Despite there being an abundance of ‘experts’ in the coaching profession, it remains to be understood why there is a significant lack of genuine expertise in the Strength and Conditioning (S&C) domain.
In the current scenario, one must be mindful and intelligent enough to separate the wheat from the chaff. Not everyone who claims to be an expert truly is one. It’s important to take the time and effort to differentiate genuine experts from those who merely pretend to be.
Often, people and even professional athletes are fooled by imitators. Imitators associate their own professional proficiency with words like scientist/expert/coach, etc., to make people believe they are the go-to people for advice and game-changers in their respective fields.
Additionally, the mushrooming of fake qualifications and intern processes is creating an unhealthy trend in the professional world. This overload can be beyond comprehension and difficult to control in the future.
Here are a few ways in which one can identify true professionals against imitators:
1. Profundity of knowledge
Imitators often struggle to answer deep questions, be it technical or tactical, or even simple processes. Their understanding is surface-level, lacking the detailed knowledge possessed by real experts, who can instead dive deep into details, explain first principles, and address non-standard cases with ease.
2. Adaptability of vocabulary
Imitators stick to jargon and can’t adapt their language to make complex ideas sound clearer and simpler. This is a common way to avoid exposing their ignorance and inefficiency. They impress people with technical jargon to make them believe they are the true experts. Experts can simplify and clarify concepts, adjusting their language to fit their listeners’ understanding and cater to the athlete’s needs.
3. Responses to questions
Imitators may get agitated when asked for clarification, as maintaining the appearance of expertise is their primary concern. This is true for many fake experts. Name-dropping is often a way out of a corner for them as they can be very dodgy when confronted with genuine doubts. Experts, on the other hand, welcome questions and are eager to share their knowledge, appreciating genuine curiosity. They are always in the process of learning through any means to expand their knowledge pool.
4. Acknowledgement of failure
Imitators often avoid admitting mistakes to protect their image and may point fingers at other professionals or instances rather than improving their standards. Passing the buck to others in times of failure is their standard procedure. Whereas, experts recognise that failure is part of the learning process and openly discuss their past errors, ensuring they never repeat the mistakes.
5. Knowing their limits
Imitators do not recognise the boundaries of their knowledge and often have a know-it-all attitude. They possess a self-inflated image of themselves as multi-field experts and wrongly interfere in domains where they are neither qualified nor aware, which can be a huge irritant for qualified professionals. Experts are aware of what they do and don’t know and are clear when they are approaching the limits of their expertise.
6. Marketers vs. experts
Marketers are skilled at communicating ideas clearly and memorably but are not necessarily experts. When seeking expertise, it’s important to look beyond popular communication methods to find those experts with true depth of knowledge.
In today’s oversaturated internet and social media coaching world, it’s more important than ever to be astute about where we get our information. With so many self-promulgated authorities on various subjects, extricating true expertise from imitation is imperative for effective coaching and athlete development.
Keep in mind, true expertise is not just about always knowing the right answers but understanding the depth and breadth of the subject with an open mind to keep learning.
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