Why online coaching?

What is online coaching? What are the pros and cons of the online coaching? Why and when should you consider hiring an online coach? You'll find the anewers in this article.

Before you read this article, I am not promoting online coaching, but I do not intend to discourage it either for any of you.

What is an online coaching?

Online coaching is something that has gotten pretty big over the last few years. First, let’s define the “coaching” aspect:

Coaching is a one-on-one experience between client and coach. The client has a certain goal he/she wishes to achieve, and the role of the their coach is to educate, guide and support the client all the way to realizing their goal. The coach is a mentor/sensei/master – the client is the disciple/apprentice – who will eventually grow to be a powerful warrior thanks to the knowledge of the coach (semi serious here). There are various forms of coaching, and there are coaches in many different areas of expertise.

Online coaching means that the coaching happens mainly through digital contact: often through email interaction (lately also popular on facebook).

Online coaching has huge potential, it has proven and positive results too.

PROS OF ONLINE COACHING

Online coaching fits around your agenda & it’s flexible

Personal trainers/dieticians are often busy people with busy schedules and have a lot of appointments. They usually make appointments that fit around their schedule. If one cancels an appointment, it may take a while until the next.

Online coaching is based on your schedule. Together with the online coach you can make certain agreements for standard contact times. You can send an email/update whenever you want, and the coach will answer whenever possible. Generally, there is much more freedom and flexibility when it comes to schedules.

You can always ask your questions and your coach has time to back up his answer

With face to face contact moments, you don’t always get to ask everything you want. Sometimes you forget a certain question you wanted to ask, sometimes it doesn’t “fit” the time schedule, etc. If you do get to ask whatever you want, chances are you might get a downgraded answer – unless you have one of those perfect personal coaches that knows everything exactly off the top of their heads (which is unlikely in most cases).

Seeing as online coaching is a digital interaction, you can always ask your questions. Just send an email, or save your questions for your contact moment and fire them all at once. The coach has time to think about your question and can come provide adequate feedback. If necessary, the coach can do some more research to back up his answer, or even contact an expert in order to answer your question. Another advantage of all of this, is that you can easily look up the answer by checking your mail history.

Effective monitoring of relevant data

A good coach uses multiple methods to track the progress of the client. Collecting this data digitally can be done in a highly effective manner, providing a quick and accessible overview for both client and coach. Results and progress can easily be overviewed and discussed this way, allowing for effective guidance.

You can learn a lot of things online!

Next to guidance and offering a solid program, a good personal trainer/dietician will teach the client useful skills and provide knowledge in order to make the client successful in the long run. It’s not a matter of “temporarily switching lifestyle around” for temporary results, some things have to be changed/tweaked and stay that way in order to become and stay successful. If the client expands his knowledge and skills with regards to nutrition and training, and over time understands what is key for triggering progress, the coach has done well.

Do you need a real life consultation with a personal trainer to teach you things like good exercise techniques? A good online coach can teach you a lot of useful things regarding technique through video analysis.

Often more affordable than real life coaching

Of course this entirely depends on the rates the coach asks, but online coaching tends to be more affordable than hiring a personal trainer. 

One hour per week of coaching isn’t much, so you’ll probably end up paying for more sessions if you want better results and guidance. Online coaching usually isn’t as expensive for the quality of information and guidance you receive.

Tweaking nutrition online with your coach = highly effective

By now I believe it’s obvious: nutrition is of key importance in achieving results. Logging calories and macros is by no means the only method to be successful, but it is a highly effective way – especially when you have an online coach to monitor your intake. This type of intervention is much less practical in real life dietetic consults, and most dieticians don’t have this kind of valuable insight on their clients.

Social Anonymousness

It’s easy to be completely honest online, through digital interaction. The client usually feels less pressured (which can also turn into a con when the advices aren’t being followed). But the entire social anonymousness aspect is very appealing for many people, and a valid reason to hire an online coach instead of seeking a face-to-face interaction.