30 Tips For Starting Your Career in Strength and Conditioning

I have seen lots of bad advice for developing coaches over the years. As we approach another graduation period for students in education, I thought I'd share some thoughts and reflections as an S&C coach who spent their career balancing coaching, coach education and research.

Below are a list of things I think are true, but maybe not all that popular...

1. How you think is more important than what you think. You don't get employed for your opinion; you get employed because of their trust in your ability to solve problems independently. Develop HOW you think.
2. If you want to get into S&C, but graduate from your UG degree without a substantial amount of coaching experience, don't try to get in full time. Get a different job that challenges some transferable skills and coach part time. Play a long game.
3. Learn from everyone and everywhere. You can learn useful things from CrossFit, researchers, pro-sport, salesmen, bodybuilders, personal trainers, sports coaches, and business owners. No-one is better than anyone else so remove all snobbery.
4. There is a popular trend for 'university is pointless'. But how many coaches with a certain level of expertise do you know that don't have a degree? There are very few. It doesn't mean none and it doesn't mean you have to go through the university system, but I have seen far too many student transformations for it to be considered pointless. Remember it is VERY easy to forget how little you knew, how much you learned and how much of that you now use.
5. Research isn't meant to solve your coaching problems. It is meant to help you understand each component so YOU can solve more problems, more effectively, by yourself. Understand the key principles and apply them to your situation.
6. Become excellent at the basics. Understand physics, anatomy and how the different systems of the human body adapt. Don't worry about the latest training method available as an eBook.
7. If you have completed a certification which involved paying your fee, consuming some content, and receiving a certificate. Or even paying a fee and having a multiple-choice test before receiving your certificate, just remember it means very little and is just CPD, not a 'certification'.
8. The best way to know if you understand something is to write about it or tell someone about it who asks good questions. The worst way is to read or listen to someone else explain it. Generating information is not the same as being given information that you nod along to.
9. Set your job expectations appropriately. Coaching is a passion for many, it doesn't mean you need to make a full time living from it. How many sport coaches do you know that coach FT? How about coach part time because they love it? Probably more. Remember part-time isn't failure.
10. If you are considering an MSc straight from your UG degree, probably don't. Unless you are exactly sure of your desired destination, go work, coach, explore and search. Don't stay in the system because it is easy to.
11. Just because you have completed an MSc, you don't deserve to be paid any more than someone else who hasn't. You can't pay your way to a higher salary. You either provide more value, or you don't.
12. You have to earn things, not just money, but everything. Respect, opportunities, knowledge, and skills. Earning is the reward for hard work. Always reflect on how hard you have worked over the past few years.
13. Elite sport or even coaching full time isn't for everyone. You can still take your skills and use them in plenty of other environments/ways. Schools, physio clinics, commercial gyms, research, start a business. Different things suit different people, work out what suits you.
14. Opportunities multiply as they are seized - Sun Tzu. If you say yes to something, two more doors will open. Say yes to one of those, more will open again. Say no? You are simply creating your own hurdles later. Start your career by saying yes, say no once you're are more established. As an example, I have been as S&C coach for 10 years and have only just started saying no.
15. Find a good mentor. If they aren't genuinely interested in your development, find a different one. Can't find one? It might be because you aren't the kind of person a mentor wants to help. Seek feedback on your attitude and communication first. Also remember you need to provide a little value to. What are you learning you can relay, what are your ideas, what are you seeing? Reflect, take on advice and openly share.
16. Decide if how you get to spend your day is more important to you than money. Lots of people who earn a ton are miserable. Of course, that buys them more time in the future, but it isn't the same path for everyone. Google: The story of the businessman and the fisherman.
17. Giving up isn't failure. Sometimes realising you are on the wrong path and changing it, no matter how difficult, is the smartest thing you can do.
18. Be careful with social media. What 'works' on social media is the opposite to what works in day to day coaching social media = Polarising, controversial, attention seeking, absolute. Coaching = Collaborative, adaptable, humble, uncertain, nuanced.
19. There isn't one path to success. In fact, taking a different path probably increases your chance of success. Look outside the norm and don't follow the crowd.
20. Focus on building momentum, not on building your network. You can know or be known by lots of people, but if you aren't achieving great things and moving forwards, you won't move anywhere. Do good work, collaborate and be open to new opportunities.
21. Learning starts when things get hard. When things get hard, people give up. If the learning is important, don't be one of the people who give up or search for shortcuts.
22. The Dunning-Kruger effect is the biggest issue is coaching. If you think you have the right answer, remember you probably don't. The problem is, the first rule of Dunning-Kruger club is you don't know you are part of Dunning-Kruger club. Just assume you are part of it most of the time.
23. You have to be active. Being passive and waiting for something isn't going to work. You need to go and get something.
24. Listening > speaking. But speaking at the right time gets you higher up the job pile.
25. Direction beats speed. Take a break, re-evaluate and reflect. If one-year passes, it is less of an issue than choosing the wrong thing, spending more money, and wasting the next 5 years. Career decisions take time.
26. Everyone gets imposter syndrome. Saying you don't know is absolutely fine. And to be honest, it will probably increase the likelihood you'll find a job.
27. Have a plan and make decisions. The plan will change, but that doesn't matter. If you are unsure and need to drift, drift with purposeful exploration.
28. Don't let the competition in S&C be all consuming over your life. Yes, you need to optimise things and strive to be better all the time, but also learn about other things. Marketing, finance, relationships, or whatever else interests you.
29. Don't get sucked in by FOMO. Lots of what you see will be hype or great marketing but may be a mediocre product.
30. People work with people they like. Be someone that you would want to be around!

If any of this has been useful, or you are on your journey as an S&C coach, download our 5 steps to enhancing your expertise in strength and conditioning and like the Strength Coach Curriculums page to see what we can do for your professional development.