is this comparison useful? Because you could say that the role of a coach is like a physio for our mind. The physio helps to improve the way of being in our body and the coach helps the way of being in our mind.