There was this one time I was an asshole.
Truth be told, I've probably been an asshole lots of times in my life. 99% of the time I keep that part of my personality out of my business (I like having clients....go figure).
Well this time was a part of the 1%.
(I'm presenting this as though it was a long time ago, but in actuality it was less than a week ago. Anyway...)
Here's what happened. I showed up about 15 minutes late for a client. That wasn't the asshole move, it was just one of the rare times where the gods conspire against me.
So I get to the gym and my client is just sitting on bench waiting for me. Now I give all of my clients warm-up exercises that they can/should do on their own. This way if I'm finishing up with another client or I'm not there they can get started.
I asked her if she had done her warm-up. She had. I then asked what she'd been doing since she finished (a good 10 minutes had passed). She said she had just been waiting.
This is where the asshole came out. I wanted to know why she would warm-up and then just sit around for 10 minutes. I used the metaphor of heating up leftovers in a microwave: if you don't eat the food (relatively) quickly you're going to need to warm it up again. I ended by rant by saying, a little too loudly and brashly, "it's your workout, you have to take some ownership of it."
I knew I went a little too far because the other two people in the gym went, "oooooh."
Considering that I was the one who was late I'm definitely the asshole here and she would've been in the right to be ranting at me.
That being said (this is the part where I plead my case, even though I was in the wrong), I was coming from a good place.
I'm not saying she should've known exactly what I wanted to get accomplished in the session but she could've been doing something. She's trained long enough that she knows enough exercises/stretches that she could've kept herself occupied. In this particular case, the bench she was sitting on was right next to two empty treadmills so she could've walked or ran for a few minutes.
Again, none of this happens if I'm on time. Again I am the asshole in this situation.
So I'm telling you this because even the best of us coaches have bad days and act like assholes. BUT (very big on purpose) when this happens you still have to do your part. Hiring a coach doesn't relieve you of your responsibility to do the work. Your coach is your guide, you're still the driver.
