Everywhere I go, I meet incredibly talented and hardworking coaches who continually feel like they’re on the back foot with their athletes. They may have read all the latest papers on agility or periodization or nutrition, but the same challenges keep cropping up.

Tell me, do some of these challenges sound familiar to you?

• You have athletes who can’t seem to stick to your training program even though you spent every waking minute working out the details of it, and you explained every aspect of it, step-by-step.
• You struggle with athletes who openly disregard rules or fall short of baseline standards. Maybe they show up late for training, miss sessions or talk back to you. Then their attitude spreads through the team culture like an infection.
• You have athletes just going through the motions. They plod through training on autopilot, doing the bare minimum. Why don’t they have the same drive as you?
• You wonder why some athletes smile and nod, then after you walk away whine about what a waste of time it is to do whatever you just asked them to do.
• You get frustrated at the untapped potential in athletes who are naturally gifted but succumb to apathy. No matter how hard you try, you can’t seem to convince them to care.
• You sometimes get blamed for the underperformance of a star athlete who goes through their drills perfectly in training but falls apart in the face of a real-life opponent and the roar of the crowd.
• You feel your blood boiling every time an athlete with a sense of entitlement defies you because they believe they’re above what you’re asking them to perform – and in fact that they’re superior to you, period.
• You wake up in the middle of the night angsting about conflicts with coaching staff where you work. Perhaps you stare at the ceiling mentally replaying conversations with your head coach, and thinking, “If only I’d said (insert your brilliant response here).”