06 October 2025
What is Hybrid Coaching?
Why Hybrid?
- Hybrid. It’s not for my benefit — it’s for yours.
- I find classes or “PT” alone… it doesn’t feel like C O A C H I N G
- It just feels like fitness instruction, and to take it from what we learnt in L2 fitness instruction to L3 PT (and all that CPD we do) — more is needed. You know that… garnish.
- To me, real coaching involves clients being sure of what to do when they’re not with me, but they’re in the gym. Whether that’s through programming or what they’ve learnt over time. Everyone learns and absorbs information differently.
- It really shocked me when I went to PT in a commercial gym coming from an indie background where we are BIG on education. Most members’ experience with “personal training” was just that hour with their instructor, and that was it. No external support. Just see them for an hour, once a week, and no clue what to do between those sessions. Frustrated at a lack of progress and not understanding how to fuel sessions/day-to-day.
- It seemed revolutionary to bring up the term online coaching, to bring my laptop to sessions, to get all my clients onto the app — but over the years, I’ve noticed a shift. More and more people are using these apps, and members are likely to have experienced using them. Levelling up, upskilling, and coaching better rather than merely instructing is expected unless you want to be left behind.
- That’s for the coaches! For clients, it’s so much better because you’re going to get so much more out of working with a coach. I tend to think that if I just want simple instruction for an hour, I could just pay to go to a class that is so much cheaper than a PT session. Remember that! That extra expense is supposed to be for time invested — time spent programming, tweaking on the app, planning the day’s session, liaising and conferring in CoPs, continued professional development, and experience.