Content vs. Coaching: what are you consuming?

Social media is an inescapable part of the modern world and it makes valuable educational materials more accessible than ever, but filtering out those materials from the cacophony of background noise can seem like an overwhelming challenge. Sadly, the algorithm is at odds with development, pulling to the forefront much of the lower value content. 

From what I’m seeing, the problematic online coaching content falls into two distinct camps:

1. The Ingénues

Young, enthusiastic, and often trapped in the Dunning-Kruger "Peak of Overconfidence" (less generously known as the “Summit of Mount Stupid”). While usually well-meaning, with any experienced, real-world mentors drowned out by their online audience, "likes" act as a false green light for bad advice. For the record, 20 years ago I probably would have been in this camp myself! Experience comes from doing, not being seen to do. If a coach spends more time scheduling social media posts than training sessions, their development will stall.

2. The Profiteers

While I fully believe more is needed to professionalise coaching, there’s clearly a lot of content online that has been created purely to generate revenue, whether from the platform itself, or from on-selling cookie-cutter training plans (note: writing someone’s name at the top and changing the training days is not “creating a custom programme”).

The problem is, most effective coaching isn’t flashy or attention grabbing. Content created specifically to drive engagement becomes a problem when it compromises the message. We see coaches selling "increased muscle activation" on a Bosu ball because a standard squat is "too boring" for TikTok, trading both athlete safety and effectiveness of training for likes. Then we see those athletes collapsed by the side of the track after every session... sometimes they need to go to that “dark place”, but if that’s all that the athletes ever do, it’s a recipe for disaster. Sprinters don’t need a Rocky montage; they need a stimulus that actually works. Getting tired for the sake of it makes for great content, but it's 90s-era philosophy that leads to tendinopathy and hamstring tears, not long term success.

So who is worth listening to…

My go-to follows for those that prioritize education over entertainment:

   * ALTIS (@altis): The gold standard. Dan Pfaff, Stu McMillan, and Andreas Behm offer elite-level insights that tie into their formal education offerings (as well as prompting some interesting discussions in the comments).

   * John Shepherd (@johnshepherdwritertrackcoach): Brilliant resource particularly for horizontal jumps.

   * Derek Hansen: excellent common sense speed development work.

   * Ben Bruno: more of the PT / general strength side of things than anything track specific, but he keeps things straightforward, heavy, and effective showing you don't need circus tricks to get results.

   * Brett Bartholomew (@coach_brettb): for me the gold-standard when it comes to communication and the psychology of coaching.

There are many other great coaches on social media, but relatively few who post that much about the how and why of their coaching. Who else would you recommend?