I’d say that I get a couple of emails a month asking for advice and if I have any internship opportunities etc and the best way for them to make it as a strength and conditioning coach.

This is the first in a series of posts with a goal of answering a few of those questions that people trying to get into strength and conditioning tend to ask me.

The first question that people ask is do I need a degree? Or what courses do you recommend?

In a nutshell I think you need to look at obtaining professional accreditation which gives you the ability to practice as a strength and conditioning coach.

Which professional accreditation? Well, if you want to work in high performance sport whether it be Olympic sports, pro sport etc then the best one in the UK is the UKSCA. If you are not bothered about working for organizations and are happy working out of a health and fitness gym or starting your own gym you don’t necessarily need the UKSCA qualification, however it is still in my opinion the gold standard for S&C in the UK and I would value that more than say, reps level 3 and some vocational courses because I know what you have to go through to get it and it shows that you have some fundamental knowledge that most trainers do not seem to have. Does it make you a great coach?? Absolutely not! I know UKSCA accredited coaches that need a whole lot more experience before they get let loose in the industry, and I know excellent coaches who don’t possess it. One thing is for sure though, most employers recognize it and it makes it a whole lot easier to get recognized as a professional.

You don’t need a degree to get your UKSCA qualification, or the CSCS from the states. However you do need a baseline of knowledge that is degree level to pass the exam and to have the underlying knowledge to do the job well.  A degree in sports science or equivalent will give you some of the knowledge such as basic physiology, a sports therapy/physio degree will cover the anatomy but very few undergrad courses will completely cover all bases to give you that rounded education required. Post grad courses such as MSc in strength and conditioning will give you a better base (this is what I did) but even then there are areas that you just need to go off and research yourself. Of course if your goal is to work in academia or conduct research on your athletes then a post graduate qualification would be preferable.

In terms of the professional recognition that comes with a degree or Masters, this is another question. I am certainly open minded when it comes to education and will consider experience and UKSCA qualifications more so than a degree, but I know that a lot of organizations insist on at least an undergrad degree for their coaches and it will certainly help your case to have one. That being said, the industry is changing and I think that it will become less relevant in the future with a greater emphasis on professional qualifications and experience. The bottom line is that is is probably going to be easier for you to break into high level sport with a degree, but it is not the only route to go down.

Whether you go down the uni route or not, your theoretical knowledge is best addressed through an entry level strength and conditioning text such as essentials of strength training and conditioning. In conjunction with getting out there and getting your hands on people (More of this in the next post). That is a great book for the newbie to the industry and the practice questions in that are probably not far off from the standard in your CSCS and UKSCA exams. From there you can branch out and buy some more books looking at specific areas in more depth. Below is a list of books that I recommend. Many of these are a little more advanced than the essentials textbook so be prepared!

1. Strength and power training- Supertraining, Science and practice of strength training, S&C biological principles.
2. Conditioning prescription- Exercise Physiology
3. Movement, speed, agility and plyometrics- Training for Speed, Agility and Quickness, Gamespeed, High powered plyometrics,
4. Injury prevention/reduction- Low Back Disorders, Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance, stretch to win,
5. Anatomy and physiology and biomechanics- Muscles, testing and function. Florence Kendall- Surely one of the landmark anatomy texts available today, Biomechanics of human movement
6. Periodisation/Russiona Strength training- Block Periodisation, Transfer of Training in Sports- Bondarchuk, bompa
7. Whatever else floats your boat!

The books listed above are quality reading material by authors at the top of their game. There are so many more but these are the ones I would recommend to start with.

I will go through some more resources that I recommend in one of the future parts of this series on continuing development.

As far as courses go, again I would turn to the UKSCA initially as they offer a few courses that give a very good overview of the job and give you some of the knowledge required to do parts of the job.

Other than that, there are mentorships and internships being offered all over these days some of which are very good, others I’m sure a pretty poor. Ive seen personal training companies offering sports performance courses. Whilst the theory might be all well and good, they are not going to teach you how to do the job as they aren’t written by S&C coaches. In this country, my friends Duncan French and Nick Grantham offer a 3 day mentorship which knowing both these guys very well and with the experience they have will be a great few days no doubt.I also have a 3 day course running this year which you should check out.  I can also say that the RFU level 2 award in S&C is a decent qualification because I am a tutor on it J and the content is good, with plenty of practical as well as theory! It goes in a little underneath the UKSCA accreditation but is a good intermediary recognised qualification.

Personally, I learn a lot from videos as well  as books, and there are some excellent DVD resources that I would recommend you check out.

Mike Boyle Functional Strength Coach 1,2,3- Awesome resource really inspiring stuff from Boyle.

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Mike Boyle Advanced Programme Design- As above, great set.

Stuart McGill- Ultimate back- good look at McGills philosophy, needs to accompanied by his books to get the full picture.

Cressey and Robertson- Building the Efficient Athlete- An excellent overview of functional anatomy for the S&C coach

Lee Taft- Groundbreaking movement 1 : A very good look at movement training and progressions, really breaks down movement well in this set.

I hope that’s given you a good overview of how to get the level of knowledge required to do this job. Now go away and buy some books!! Oh and if you want some free resources including a recovery giuide, information on plyometrics and core training sign up to my newsletter by leaving your email in the box on the right.

To your success!

Brendan