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Why your coaching feels messy (and it's probably the spreadsheet)
Programmes in Sheets, check-ins in WhatsApp, food in another app. Here's why client reviews take so long when your data is scattered, and what to do about it.
Abai Edmund2 min read
Training lives in a spreadsheet. Check-ins come in on WhatsApp. Food is in MyFitnessPal, or a screenshot of MyFitnessPal. Weigh-ins are in the client's camera roll. And the notes are in your head.
That works with five clients. Somewhere past that it starts to go wrong, and you notice it on review day. Before you can say anything useful to a client you have to piece their week back together from four places.
I built Repit because I kept seeing good coaches lose evenings to this. The coaching was fine. The admin around it was the problem.
WhatsApp ends up being your CRM
When a client messages you, the context is in that thread. When they message again a week later, the context is now 40 messages up. You scroll before every check-in to remember what you agreed last time.
Things get missed. A client mentions a sore knee on Tuesday and by Sunday it's buried under photos of their lunch. Then you over-correct and start keeping a separate note somewhere else, which is one more place to check.
Spreadsheets stop working as the roster grows
I like spreadsheets. They're flexible and free and you can build anything in them. The trouble is they don't tell you anything. The data is there, but you have to go and look.
Once nutrition, weight and check-ins each get their own tab, you stop opening some of them. There's no quick way to see what changed this week for a client. So every review starts from scratch.
Your evenings turn into admin
A client misses two sessions and you have to fix the rest of their week by hand. A new client signs up and you onboard them from a script you keep in your head. None of this is coaching, but it's where the time goes.
What helps, whatever tool you use
You don't need new software to start fixing this.
Keep one record per client. Training, food, weight and check-in notes in the same place. If that's one Google Sheet per client with fixed tabs, fine.
Review in the same order every week. Same day, same order. I'd go sessions, then nutrition, then weight, then how they're feeling, then your notes. You'll get quicker at it.
Flag who needs you. Rather than opening every client, keep a short list of who missed sessions or has a check-in due, and start there.
Where Repit fits
Repit puts a client's programme, nutrition, weight, readiness and check-ins on one record. Missed sessions and due check-ins show up as tasks so you don't have to go looking. Clients get an app that shows their workouts and lets them log them.
It won't fix a coaching problem, and if you've got three clients and a sheet that works, keep the sheet. It's for when the review itself has become the job.
It's free for up to 2 clients and priced in pounds. Your clients don't pay anything.