It is said that a man with a watch knows what time it is, a man with two watches is never sure. This can easily be seen with young athletes today who go through three or more coaches a year, many times in sports that overlap or even in the same sport but on different teams. It seems that at times these coaches can have philosophies that are very dissimilar and sometimes conflict, especially when they are playing/practicing for the same sport with two different coaches.
This sometimes happens with club athletes in track, and as a coach who works with kids at a school as well as club kids, I can tell you that maintaining an open dialogue with the kids and the other coaches are a must. The two do not necessarily have to be at odds with other, but if there aren't clear cut rules issues can arise. This is usually the case when an athlete from a school team chooses to train with a club or private coach as well. Many school coaches see this as a distraction from the team and find it difficult to arrange training if the recovery periods are being disrupted by extra training.
Conversely, a club coach may be an athletes only access to the training and technical work an athlete needs due to a more specialized approach or because the school coach has little knowledge about proper training.
I see both of these often, but surprisingly I find that when the coaches are open and discuss the training with each other, great things can happen. Some of the top local hurdlers train under two, sometimes three coaches but they are always in communication with the whole group so that their is no overtraining. In some instances, the private coaching frees up the scholastic coach to work with other athletes that need more attention.
The key is to know boundaries, and have the athlete understand those boundaries. As long as all the coaches are working towards the best interest of the athlete, it can work out.
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