Coaching & Mindset
Give A Client A Target To Hit, And The Movement Looks After Itself
From the FASTER syllabus: this article is taught in full in Movement Trainer (AFT) — where the full cueing module is taught →
In short: Movement Trainer teaches external targets: instead of pointing a client's attention at a body movement, point it at the outcome, a height, a distance or a speed to hit. The course's own line is direct: this 'frees up the athlete's internal degrees of freedom, allowing for a more natural and efficient movement pattern to emerge.' A target can then be scaled two ways without touching the exercise itself: a REAL target (an actual step, a wall mark, a line on the floor) or a RELATIVE target (a spoken 'up', 'down' or 'roughly there'), and changing the height or distance of either one changes how hard the movement is to stabilise, decelerate or get out of.
Give a client a target, not a body part
Movement Trainer's line on this is short and doesn't hedge: "instead of focusing on body movements, coaches should guide athletes to focus on the outcome or external targets, such as hitting a target or achieving a specific speed." A target to reach, rather than a hip to think about. The course's reasoning is just as direct: it "frees up the athlete's internal degrees of freedom, allowing for a more natural and efficient movement pattern to emerge."
Put plainly, a client thinking hard about where their knee is tends to move more stiffly than a client thinking about touching a mark on the wall. The knee still does its job. It just isn't being watched by the person whose job is to do it, not think about it.
Two ways to make that target harder or easier
The course splits a target into two kinds. A REAL target is a fixed thing in the room, a step, a platform, a mark on the wall, a line on the floor, the same idea behind a vertical jump test reaching for an actual height. A RELATIVE target is spoken instead, "up," "down," "roughly there," quicker to set but looser on exactly where the rep lands each time.
Either one scales the exercise without changing it. The course is direct about this too: "changing a height or a distance in a movement can change the difficulty to stabilise, decelerate or get out of a movement." Move the wall mark higher and a reach gets harder to control on the way back down. Say "a bit further" instead of naming a distance and the rep gets looser, useful for a client who needs options rather than a fixed number today.
What this looks like from a chair, not a lecture
A trainer coaching a squat can say "sit your hips back, keep your knee behind your toes," which sends the client's attention straight to two joints at once. Or the same trainer can put a box an inch behind the client and say "touch it with your hips," which sends the same client's attention to one clear target instead. Nothing about the squat changed. Where the client's head went during it did.
The fear this answers
Someone newer to coaching, unsure whether they'll run out of useful things to say to a client mid-set, isn't short on cues. Naming a target instead of a body part is one skill, applied to any exercise a gym has in it, and it does the organising work a longer list of instructions was trying to do anyway.
What to do next
Movement Trainer (AFT), £375, teaches the full cueing module alongside the scaling tools that sit next to it. PT Manager's Radar Wheels turn a coaching conversation like this one into a tracked score against a client's own record, and it opens free the moment a trainer signs up with any FASTER course.
FASTER Daily News sends you each day's blog links, the latest on new courses and live opportunities, and updates to PT Manager, free for students. Sign up at /newsletter.
You just read one answer. The course is all of them.
Movement Trainer (AFT) — where the full cueing module is taught: every answer marked by a real tutor, with free return access for life. The price is on the page, payment plans at checkout, no sales calls.
Also worth a look: PT Manager's client tools, free with any FASTER course.
See what the course covers →What every FASTER student gets
Built around you, not around the course
- A real person marks every answerEvery answer is read and marked by a tutor, with written feedback.
- Marked as you goEach teaching point is marked as you answer it, not at the end of the module.
- Dictate instead of typeA microphone on every written answer: say your answer and it types it for you (Chrome, Edge and Safari).
- Listen to the lessonsVoice-overs on the lessons, and the audio to download.
- Built for the way your brain worksShort lessons, one point at a time, marked as you go, with the choice to listen, read, print or speak your answers.
- Streaks that never punish youYou set how many days a week you want to study. Miss a day and your streak pauses; it is never lost.
- Accessible to WCAG AA, with an AAA optionEvery page measured against the WCAG accessibility standard: no faults at level A or AA, with a skip link, screen-reader labels and pages that hold together zoomed to 400%. A high-contrast option takes it to AAA.
- Keep it plainOne switch turns off the extras, the streaks, the badges, the celebrations and the movement, so the site stays plain and calm. Switch them back on whenever you like.
- Bigger text and wider spacingTwo steps of bigger text, and more room between lines, words and letters, on every page.
- Calmer motionOne switch stops animations and videos that play on their own. It is on already if your phone or computer asks for reduced motion.
- A personal video lessonWhen an answer needs real explaining, your marker records a video that lands in your course.
- A note before you sendBefore you send, the page tells you if your answer copies the lesson word for word, so you can put it in your own words.
- The skeleton and muscle labsTap any bone on the skeleton, and see the muscles light up on the model.
- Print the notesPrint the lessons and go old school.
- Case studies on your phoneBuilt into the site, saved as you go, there on your laptop when you sit down.
- Pin it to your home screenNo App Store and no Google Play. It is just there.
- No resit feesWork sent back is a chance to add more, with no resit fee.
- Return access for lifeQualify once and come back to the content whenever you need it.
- PT Manager from day onePT Manager is yours to learn on from the day you sign up. Using it with real clients comes once you hold your Level 3 and are listed on the FASTER Trainer Register.
- The FASTER Trainer RegisterA free listing on the Register once you qualify.
- Your certificates in one placeEvery course and its certificate on one page.
- Ask JohnThe Ask John button on every page, and his WhatsApp.
And PT Manager, free
51 tools to run your business, with no monthly fee and no cut of your money
PT Manager is yours to learn on from the day you sign up. Using it with real clients comes once you hold your Level 3 and are listed on the FASTER Trainer Register.
See all 51 tools
Set-up
- Import clients Bring a whole client list across in one go.
- My quotes Daily lines your clients see — yours, not stock.
- Programme templates The programme shapes you reuse — a session or twelve weeks. Pick one for a client, get your own copy.
- Exercise library Every exercise with FASTER coaching detail.
- Money Products, payments and who owes what.
- Send from your own email Connect your own email service so invites arrive from you, on your domain.
- My brand & client view What your clients see when they walk in — views, header, accent, logo.
- Your enrolment pack What every new client gets the moment you enrol them — your forms, ours, or a mix.
- Products and services What you sell — blocks, packages, memberships and one-offs, with their prices.
- Insurance Your policy on record — provider and expiry. Client features unlock while it is valid.
- My menu Switch any tool on or off — for your menu, your home and your whole account.
- Your website A free website on your own web address, filled from PT Manager. Or just the client sign-in door on your domain.
- Your public page Your verified Trainer Register listing, linking out to your own site and socials.
Business day to day
- Clients Your client list — invite, open a client, manage their space.
- Clubs Group your clients — a board they share, a programme or a monthly price if you want one.
- Challenges A dated push everyone logs against — for everyone you train, or for one club.
- Calendar Sessions, classes, capacity and bookings.
- Reminders The dates your business can't let lapse — insurance and first aid, nagged ahead of time.
- Nudges Who needs a nudge today — opportunities, one tap each.
- Who needs chasing Every conversation about money, in the order to work through them.
- What needs doing Your own list, in your own words — the jobs you keep meaning to get to.
- Till Sell at the desk — cash, card or on their phone — and download the sales sheet.
- What you are making What is coming in every month, what was paid in the last 30 days, and what sells.
Templates and systems
- Forms & interviews PAR-Q, consent, consultations and your own forms.
- Coaching room The coaching tools shelf — wheels, journeys and resources in one place.
- Radar wheels Build a life or performance wheel a client fills in — see change over time.
- Nutrition by FASTER Nutrition sheets and habits without meal-plan pretence.
- Pathways Automated coaching journeys you assign to clients.
- Programmes Start a programme — a session, a month, 12 weeks or a season — and find the ones you have built.
- Games & drills planner Build game-based sessions and drills.
- Sport screens Pick a sport — the shots to film, the analyser, and a ready-made radar of the qualities that matter.
- Movement screen → radar Read joint angles off the analyser — they auto-score and fill a radar wheel.
- Assessment builder Build and run client assessments and re-tests.
- Tag analytics Every tag across your clips, grouped and exportable.
Client
- AI prompts Your reusable prompt library for coaching copy.
- Before & after Side-by-side progress comparisons.
Trainer tools
- Exercise generator Fresh exercise ideas from constraints you set.
- FASTER dice & wheel Spin-and-roll session variety for groups and games.
- Movement demonstrator A 3D model of the FASTER movement patterns — body or skeleton view, prime movers lit up, live joint angles.
- Client video analysis Your media library — client folders and your own. Pick a clip to analyse.
- Movement by FASTER (HMAC) Human movement analysis charts — see how a client moves.
- Live analysis Mount your phone and coach live — skeleton, reps, angles and depth in real time.
- Tell a group One thing, to the right people — and you see exactly who it reaches first.
Media centre
- Video builder Reels, stories and client report videos, in your own branding.
- Image builder Branded posts and cards for your socials, at the right size.
- Shot list builder Every shot with its size, angle, lens, location, people, kit and sound; sorted into shooting order, ticked off on the day, printed or sent as a sheet.
- Storyboard builder Plan a video shot by shot: what the camera sees, what is said, the move and the cut.
- Script writer Write what you will say, with the word count and how long it takes to say.
- Teleprompter Read your script off the screen at your speed, and film yourself behind it.
- Video and image organiser Everything you have made and every source you can pull from.
- Ad builder Make your own ads, coached as you go, in your branding. As many as you like, no fee, no cap.
Frequently asked
Does this mean body-part cues are never useful?
No, they still have a place, especially early on when a client genuinely doesn't know where a movement should happen. The course's point is that once the basic shape is there, aiming attention at an outcome tends to organise the movement better than aiming it at a muscle or a joint.
What's the difference between a real target and a relative one?
A real target is a fixed thing in the room, a step, a wall mark, a line, so the height or distance never drifts between reps. A relative target is spoken, 'up', 'down', 'roughly there', which is faster to set up but leaves more room for a rep to land slightly differently each time.
Does Movement Trainer connect to PT Manager?
Yes. Passing Movement Trainer (AFT) opens PT Manager's full client tools, including the Radar Wheels, where a coaching conversation built on today's teaching point can be tracked against a client's own scores over time.
Reading this for your own training? Every trainer on the FASTER register has been assessed by us — search by town or speciality, free.
Find a FASTER trainer →
