5 tips on how to get started in Strength and Conditioning Coaching

Posted On Wednesday, 03rd November 2010 at 04:01

 I am constantly asked on the best ways to get started in Strength and Conditioning Coaching. This post will helpfully answer most queries.

Understand what it is to be a Coach first.

The discipline in which you Coach is of secondary importance to your ability to Coach.

• Do you naturally share information with others?
• Do you communicate well with people outside of your own peer group?
• Do you have an innate desire to help other people fulfil their potential?

If so, then Coaching could be for you.

1. Research the Coaching opportunities available to you. 90% of Coaching in the UK is part time and unpaid. 80,000 level 1 football Coaches are "qualified" every year, but there are very few people making a living from Coaching football. S&C Coaching is very much smaller than that, so have realistic expectations.
2. Start small and start local. The sooner you start the practice of Coaching the better. Self reflection, the learning from mistakes, the networking with other Coaches are all essential parts of becoming a successful Coach. Local teams, clubs and schools will trip over themselves to accept if you offer free help.  30 weeks of working on a Tuesday and Thursday night in the cold and dark will soon make you realise if you are cut out for it or not. Better to learn that way and for free sooner rather than later.
3. Be careful what courses you pay for. Paying £000's to sit in a University for 3-4 years, without any practical experience, being taught by lecturers who have very limited Coaching experience is not the way to become a good Coach. It may be part of it, but remember that Universities are businesses and they are competing for customers. Similarly, going on a 2 day kettlebell instructors training course is not much help either. 
4. Learn, learn, learn. Libraries and the Internet are great resources for learning. You tube is great if you aren't sure of an exercise. You need to be reading all the time. Books are better than the internet because it takes time to acquire and direct the knowledge.The problem is filtering all that information which is why it is useful to...
5. Find a mentor. Learn from someone who has been there, done that and made thousands of mistakes. I pick the brains of 3-4 people whom I trust and have helped me along the way. All are vastly more experienced than I am.  They can point you in the right direction of which books and journals to read, which courses to attend and help you with problems that are bound to crop up.

Coaching pathway diagram here