We talk a lot about what it means to be a good coach for barbell training, but what makes a good trainee for a Starting Strength Coach to work with? Besides the obvious, like dedication and compliance, what sets apart exceptional trainees? My apologies if this is discussed more in depth in Strong Enough or Mean Ol' Mr. Gravity as I haven't read those yet, but I did have some more specific questions:
- When it comes to programming, how much room does a trainee have to question or discuss their coach's programming decisions (without undermining the coach's expertise or experience)? For example, when a trainee has recovered poorly due to family commitments/ work schedule and thinks a programming change may be needed, a trainee feels like they can stretch out an NLP for a bit longer before going to more intermediate programming, etc.
- Is there anything that you think trainees often don't discuss with coaches that may impact training/programming (I guess other than medical conditions)?