BEHIND THE SCENES AT T:zERO MULTISPORT - PART THREE - ‘Progression is nine tenths of the ‘T:Zero law’

Part of any individual’s growth as a person and more importantly as a coach at T:Zero, is to expand our minds and keep on growing. We’re pretty big on learning and continuing to develop our own personal skill-sets, whilst also remembering to stay grounded and in-line with our ethos of not professing to know it all or have all the answers. In fact, we quite often say beware of the coach or person who thinks they have the secret sauce and ‘my way is the best’ approach.

Embedded in our values and our unwavering culture of consistent work ethic and growth, lies our T:Zero Coaches Framework. We have put together a framework for our coaches to use a guide to progress their own learning and development. The framework outlines the experience, learning and development required to enhance their skill-set. Akin to a martial arts belt system ;-) You come in as a White Belt and over time, through practice, countless hours of learning and setbacks, you find yourself going through the stages before reaching Black Belt status or in our case Development through to Head Coach. 

This sits and rings true with the people we have within our team, all who come with an open mind and a keenness to learn. Like the embedded culture of success we have with our athletes at T:Zero, our coaching team is no different. Each coach comes from a different background, brings a whole host of personal skills and experience, has a new lens through which to see, and most importantly the freedom to express their own personal style within their craft.

The framework also gives us a chance to recognise and celebrate the hard work our coaches do behind the scenes to enhance their ‘coaching toolkit’ as we say. Once a coach feels as though they are aligning well with the next step in the guidelines, they flick through their proposal and more often than not, so far, we are absolutely blown away by what we see. It’s definitely one of those cases where as ‘leaders’ of a team, we are more than happy to see our coaches succeeding and progressing their skill and knowledge level to new and improved heights… so much so that eventually and hopefully they will surpass our framework and be helping to create new levels for us. Bring it on!

To encourage and foster the growth of our coaches, a portion of our annual budget is directed straight back to the coaches in the form of a dollar value that the coach can spend on courses and reading material that peaks their own interest. Add to this, in 2018 we hosted our inaugural Professional Development Day where we were able to get the coaching team together, bring in a couple of fantastic guest speakers (sports psychology and communication guru; and a successful businessman with his tips on the next steps in professionalism as it applies to us), and we were able to spend some time planning, debunking, and throwing ideas at the how, what and why behind coaching’s nuts and bolts - the real stuff. 

As well as this, and often less formal, our coaches participate in huge threads of ongoing discussion (sometimes lasting months on end) on Basecamp (our project management tool and in-house sharing space) around hot topics. Topics range from how to set training zones (this goes super deep), through to our most recent and current topic around the intricacies of working/planning with and around hormones/menstrual cycles (mainly female focussed programming of course - but with men in mind as well). All these in-house discussions are incredibly interesting and also where so much magic and learning takes place. Our coaches are encouraged to ask questions, throw out resources, give opinions and participate knowing they are free from judgement and that the bottom line is always learning, and seeing things from multiple perspectives. As head coaches, participating and looking in on these conversations/discussions is mind blowing. You only need head over to our coaches page on the website to get a small glimpse of the experience and qualifications attached to each coach… now pool all these into one room and remember… you don’t just get one coach here at T:Zero, you get the collective wealth of many. 

Whilst we back our coaches abilities 100% as they are right here and now, there’s no ego in-house and no question too proud to be asked. It’s an absolute pleasure to be a part of the culture that is T:Zero - the vision we had for this group of individuals - athletes, coaches and the collective team - has far surpassed our initial plans, and all for the better. We are so grateful for everyone in our community and can’t wait to keep on enjoying the ride as we continue to grow.

#tzeromultisport #liveyourpotential

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