Hidden Costs of Coaching - Part 1
Most coaches calculate obvious costs. Course fees. Equipment. Software. Time in the gym. Travel. Long hours.
What often goes uncalculated are the quieter costs. The ones that slow development without announcing themselves. The cost of hesitation. The cost of isolation. The cost of uncertainty. The cost of stagnation. And thats just the start….
This series explores the hidden pressures that shape a coach’s career and the decisions that determine whether seasons simply stack up or compound over time, with a cost you don’t even realise could be happening to you! Take a read of part 1 below! Let us know what you think.
The Hidden Cost of Isolation
Isolation rarely looks dramatic. It looks like independence. Responsibility. Autonomy. Being “the S&C person” or “the performance lead” in your environment.
But over time, isolation becomes expensive. Not financially. But costly and expensive to your development, and your career.
When you work alone, progress can slow. Not because you lack intelligence or work ethic, but because you lack friction in your thinking. Without a sounding board, you are forced to sense-check your own ideas. Without challenge, you refine within your current perspective rather than expanding it.
Isolation also does not mean poor coaching…but it does mean slower clarity.
Consider the S&C coach operating in a department of one. Sessions are designed based on sound theory. Programming is structured and logical. But constraints that someone else might spot instantly. Things like planning for equipment limitations, scheduling clashes, load history nuances, stakeholder expectations. These are often thought of in very surface level way. As a result, you only react to this important context after it becomes a necessity, rather than planning for it proactively.
A five-minute conversation with someone who has navigated similar environments could save hours of reworking sessions. Instead, the isolated coach must adapt on the fly. They become flustered, others sense they are frustrated, and this repeatedly happens and compounds over time. Consider then, how does this impact trust in you as a coach from those around you?
In our current S&C principles mentorship, Liam Hansey recognised how asking for help could quickly bring him new found clarity on programming decisions.
Liam shares: "I started causing myself a lot of confusion from working alone. It created doubt and I began second-guessing programming decisions which was a slippery slope. Being able to speak with Dan and other mentees regularly in his mentorship was invaluable for shifting my mindset & approach. I now have a much clearer understanding of the processes that help me get outcomes."
In rehab, the cost of isolation becomes even heavier. Take an injury case that you have not managed before. Principles for fully fit athletes are clear to you, but injury planning feels less certain. The instinct is to over-plan to cover every possible variable, which it turn can blur the true priority of the phase. Having people around you, to quietly observe or even ask “how do you plan for a rehab like this” can go a long way to helping you move forward with understanding what you plan, and why.
Without peer discussion, clarity takes longer. And time matters in a career….
Across all coaching domains, and specific to a number of core competencies in S&C, data, rehab, and long-term athlete development, the pattern is consistent. Isolation does not create incompetence. It creates inefficiency in development. It stretches decision-making timelines. It increases cognitive load. It amplifies doubt.
The same pattern shows up in the coaches approach to data analysis. A coach spends hours trying to fix a spreadsheet formula, rebuild a dashboard, or automate a report. Tutorials are opened. Forums are searched. Errors persist. You move to watching tutorials on youtube. Rebuilding spreadsheets, ready to deploy to coaches but then the formulas aren't working again (the dreaded #DIV/0! shows up all across your sheets). The frustration builds over time, and you build stress to a new level! The isolated coach isn’t feeling this way because they lack the ability to work with data in greater ways. It’s because, trying to tackle solutions alone is like learning a new language alone. Its far slower than having someone guide you who already speaks the language!
Someone who has “learnt that language” can often see in seconds what you’ve been wrestling with for days. Not because they’re smarter, it’s only because they’ve walked that path before and hd to deal with the same hurdles. Someone who has walked that path before can often see in seconds what others wrestle with for days. But when working in isolation, you start to convince yourself you “don’t really need to be able to do it” when your original motivation was “I must be able to do this” to move forward.
One of our group Mentees Dr Steve Thompson realised the impact of having someone like Shaun McLaren to mentor him to solutions in our Data Skills Group Mentorship.
Steve shared with me: "Shaun helped me massively from the group mentorship, by noticing nuanced issues that only comes with experience. I’ve had many an issue when coding in R alone, trying to run a number of instances of data through a function to try and save time. These issues were taking me days to figure out by scouring GitHub or YouTube for a solution. Shaun gave them to me in minutes, after I was afforded access to him as a mentor!”.
I am certain now. Most coaches do not need more information. They need perspective.
Coaches need their thinking challenged in environments that are safe but rigorous. They need someone to expose blind spots before those blind spots become patterns. They need structured friction and challenge, which helps accelerate growth instead of slowing it.
Left alone, most of us optimise for comfort. We repeat what works. We protect what feels familiar. We stay within the boundaries of what we can already justify confidently.
Isolation is not a weakness. But it is common. It’s often not a choice though either, but the reality is, employers structure departments in that way, or invest in a sole coach instead of a team of coaches. So even though you may not choose to work in isolation, it still is a constraint.
The question is whether you are willing to remove it?
This is why mentorship can be so powerful in terms of offering perspective, accountability, and shared experience. Inside group mentorship, those conversations happen in real time. Ideas get tested. Constraints get exposed earlier. Priorities become clearer.
As always, a reflective question to finish: How much time have you already spent trying to solve complex problems alone?
Next week we talk about uncertainty and decision fatigue!
Did this resonate with you?
We have our group mentorship programs available now for enrolment starting in April - whether your skill gaps are in Rehab, Soft Skills, S&C, Data, or LTAD, we have ways we can help. We have a giveaway where you can WIN a free place on a program of your choice, receiving 6months mentorship! Enrol here for April Cohorts.
