Coaching & Mindset
Six Different Coaches Live Inside You, Your Client Just Needs The Right One Today
From the FASTER syllabus: this article is taught in full in Movement Trainer (AFT) — where the six coaching styles are taught →
In short: Movement Trainer names six coaching styles a trainer can switch between client by client and session by session: the Military Style (commanding, precise, for a client who wants to be pushed with no ceremony), the Sports Coach Style (goal-driven, competitive, for a client chasing a number), the Mentor Style (guiding, personal, for a client working through something bigger than fitness), the Enthusiast (energetic, upbeat, for a client who needs the session to stay fun), the Tactician (calm, technical, for a client who wants to understand the how), and the Zen Master (still, internal, for a client who needs the session to feel like recovery as much as work). The same client can need a different one of the six on a different day, and choosing badly is usually why a session that looked fine on paper didn't land.
Most trainers only ever use one coach, and it's whichever one they naturally are
Warm and encouraging by nature, a trainer runs warm and encouraging every session, for every client, forever. Direct and no-nonsense by nature, same thing the other way. It works for the clients who happen to want that. It quietly loses the ones who don't, and a trainer running one voice never finds out why, because the client who needed something different just stops booking.
The course calls it acting, and means it as a compliment
Movement Trainer names six coaching styles a trainer can switch between: the Military Style, commanding and precise, for a client who wants to be pushed with no ceremony. The Sports Coach Style, goal-driven and competitive, for a client chasing a number. The Mentor Style, guiding and personal, for a client working through something bigger than fitness. The Enthusiast, energetic and upbeat, for a client who needs the session to stay fun. The Tactician, calm and technical, for a client who wants to understand the how behind every rep. And the Zen Master, still and internal, for a client who needs the session to feel like recovery as much as work.
The course's own line on why this isn't fake: keep close to how you would be if you had that job, and most trainers already have a version of all six sitting in them from other parts of life, a coach, a teacher, a friend who talks someone off a ledge, a mate who just wants to have a laugh in the gym.
The skill is reading which one today needs
The same client who wants the Sports Coach Style on a Monday, chasing a personal best, can want the Mentor Style on a Friday, after a rough week at work has turned the session into the only hour someone's listening to them. Running the same delivery on both days means one of those two sessions got the wrong coach. Movement Trainer builds this with real client profiles to practise matching a style to, not a list to memorise and forget.
What to do next
Movement Trainer (AFT), £375, teaches this alongside Skeletons and Blocks, the system for building the session itself. And every FASTER course, this one included, opens PT Manager the moment you sign up, with the client record and the full programme builder unlocking the day you pass one.
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You just read one answer. The course is all of them.
Movement Trainer (AFT) — where the six coaching styles are taught — taught by the people who wrote it, with free return access for life. The price is on the page, payment plans at checkout, no sales calls.
Also worth a look: PT Manager, free with any FASTER course.
See what the course covers →Frequently asked
Isn't switching styles just being fake with a client?
The course is direct about this: keep close to how you'd actually be in that role and it stops feeling like acting, because most trainers have already been some version of all six in other parts of their life.
Do I need to pick one style and stick with it?
No, the whole point is that the right style can change client by client, and for the same client, session by session, depending on what they need that day.
Which style should I use first?
Start by watching what the client responds to rather than picking in advance, the interview and the first few sessions usually make it obvious which one or two styles they lean toward.
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