Dr. Justin Lima · October 16, 2026 · 10 min read

Strength Coaches Need to Give Each Other Credit More

The industry of S&C is hard enough, we do not need to tear each other apart when we are colleagues.

I realize that my thoughts here might not be the majority, and they might not get many people to read this due to the overly position title and subtitle. I am not looking for click bait, I am looking for what I see as the truth.

This truth is one that has been formed from 2009 when I got into the field of S&C all the way to the time of writing in October 2026. Over 17 years I have seen high school, college, and private S&C directly. I have worked with professional athletes when they came back to college and often got to work with them for 3-5 months at a time.

I say this to help those who are unfamiliar with my story understand where I am coming from. This idea of building each other up, not tear each other down is something I have been marinating on for years. In fact I was guilty of this when I was a younger strength coach. In fact, I am writing this to my younger self. So if these words sting, know that they come from a place of love, and from someone who wished they heard these words years before.

Life is hard, we don't have to make it harder for each other

Let's call it what it is, life is hard and we live in a broken world. It will take little time to see this when you turn on the news, social media, or simply notice life around you. One way we can make the world better around us is being kind to people. We have NO IDEA what every person we come in contact is going through. The athletes, coaches, staff, etc...you work with, as well as any random person you see at the store, gas station, restaurant, etc....We know nothing about what any of them are carrying around. Maybe they lost a loved one. Maybe they just got a divorce. Maybe they are this close to foreclosure on their home.

The details as why someone is struggling is not my point, my point is people you encounter may be struggling and you may not know. Treat them with kindness because one that is what Christ taught and commands us to do, that person needs kindness in their lives, and it is the right thing to do.

WHat does this have to do with Strength and conditioning?

Great question and thank you for asking.

In strength and conditioning especially many of the people you come across will be struggling with something. Maybe they are still struggling financially because they were not able to get the pay bump they thought, budget got cut and they had to lose staff, marriage is struggling because of how much they are on the road traveling with the team, etc...Remember folks, social media only shows you the one side of someone and it shows you the "perfect" side of them. There was one perfect person in the world, we are not Him. Do not think other people are perfect and have it all figured out. We don't. None of us do. We are all doing our best.

So when you see someone posting on social media, or doing well elsewhere do not tear them down if you are in a bad place. Build them up. Encourage and support that coach who is winning. There is plenty of good to go around. I know we work in an industry where there literally is a winner and a loser (sure there is the occasional tie) but for the most part of our job we either help a team win, or contributed to their loss. We get conditioned to thinking there is only one winner. But in life the game is different we can have multiple S&C coaches "win" in life.

I am reminded of the book Infinate Game from Simon Sinek where he talks about what is winning in life, as a parent, etc...How do we measure success and who "wins" in these endeavors. He has a point. There is no "dad or mom of the year" award, so how do we know who is the best mom or dad and thus everyone else lost? We can't because success isn't measured that way. The same for S&C. So if you see a coach who is successful or winning - encourage and build them up, they are doing well now, we don't know what they went through.

All things have balance though - when to "Call Out"

Yes just like Jocko said, there is a dichotomy and there is balance. So with this does it mean we never "call out" the bad that other coaches are doing when they are negligent and doing harm to the athlete or industry of S&C? Consider the words of Christ again - before we call our the speck in our S&C friend eye check the log in out own. Yea I added the part about S&C coach, but what He was saying there is check yourself before you check others. Now, this does not mean you do not call out other coaches doing harm, what it means is check yourself and make sure your life is in order before you do.

So if you see a coach doing something bad - ask yourself why does it bother you? Ask Coach Mark Spellman said on his CMW "do you know the who, what, and why of the program and if you do not you should call that coach to find out." He is right and I was guilty of this as a young coach. I would see a coach doing some weird movements that were not the traditional bench, squat, deadlift, RDL, lunge, bench, etc...and I would think that coach was being soft. Now, to be fair these coaches then (and now) were calling that movement and odd lifting "fascia" training and my bs meter went off because I knew it was not only the fascia being trained. Literally it cannot be the only thing trained. The fascia wraps around the muscle, therefore if the fascia is being trained so is the muscle. Not to mention the work of the Russians which showed us how inter-, intra-muscle coordination, and rate coding are at play in large movements.

So where did I go wrong?

I would attack that coach in my head, call him/her and their athletes soft, and move about my day thinking it and telling anyone about it. I wish I did not. One, because that is not kind, two, I now use those type of movements in my training. Gasp. I know right. I was lucky to have learned from Mike Chatman at Towson for the 2 years we worked there together. Mike grew up in Louisiana and learned Olympic lifting from Coach Gayle Hatch. Mike also worked for Coach Craig Fitzgerald when they were at Penn State together. If you know anything about Coach Hatch and Coach Fitz program you will know that they are both coaches who lift their players heavy with the "traditional" squat, clean, bench, etc...

Why does this matter? Because Mike also learned from Todd Wright who still works and worked in the NBA for years. During this time learning from Todd Mike learned about the Gray Institute Applied Functional Science movement. You all know the 8 vector running/jumping ebook from Jordan Nieuwsma and Nick DiMarco? It is a great read. The idea for the book came from seeing Coach Bobby Stroupe who had the vector on the wall of his performance gym. Bobby learned the AFS stuff from Gary Gray and is friendly with Michol Dalcourt who is the creator of Institute of Motion and the ViPR PRO. Mike was using these long hard plastic tubes with the athletes at Towson moving in pivot and lunge matrixes. Talking about reach matrixes and anterior/medial lunges. I was confuses and at first I fought it. But Mike was doing then what I am doing now. He was combining the "traditional" with the "movement" and it was great for the team - players where healthy and teams were winning. This is part why he moved on to Stanford, LSU, and now Nebraska Men's Basketball after working with me at Towson.

What do I do now?

I do life more like Ted Lasso now. I get more curious than judgmental. I will DM, text, or call a coach when I have a question about what they are doing. I will think hard before I criticize. Does this mean I am perfect? Nope. Do I still call coaches out for dangerous training or lies when I see them? Sure do. I make sure my training in in order before I do that though. I ensure the principles I use with my athletes are sound before I criticize another. What's funny now is how much I use the ViPR PRO that Chatman was using with Towson. I use the 8 vector COD from Jordan and Nick when I have athletes on the field doing COD work. I use the pivot, lunge, squat, etc matrixes with my athletes. I also squat my athletes, and trap bar deadlift, and lunge, and bench, and pull up, etc...you get the point I am making. From what I have seen on social media this is what the best coaches do. They blend the traditional with the movement work, but they do not call the movement work fascia training. One, because that isn't true to call it that, and two because they know it will rub people the wrong way and their message will be lost.

In conclusion:

Be kind to one another
Ask questions to yourself first, then to the coach you want to criticize
Try the movements in question before you criticize them
Use "traditional" lifts in your training with athletes
Use the "movement" based lifting in your training of athletes
Look up coaches like Todd Wright, Michol Dalcourt, ViPR PRO, Gary Gray, Gray Institute, Bobby Stroupe

As always, these blogs, podcasts, webinars, etc...are designed to get you thinking and working. Go out and do the work. Keep learning and keep exploring, that is what the best coaches do. Just make sure you do it in kindness.

Dr. Justin Lima

Strength Coach Network