Assessments, A Debated Topic in Coaching
A hot topic in the training and coaching world right now is assessments. By definition an assessment is an evaluation or estimation of someone or something. Now this seems to make a lot of sense, your taking a look at someone you’re working with and determining the best approach to take coaching them. Is this really a new idea or something that was not done in the past? Not completely. Pretty much every coach has had some way to determine programing for an individual. But the conversation seems to really be around working with individuals and then having a process.
The hot button saying in this discussion lately is “assess don’t guess”. What those saying this are getting at is that you need to evaluate a client/athlete before just giving them a random workout program. But I think that it needs to be looked at deeper. Yes, it is clear that research shows that an individual should have an exercise program that is geared toward what they are training for (ie football linemen getting bigger or golfer rotating well). But what this assess statement is getting at, is that there needs to be reasons for why that specific football lineman or golfer is doing the specific work they are assigned. This comes from doing an evaluation to determine what that person’s strengths are and what areas they can improve in.
I really don’t think that the coaches who are being told to “assess not guess” don’t have a plan when they start an athlete on a program. But that instead that they can give that golfer a program working on general rotational mobility and trunk strength and believe the athlete will improve. This could very well happen. That the athlete just needed some guided training and the discipline that comes with working with someone to up their game. However, the assess side of the argument is really on the individualized training side of things. They are really saying that each person has a unique body and movement style that needs to be directly addressed. Not some general program that fits the general movements of their sport. Use assessments to help that person and they can be a great way to record and keep track of how that individual is progressing.
However, everything isn’t so clean from this point. There are a lot of different assessments and evaluations out there and it seems that there are even more opinions on these various tests. Coaches need to get away from arguing about what kind of assessments they are doing and really focus on the people they are assessing. If the argument is that assessments allow for the individual to get the best training for their specific movement strategies, then why does the exact assessment matter? Again, if it’s a golfer does it really matter if we are testing t-spine mobility standing vs. side lying? As long as the coach is keeping the test to that area of the body and can provide clear and consistent feedback to the athlete about what they found, that is what’s important. The coach and athlete learning about how that person moves. The coach is still looking at if the movement of that individual’s thoracic spine is really limiting their movement. From there, they can develop a clear program with specific reasons as to why they ca including an exercise in a program.
Assessments are key to a coach because they give clues about how that one athlete approaches movement. It doesn’t take long to search social media or the internet to find varying opinions on what they best assessment is. People will live and die by the test and arguments. But we coaches need to remember that the importance is not on a test but on the athlete. On figuring out what they need and how their coach can best help them achieve their goals through improving strength and movement. Focus on the athlete. See what they need and coach that. Use your experience and past athletes as a key to figuring out the athlete in front of you. Do they do things like that one guy or move like that one girl? Great, now how can that experience help you teach and coach this athlete to improve in this now noted area of need? Assessments are tools, all of them are. Use this tool to better determine what your athlete needs and how you can best help them.
-Tyler Grisdale, MS, CSCS, RSCC, CES, TPI