Will Strathdee

As a remote coach, who works with many people from a military/tactical population. One question I often get asked is “if you haven’t been on X course, how can you actually help me?” 

When asked whether that is important to you them, the response is often “yes because someone who  has that experience will be able to help me” 

It would be easy to become frustrated by this response, but I understand where they are coming from. I get it, experience is an important thing. When people are looking for help, | understand that it may feel easier to ‘trust’ someone who has been there and done it and believe that they are best suited to helping – especially in the military environment. However, quite often experience is rooted in a specific context or situation, making it less flexible to changing scenarios and demands. A person with success and experience in one setting might struggle to adapt to a different scenario if their experience doesn’t translate well. Additionally, experience can sometimes lead to complacency, where individuals rely too heavily on past successes and resist change. This can be detrimental in dynamic environments where innovation and adaptation are key. Knowledge is adaptable, it can be constantly updated, expanded and adapted to new situations. Knowledge allows individuals to stay ahead of trends, anticipate shifts, and remain relevant in a world where one individuals experiences might not work for someone else.

Yes one persons experience and anecdotal findings may help somebody create an idea and perception of what to expect. That anticipation of what to expect from an event should be supplementary to physical readiness. As a participant, your number one priority should be to prepare the body to deal with the tasks and physical demands within your objective. Your body is unique, what worked for one person, may not work for you, this is why using someone else’s experience to base your training from will have you wildly off track. It is this point where you need a knowledgeable professional. Someone who understands what capabilities you need, to what degree they will be tested, and how to manipulate training variables to get your body to adapt in the relevant way. 

So when asked the question above, the response quite often is along the lines of “my job isn’t to provide you with the personal experience and anecdotes, my job is to break down and understand the test/course demands, and prepare you to cope with and exceed them”

Just because someone has achieved something or passed a specific physical test, it doesn’t automatically make them the optimal person to help others manage the same. If this was the case then Usain Bolt would be the worlds greatest sprint coach. 

As a coach, we don’t need to have been elite athletes or have completed/passed certain physical tests. Our job is to understand the demands and the physical qualities required to allow someone to excel and then provide them with the necessary to training to prepare their body to deal with those demands better than their counterparts.