The Six Pillars of Good Coaching
Searching for the right coach can be difficult. For younger Muay Thai fighters or anyone who is interested in martial arts, the goal is to find someone who can up your skill level, build your confidence, increase your fight IQ, and help you strategize against opponents. If your goal is to get a good workout and get into shape, then you may only need a pad holder. Pad holders know how to make fighters sweat by demanding that they keep hitting harder. If your hope is to take your Muay Thai to the next level, you’ll need a coach.
As Joe Comerford says in the video above, a great coach can help take you to the top and a bad coach can hold you back. Moreover, there is a huge difference between someone who can hold pads and provide basic advice and a coach who actually understands martial arts well enough to develop someone with promise into a world-class fighter. Great coaching is held up by six pillars.
Pillar One: Knowledge
Fighters should look for coaches who have a deep understanding of martial arts in general and Muay Thai. In particular, you will want a coach who understands the traditional Muay Thai scoring and contemporary Muay Thai scoring. This will help coaches work with fighters to strategize when they fight under different rule sets.
Coaches who possess a deep knowledge of Muay Thai will also know how to develop fighters with different body types. They can also provide guidance and help fighters strategize based on their natural attributes.
Pillar Two: Experience
To understand how to shape the dynamics of a fight, you need a lot of experience. Most good coaches have experience as fighters, and that experience will help them empathize with fighters and give them insights into the dynamics of a fight.
However, there are some coaches who are exceptions to this rule. Rather than having experience as fighters, they have extensive experience as coaches. While it may not be exactly the same as someone who has gone through the experience of developing into a fighter, there are certainly a lot of coaches out there who have produced great fighters even if they never seriously stepped foot in the ring. They still understand the dynamics of a fight.
Pillar Three: Communication
Good coaches will know how to explain and teach complex skills and strategies in simple and easy to understand language. A good coach can walk a student through every aspect of a strategy without jargon and without getting frustrated should the student not get it the first time. Simply yelling at someone isn’t going to motivate them or help them understand a new concept any better.
Having the ability to create a connection and to switch communication strategies is also important. It shows that the coach has a deep enough knowledge not only of martial arts, but of the art of coaching, to be able to adapt.
Pillar Four: Leadership and Accountability
A lot of fighters can have difficult personalities. Especially when they are feeling as though they’re on top of the world after a series of wins, they may feel as though they can take their foot off the figurative gas. A good coach will know how to keep a fighter constantly training hard and motivated for the next fight. Conversely, they’ll know how to build up the confidence of their fighters after a loss or when they feel as though they’ve hit a plateau.
Additionally, Comerford notes that coaches should encourage their fighters to help out around the gym and to build a community even when they’re out of fight camp. “A good teacher sets clear expectations inside and outside of training,” he says, which translates into creating structure. During peak training periods, they know how to balance the development of strategy, technique, and endurance. During off-peak periods, they know how to keep fighters focused and how to build a team that will ultimately make everyone in the gym better.
Pillar Five: Fight IQ
Having a good fight IQ is not just about strategy. It’s about understanding the dynamics of a fight. As Comerford explains, fight IQ is a skill that’s developed by watching fights and learning how to analyze a fighter’s strengths and weaknesses. If you have a coach with a high fight IQ, they will be familiar with your opponent’s style and they will know how to pick them apart before you even enter the ring.
Pillar Six: Long-Term Development
Coaches should not be thinking in terms of just winning a fight; they should also be seeking to develop their fighters and make them better than they were for their last fight. A fighter should always be focused on self-improvement rather than becoming better than anyone else, and this path to self-improvement is a long one. For fighters who want to become better and develop a deep understanding of Muay Thai, the only way to do that is by focusing on the fundamentals of Muay Thai. Teaching fancy moves that may work on occasion will not stand the test of time.
Just as important, a coach should be thinking about a fighter’s longevity, how to keep them free from injuries, and which promoters are good for a fighter. Rather than just throwing the fighter in with the sharks and hoping for the best, a good coach will create a sustainable model for development and growth that is unique to each fighter.