Scott Quick is a coach who cares.
Talk to him for five minutes and that much is clear. He listens. He follows up. He remembers former clients’ names and keeps in touch with many of them years after their official work together has finished.
Dr. Javier Coria, one of those former clients—and Precision Nutrition’s July 2016 men’s coaching winner— sums it up in a single attribute: Scott is persistent… ultra persistent.
Scott connects with clients early, lets them know he’s there for them, and works diligently to maintain relationships. No matter what.
He reads those rambling messages about his clients’ worries and challenges. Zeros in on why it’s important. Lets them know he’s flexible and available.
The results speak for themselves.
Scott has coached several Precision Nutrition Coaching grand prize winners as well as dozens of finalists. And he’s proud of that record.
But even more impressive—and more important to Scott—is his ongoing connection with “ordinary” guys. The men who had a bit more weight to lose. The ones who were going through tough personal circumstances during their coaching year. Or who got injured, or sick, or discouraged.
They faced lots of challenges, and they all made significant progress toward their goals.
And whatever barriers the guys come up against, Scott supports them.
“Sometimes guys tag me on a Facebook post that echoes a point I made years ago during coaching,” Scott says. “They remember.”
That’s when he feels the greatest satisfaction with his work. When he knows he’s had a lasting impact on someone’s life. When he sees he’s made a difference.
Growing up, Scott showed a remarkable aptitude for sports.
His parents used to joke that they didn’t know where his innate athleticism came from. At four, he was already tearing up the soccer field. Later, in high school and college, he served as goaltender.
It’s a demanding position, one that requires speed and coordination and smarts—and Scott excelled at it.
Still, looking back, he wishes he’d been coached the way he aspires to coach today.
“I was a good player,” he says. “But my mental game needed work.”
He had the physical tools. He had the natural ability. But he could be extremely tough on himself if things went wrong.
He needed to learn that mistakes and setbacks aren’t a sign of failure.
“Mistakes are just mistakes,” he says now.
“Setbacks can be opportunities.”
That’s the message he most wants his clients to hear.
Scott’s own life offers plenty of examples of this: For one, several concussions in his final year of college put an early end to his soccer career.
For almost two decades, Scott’s whole identity had hinged on soccer. That’s what he did and what he cared about and who he was.
Letting go can’t have been easy. Another person might have given up on sports entirely.
But with a degree in sports medicine and an enduring passion for an active lifestyle, Scott found a way to transfer his focus to athletic training. Within a few years, he’d earned a Master’s in rehabilitative science and was studying to become a Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certified Coach.
Instead of complaining about his lost opportunities, he was creating new opportunities for himself. What’s more, he was searching for a way he could help other men do the same.
Getting sidelined from soccer is not the only challenge Scott has faced.
“Getting sidelined from soccer is not the only challenge Scott has faced. For years, pre-season games and conditioning sessions had left him exhausted. His weight would fall. He’d struggle to finish a tough match. And even after he stopped playing, he couldn’t seem to put on muscle.
By this time, he’d become a certified trainer. He was helping other men improve their fitness every single day.
He had the motivation. He had the skills and he had the knowledge. But when it came to his own health and fitness, something wasn’t working. He needed guidance, and he knew it.
“It can be hard for guys to admit they have a problem,” he says. “We tend to feel we should be on top of everything, that we should be tough, even perfect.”
It’s an unhealthy cultural imperative. And it wrecks lives.
In Scott’s case, reaching out for help turned out to be one of the best decisions he ever made. Not only did he gain 25 pounds of lean muscle in Scrawny to Brawny, an early iteration of Precision Nutrition Coaching, but he went on to become a peer mentor and eventually a full-fledged coach at Precision Nutrition.
His “problem” became the catalyst for his career.
And he’s never been more fulfilled or happier.
Married, and now the parent of two young children aged 7 and 9, Scott has entered a new phase of life, where his focus is less on his own athletic prowess than on staying healthy so he can enjoy family life to the fullest. His coaching and sports medicine knowledge is not limited to his clients but also extends to his family. He has had the delightful experience of coaching his younger son’s soccer team at age 5, and recently, he was able to assist and provide sports medicine coverage for his older son’s track team.
Current hobbies include hiking, paddle-boarding, climbing, playing with the dog, and fishing.
“If you’ve never tried to get fifteen or twenty kindergarteners to focus when the temperature is over 102 F (39 C) and they barely know how to kick a ball, you don’t know what persistence is,” he says, recalling his time coaching his younger son’s team.
Scott has worked with every kind of client.
From five-year-olds to octogenarians. From the scrawny and weak to the morbidly obese to elite athletes—and everyone in between.
With his speciality in rehabilitative medicine, Scott is superb at pinpointing what to do if the exercise that is supposed to work for everybody doesn’t work for you. And he doesn’t judge emotional eaters. Friends and family members have been there. He knows the struggle is real and the social pressures are intense.
So he doesn’t dismiss or condemn. Instead, he offers his support.
Also, Scott would like his clients to know that he doesn’t consider himself a guru. He’s still very much in their shoes.
“Even coaches need coaching. That’s why I’m always reading and learning. You never really stop growing, and sometimes we need some guidance with that.”
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