Note: You can contact the author at: steve@diettrans.com
I just
finished reading The Art of Teaching by
Jay Parini (http://amzn.to/1eY5LTG
amazon affiliate link), and about two thirds in, this one line really
stood out. It was:
“A
whole book could be written on the destructive power of masters, who
drew innocent seekers into their orbit, only to destroy rather than
enlighten them.”
Too
many people, knowingly or not, use their status within a community to
impose damaging nonsense onto people who are only just starting out.
Whether it’s the “17 year old science guy” (17YOSG) who
moderates a forum, and doesn’t understand
science, or the older guy who is set in his
(erroneous) ways.
The
“keyboard warrior” 17YOSG has been given greater status over
other people, and an air of authority. So, his positions are given
the appearance of greater credence and disagreeing with him might
come with negative consequences. This wouldn’t be a problem if he
were open-minded, understood the subject-matter or had received the
temperament that comes with ageing.
A
recent example of this kind of person ruining conversation was when I
made a post on a forum saying that a specific dietary supplement
makes next to no difference in the long-term(a wildly
controversial claim, I know). The resident “expert” came right
out of the woodwork to vehemently disagree with me, saying that the
(short-term) research done on the supplement paints a different
picture.
I
pointed out that most people are already very-likely covered as far
as what the supplement helps with (a position heavily supported by
other research), so it’s likely to yield no real benefit, and that
real world observations further supports that claim. A great number
of coaches don’t even have their athletes use the supplement,
because they found 0 differences in the results… as expected.
The
small intra-sessional impact of the supplement didn’t result in
noticeably better long-term outcomes, because it only allowed
trainees to perform slightly more volume*- something trainees usually
do more than enough of already. If the 17YOSG actually knew that,
and if he also knew that if something doesn’t line up with core
science that it’s pretty suspect and needs further work to be done
on it (even more-so if it’s exclusively promoted by a shady
industry), he’d probably have the same position as me.
He was
fed junk, didn’t have the means to self-right, and worst of all was
passing that trash onto other people from his exalted dais. And,
needless to say, he still holds his erroneous position as will most
everyone else who’s introduced to it by him.
As for
the older, possibly more established people, there’re a number of
corrosive experts here. The most obvious of which being the snake-oil
salesmen, or the “bros“. Those people are easy enough to spot
and see the trouble with, so I won’t bother covering them here.
Who I would like to cover, however, are the “online coaches”, who
seem to be cropping up everywhere nowadays. There are competent
online coaches, even fantastic ones, but some are absolute garbage.
Will
McKnight, in 90 Days to Success in Consulting
(http://amzn.to/1h2PTn6
Amazon affiliate link), has a short list of
things every respectable consultant should have, and you can use it
as a means to filter out undesirables. A few of those things (if I
remember right) are: a website, articles, testimonials, a contact
page, and a listing of their credentials. You’ll note, an Instagram
profile is not among these. If a coach is only available or known on
Instagram, and can only sell their services based on pictures, you’ve
likely found a bum.
If they
can’t provide: evidence of their competence with ordinary natural
trainees, a show of commitment to the profession of coaching, and
articles which show their understanding of the subject matter, they
should be avoided. Best case scenario: their advice will lead to less
efficient progress. Worst case? Increased rate of injury or slow
copy+paste responses to questions.
Obviously,
there are more out there, but these were the ones I felt like
covering today… So, questions? Comments? Other damaging people?
Leave them below.
*more volume on particularly light
sets.
Note : This post is not written by IG.
