Glen takes us back to the early days of his S&C career, when coaching meant doing it all: Strength, conditioning, sprint work, even video analysis. He contrasts that with today’s high-performance environment, now highly specialised and driven by sport science and technology.

Takeaways:

• Early S&C requires coaches to be generalists - doing everything across performance and support.

• The human element (intuition, experience, and connection) matters more than all the data.

• Trust athlete feedback - they often know what works best for them

• Listen and observe first, especially in new environments

• Importance of adapting your communication - Different athletes require different approaches

• Great coaches are people coaches, not just technical experts

• Communication, empathy and relationships drive buy-in and results

• Mentorship is key to developing coaches and sharing knowledge

• Long-term success comes from passion for coaching, not titles