The organisations we work with, and why

A partnership is a working relationship with a defined purpose. It might mean that we refer clients to a clinic for assessment and receive a summary back. It might mean that a certifying body accepts our Academy coursework toward their continuing education requirement. It might mean that an equipment supplier replaces a faulty item for a client in a city where we do not have a coach. In each case the relationship has a scope, a contact on both sides, and a document that says what each party does.

What a partnership does not mean is that the partner has approved our coaching, audited our practice, or endorsed the outcome of any individual client. A certifying body recognises education; it does not certify the quality of every session a coach delivers. An equipment brand makes good equipment; it has no view on whether a programme is well designed. When a client sees a partner mark on this site, it should be read as a statement about a working relationship, not a transfer of credibility from the partner to us.

We also do not accept payment for a partner listing. Some partnerships involve commercial transactions, because equipment costs money and clinics charge for assessments, but the money never flows in the direction of a listing fee. The moment a partner can buy placement, the placement stops being information and becomes advertising.

Education and certification partners are the bodies that provide credentials our coaches hold or that recognise our Academy coursework. These relationships matter most for the coaching standard, because they determine whether a coach arrives with a qualification that means something. They also involve the least commercial interest, since a certifying body earns course and exam fees from the individual coach rather than from us.

Clinical referral partners are the physiotherapists, sports medicine physicians, registered dietitians and psychologists to whom our coaches refer clients. These are the relationships that make the scope of practice boundary operational rather than theoretical. A coach who knows who to send someone to, and who receives a useful summary back, gives better service than one who hands over a vague suggestion.

Equipment and product partners supply the goods we use or resell, including the apparel and equipment sold in our store. These relationships are the most commercial and are therefore subject to the strictest independence rules: a supplier cannot influence programme design, cannot require a favourable review, and cannot pay for placement in a recommendation.

Community and institutional partners are schools, sports clubs, employers and municipal programmes we deliver into. These relationships are usually service contracts rather than endorsements, and the terms are set by the institution. They are included here because transparency about who we deliver for is part of answering the question of who we are.

Vetting begins with the question of what the relationship is for. A partnership that exists because a supplier wants access to our clients is a different proposition from one that exists because our clients need a clinical service we cannot provide. We write down the purpose first, because a partnership with no purpose other than visibility will not survive the questions that follow.

For education partners, we check the credential structure: whether the exam is invigilated, whether there is a practical assessment, what the continuing education requirement is, and whether the body has a public complaints or discipline process. A certifying body that cannot explain how it handles a complaint about one of its holders is not a body we want behind our coaches credentials.

For clinical partners, we check registration with the relevant regulatory college or board, current professional liability coverage, and the practical question of whether a referral produces a useful response. A clinic that accepts referrals and sends back a two line note is technically registered and functionally useless. We ask each clinical partner to confirm how they report back, because the reporting is what makes the referral worth making.

For equipment and product partners, we check the product itself before the commercial terms. Where an item is used in coaching, a coach tests it in real sessions and records what they found. Where it is sold, the specification and return rate are reviewed. A supplier that cannot answer a question about warranty handling is not ready to be sold through this site.

The most common conflict in fitness publishing is invisible: a brand pays for a review, a coach repeats the brand line, and the reader has no way to tell the difference between advice and advertising. Our rule is simple. A commercial partner cannot pay for a favourable recommendation, cannot review a draft before publication, and cannot require the removal of an unflattering finding.

Where an affiliate relationship exists, it is disclosed at the link rather than in a site-wide footnote. Where we resell a product, the margin is ours and we say that the item is sold by us. Where a partner provides a product free of charge for testing, the item is either returned or purchased at cost, and the fact of the loan is stated in any write-up that results from it.

Clinical referral partners are held to a stricter rule again, because a referral is a recommendation about someone health. We do not accept a fee for a referral, we do not operate a preferred provider scheme that rewards volume, and a coach who refers to a clinic outside the network does so freely. If our coaches refer to a partner clinic more often than others, that pattern should be explained by the clinic being good rather than by an incentive.

A coaching relationship regularly reaches the edge of what a coach is qualified to handle. A knee that has been sore for six weeks, a client who faints during a warm up, a postpartum client who has not been cleared, a client whose relationship with food has become disordered. In each case the correct response is a referral, and the quality of that referral depends on having someone specific to send the client to.

Our clinical partners are named on our referral list by discipline and city, and each has agreed a reporting format so that the coach receives usable guidance rather than a diagnosis with no training implications. Where a client prefers their own practitioner, the coach works with whatever information that practitioner provides. The network exists to make a good referral easy, not to restrict where a client can go.

Confidentiality runs in both directions. A coach sends a summary of what was observed and what was being trained, not the client entire history. The practitioner returns clearance and any restrictions. Neither party shares more than the referral requires, and the client is told what is being shared before it is sent.

The credential a coach holds is only as good as the body that issued it. Our education partners are assessed on four things: whether the assessment is invigilated, whether there is a practical component, whether continuing education is required to maintain the credential, and whether the body operates a complaints process that can actually suspend someone.

Where our Academy coursework is recognised for continuing education credit by a partner body, the recognition is stated with its terms. Continuing education credit means the coursework counts toward maintaining a credential. It does not mean the partner has reviewed our coaching, our coaches or our client outcomes, and it does not mean the Academy is accredited as a school unless that word is used explicitly.

Coaches who hold credentials from bodies outside the network are still welcome to work with us, provided the credential meets the requirements published in our coaching standards. A partnership makes the verification path faster; it does not make an otherwise unacceptable credential acceptable, and it does not make an acceptable one worth more than it is.

Equipment is the easiest place for a coaching business to lose its independence, because the margin is real and the temptation to recommend what you sell is strong. Our approach is to separate two questions that are usually blended: is this a good product, and is it a product we sell. The answer to the first is recorded before the second is negotiated.

Anything we recommend for use in training is tested by coaches in real sessions, over enough weeks that a fault becomes visible. Faults are recorded rather than smoothed over. Where a product has a limitation that matters to a specific population, that limitation is stated in the write-up, because a client with a shoulder issue needs to know that a piece of equipment loads the joint differently rather than discovering it in the third week.

For items sold in our store, the specification and the return rate are reviewed together. A product with a high return rate is removed regardless of margin, because the cost of a bad product is a client who stops trusting the rest of our recommendations. Warranty handling is part of the assessment: a supplier that makes a return difficult is a supplier that turns our support team into a complaints department.

We deliver programmes into schools, sports clubs, employers and municipal recreation departments. These relationships are service contracts, and they raise a different set of questions from a product partnership: who holds the duty of care, who manages safeguarding for minors, who owns the data generated by participants, and what happens when the contract ends.

Safeguarding is the first item in any institutional agreement. Where participants are minors, every coach involved holds a current vulnerable sector screening, communication stays on the institutional channel, and a named member of staff at the institution is responsible for raising concerns. This is not negotiable and it is the reason some institutional work takes longer to start than the client expects.

Data ownership is settled before delivery. Participant data belongs to the institution or the participant, not to ElitePTS, and it is returned or deleted at the end of the contract according to the terms. We do not use institutional participant data for our own marketing, and we do not add participants to a mailing list without their own consent.

Every partner is reviewed annually against the reason the relationship exists. A clinical partner is reviewed on the quality of returned reports as well as their registration. A product partner is reviewed on return rates, warranty handling and any recurring fault. An education partner is reviewed on whether the credential structure has changed. A community partner is reviewed against the delivery terms and any incidents during the contract.

Removal is not dramatic. Most partnerships end because the purpose disappears: a clinic closes, a product is discontinued, a contract is not renewed. Where a partner is removed for cause, the cause is specific: a registration lapse, a failure to honour a warranty, a change in assessment rigour, or a conflict that cannot be managed. Removal is recorded with a date and a reason.

When a partner is removed for cause, any content that referenced them is reviewed and either updated or withdrawn. We do not leave a mark on a page because removing it is inconvenient, and a stale partnership claim is a misrepresentation even when it was once accurate. If you see a partner claim on this site that no longer holds, tell us and it will be corrected.

If you run a clinic, a certifying body, an equipment brand or an institutional programme and you think there is a working relationship worth having, the starting point is a short description of what you do and what you would want the relationship to achieve. Be specific about the purpose. A message that says you would like to partner with an established brand without saying why is difficult to answer usefully.

We will tell you quickly if there is no fit. We are a small team and we would rather decline than keep a conversation alive for the sake of politeness. Where there is a fit, the vetting described on this page applies, and it applies without regard to the size of the organisation involved. A large supplier and a single physiotherapy clinic go through the same questions.

We do not offer paid placements and we do not run a sponsorship tier that buys visibility. If what you are looking for is advertising, our position is that advertising is clearly labelled and never presented as editorial. If what you are looking for is a working relationship with defined obligations on both sides, that is exactly the conversation we want to have.

If a partner mark appears on this site and you want to know what it means, ask. We will tell you the scope of the relationship, the date it was last reviewed, and whether any commercial transaction is involved. That information should be available without a formal request, and the fact that most websites do not offer it is not a reason for us to match them.

The same applies in reverse. If you are considering a service because a coach or a page claims a partnership with a body you trust, check with that body directly. Certifying bodies and clinics are used to the question, and a claim that cannot be confirmed by the organisation it names is a claim worth treating with suspicion.