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What makes a good coach?

Recently on a forum I got called out for having a 3:19 marathon PR and being a coach.

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Now, I actually took no offense from his comment and I don’t think he was being disrespectful. I even sent him a message letting him know, and apologizing for the rude comments from others. No fault to them either, I think they took it more to heart than I did 😉

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Here is an interesting article I found that touches on this subject.
http://skora.cc/1ym2z1j

And when I mentioned this on Facebook, the comments were interesting.

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Now, the entire point of this article is what makes a good coach?

As many of the people above have shown with examples, athletic ability has basically nothing to do with the success of your athletes.

General training and physiology knowledge does play a part, a coach obviously needs to be able to help an athlete make smart decisions.

Yes I’ve found that the most important characteristic of a good coach is simply their ability to work well with their clients to help them improve and succeed. I would hesitate to take advice from most elite swimmers, triathletes, or runners. They are good at what they do, moving forward fast. Yet are they good at motivating an athlete to train better or holding them back if they are too motivated? Can they appropriately prescribe workouts for people. Are they easy to talk to and can they make their athletes comfortable coming to them with with problems?

That’s what is important. Not having a 2:30 marathon PR, some coaching certification that you received after a weekend class, or a degree in exercise physiology.