While many bask in the sweltering summer sun, I am busy preparing athletes for their upcoming season. I’m also working with a few dozen college-bound athletes, sharpening their physical tools and mindsets as I help prepare them for the rigors of collegiate athletics. Additionally, I support a couple of minor league players and am working with a group of Division I basketball players. To say that I am busy would be an immense understatement.

So, while many enjoyed beers at the holiday cookouts I attended on the Fourth of July, I drifted into a deep reflective state as the night wore on. As the number of sober people around me dwindled, I began to fall into a web of intense thoughts revolving around my future, my finances, and my purpose as a professional.

Luckily for me, my girlfriend saw that I was slipping into a catatonic state and whisked me away from the table to tell me we were leaving. She knows that I zone out at parties when I'm surrounded by thirty- and forty-somethings that drunkenly attempt to relive memories of their glory years. Sorry to offend anyone, but tales of age-old athletic achievements and bar fights become mind numbing pretty quickly.

On the drive home, my mind was flowing with thoughts. (Un)fortunately for you, I have provided you a number of them via my bandwidth clogging prose. You may be able to relate to some, or at least find them applicable, as many of them apply to coaching.

Treat those trying to break into the industry with respect.

I remember, and this was as little as three years ago, when I was attempting to break into the strength and conditioning field. Then, I was a 26-year-old full-time office slave and part-time personal trainer who just completed a graduate program and earned a CSCS. I eagerly contacted a number of strength and conditioning coaches within driving distance to inquire about internships. Only two got back to me, and one of the responses was riddled with condescension. Fortunately, one coach graciously provided me a chance to assist his program, but the ones who didn't respond to my innocuous inquiries displayed the blatant lack of respect that many coaches have for people trying to get where they are one day.

Anytime I get an e-mail or call from someone wanting to break into the industry, I invite them to come down to catch a workout with me, take them to lunch and talk shop, and provide them with any assistance or advice I can offer.

If you’re contacted by a student or someone who isn't as experienced as you, offer them as much help as you can. While it may seem like a hassle at times, know that your response can truly make a difference to someone.

Keep in mind the differences among high school, collegiate, the pros, and the private sector.

Strength coaches and those aspiring to work in the field must become cognizant of the differences among each sect within the strength and conditioning industry.

Presently, I serve as the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach of a medium-sized charter school. I have also briefly worked at the college level and as an independent contractor, so I can speak from experience in regards to working with high school, college, and private sector athletes.

At the high school level:

  • You work with athletes who fall along the entire continuum of biomotor skill proficiency and acquisition.
  • You work under tight time constraints. Oftentimes, athletes may only have one to two hours per week to devote to a strength and conditioning program.
  • You are able to help the athlete develop good habits and establish good form, as this is an athlete's developmental primetime. Doing so ensures that you’re setting him or her up for success throughout his or her athletic career.
  • You must deal with not only the athletes and the athletic department coaches, but also their parents, coaches who aren't associated with the school, and in some instances, college coaches who are recruiting the athlete(s) you’re working with.
  • You must realize that anything you program and implement with these kids will be successful with adherence and consistency. I can relate to this as a former high school athlete myself. I followed a high volume bodybuilding program which primarily consisted of single-joint exercises, and it added twenty pounds between my freshman and sophomore years. (I should also point out that I benched every day and improved my bench press from a shaky one-rep max with a bare Olympic barbell to 200 pounds within a year).
  • In a smaller school, you’re typically dealing with a number of multi-sport athletes. In larger schools and in higher grades, you’ll encounter more athletes who have specialized. Each athlete comes with a unique set of demands.
  • You’ll typically assist with physical education classes or teach them. In addition to coaching and teaching responsibilities, you’ll oversee the school’s fitness center (I actually hold the glorious title of Head Strength and Conditioning Coach and Fitness Director. I like it because it makes me sound really important and that, coupled with a handful of acronyms after my name, pollutes business cards and e-mail signatures like a boss).
  • Many strength and conditioning coaches in high schools, especially in public schools, are part-time or serve on a voluntary basis. Some may hold other duties, such as a position or sport coach.
  • Budgets are small or, in some instances, non-existent.
  • Athletes and non-athletes typically share the same facilities.

At the college level:

  • The gap between the skill level and physical abilities of the athletes you work with is comparatively smaller.
  • Time restrictions are now imposed by governing bodies, such as the NCAA or the athletic department, university committees, or coaches.
  • Unless the parent(s) of an athlete donated large sums of money to the school, they yield no influence on your job.
  • Budgets are typically larger, especially in bigger schools and those with successful athletic programs.
  • Strength coaches may or may not have additional fitness and teaching duties.
  • Facilities may or may not be shared by athletes and the rest of the student body.
  • Depending on the size of the school and its budget, you may be responsible for one sport or all of them.
  • You may or may not have assistants, graduate assistants, or interns working under you. If you don’t, may God bless you.

At the professional level:

  • Every athlete you’re encountering is a freak. While they may not all be equally as gifted physically, the skill level and/or mentality they encompass are unparalleled.
  • Off-season responsibilities and league bylaws limit the amount of time a strength coach can work with an athlete. In the NFL, coaches may work with players as few as four to six weeks during the off-season.
  • Higher paid athletes usually have their own trainer who works with them in the off-season.
  • If it ain't broke, don’t fix it. You’d be surprised how many professional athletes, especially sprinters and power athletes, are locked into an anterior pelvic tilt or can’t score a three on an FMS to save their lives. Some athletes may display form that is so atrocious that it looks like they belong in a Globo Gym squat rack, not in a multi-million dollar team facility. Your number one priority, however, is to not get these guys hurt. If you do, you’ll be relegated to a life of trolling on message boards and selling personal training packages and tanning sessions at your neighborhood commercial gym.

In the private sector:

  • You’ll encounter polar extremes in age, ability, goals, and needs.
  • Pay is typically inconsistent and usually depends on the volume and type of clients you train.
  • When you’re successful, you can hand pick your clients.
  • When you’re not established or when you're working for someone else, you cannot choose the clients you work with.
  • When have your own facility or work as an independent contractor, you are your own boss.
  • The competition is downright cutthroat, especially in major metropolitan areas and their suburbs.

Coaching is the art of applying a philosophy. Teaching is the art of applying a science.

As a coach, you must employ your philosophy in a tactful and effective manner. As a strength coach, you must establish your philosophy and live it. I’m not referring to training philosophies here. I’m talking about a philosophy which embodies hard work, dedication, effort, consistency, and intensity. As a coach, you preach these attributes to your players and practice them. Do you think an athlete is going to take a strength coach seriously if all he does is fritter his spare time away by playing Candy Crush and Angry Birds and opting for the leg press instead of the squat rack? Hell no.

As a teacher, you must make science digestible and applicable. Unless you’re working with athletes who are exercise science majors, they really don’t care about the ins and outs of exercise physiology and biomechanics. For the vast majority, you must show them how physiological and biomechanical principles apply to their training so that they can gain a better understanding. A simple explanation or brief demonstration will resonate well with an athlete who already has enough on his mind. You will only lose him with exercise physiology and biomechanics parlance.

Inspiration Should be Mutual

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been inspired by my athletes—whether they’re setting PRs in the gym or I'm reading about their performances in the newspaper. I draw inspiration from them which fuels my work and my own training sessions. I try my best to inspire them by busting my ass off when I’m training, and in turn, I'm motivating them to put forth their best possible effort. Ideally, athletes and coaches should inspire one another to get better.

No training methodology is flawed if it produces results.

While the aforementioned statement seems a bit tenuous from a scientific standpoint, results will always trump what is stated in textbooks. I’d be a fool to denounce research and education, as each has provided me the foundation I use to write effective programming, but there are times when methodologies are proven successful without being backed by textbooks and research findings. If you get your athletes to believe in your system and if they bust their asses, it will work.

For ages, coaches have produced results with ostensibly archaic or asinine methods. I know of a successful baseball program that has its players run a mile before and then two miles after each practice. I work alongside a legendary swimming coach who has produced Olympic medalists with training methods that would make those perched in the ivory tower of academic cringe. If you get results, who cares—as long as the health and safety of the athlete isn’t jeopardized.

So, if you’re the football strength coach who hasn’t changed your pyramided bench/squat/clean lifting program paired with miles of agility ladder work since the Ford Administration, but who continues to produce winning seasons, who cares?

Managing the Coach-Athlete Relationship

It’s no secret that I love my athletes, but I’m not their friend. Other than training alongside them and talking about school, sports, and current events, you won’t catch me hanging out with them outside of work. This line is often blurred, and when it becomes blurred, the formal relationship that should exist between coaches and athletes is lost.

I don’t have social media accounts, and outside of emergencies, professional-related matters, and training and nutrition related questions, I do not communicate with my athletes via text or phone.

When an athlete feels compelled to tell me of his weekend exploits, I interject with, “if you wouldn’t share this with your mother, don’t tell me.” This keeps them out of trouble and prevents you from forming a heavy conscience.