It all started with discussions about the development of the individual athletes in Finnish elite and professional sports. It was year 2014. We agreed that too many athletes in Finland are not reaching their full potential.

There is already some individualised physical training in Finland, but to reach the top an athlete needs individual and, above all, competent sport-specific coaching in a holistic way. You need to understand the needs of the sport and the performance of an athlete both mentally and physically. However, such a private coaching service for athletes that combines sport specific training with physical and psychological coaching was missing in Finland and globally as well.

We started thinking that this type of coaching service should exist. Not only was there a huge need for this, but it would have been an injustice to the athletes of today and tomorrow if we had not set out to develop our service.

To reach the top, an athlete needs to be coached with quality and consistency on a daily basis. We believe that things can always be done better and we emphasize the importance of holistic thinking in everything we do.

Athletes must be provided with a training environment that takes into account the individuality of every single athlete. Training and drills should improve the athlete’s performance in the competition itself.

Existing policies need to be challenged and we need to think how the way of doing things can be improved. We never do things because they have been done before, but we base our actions on research and successful models in practice. We are constantly analysing our activities and looking at new and different ways of working to make our coaching more effective. We believe in open and collaborative development.

In our holistic coaching, skill, physical and psychological coaching are always present. To reach the top, the training environment must be motivating. We need to be able to justify and explain to our athletes why we do the things we do. Progress must also be monitored over the long term. So you don’t get to the top overnight, but you can get there if you do enough of the right things. As Aristotle has aptly pointed out:

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

With SAHA, we have made individual training and coaching a part of Finnish elite and professional sports coaching. We want to help as many athletes as possible in different sports to rise to the elite of their sport and reach their true potential. There are too many examples of promising young athletes who were never able to reach to their full potential because they were not given quality coaching. We have experienced first-hand what effective and ineffective coaching can be. We have a clear picture of what effective coaching is and how people reach their peak.

We have learned a lot from our work in professional sports, but our work is not limited to just sports. Excellent results and growing demand have demonstrated the need for our know-how wherever there is a desire to develop and learn new things. Today, we want to share our know-how and expertise with anyone who wants to maximise their potential through sports.

SAHA is for everyone who are interested in reaching their full potential. Athletes, coaches and all people interested in sports. SAHA is the future of sports and coaching. Welcome to join our community!