WHAT'S IN THIS BOOK? This is a specialist publication intended for coaches of strength athletes and competing powerlifters but it will provide valuable information for anyone wishing to improve their sports coaching understanding and ability. Inside you will find how to use practical every day methods to gain the best from your own training programmes or the individuals you coach based on my 40 years of experience as a boxing trainer, gym owner, weightlifting and powerlifting coach. My experiences, both failures and successes as a sports coach have been honed over many years while training coaches and managers within business as a management trainer, facilitator and coach training consultant. During my own development I was exposed to numerous processes and cranky attempts at driving individual performance based on imposed fear as well as stupid and illogical ideas that always failed in the end. I learnt the hard way that most of the self help rubbish spouted about coaching is a waste of time and a good coach need only stick to a relatively few simple ideas to make a difference and help individuals achieve great things. A simple understanding of the application of the Maslow hierarchy of needs and the Murray psychological drivers can make a massive difference to your coaching ability but don't worry it's easy stuff. Both of these very complex ideas are explained in simple to understand terms that will help you understand why some approaches work and others fail with individuals. This book describes in detail how a coach may apply a simple and practical model to support and drive forward training and competitive performance using tried and tested applications and basic tools. I have included detailed information on the tactics that may be used at powerlifting competitions to gain an advantage and the key coaching issues for the three competition lifts as well as the general rules applied by the IPF. Most coaches and gym instructors are simply unaware of the reasons why individuals fail to progress in strength training, this book will give you the understanding necessary to recognise the symptoms and take corrective action to deliver progressive improvement. It will also ensure you understand all the relevant concepts in motivating individuals to ensure they achieve their best. Coaches are often simply experienced and interested individuals and are rarely trained to do the job, don't be one of the one size fits all brigade, learn how to coach your trainees effectively taking individual character into account. Learn from my experience of working with sportsmen in several sports, helping them rise from beginners to champions. If used intelligently the techniques described will help you achieve increases in performance quickly and efficiently for anyone you coach. I have included the game 'Coaching Goldfish' which I developed to train coaches in both the business and sports environment, try it, it works