500 Words a Week - What does a DJ and a S&C coach have in common?
This was a point highlighted recently on Angus Bradley’s mentorship programme. There are a few similarities between what makes a good DJ and what makes a good S&C. Primarily the seamless transition of a programme across time. If you were to look at week 1 compared to week 8, it might look completely different. However, when you break down each week, you begin to see how little changes were frequently incorporated throughout the weeks. This is the same for a DJ, very rarely is the DJ playing one distinct genre and then complete flips to another, they gradually introduce changes throughout the set.
Another thing in common, is what Angus described as an ability to “stay in the pocket” with your athletes. That is consistently running a programme that allows your athlete to improve every week, applying little changes if needed to keep your athlete progressing and interested. This is similar to the chef analogy Angus also discussed in the past, in when cooking chicken soup the idea is to keep it cooking for as long as possible to allow all the flavours to intensify. If it gets too hot and starts to boil, we might need to turn the temperature down. If it starts turning cold, we might need to apply more heat. If while running the programme we notice are athletes are feeling overly fatigued/ not improving, we apply changes. Similar to above how we apply little distinct changes as time progresses.
This applies as well to certain thoughts around periodization. When traditionally we may have learned to have a hypertrophy block, then strength, then strength-speed etc. Your body doesn’t suddenly wake up after a 6-week hypertrophy block and decide now it’s ready for strength, or now it’s ready for power. There must be seamless transitions between phases. Or better yet, applying a barbell loading strategy to our periodization. In that, at minimum we attempt to give some stimulus to all the deemed important physical qualities. Then at certain points in time, we may choose to focus more loading on a specific quality we think may be a limiting factor, or an area our athlete wants to improve.
Something leaning towards a coaching and interpersonal skills level, is one thing a good DJ and S&C have in common is an ability to control the room. To provide the necessary atmosphere and environment where athletes want to come in and train. We can discuss and argue critic certain set and rep schemes, exercise selection, and periodization frameworks as much as we want. However, at the end of the day, if the athletes we work with aren’t applying and enjoying themselves, we are wasting everyone’s time. We mustn’t overly worry if one session goes amiss, as long as the majority are heading towards the right direction.
