Clueless Coaches

Anybody have a story about a coach who just doesn’t know what he is doing?

Today, my coach yelled at me for doing front squats because “they aren’t functional.” So, I swallowed my tongue and proceeded to do back squats. Once again, I got yelled at because I was doing regular back squats as opposed to box squats. According to him, I need box squats to build “hip flexibility.”

The football strength coach at my school doesn’t teach technique. About 4 talented players quit playing sports entirely from back injuries due to hang cleans with round backs.

Also, everyone drives up “how much they squat” by 100-200 pounds because squat depth is wherever they feel like going back up.

Finally, one kid I know had had hundreds of dollars of chiropractic work done because the first time he ever deadlifted he was told to load on 275, which of course he lifted wrong.

A buddy of mine attended an NSCA conference a few years ago and told me he had met with a strength coach for a Pac-10 University football team. The coach was telling my friend the majority of the players could not squat below parallel, they just did not have the lower-body flexibility to do it.

His solution? I am not making this up. His solution (or at least this is what he told my friend) was he spent $60,000 of the university’s money on building an elaborate obstacle course out of railroad ties and tires and such for the players to run through. And he was bragging about this.

the personal trainers that work at my gym are pathetic… every person that comes into the gym get the exact same program, it involves leg extensions,i saw one client complaining of knee pain and the PT fixed it by adjusting the seat and making the client lift less

[quote]Galvatron wrote:
His solution? I am not making this up. His solution (or at least this is what he told my friend) was he spent $60,000 of the university’s money on building an elaborate obstacle course out of railroad ties and tires and such for the players to run through. And he was bragging about this. [/quote]

That would be awesome. I would also brag if I built a sweet obstacle course and didn’t have to pay for it.

I was in my University gym a few days ago and I there was some sort of assistant coach talking with two baseball players. The coach started to basically advertise n.o. products, asking if the trainees were “jacked up on explode or superpump,” and such.

The other day at the gym I saw a trainer working with a college kid doing squats-in the bottom of the movement the kids knees kept falling inward-He questioned the trainer about it, and his answer was, "Well that just happens when you start using heavier weights.

Same trainer the next day was watching a client of his do stiff leg deads with a rounded back and praising them for having perfect form…

I’m glad you guys mentioned they are ‘clueless’ and not stupid or anything.

Usually people have to go out of their way to find out what an exercise should or should not look like. Sadly, most people aren’t fond of the extra effort that takes.

As a NYC based trainer , I would say 95 % of the trainers i have witnessed ( probably at least 500 in my time )should stop and find another profession… But i blame it on the 1000’s certifications that can be had. I am thinking about putting a video together of these fools with their clients. The worst part is the clients wasting their money…

the trainers in my gym are ok- they just dont ‘teach’ weight lifting, in the induction they take you to the weight room, show you the water fountain and let you get on.
but there was this private trainer, teaching and performing a guy real bad form on the deadlift, it was all i could do not to fall on my knees and imploe them to stop.

they then take the LOADED 200lb and try to hoik it to shoulder height together to put it in the squat rack. the trainer then proceeds to do two very bad squats in the squishiest trainers iv ever seen
??

[quote]Flow wrote:
I’m glad you guys mentioned they are ‘clueless’ and not stupid or anything.

Usually people have to go out of their way to find out what an exercise should or should not look like. Sadly, most people aren’t fond of the extra effort that takes.[/quote]

That’s not extra effort, it’s minimal.

[quote]Steel Nation wrote:
Flow wrote:
I’m glad you guys mentioned they are ‘clueless’ and not stupid or anything.

Usually people have to go out of their way to find out what an exercise should or should not look like. Sadly, most people aren’t fond of the extra effort that takes.

That’s not extra effort, it’s minimal.[/quote]

Alright, we’ll argue semantics.

It’s a minimal extra effort.

Edit: what you said made no sense.

I remember my senior year of track going inside to get some water and one of my friend’s stumbling out of the weight room all out of breath.

I asked him what was up so he handed me the program that the new thrower’s coach (science teacher who hadn’t lifted in his life) had just put them on. 4x10 of quarter squat, bench and the 8 machine Cybex circuit meant to be done 3 times a week. So that’s 40 sets a workout… 120 sets a week. Right.

Everyone lied about doing the program after that day because he never came in to check on them.

I went to the gym today because I couldn’t make it yesterday. Normally I lift with the football team, but today the crew team was in there.

The crew coach had the rowers doing benches with the safety bars in; which caused them to have a range of motion of about 6 inches.

They were using 65 lbs.

And struggling.

[quote]IronAbrams wrote:
So that’s 40 sets a workout… 120 sets a week. Right.[/quote]

Sounds like Sheiko.

one of my dumbass coaches believes that over training is not true. Just because he went to the army and he died so supossly he “lived it.Trust there is no such thing as overtraining.I lived it” We work out cest every day. Also we do squats to work core and then do squats again the next day. It is unorgainized and one time someone was not going all the way down only 3 forths and he said that works on mass. stupid.

also box squats are better for football cause of explosion. It does not work fexiblity. Also my coaches are always telling everyone you os stiff just by the way they woalk. What they dont know is i could do the spilts almost. IDK im stiff.

[quote]Alpha wrote:
The other day at the gym I saw a trainer working with a college kid doing squats-in the bottom of the movement the kids knees kept falling inward-He questioned the trainer about it, and his answer was, "Well that just happens when you start using heavier weights.

Same trainer the next day was watching a client of his do stiff leg deads with a rounded back and praising them for having perfect form… [/quote]

Sucks for the first kid, but for the second day he may have been doing these exrx.net/WeightExercises/Hamstrings/BBStraightLegDeadlift.html

Don’t know if this has been posted here before but…

This video is best watched twice. Once without looking at the screen and just listening to what the guy tells you, and again actually watching this fella in action.

[quote]Sancho12 wrote:
Don’t know if this has been posted here before but…

This video is best watched twice. Once without looking at the screen and just listening to what the guy tells you, and again actually watching this fella in action.[/quote]

He must have taken a different math class than I did where parallel = 60 degree angle. Plus he was on his toes. The worst crime, however, is his shirt. I don’t know why but it looks freaking dorky.