They are vastly different lanes, yes, but ultimately (should) have the same goal.
“Private Guy:
‘The In-School program sucks!’
School Coach:
‘Those Private guys only want your $!’
Usually neither is true.
Both share the same goal, but are in vastly different lanes, requiring an abundance of self awareness & maturity to understand each others role & value.”
-Ray Zingler on X
I do a lot of consulting with gym owners/strength professionals all over America.
And I’ll often hear, “there are so many kids in this area who take their sports seriously.. they have a program at school, but it sucks..”
And when I hear them make the “sucks” comment, my mind goes straight to that school coach who says, “Yeah, those private guys only want your money!”
Both people speaking negatively about each other are doing so from an angle that often (severely) lacks context.
The in-school program “sucks”? Have you ever been tasked with coaching (by yourself) 35+ beginner teenagers with varying competence levels, half of whom don’t even want to be there, in a room that often lacks space? Oh yeah and then only been given <45 minutes to get a highly effective work out in, Mr. Private guy?
Of course not, you train 1-12 people at a time, often with the luxury of time, allowing you to leverage nuance and offer a more personalized product. This is a big reason why quality will often be higher if you’re comparing it like it’s apples to apples.
But it’s not apples to apples, it’s apples to car parts. And that doesn’t mean that because you (me too) have logistical benefits that favor a higher quality product potential, the other is “bad”.
If the shoe was on the other foot, you wouldn’t be as great as you think you are.
And the same goes for the in-school coach who tells kids, “Those private guys only want your money!”
And as much as this is untrue, I’ve learned they say it because what we do in the private realm is so unrelatable, on so many levels, there is no frame of reference to understand it.
They have no idea how much daily effort, risk, and (unending) financial investment is involved in keeping a private operation afloat.
We must earn every bite of food, every day. Quality waivers an inch (and even when it doesn’t), our family’s lose resources.
At the end of the day both parties (should) want the same thing, which is to maximize the experiences of student athletes.
It is for this reason, I believe a collaborative approach between public and private coaches will always best serve our kids.
