Inside The OPEX Method Mentorship Week 3: Dr. David Skolnik’s Takeaways How to Get Great at Assessments
This blog series will document the 10 week experience of Dr. David Skolnik as he goes through the OPEX Method Mentorship. Follow along as we add to this blog each week.
Week 3: How to Get Great at Assessments
How do you become a coach who sees what others miss? It starts with the thing many skip, consistent and thoughtful assessment. In week three of The OPEX Method Mentorship, strength coach Dr. David Skolnik shares lessons from week two that sharpen the way we observe, interpret, and act on what clients show us. If you coach people in person or remotely, this will help you build trust, clarity, and better training plans.
The Quote That Changes How You Coach
A line from Carl, one of the mentors, has been echoing all week: to be good at assessments requires a lot of experience doing assessments. You learn to trust your eyes and your systems by practicing them over and over. Not on a few clients, on dozens. Think 50 to 100 reps of the same assessment sequence before your confidence catches up.
That volume builds your mental library. You start to know what a solid squat looks like in a range of bodies. You learn the difference between a hinge that is limited by hamstrings, and one limited by lack of patterning. You can spot a plank that looks fine at second five, but crumbles at second twenty. Even a simple assault bike test becomes a rich data source when you have enough reps to compare against.
The test gives you data, but experience sharpens interpretation. Over time you shift from guessing to actually assessing.
Every Client Is an N of One
There is a second point that pairs perfectly with the first. Every client is an N of one. Even if you have coached 300 clients, the person in front of you brings a unique mix of physical history, training background, lifestyle constraints, and mental state. They are similar to others in some ways, and different in key ways that matter.
That is why principles and frameworks matter, but they are not the whole story. You need a strong framework to guide your lens, then you need the judgment to adapt it. The more assessments you run, the faster you can spot what matches your past experience and what is new in this client. That balance makes you a better coach.
The Three Main Goals of Assessment
Clear language helps coaches think clearly. The mentorship anchored assessment around three goals that work for you and your client.
Build awareness
Provide context
Create transparency
These sound simple, but they shape every step of your process. Here is how to apply them.
Goal 1: Build Awareness
Assessments make the invisible visible. As the coach, you gain awareness of the client’s current abilities and limitations. The client gains awareness when you share what you see in plain language.
You notice the right knee caves at depth on the squat.
You see a breathing pattern that stays in the chest under stress.
You confirm aerobic capacity is fine, but repeatability falls apart in set three.
Your job is to mirror that back without judgment. You are not hunting for flaws, you are mapping reality. When clients see the map, they drop guesswork and buy into a plan. That shared awareness also improves self-coaching. People move better in sessions and make smarter choices between sessions when they know what matters.
Goal 2: Provide Context
Where are we now, and how far are we from the goal? That is context. It includes timelines, checkpoints, and the exact first steps. It also covers constraints, like sleep, job stress, equipment, or injury history.
Useful context sounds like this: based on your hinge pattern and current back-to-legs strength ratio, we will spend four weeks on tempo RDLs and split squats. Your goal of pain-free deadlifts from the floor is realistic in 8 to 12 weeks if you hit three sessions weekly and sleep 7 hours nightly.
Context sets honest expectations. It highlights the variables your client can control, like nutrition, recovery, daily steps, or extra breath work. You set the direction and the pace together.
Goal 3: Create Transparency
Transparency turns assessments into trust. When you have objective data, it becomes simpler to know whether the plan is working. You can point to changes in movement quality, strength numbers, pacing, or repeatability and say, this is better, this is the same, or this got worse.
Clients who understand the why behind their plan stay engaged. They see a clear path from starting point to desired outcome. Dr. Skolnik noted that many clients stick around longer when they can see the plan, not just the workout of the day. They know they are not being pushed too hard or babied. They see how each choice ties back to the goals they named and the tests you ran.
What Practice Looks Like in the Real World
If you want to hit those three goals routinely, you need reps. Not just on new clients. If there is a new piece of your assessment process, apply it to your current roster. Run the same shoulder screen across your ten longest clients. Add a simple bike repeatability test to the mix next month. Rewatch videos of squats across your client list and compare notes.
Two things happen when you do this:
Your eye gets sharper, because you see the same pattern across many bodies.
Your communication improves, because you explain the same finding many ways.
That is how confidence grows. Not by reading about assessment, but by doing it, reflecting, and doing it again.
A Simple Assessment Framework You Can Use
You do not need to reinvent the wheel. Start with a straightforward flow, then refine it with experience.
Intake and goals: capture training history, constraints, and clear definitions of success.
Movement screen: squat, hinge, lunge, push, pull, carry, plus breathing and bracing.
Capacity checks: simple cyclical test, strength balance, repeatability under low fatigue.
Debrief: share findings in plain English, agree on priorities, and set the first 1 to 3 steps.
Reassess cadence: pick checkpoints at week 4, 8, and 12, based on the goal.
Keep it boring and consistent. The magic is not in fancy tests, it is in consistent testing, clean data, and honest interpretation.
Turning Data Into Decisions
Assessments are only useful if they shape training. Here is how to move from data to action.
Find the limiter: is it mobility, strength, skill, aerobic base, or recovery behavior?
Match the tool to the limiter: tempo work for control, volume for capacity, intervals for pacing, breath work for stress.
Dose it correctly: meet the client where they are, then progress in small, visible steps.
Communicate the why: restate what the test showed and why this next step fits.
The client should be able to explain their plan in a sentence. If they cannot, simplify it.
The Long Game: Trust Your Eyes, Then Verify
As you rack up assessments, your eye will predict the data before the numbers land. That is good, but keep verifying. Your bias will sneak in if you do not stay anchored to objective measures. When the data does not match your first read, update your view, and tell the client what changed. That is transparency in action.
You can also grow your toolkit through structured education. If you want a guided path through assessment, program design, and business systems, explore the OPEX Method coaching education. For plug-and-play tools, check out the OPEX free coaching guides. If you want software to build plans and track assessments, start with CoachRx’s free trial. If you prefer daily micro-lessons, try LearnRx for bite-size education.
A Coaching Example You Can Adapt
Here is a simple scenario that reflects what many coaches see. A remote client wants to get stronger and improve conditioning for weekend sports. Your assessment shows:
Squat depth is fine, but knees cave late under load.
Hinge pattern is solid at tempo, but speed breaks bracing.
Bike repeatability falls off hard after set two.
Sleep is 6 hours on work nights.
Your plan for the first month:
Strength: tempo front squats at moderate load, split squats for control, and paused RDLs.
Conditioning: short bike repeats at a pace the client can match for four sets, not two.
Behavior: 30 minutes earlier bedtime on weekdays, with a simple wind-down routine.
Your message to the client: the tests showed strong potential, with control and repeatability as the key gaps. This plan builds control first, then layers speed and volume. We will retest repeatability in four weeks and adjust.
That is awareness, context, and transparency in one simple arc.
Tips for Sharper Assessments This Week
Film the basics: record squats, hinges, and planks from two angles.
Standardize language: use the same cues and rating scales across clients.
Share visuals: show side-by-side clips from day one and week six.
Time-box tests: keep repeatability tests short so the client finishes strong.
Write your debrief: script your main talking points before you hop on a call.
Small tweaks compound fast when you apply them to every client.
Keep Practicing, Especially With Veterans
It is easy to test new clients and coast with long-term ones. Flip that. Your best chance to improve your eye is with people you already know. Add one new assessment to their next block. Compare results with their training history. Update priorities, even if it is a small shift.
That habit keeps your process fresh and your clients engaged. It also builds the repetition you need to trust what you see.
Final Thoughts
Great coaching starts with great assessment. Do enough of it and you stop guessing. You build shared awareness with the client, set honest context, and create transparency that keeps people showing up. Pick one part of your assessment process to sharpen this week, apply it across your roster, and see what changes.
If you want help building a complete system, study with the OPEX Method program, grab the free assessment and program design resources, or organize your work inside CoachRx. What will you test next?
Next Steps
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