Archive for mentorship
So you want to be an S&C coach? Part 3: Continuing your development!
Posted by: | CommentsFirstly, if you’ve missed any of the past 2 parts you should go back and read them before you read this.
Click here for part 1 which is all about getting the knowledge required.
Click here for part 2 where I look at how you can get your coaching experience.
This post is all about once you’ve got some experience and are working in the industry, how do you keep on evolving and progressing into the coach that you really want to be.
We all have specialist areas of interest within the umbrella term of strength and conditioning coach. You need to have a level of competency in all the areas of job which are:
- Coaching and designing strength and power sessions and programmes.
- Coaching and designing speed, movement, and conditioning sessions and programmes.
- Rehabilitation and injury mechanisms for your sports and all sports.
- Periodisation and annual planning for the training units above.
- Nutrition, lifestyle support, psychology basic understanding and application.
- Underpinning knowledge of anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, S&C principles.
- Monitoring and recovery and principles behind these.
- Comminication with coaches/athletes and clients. For some this comes easy, for others it has to be the primary area of focus as this is what really gets you results!!
- S&C for specific populations- Rugby, MMA, Youth, etc etc.
But within these areas (and you may include more than me) most people will have a specialist interest. For me it is the strength and power training as well as movement and agility training. But I also have a strong interest in nutrition and injury prevention too. There’s a lot to keep up to date with and there are so many sources of information out there to read/watch/listen to.
The hardest thing as a full time S&C coach for me is finding the time to keep up to date, but at the same time I personally believe that it is absolutely imperative to do so!! So managing your schedule to include reading time, reflection time etc is very important. You’ll never have as much free time as when you are studying and immediately following your studies when you’re looking for work, so I would make the most of it and try to get through as many books and DVDs as you can!
I still read a fair few books, but I find it easier to digest information through blogs, websites and DVD’s.
Here are a few websites/blogs that I would highly recommend you check out:
- Vern Gambettas blog on athletic development- a pioneer in the field with a huge amount of experience.
- Eric Cressey Blog- Eric comes up with some gems of knowledge generally on the corrective exercise side of things.
- Mike Boyles strengthcoach.com website- another pioneer in the field and a wealth of information on this site.
- Strengthcoach.com podcast- a great resource to listen to on your way to work.
- Strengthpower hour podcast- a great resource featuring the one and only Bill Kraemer. Well worth listening to purely for his gems of wisdom.
- NSCA online journals- a very good resource in general that you can tap into quickly and get some good info from.
- Professional Strength and Conditioning (UKSCA Journal), most of you will be members but the journal has good overviews of research areas that are worth reading.
- Precision Nutrition- John Berardi’s website has some great nutritional information for coaches that I’d highly recommend.
- EliteFTS website- a must for the strength and power training, this site has some great practical info (including a handful of articles from myself 
)
- TNation- A bit of a bodybuilding site but some good authors on there contributing some good stuff all be it with a physique slant. Still well worth checking out though.
- UK Athletics coaching website: Some great podcasts and articles on speed training, strength training recovery and more on here.
Reflection is the Way Forward!
One of the best ways I have found to improve my coaching is to find the time to regularly reflect on what it is I’m doing. I don’t mean sitting cross legged with some whale music in the background, unless you really feel the need, its more about finding 5 minutes to think about how that session went, or how your exercise selection could be improved for the next phase of training. I always carry a diary with me and regularly write notes when I have an idea for a movement or exercise for a specific population. I also scribble down websites to check out when people mention them to me in the gym, and anything else for that matter. I keep the pad by my bed at night too so that when I wake up in the night I can remember the ideas that come up (and pass it to my therapist). Incorporating this into your week will improve your performance as a coach, so make time to do it!
Continuing Education:
This is of course a key concept, not only for developing as a coach, but also for maintaining our accredited coach status with any reputable organization.
Here’s a few courses that I’d recommend you check out along with a load of books that are worth a read too:
- Mobilis Performance Injury prevention workshops: These are written by top physio Martin Haines. This guy is an encyclopedia of knowledge and experience. The courses are good, some is difficult to apply in an S&C setting but worth the investment.
- UKSCA Annual Conference: Always an excellent couple of days and a bargain at the price. Duncan French has done a great job organizing it these last few years.
- Movement Dynamics Physical Competency Workshop with Kelvin Giles: Kelvins philosophy has been a great influence on many coaches including myself. Get to his workshops if you can.
- Optimal Shoulder Performance- Cressey and Reinold. Another great product from these guys and well worth the investment if your are interested in this area.
- High Power Plyometrics DVD: Jim Radcliffe is an authority in the area. Fairly basic but good overview of plyometrics.
- Training for Warriors DVD- Martin Rooney: A good voerview of what a practicing coach is doing with their athletes. Great watching!
- Kelvin Giles Movement Dynamics- Physical Competency screening and athletic development manuals- The best screening process out there in my opinion from a leader in the athletic development field.
- Practical Programming for strength training- Rippletoe: A great guide to periodisation from a practicing coach. Well worth a read.
- Starting Strength- Roppletoe: An in depth look at the basic barbell exercises which form the cornerstone of most S&C programmes. Great investment.
- Developmental Essentials: IYCA manual: With contributions from some great coaches, this manual is a must if you work with young athletes.
- Tapering and peaking for optimal performance- Mujika: This is the text to get if you wanrt to learn from the authority on tapering. Truly a great resource.
- Athletic Development- Vern Gambetta. Need I say more? Buy the book.
- Nutrient Timing- Ivy and Portman: Released a while ago but a good look at the science and practice behind nutient timing.
- Sport Physiologuy for coaches- Sharkey and Gaskill: Some interesting stuff on monitoring training loads as well as basic physiology which is always good to go over again.
- Theory and application of modern strength and power methods- Thibaudeau: Great little text on strength and power training with a good overview on the more commonly used methods.
- Stretch to win- Frederick: Really good book on fascial and general stretching methods. Highly recommended.
- Qualitative analysis of human movement- Knudson. A great look at kinematic biomechanical analysis of movement. Helped me a lot during my MSc studies.
- Stability, Sport and Performance Movement- Elphinston: Great book recently released from a UK physio covering screening info, progressions and regressions from late stage rehab through to healthy.
How do you want to develop?
There’s a load of different topics covered on this list from strength training to stability and stretching to nutrition. All of which are part of the S&C coaches scope of works so to speak. You need to have a good understanding of all these areas from and theory and applied perspective. All the learning material you need was covered in part 1 of this series. When you are coaching everyday you will find the gaps in your knowledge through your experience which should lead you to the right resources to check out. Following this it is down to you as the individual to decide which areas you want to develop more or less than others which for most of us will be based on our personal interests as we all like to read the things we are interested in. However its still important to keep in touch with other areas that are important within the role. For me I’ll always be happy to read up on athletic development, strength and power training, and sport specific S&C, sometimes I need to push myself to read up on nutrition as there’s always something else that you can put to the top of the pile, even though I have an interest in this.
Where are you and where do you want to be?
Identifying your areas of development is a better way to develop your knowledge than simply reading random stuff you come across on the internet or wherever else. Its nice to have time to read what you want to read, I think this is very important, but I would also recommend having a kind of must read list, which should be based on your development needs as a coach. I try to get my interns to write up a competency map as I call it when they come into the programme which is basically a profile of where they are in terms of knowledge and experience coming into the post on a 1-5 scale with 5 being the best coach you can be in that area. I usually talk this through with the individual and then identify areas of development. It works very well You need to get to a baseline in each quality in order to be able to do the job well and this should be addressed first, from there you can choose to go down a specific path to improve your knowledge in that area. Then you can bring up your weak areas when you feel like they need improving. Very often this will be triggered by something that goes on at work, or a conversation with a colleague about programming etc which meakes you think you need to brush up in that area. These are all healthy things to be doing and will improve your competency as a coach no end.
Who’s in your network?
One of the main ways you can keep yourself sharp is to pick up the phone and call up someone else in S&C. Have you ever heard that phrase ‘you are the sum of the 5 people you spend the most time with’, make sure those 5 people challenge you in some way and from an S&C perspective get you to think about your programmes and ideas. Even if you decide to keep everything the same at least you’ve rationalized your programme.
So that completes part 3 and the series as a whole. Had a load of good feedback on this series which makes me think that it was probably worth writing! Again to your success, Brendan
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So you want to be an S&C Coach?? Part 1: The Knowledge!
Posted by: | CommentsI’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!
- Strength and power training- Supertraining, Science and practice of strength training, S&C biological principles.
- Conditioning prescription- Exercise Physiology
- Movement, speed, agility and plyometrics- Training for Speed, Agility and Quickness, Gamespeed, High powered plyometrics,
- Injury prevention/reduction- Low Back Disorders, Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance, stretch to win,
- Anatomy and physiology and biomechanics- Muscles, testing and function. Florence Kendall- Surely one of the landmark anatomy texts available today, Biomechanics of human movement
- Periodisation/Russiona Strength training- Block Periodisation, Transfer of Training in Sports- Bondarchuk, bompa
- 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.
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
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