​BEHIND THE SCENES AT T:ZERO MULTISPORT - PART TWO - WHO WE ARE, AND WHAT WE LOOK FOR IN ASPIRING T:ZERO COACHES

Some of the T:Zero Coaching Team at the 2018 "Big Day In" - Continual Practice Development Day

“A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that’s teamwork.” - Coach John Wooden

Mission Statement:
"T:Zero provides professional coaching via correspondence to endurance athletes of all levels of skill and experience living anywhere in the world. The training programs are personalised and delivered in detail, by expert coaches (who themselves are experienced athletes) and designed for you to experience your optimal potential during training, on race day and beyond.”

Company Values (for our coaches):

1. Growth - every opportunity is a chance to learn something new and increase your level of skill within your craft. Adapt, learn and try new things.
2. Consistency - provide athletes with consistency across the board... from communication to delivery of programs/plans, be professional.
3. Gratitude - be grateful for the opportunities given as a T:Zero coach.
4. Honesty - with empathy, speak your mind and tell the truth, whether to athletes or colleagues.

As you read above in both our Mission Statement and Values, we are a collective group of growth minded coaches, delivering customised coaching via correspondence. At the core of what we do lies a strong unified belief that providing individuals with personalised coaching programs is crucial to achieving goals. Time and time again, we see results, and the crux of this is the personalised nature of how and what we do within our programs at T:Zero.

Like an athlete when they enquire about coaching at T:Zero, we have a similar process when bringing new coaches into our team. 

We look for people who possess a growth mindset - are they resting on their laurels in thinking they have worked out the magic recipe in coaching and in life? Or are they on a path of development and enquiry no matter where they are on the continuum of experience and mastery of their craft? We talk regularly in-house about adding to the coaching toolkit and continually challenging your own existing belief systems by seeing things through the eyes of other coaches. More on this in another blog.

Is this person someone who can deliver consistency to an athlete? Are they a rock solid individual that can handle the ups and downs of their own life as well as taking on a range of individuals/athletes who each bring their own unique set of obstacles to manoeuvre? Hands down, consistency, albeit not very sexy, is one of the most important attributes an individual on a journey of growth can adopt, and it’s also one of the most difficult things to deliver on. Time and time again, we tell our athletes that the real secret to achieving big goals is ‘consistency’ of training - staying healthy, applying yourself daily, and remaining consistent over a longer period of time, is going to bring you far greater results than a fleeting 12 week block of the best program a coach could develop. The same theory applies to almost everything in life - if you apply yourself consistently to any craft, for many years, you’ll find yourself achieving big. Our coaches are expected to perform in just the same vein… with professionalism and consistency.

Part of carrying yourself in a professional, positive manner is having gratitude for whatever it is in life that you are doing. Applying gratitude to your craft is essential to adopting a positive frame of mind and producing high quality work. Thinking “I’m lucky I get to do this today” instead of “I have to go to work” changes your mindset for the better and is far more conducive to deep learning and productive work. We want and expect our coaches to be ‘all in’ to their craft, and adopt an attitude of gratitude. 

Whilst we strive to be grateful and show empathy in discourse with individuals, it’s also important for our coaches to be honest and not afraid to have tough conversations across both coach-athlete and collegial lines of communication. We show respect, but at the same time, we are not scared of shying away from the truth and speaking our minds. 

Being a coach is all encompassing. But at the core of what we do lies the desire to help and teach. The current blend of coaches we have, whilst all individuals with strengths and weaknesses of their own, share this strong belief in customised coaching for the individual. It’s why we have so much success and why we have seen and continue to see the growth across the collective team of coaches and athletes. 

“Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.” M. Theresa

In Part 3, we let you in on the ‘Coaching Framework’ that helps give our coaching team some strategy and targets to aim for in their own development of their coaching craft.