Patrick White, a Physical Performance Coach at Bua Collective and a graduate of our BSc in Strength and Conditioning, discusses how he became interested in health and performance, his role at Bua Collective and studying with Setanta. 

An Early Beginning in Coaching 

Patrick grew up surrounded by sport, which is where his initial interest in strength and conditioning began. “I come from a small town in Kerry called Castleisland, where sport and being physically active is very popular. My father is very involved in youth development in soccer which is where I first garnered interest and seeing the development of S&C in other sports including GAA.

I started training teams at 18 years old when I took over an U14 basketball team. This progressed to underage girls football for a number of years, eventually being involved with our Ladies Senior GAA team which won an All-Ireland. I transitioned to Senior Men’s Rugby as an S&C Coach for 2 seasons with Castleisland before returning to my GAA club as a coach for 2 seasons. During this time, I worked alongside Donnie Buckley (Mayo Coach) to integrate the physical performance parameters into the tactical technical side of the game. Concurrently, I was involved with St. Kierans as a coach (Senior Divisional Team) and coaching with CrossFit PMI at the time while I completed my undergraduate with Setanta College,” Patrick shared. 

To further his career Patrick moved to Kildare where he joined Bua Collective in his current role. “In order to work in the field, I made the move to Kildare to take up a role with Bua Collective and for the past 3 years I’ve worked here, under the guidance of Jamie Lawlor to hone not only my coaching skills but the communication with athletes and those training for life.” 

Physical Performance Coach at Bua Collective 

At Bua Collective, Patrick has a number of responsibilities. “My main role with Bua involves coaching of our morning classes within our Naas location, taking our clients through warm-up, specific focus areas needed for the day and the workout. Following this, it’s developing that relationship with them to ensure they can trust you to develop their skills and strengths from which they can grow individually,” Patrick shared. “On top of that, I develop our extra sessions. These are sessions designed to supplement the main session, consisting of assistive exercises to help in the reductions of injuries but also challenge our members conditioning or strength depending on the day.” 

A typical day for Patrick involves a mix of hands-on coaching, planning, and personal development. “I’m on the floor coaching for three to four hours each day, Following on from this it’s either a mixture of meeting with our coaching team, having 1-to-1 conversations with our members on their training focus or designing the session for the following day. When time permits, I try to get some reading in which will aid in my own coaching development.” 

When it comes to his coaching approach, Patrick’s philosophy is simple: “Coach the person,” he shared. “Depending on the day, someone’s external stressors might be completely different to what their programme entails. On those days, communicating with the individual allows me to better coach that person and modify their training to meet them. It also works the opposite, when someone feels good, we can adjust to push them on.” 

Patrick works with a wide client base at Bua Collective from former and current athletes to the general population. “Our client base is vast but they all operate in the same class environment. We train everyone from former international rugby players, and intercounty players to parents and grandparents. Understanding where each individual is on their journey is important. So although they might do the same workout on a day, individual adjustments are made depending on their training age, fitness/strength level and any injuries they might have sustained. It’s done through careful manipulation of volume, sets, rest and movement prescription.” 

Patrick highlighted the importance of communication when it comes to training different types of clients from elite athletes to general fitness enthusiasts in order to meet their individual performance goals. “A lot of this comes down to communicating with them to develop a clear pathway for their training, including exercise prescription and volume. For those in higher positions of athletes, it’s about manipulating exercises to ensure their sport isn’t neglected or you’re not risking their physical well-being closer to the sports event. Likewise for the everyday athlete, who might need adjustments to volume in order for them to maximise their day and making choices that enable this.” 

Studying with Setanta College 

Having studied the BSc in Strength and Conditioning Patrick has been able to apply his learnings in his role at Bua Collective. “One of the key skills I’ve gained has been the ability to analyse information from training and research which can be applied in an appropriate scenario to make choices best suited to the athletes I coach on a daily basis,” he shared. 

Patrick offered some insightful advice to aspiring coaches. “Be open to all feedback. It will help you develop. This feedback can come from other coaches but also from your athletes that experience your sessions. It helps you to build better connections with those you serve and those you work with.” 

Looking to the Future 

“Within Bua my goal is to help foster the environment of small progresses on a daily basis through empowering our athletes to make better choices. Hopefully, I can do this through educational discussions with our athletes on topics specific to their training.

On a personal level, my communication can always improve, so investing time working on that is important. I would like to broaden my knowledge through upskilling around the area of exercise rehabilitation over the coming years to further our athletes within our environment too.”