These days, it’s not enough to simply hire good people to lead your classes. You need an intentional system for gym coach development that elevates their skills, ensures consistency, and creates a VIP experience for your members. But where do you even begin?

On a recent episode of The Next Rep podcast, we sat down with Pat Barber, TKO (The Knowledge Officer) for Best Hour of Their Day and a 21-year CrossFit veteran. Drawing from over 15 years of experience developing coaches, Pat shared a simple yet powerful three-part framework that any gym owner can use to build a world-class coaching team.

1. Establish an Avatar of Greatness

Before a coach can become great, they need to see what greatness looks like. It’s not enough to be told what to do; they need a tangible example to emulate. In terms of gym coach development, Pat compares this to the “Roger Bannister effect”—once someone sees the impossible done, it suddenly becomes possible for everyone.

The Action: Provide your coaches with clear examples of excellent coaching. Here’s how:

  • Find an Avatar: Ideally, you have a head coach or senior coach who leads the gym coach development charge, and embodies the standard you want to set.
  • Create a Composite: If you don’t have one perfect example, create a “composite avatar.” Highlight what each coach on your team does exceptionally well. For example: “I want you to watch how Jim plans his class timeline, how Frankie builds relationships, and how Phyllis excels at seeing and correcting movement.”
  • Use External Resources: Point your coaches toward full-length classes taught by elite coaches, like those available on the CrossFit YouTube channel or on development platforms like Best Hour of Their Day’s “The Knowledge.”

2. Follow the Hierarchy for Gym Coach Development: Safety, Fun, Education

When someone first goes through a gym coach development program, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Pat simplifies the process by breaking down a coach’s priorities into a clear hierarchy.

The Action: Focus your development efforts in this specific order:

  1. Safety: This is the non-negotiable foundation of all coaching. A coach’s primary focus must be on keeping members physically and emotionally safe. This means mastering the ability to see and correct movement faults based on the points of performance. Pat explained, “You’re not a coach until you watch them move, you see something out of place and then you say, ‘Hey, try this.’”
  2. Fun: If your members aren’t having fun, they won’t come back. Not only can this block your gym retention strategy, you can simply lose the opportunity to change peoples’ lives. Fun is created through the coach’s presence, attitude, and ability to connect with each member individually. It also includes respecting members’ time by starting and ending classes on schedule.
  3. Education: Teaching new skills and providing deeper knowledge is important, but it’s the final layer of gym coach development. This priority only comes after you’ve ensured the environment is safe and enjoyable.
According to Barber, coaches should follow the safety – fun – education hierarchy.

3. Master the “Less is More” Feedback Loop

Giving a new coach a two-page document of critiques is a recipe for disaster. Effective feedback is focused and actionable.

The Action: When giving feedback, pick the one thing that will be the biggest lever for improvement and have your coach focus solely on that for two weeks.

“Less is more,” Pat emphasizes. The triage for what to focus on should follow the same hierarchy: start with safety. If a coach is struggling with group management, don’t worry about their teaching cues yet. Have them focus on one simple, tangible goal.

For example, if their presence needs work, their only task for the next two weeks might be to greet every single person by name the second they walk in the door. Once that becomes a habit, you can move on to the next biggest lever.

When coaches feel successful, they’re more likely to invest the time and effort into continually improving. And that’s an important part of the plan for keeping coaches happy for years to come.

Pro Tip: The right gym coach development framework needs the right software to back it up. Wodify gives your coaches the tools they need to run professional, organized, and engaging classes every single time. Book a demo with our team today to learn more!