I’ve been out of school now for 5 years, and I’ve been working as Strength Coach for 4 of those years (give or take). The majority of my coaching experience has been at the High School level.
It has been a tremendous experience thus far, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. As most things go though, there are a few things I wish I would have known during my undergraduate years to make my transition to a professional career that much easier.
If you’re reading this, I hope I’ve caught you early enough in your journey that you can act on some of these and expedite your journey.
Teaching Credential/Certification Will Open More Opportunities
Most strength coaches I know got into the profession wanting to work in a Division 1 program or with professional athletes. High School programs aren’t even on their radars or are seen as a stepping stone to bigger and better things.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to work in that arena, but if your main interest is to work with athletes than high school is where its at. Now that I’ve said that, it’s time to point out the problems that you’ll run into.
Most young guys (or girls) entering into college thinking that they want to be a strength coach pursue degree programs in exercise science/physiology, kinesiology, or something along those lines. Those programs will do a very good job of teaching you the X’ and O’s of what it would take to be a competent strength coach, they’ll even map out the steps you need to take in order to get a job after graduation i.e. certifications (CSCS or SCCC), internships, graduate degree/assistantships, etc.
Now that’s a very good road map if you want to work in a college or professional sports setting. That map will not set you up to get a full-time job in a high school though. Some states such as; Indiana, Minnesota, Texas, (to name a few) do a very good job of creating full-time positions for strength coaches that do not require a degree in education, or a teaching certificate. You would essentially function the same as a P.E. teacher just with an emphasis on athletic development.
Unfortunately these examples are the outliers, and in most cases you will need at the very least a teaching certificate in order to get a job as a “teacher”. While I had my high school position, the P.E. Teacher had accepted a position with another school and had recommended me as his replacement to the Principal. I ultimately did not get the position, solely because of my lack of that certification.
Had I gotten the position though, nothing about my responsibilities would’ve changed. I still would’ve been programming for the entire athletic department like I had been. The only thing that would’ve been different was that I would’ve been able to make the training more uniform across the entire school day, given kids who couldn’t stay after school an opportunity to train, and allowed me the opportunity to expose more of the non-athletic population to the weight room.
While I do enjoy my current position, I know with absolute certainty that had I not been hindered by my lack of a teaching credential I would’ve happily spent my entire career there.
Not All Experience is Created Equal
Now I don’t want this to be misconstrued as though I’m saying you need a certain type of internship or volunteer experience (FBS vs. Div 3), or you need to work at a certain place (NFL/NBA/MLB vs. High School/Private Facility) in order to position yourself better when it comes time to apply for jobs.
From a learning perspective, all experience if approached correctly can be tremendous in your development. I learned an incredible amount about coaching from my time working part-time as a high school coach, that has carried over to my work in college.
What I mean by “Not all experience is created equal” is when it comes to applying for jobs in the future. After my initial internship, I applied for dozens of graduate assistantships in order to continue gaining work experience, and to receive my masters degree. I ended up never getting one, but me not wanting to be stuck in a holding pattern for an extended period of time decided to apply to a flexible online graduate program, and use my time at the high school as a pseudo graduate assistantship.
I thought this was a great idea; I’m getting my masters, I don’t have to give up my full-time job, and I’m getting paid to coach (making a pretty decent living between the two), and I’m gaining experience. Win-Win. What I found though while most strength coaches understand that working in a high school is valid experience, the people in HR whose job it is to work their way through 100’s of resumes will think otherwise.
I found this out the hard way. I received a message from an HR pro. on Linkedin in regards to an assistant position that had become available and thought I might be a good fit for. This would’ve been with a storied Division 1 program, and in most instances the “IT” job that everyone pines for.
At that point I had close to 4 years of total coaching experience (9 months college, 3 years high school) far exceeding the “two years experience” that they were looking for. Unfortunately, while I had almost 4 years of experience, my high school years were not counted as “valid” experience.
I don’t hold this against the HR professional, they’re given certain criteria to search for in order to provide the best candidate pool. It did open my eyes to what you can expect when it comes time to find that job.
People Will Think they Know More Then You
The amount of education, certifications, and volunteer experience you have to attain before you even get your first paid job (Part-Time or Full-Time) is unreal. You would think with all that, people would trust your expertise when it comes to training athletes.
Unfortunately, that is very rarely the case. You will be judged/questioned/second guessed constantly by sport coaches, parents, and administrators, all of whom will have their own opinions/perspectives on how you should be training their athletes.
It’s not just relegated to any one level either. During my time at the High School, I had several instances where coaches would tell me what I should/shouldn’t be doing with their athletes/teams. When I pressed them as to why they felt that way, their only justification was “thats how we did it when I played” or “Colleges do it, so we should be doing it to”.
Outside of that, they really had no other justifications for why they wanted to do those things. It’s understandable as to why coaches do this. They might have experienced success doing it, and don’t want to stray away from what they think will help to continue that success.
Now there is no great way to to combat this. You can educate the coaches/administrators as best you can, and hopefully they will trust your judgement/expertise on the matter. Be sure to have your programs mapped out with a justification for everything you’re doing so when it comes time to be evaluated they can not argue against what you do, and how you do it.
Conclusion
My insights might be different than other coaches who have been in the game longer than I have. My hope is that if you are someone looking to pursue strength & conditioning as a career, that you will take a few things away from this, and act on them in order to help you through your career path.