I’ve been asked by a well-known fitness professional couple to come up with 5 coaching cues that I use when training my athletes. They are going to collect coaching cues from several strength and conditioning coaches and personal trainers and come up with a small handbook. I think this is a great idea. We can always learn something from other people and use with our athletes.
Although these are definitely not earth-shattering coaching cues, these are definitely some phrases that I use on a daily basis.
1- “Chest Up”- I find myself saying this more with athletes who are first getting started, especially with squats.
2- “Touch Your Chest”- This is the #1 coaching cue on the bench press, especially with heavier load on the bar.
3- “Sit back, keep your weight on your heels”- Another coaching cue that I use with squats.
4- “Arch your back”- This is one that I use with exercises such as dumb bell rows. (Actually it coincides with #1.)I am looking for more of a flat-back posture rather than arched. However, when I do tell people with a rounded back doing rows to arch they’re back, then the result is a flat back.
5- “Keep the bar close to your body”- This one that I use with our Olympic lift variations such as dumb bell snatches, hang snatches, and hang cleans.
There are 5 coaching cues that I use. I remember learning to keep coaching cues to a minimum amount of words, but get the point across.
