Conscious Coaching: The Art and Science of Building Buy-In

If you are a strength and conditioning coach, you should buy this book. The information Brett Bartholomew provides is an insightful look into the wide variety of athlete personalities and mindsets. From the beginning, Brett provides applicable information to help you start becoming a better coach today.Athlete ArchetypesBrett’s book helps you find yourself by giving a 3-step self-discovery process, so you can better help your athletes. Once you know what drives you, understanding that your athletes have their own drives will guide your future interactions with them. By far the most helpful section of the book is where the different athlete archetypes are introduced. Understanding that not all athletes are the same will open your eyes to new ways of communicating with them. A style of communication that works for “the Soldier” might not get the best results from “the Wolverine.”Building TrustAfter the athlete archetypes, Brett explains some common mistakes coaches make and ways to improve trust with your athletes. Many of these mistakes are common issues seen in weight rooms all over the country. He offers simple corrections and food for thought when these mistakes pop up. Through his “Trust Tenets,” you can start creating buy-in right away. Without this trust, athletes will just see you as another authority figure trying to control their lives. You must become what a coach is meant to be: a mentor to build them up and guide them down the right path.Refer to This Book OftenRead and highlight sections of this book. Look back on the “Trust Tenets” often. Always be looking to apply aspects of this book whenever possible. If you find yourself becoming complacent, look back to the section on common mistakes and double check that you are not falling into any of those traps.From finding your inner drive, to how to interact with different athletes, this book will guide you in building better relations with not only your athletes but also with other people in your life. Treat athletes as people with complex personalities and their own unique feelings. This book will help bring out the “Conscious Coach” in you.

Brett Barthemu’s book “Conscious Coaching” is everything I expected and more! I initially found out about this book while attending a strength & conditioning seminar in Atlanta where Brett presented “Confessions of a Strength Coach”. The presentation covered many of the topics that were in his upcoming book. After hearing him talk in person I knew this book was going to be a MUST HAVE. Once the book was released I decided to purchase two copies, one for my staff to read and another for myself. Our entire staff was extremely impressed with the information and had an immediate impact on our coaching.I feel that this book takes a very critical look at coaching from an art and scientific standpoint. Many of the topics I found extremely valuable include: dark sided leadership traits, experience vs. exposure, athlete archetypes, and targeted communication. This book will help you connect the dots from the scientific research to real world application and solutions. The information in this book can be immediately implemented into any coaches’ situation.After reading the book I decided to fly out to attend Brett’s “Conscious Coaching Seminar” in Virginia. Brett talked for 5 hours and went in-depth into the topics that are in the book. It was a great interactive experience to be able to go beyond the pages of the book itself.I have only been in the strength and conditioning field for 7 years, but this book holds invaluable information for any level coach. It also touches on subjects that are helping fill a gap within the strength & conditioning industry. This book not only gave me insight into better ways to approach coaching, but also confirmed many of the things that I have been successful with. I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND this to any strength coach in the industry. My overall impression of this book is that it was beautifully crafted and extremely well thought out.I would be interested in seeing a follow-up book that goes in-depth into each athlete archetype.

Was the best choice I could ever do to make this lecture in this time of quarantine(lockdown). Extremely useful to reflect about everything I did and conquered in my career and the directions from now on.

Conscious Coaching, is a must read for coaches regardless of the space they operate in. The book is full of actionable advice from someone that has been through the process and learned from the mistakes of not engaging with athletes to develop buy-in, on a genuine level. Brett's passion for elevating coaching practice is evident in the detail provided and the through the network of professionals that have contributed their experiences to the archetypes section of the book.On a personal level, the content help me to reflect on my coaching practice and identify areas were i haven't created buy-in, and develop a plan to improve these area based on the topics covered in Conscious Coaching and via the further reading.If you are a young or experienced coach this is well worth a read, if you mentor coaches I would recommend getting those you mentor to invest in this book, it's led to a heap of reflective conversations. Brett also has a tonne of additional free resources, that expand on the subject covered in the book. Enjoy

The way Brett put things along the way is just excellent, it goes direct to the point. The referencing and book recommendations are right on point, you can notice he did a great research work and linked the data perfectly. I recommend this book not only for any kind of Coach but also to everyone. Thank you.

There were so many parts of this book that hit home with me it was hard to keep track of them all. I had followed Brett on social media for a couple of years prior to the release of this book so it was great to get a very detailed account of how he started in the strength and conditioning industry and the struggles he faced as a young man. All things that I didn't realise before and were very inspirational to say the least. The portion of the book that covered to archetypes was what really sparked my interest in reading it after hearing Brett talk about them on a couple of podcasts that I subscribe to. As I am sure many of the coaches that have read this book experienced, I found myself linking many of the athletes I have worked with or currently work with to the different archetypes. Instead of wishing I had more Soldiers and Leaders in my training groups, I have a great resource as to how I can get the most out of my Mouthpieces and Royals. I also got a lot out of the section discussing the "13 Coaching Mistakes to Avoid," a few of them that I am definitely guilty of committing so far in my young career. Brett also places a lot of emphasis on how to strike a balance between being a great coach, but also a great husband/father/friend to the many other important people in your life. One section that I highlighted towards the end of the book I felt summed up Brett's stance on this quite well:"What turn did I miss where everything has to be so black and white? What's wrong with coaches in the team setting that would rather ditch the antiqued 'first in, last out' mantra for one of 'work smart, get out' so that they can get their job done effectively and spend even just a fraction of the time with their own children that they do everyone else's?"This was an outstanding read and I know I will continually go back to it as a coaching, teaching and mentoring resource. I also feel that any type of coach would learn something from this book, not just those in the strength and conditioning industry. It really opens your eyes on how truly important communication with your athletes is.

se sei un allenatore di un qualsiasi sport o un preparatore atletico o un personal trainer questo libro ti cambierà il modo di approcciarti con le persone con ciu lavori. è scritto in un inglese molto facile e si legge molto facilmente. stra-consigliato per chiunque abbia a che fare con il pubblico. da avere assolutamente nella propria collezione di libri.If you train people or work with people in general, this is a must have. Brett changed the game with this book giving us a method on how to interact with others. coaching is an art, and everyone should be aware that must be developt eveyr day, and building true relationships and buy-in with our athletes is the most important thing.