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Become a Strength and Conditioning Coach

 

Nobody wants to see their sports champion falter or their teams fail. A major factor behind an athlete’s performance is the effectiveness of strength & endurance training.

The performance boost requires the guidance of strength and conditioning (S&C) coach. They are the people who work behind the scenes to make an athlete competitive.

A strength and conditioning coach helps successful as well as aspiring athletes and sportspersons by helping them gain strength, prevent injury, and boost performance to win in the respective sphere.

The demand for the strength and conditioning coaches is consistently rising, especially in high schools and colleges in the United States.

The job outlook data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that the employment of coaches and scouts will grow 11 per cent between 2018 and 2028.

According to Zippa, the strength and conditioning coach positions are preferred by males. Although males account for 73.8% of the total applicants, anyone passionate about sports could be a strength and conditioning coach. All you need is a good understanding of sports and skills to communicate and motivate effectively.

strength and conditioning coach demographics

What is a Strength and Conditioning Coach

A strength and conditioning coach is a professional who helps athletes and sportspersons enhance physical endurance and performance. Strength and conditioning coaching is closely related to sporting activities.

The strength and conditioning coaches are associated with sports such as:

  • Track & Field
  • Powerlifting
  • Soccer
  • Rugby
  • Basketball
  • Handball
  • Volleyball
  • Brazilian Jiu-jitsu
  • Swimming
  • Track cycling

Strength training and aerobic conditioning are used by coaches to enhance the performance of an athlete. The training improves the level of strength, speed, and endurance.

The strength and conditioning coach also helps with the right techniques to prevent injuries.

What does a Strength and Conditioning Coach do

The strength and conditioning coaches work with athletes by focusing on improving skills.

S/he develops systematic, safe, and effective training programs. The programs are designed specifically keeping the needs of an individual athlete or team.

They often work with the head coach, other coaches, and support staff. The work involves preparing and integrating athletic development programs.

Role as strength and conditioning coach requires you to:

  • Assess performance before and after the program
  • Maintain workout records
  • Provide expert advice for strengthening and conditioning
  • Guide athletes about proper training techniques, sporting techniques
  • Supervise & check athletes during workouts

As a coach, you will help athletes in identifying performance-limiting actions and look for actions that could cause injury.

A part of your manual would be to develop a protocol for:

  1. A range of movements
  2. Strength testing
  3. Physical testing
  4. Power testing

The elaborate programs will include:

  1. Resistance training
  2. Conditioning training
  3. Flexibility, mobility, warm up, and warm down programs
  4. Agility drills

As a strength and conditioning coach, you are expected to provide information on:

  • Healthy eating
  • Basic supplements
  • Diet that supports training goals
  • Physiological recovery after injury

As a strength and conditioning coach, you also need to design rehabilitation plans with team doctors, physio, and medical staff.

How to Become a Strength and Conditioning Coach

To become a successful Strength and conditioning coach you need to be a graduate, certified, and have relevant experience.

Start by enrolling in a relevant undergraduate program. Later on, you can add a professional coaching certification to build credibility.

An institutional program helps you get an S&C certification and gives you the opportunity to build a network with alumni. This network could be of great help in finding the first break as an intern and gaining experience with time.

The individual strength and conditioning coach can climb the ladder and become:

  • Directors
  • General Managers in Training
  • Directors of Training
  • Wellness Director
  • Club Manager
  • Director of Facilities and Operations

The career progress depends on the individual’s expertise and experience. The typical career path is depicted below:

Become a Strength and Conditioning Coach strength and conditioning coach

The details of education, skills, and certification required to become a strength and conditioning coach are:

#1. Strength and Conditioning Coach: Education Requirements

You need a Bachelor’s degree (BS/BA) and a basic understanding of Kinesiology or Exercise Science to start as a strength and conditioning coach.

Kinesiology, the scientific study of body movements, could be a great asset for your career progression

If you have certifications related to fields like Human Movement and Sports Science, then this will help you position yourself as an expert.

You need to be a graduate to take the entry-level test for the S&C certification program.

strength and conditioning coach degrees

The popularity of the job has made the Strength and conditioning coaching hyper-competitive, making bachelor degree mandatory for the job in premium institutions…

According to Zippa, 17.04% of the applications for strength and conditioning coaches were from the California University of Pennsylvania and 54.4% of them were with Kinesiology as major

strength and conditioning coach education

Certificates

Certification demonstrates that;

  • You have the professional expertise
  • Establishes credibility
  • Gives you a head start in jobs

Globally, there are several institutions that can help you get strength and conditioning certifications. Few of the best institutions are as under;

A. The National Strength and Conditioning Association, the United States

The association offers a Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach (C.S.C.S).

For taking the certification exam the candidates need to have a bachelor’s degree (BS/BA). Additionally, you need to have a current CPR / AED certification.

You can take the exam in any of the five languages (Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish).

B. UK Strength and Conditioning Association (UKSCA), the United Kingdom

The association is a professional body for strength and conditioning coaches in the U.K.

For becoming a “UKSCA Accredited Strength and Conditioning Coach (ASCC), you need to

  • Take the UKSCA membership
  • Have a bachelor’s degree in sports & exercise science

C. Australian Strength and Conditioning Association (ASCA) Australia

ASCA provides Level 0, 1, 2 and 3 of strength and conditioning accreditation courses.

The levels show the experience of the participants and the environment of coaching. Like, Level 1 for community / club, Level 2 for State/ National and Level 3 for Elite/ International.

A university-level qualification is not mandatory to be an accredited ASCA coach.

For seeking jobs, a graduate degree in Human Movement and Sports Science is preferred.

Other Professional Certification Authority

#2. Strength and Conditioning Coach Requirements

The essential skills that you will need to become a strength and conditioning coach are;

1. Effective

Communication – As a strength and conditioning coach, you will be working with a diversified group of people, like;

  • Head coach
  • Team administrators & managers
  • Sports medicine professionals
  • Student-athletes
  • Professional athletes
  • Parents
  • Media

You should be equipped with skills to communicate effectively with all types of people for all types of purposes it should be equally good in both written and verbal.

Institutions and teams prefer hiring coaches having better communication skills, especially in handling the public and media.

sheep, bleat, communication
Image from Pixabay.com

2. Having an Eye for Details

The success of the performance-enhancing program depends on the quality of data collection and interpretation. You should have requisite skills to make data and information collection robust and build a process to analyze them efficiently. The better is the data quality the better would be performance analysis and advice.

This skill helps you to be precise in finding problems and suggest measures accordingly. Your athletes and team will appreciate your preciseness.

3. Motivator & Educator

Success is the biggest motivator, but every student-athlete and sportsperson goes through the demotivating phase of failures. In such a scenario, they normally avoid taking bigger challenges, which in turn hurts their career.

As a strength and conditioning coach, your skill to motivate and educate could help you establish yourself as an expert. Your words and acts could encourage them to achieve milestones easily.

4. Taking Initiative

Most of the athletes fail to acknowledge their own potential in the early days. As a strength and conditioning coach, you can help them identify the potential and hone skills to touch new heights.

Most of the time, as a strength and conditioning coach, you have to take the initiative in helping your students remain focused on the goal.

You may be required to start performance projects and assessments independently. Until you take initiative you will not be able to add value to the team and individual’s performance. Taking initiative will help in the effective discharge of job responsibilities.

5. Being Ethical

ethics, right, wrong
Image from Pixabay.com

Strength and conditioning coaches need to have the highest ethical standards in the best interest of the athlete, sports, profession, and society. They need to treat all athletes fairly without any bias.

It is very natural to fall into the trap of unethical practices when it comes to winning, fortune, and fame. Maintain the highest ethical standards to keep the integrity of the sporting culture.

6. Leadership Skills

A strength and conditioning coach brings out the best performances from athletes.

For that to happen, you need to have leadership skills so that the student-athletes have faith in you. Leadership skills will help them follow your instructions and take your guidance.

How much does a Strength and Conditioning Coach make

The salary for strength and conditioning coach depends on qualifications and experience. As per Payscale, the salary is;

  • $27K for the fresh Strength and conditioning coach
  • Over $63K for well-connected and established coaches
  • Average S&C salary being $40,276
Become a Strength and Conditioning Coach strength and conditioning coach

Salary insights published on Human Kinetic is under:

  1. Salaries for strength and conditioning coaches are almost alike personal trainers. Ranging from $40,000 to $60,000 in the United States.
  2. The head conditioning coaches working at the college level earn in the range of $45,000 to $75,000. But you can find coaches with salaries as much as $200,000.
  3. The strength and conditioning coach engaged with professional teams earns up to $100,000 per year.

Another salary analysis from the career expert Zippa shows;

  • That the average yearly salary in the United States is $45,160
  • Which is approximately $22 per hour
  • The Fresh Strength and conditioning coaches earn $24,000
  • The more Experienced coaches earn over $82,000
Become a Strength and Conditioning Coach strength and conditioning coach

Why Should You Become a Strength and Conditioning Coach

As a strength and conditioning coach, you have the potential to positively impact the performance level of the individual athletes and collectively of the team. The reasons for becoming a strength and conditioning coach are as under;

#1. You can Help Student-athletes Discover their Greatest Potential

As the Strength and conditioning coach, you use your knowledge & expertise to help athletes improve performance.

The lessons on using the correct strength enhancement techniques can help raise the athlete’s performance to a higher level.

#2. Strength and Conditioning Coach can Further Athletic Career

Using Kinesiology & Exercise Science, a strength and conditioning coach can help sports person condition body. Conditioning training will help to avoid life-threatening fatal injuries.

Fatal injuries can be prevented through;

  • The routine exercise
  • Warmup / warm down drills
  • Specific body movements

Thus helping individuals remain associated with the sport for a longer time.

#3. Strength and Conditioning Coach Addresses Individual Athlete’s Needs

The Strength and conditioning coach focuses on individual performance levels by addressing their physical and mental needs.

They do so by designing an individual-specific athletic development program. Where they focus on techniques, routines, food, psychology, heart rate, other body movements, and energy levels.

#4. Changing Lives

As a strength and conditioning coach, you have the ability to change lives.

You bring a positive change in an athlete’s life when you work on;

  • Enhancing physical strength
  • Building endurance
  • Preparing mental toughness
  • Suggesting appropriate food & nutrition
  • Giving psychological help

You teach an important life lesson of pushing the limits and challenging yourself.

Conclusion

Strength and Conditioning coach plays a key role in increasing the individual and team’s performance standards. Thus making a lasting impact on student-athletes’ life.

To become one, you need to have a caring nature, passion for motivating and educating student-athletes.

Start by having a relevant graduate degree and getting accreditation from a reputed institution.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is a Strength and Conditioning Coach?

A strength and conditioning coach is responsible for designing and implementing effective exercise programs that improve the physical performance of athletes. They work with athletes of all ages and levels of ability, from recreational to professional.

What does a Strength and Conditioning Coach do?

A strength and conditioning coach works with athletes to improve their overall athleticism, increase their strength, improve their speed and agility, and reduce their risk of injury. To do this, a strength and conditioning coach must have a comprehensive understanding of the principles of exercise science, biomechanics, nutrition, and sports psychology.

What certifications do you need to be a strength and conditioning coach?

Certifications needed to be a strength and conditioning coach vary depending on the country in which you live. However, most coaches will need to complete a certification from a governing body such as the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) or the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).

How much money can you make as a strength and conditioning coach?

The salary of a strength and conditioning coach can vary greatly depending on experience, location, and level of responsibility. However, the average salary range is typically between $30,000 and $80,000 per year.

How do you become a professional strength and a conditioning coach?

To be a successful professional strength and conditioning coach, you need to have a deep understanding of human movement and how the body functions during exercise. You also need to be certified by a reputable organization such as the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).

How much does a Strength and Conditioning Coach make?

According to Indeed, the average salary for a Strength and Conditioning Coach is $49,000. This can vary depending on experience, location, and other factors.

 

 

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