In Good Coach Bad Coach

Simon Harling reveals why coaching is the ultimate status game - one where we desperately want to stand out, but to get picked, we believe we need to fit in. When Simon opened Elite Fitness, the perfect platform for a prestigious coach, he thought he had everything a good coach needs: a purpose-built 10,000 sq. ft. facility, qualifications, elite athlete endorsements, and years of pro sports experience. He was an Athletic Entrepreneur, but as commercial pressures blurred the lines between business and coaching, he struggled to excel at either, and the venture failed.

Through this struggle, the lessons Simon learned about himself, what he thought coaching was for, and what it takes to build a place of practice — a place where you belong — came together as a coaching manifesto and the foundation of this book for Athletic Entrepreneurs. This isn’t a book for coaches who want to be somebody; it’s for coaches who want to do something. Good Coach Bad Coach shows us that when we change our relationship with success and failure, it changes what we do and how we do it.

I belong here. That’s the fight for you and me. That’s the fight of the Athletic Entrepreneur.