So What is Coaching?

When I tell people I’m a coach, I know that people have different ideas of what this means and I often get asked “so what is coaching?”.

It’s a great question and not a surprising one if someone hasn’t experienced working with a coach before. Most typically we will probably have heard of a coach in the context of sport if nothing else.

I’ve answered the question in various ways in the past. However I got curious recently about the original roots of the word and turned to the etymology dictionary.

There it describes the word coach as a noun originating in the 1550’s meaning a “large kind of four wheeled carriage” from the French word coche (16c), from German kotsche and from Hungarian kocsi, named after the village where it was first made.

And what did “to coach” originally mean? The word coach as a verb in the 1610’s meant “to convey in a coach”. This makes sense.

Based on this, in my own words, a coach was originally something that enabled a person to get from where they are, to where they want to be, by a means other than doing it themselves.

But why would someone use a coach rather than just walk?

This would most likely be because the journey is too far, or will take too long by foot, or it could be that the person knows where they want to get to but don’t know how.

What would be the benefits of going by coach?

It would help a person get from A to B more quickly due to the assistance of the horses. The driver would act as a guide for the journey and provide direction. The coach would also provide cover from the weather that could occur along the journey.

As I relate this to the modern use of the words coach and coaching, I think, metaphorically, all of this still applies. While coaching doesn’t always need the horses, I actually know someone who does that too.

So, a coach provides coaching guidance and support in helping a person get from A to B in their lives. A coach utilises their expertise and experience to assisting people on such journey’s in life

And what kind of journey’s are today’s coaching journey’s?

The “destination” for a person in this case could be one or more things. It could be:

• changes they want to make
• something they want to create
• something they want to achieve
• a problem they want to resolve.
• or more broadly to experience life differently from how it is currently is being experienced.

Of course there are destinations and journeys we can very well make on our own. But sometimes, we realise we need help and support or we don’t know how to get there ourselves. In this case a professional coach can provide great coaching assistance and support and be your guide.