Who online coaching suits
Three groups, and they want quite different things.
Former in-person clients who have left Thailand. These are the easiest, because the hard part is already done. Jack has seen you move, knows what your knee does under load, and knows how you respond to volume. Continuing remotely is just a change of delivery.
Expats elsewhere in Asia. If you are in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines or anywhere else in the region without a coach you can actually communicate with, the problem is not usually availability of trainers. It is finding one whose cueing lands in your first language and who understands what your gym has in it.
People arriving in Pattaya later. Retiring here in six months, relocating in three, or booked for a long stay next high season. Starting now means you arrive already training rather than starting from zero with jet lag and a new climate. The transition path is at the bottom of this page.
A fourth group is worth naming: people who are perfectly capable in a gym and simply want somebody competent writing the programme and holding them to it. That is a legitimate reason to hire a coach and online is often the right format for it.
What online coaching actually delivers
Stripped of marketing language, three things.
- A written programme built for you. Based on your training history, your goals, the equipment you can actually reach, and the number of days you will realistically train. Not a template with your name typed at the top.
- Video technique review. You film your working sets from an angle Jack asks for, he watches them and comes back with corrections. This is the part that separates coaching from a PDF. Filming yourself is also unusually educational — most people find out their squat does not look like they thought it did.
- A regular check-in and adjustment. What went up, what stalled, what hurt, what you skipped and why. The programme changes on the back of that. A programme that never changes is a document, not coaching.
Ask about the specifics when you enquire — how the programme is delivered, how videos get sent, and how often check-ins happen. Those details are set when you start rather than guessed at from a web page.
What online coaching cannot do
This section is here because coaches who pretend the gap does not exist are the reason online coaching has a mixed reputation.
- No hands-on cueing. Sometimes the fix is a hand placed on your ribs so you can feel what neutral means. Words are a slower route to the same place, and occasionally they do not get there at all.
- No spotting. Which changes what can safely be programmed. Heavy bench work to genuine failure without a spotter is not a good idea, so the programme uses safer ways to reach the same stimulus.
- No real-time load decisions. In person, Jack watches your third rep and decides the next set is going up or down. Online, you make that call. He can teach you how — and that is worth learning — but on any given day the judgement is yours.
- No accountability by physical presence. Nobody is standing there at 7am. If you need somebody in the room for the session to happen, online will not fix that and it is better to know now.
- Nothing clinical. Jack is a trainer, not a physiotherapist or a doctor. He does not diagnose, treat or rehabilitate, and doing any of that remotely would be worse still. If something hurts in a way that is not ordinary training soreness, see a clinician where you are.
What closes most of the gap is filming honestly. Send the ugly set, not the good one. A coach reviewing your best rep is being paid to look at the wrong thing.
The time zone thing
Most English-speaking online coaches are in North America, the UK or Australia. If you are in Asia, that means your check-in call is at either end of the day and your questions sit unanswered while your coach sleeps.
Jack is in Thailand. For clients anywhere from India through to Japan and Australia, that means messages get answered inside the same working day, and a call can happen at a civilised hour for both people. If you have ever waited fourteen hours to find out whether to keep going on a programme, you already understand why this matters.
It also means the seasonal and practical context is shared. A coach in Ohio does not know why your March sessions fell apart. One who has trained people through a Southeast Asian hot season does.
An American coach who lives in Asia
This is a narrow niche and it is precisely the point.
Jack is American, coaches in native English, and has around 20 years of experience. He also lives in Thailand, which means he already understands the things expat clients spend their first three months explaining to a coach back home: that your gym has no barbell, that the dumbbells stop at twenty kilos, that eating in a surplus is hard when it is 34 degrees, that you travel for visa reasons, that your building’s gym is a room with three machines and a treadmill nobody has serviced.
A programme written by somebody who assumes a well-stocked commercial gym and a Western supermarket does not survive contact with that reality. One written by somebody who has coached inside it does.
The same principles that apply to in-person coaching apply here. No lock-in contracts. No supplement sales. No cookie-cutter programmes. The full version is on about Jack.
Online versus in person, honestly
| Factor | Online | In person |
|---|---|---|
| Technique correction | Delayed, from video | Immediate, mid-set |
| Load decisions | Yours, with guidance | Jack’s, in real time |
| Spotting | Not available | Available |
| Accountability | Check-ins and honesty | Somebody is waiting for you |
| Best for | Self-starters, experienced trainees, people not in Pattaya | Beginners, anybody nervous, anybody working around a restriction |
| Where you train | Anywhere with equipment | Pattaya and Jomtien |
If you are a complete beginner and you have the option of training in person, take it. The first two months are when a coach standing next to you is worth the most, and bad habits learned unsupervised take longer to remove than they took to acquire. If in-person is not an option, online with honest video is still far better than guessing.
Starting online, finishing in person
This is the most useful thing on the page for anyone with a plane ticket.
If you are moving to or retiring in Pattaya in a few months, the worst version of the first fortnight is arriving unfit, jet-lagged and unacclimatised, and then trying to start training from nothing in an unfamiliar climate. Most people do not start. They start next month, then the month after.
The better version: begin online now, wherever you are. Build the habit, learn the movements, arrive with a base. Then the first in-person session is a continuation rather than a beginning — and Jack already knows your history, so the movement screen is a confirmation rather than a discovery.
On arrival, the options are a partner gym on day passes, sessions in your condo, or outdoor work in the cool hours. If you are in a hotel while you look for somewhere to live, hotel gym sessions cover the gap. Acclimatisation deserves its own read: training in Pattaya heat.
It works in the other direction too. Clients who trained with Jack here and then left Thailand often carry on remotely, because the relationship and the history are already built.
Frequently asked questions
What do I actually receive with online coaching?
A programme written for your equipment and schedule, video technique review of your working sets, and a regular check-in where the programme gets adjusted. Ask about delivery specifics and check-in frequency when you enquire.
Is online coaching as good as in person?
No, and it is not close for beginners. There is no hands-on cueing, no spotting and no real-time load decisions. For experienced trainees, self-starters and anybody not in Pattaya, it is still far better than following something you found online. See the comparison table.
I am in Bangkok / Vietnam / the Philippines. Does that work?
Yes. Anywhere in Asia is a straightforward time zone match, and Jack already understands what regional gyms and diets actually look like.
I move to Pattaya in four months. Should I wait?
No. Start online now so you arrive already training, then switch to in-person sessions once you land. Your history carries over, so the first session is a continuation rather than a fresh start.
What equipment do I need at home?
Whatever you have. Tell Jack what you can reach — a full gym, a condo gym with three machines, or a pair of dumbbells — and the programme gets written for that rather than for an imaginary facility.
Can Jack coach me around an injury online?
He can programme around restrictions a clinician has already given you. He cannot diagnose, treat or rehabilitate anything, in person or remotely. See back pain and mobility for where that line sits.
Coaching from anywhere in Asia
Tell Jack where you are, what equipment you can reach, and how many days a week you can train. If you are arriving in Pattaya later, say when.