Technology has made coaching more fun and interactive than it was 10 years ago. We have apps such as Coach’s Eye, which allow us to record and give almost instant feedback to athletes on their technique for several different exercises. Coaches can remote coach several athletes around the country all at once.

This sounds like a utopia for coaches and athletes, right? The answer is sort of. While, it allows us to give instant feedback to athletes, it turns a good amount of people self-promoters. I love a PR just as much as the next person, but do you need to post every single one regardless of technical imperfections?

On the coaching side, it creates more Facebook coaches than Greg Everett knows what to do with. I can't tell you the amount of arguments I've seen between people claiming that Ilya Ilyin jumps too far back on his lifts. I laugh reading the arguments, thinking, “Do you realize you are discussing what a 2-time Olympic champion does?”

So where did this all come from? Did we develop this need for an award from our parents? Did our school system foster a gold star mentality? Or is it a systematic change that society has gone through?

Regardless, it needs to stop, or at least slow down. With social media being a necessary evil in today’s coaching world, how do you talk to your athletes about what to post and when?

Recently, I had the pleasure of hosting 2008 Olympic Silver medalist Dmitry Klokov at my box in Little Rock. We talked about plenty of topics, and the topic of social media came up. Some people are not aware, but Dmitry has started to coach athletes online and currently has six athletes. He coaches them via Instagram and gives them feedback to photos that they tag him in and they also correspond via email. During our conversation about social media, Dmitry said “this not for fun, this business.” He went on to talk about how he only follows 34 people on Instagram because it is a form a business communication for him. If his IG feed were full of random people, how would he conduct his coaching? Obviously, he could still coach and conduct business. It would just take him longer.

During this conversation we brought up people that post obscene CrossFit or weightlifting numbers, but have yet to compete. I personally called this the “Unicorn.” A unicorn is someone who constantly talks and/or posts about their progress, AKA “gainz”, but is no where to be found when it is time to step on a platform or competition stage. Unicorns are cool for little girls to play with, but they have no business in CrossFit or Weightlifting.

So why did I tell you this story about Dmitry, and the unicorn? Simple, to show that we need to conduct our social media posts with more professionalism. Here are a few guidelines to posting on social media.

1. Keep it PG! No one wants to see you twerk; we’d rather see your hard work.

2. Have a purpose behind the post. Don’t just post something for the sake of having a post every single day. If you are posting a PR or accessory work, tell people why you are doing accessory work or why the PR was important to you.

3. PLEASE post your misses and mistakes. We all know you are not perfect. Don’t try to act like you don’t mess up. For distance coaching, this is a huge. We cannot help your technique if you hide what you are doing when you miss.

4. Disregard the haters. If you posted it online, you are well aware that people are going to make comments you don’t like. Heck, they try to pick apart Olympians. Don’t engage in virtual arguments. No one wins when this happens.

5. Last and most importantly, be respectful. If all you are doing is disrespecting someone else online, you are no better than the losers that troll the Internet to make fun of people.

So, next time you post on social media, keep these tips in mind. Remember, if it’s on the Internet, it is pretty much there forever. Social media is a wonderful tool, so please use it to its full potential. Doing so will help make you a better athlete or coach.

If you are interested in following interesting individuals with coaching tips on Instagram, feel free to follow Dmitry Klokov (@klokovd), Daniel Camargo (@camargo_oly), Catalyst Athletics (@catalystathletics), Dave Durante (@davedurante), and Waxman’s Gym (@waxmansgym). I have utilized every single one of these Instagram accounts to show my athletes examples of what I was explaining to them.