Client injuries

[IlPrincipeBrutto]

Hello,

a question (actually, more than one) for SS coaches: how do you prepare your clients for the possibility of getting injured, and what do you do when an injury actually happens?
Did you ever have a client getting injured early in the program, and quitting as a consequence? Or, in more broad terms, how do you keep a client onboard after an injury happens?

I also wonder if there are any legal/insurance issues to this, although I accept your answers on this point might not be applicable outside the US.

Thanks a lot in advance for your help,



IPB

PS
I hope this is the right place to ask this question.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Don't address it unless it occurs, because it might not, if you do your job correctly. If it happens, train them through it. But don't give your clients a reason to doubt your abilities as a coach.

[IlPrincipeBrutto]

Don't address it unless it occurs, because it might not, if you do your job correctly. If it happens, train them through it. But don't give your clients a reason to doubt your abilities as a coach.

Speaking very theoretically here, because I am not a coach and I never had clients, but I think that some people might actually appreciate being told beforehand about the full range of possibilities, rather than discovering the less pleasant ones by surprise. Most-likely it depends on the type of person you are dealing with, and how self-confident you are as a coach (I suppose you need to be very self-confident for a job like that).

Thanks for taking the time.

IPB

[Jason Donaldson]

Speaking very theoretically here, because I am not a coach and I never had clients, but I think that some people might actually appreciate being told beforehand about the full range of possibilities, rather than discovering the less pleasant ones by surprise. Most-likely it depends on the type of person you are dealing with, and how self-confident you are as a coach (I suppose you need to be very self-confident for a job like that).

Thanks for taking the time.

IPB

I get what you're saying, IPB, and you make a good point about what's basically informed consent. There is presumably a waiver involved at the start of the process, though, by which the general risk is stated up front. One problem with bringing up the matter to any detailed degree is that the nocebo effect is very real, and very powerful. Some people are more susceptible to it, of course, and it's probably a good idea for the coach to feel that out from working with the client. Add to this that the origin of injuries is far more likely to be outside the gym, and you're looking at building a relationship where the client can trust that whatever setbacks or challenges come, they'll be dealt with.

I'm reminded of the first aid principle that calm is contagious - when something bad happens, this may be the patient's first emergency, but it is imperative that the patient get the impression that it is NOT the responders' first one. Calm leadership under duress tends to form a self-fulfilling prophecy that everything's going to be okay.

[IlPrincipeBrutto]

when something bad happens, this may be the patient's first emergency, but it is imperative that the patient get the impression that it is NOT the responders' first one.

That's a beautiful, and beautifully effective, way to put it. Many thanks for taking the time,

IPB