Having worked with athletes for probably the last five or six years, it’s been a very eye-opening experience, but working with sporting teams really opens your eyes to a new world of strength coach development. More importantly how things are really done.
Now a lot of people think that strength coaches just exist in the weights room. That’s partly true but a lot of times strength coaches live behind a computer and an Excel document. A lot of them spend time in meetings with other coaches to discuss things that are position specific, understanding the field of play, understanding the style of play among others.
Your job is try and make their athletes stronger and less likely to injure themselves. Period.
What I’m going to be putting here is more than just the weight lifting, more than just the programming that you have to write. These are some of the real life qualities a strength coach needs to possess, and the kind of things you have to think about when working with sporting teams.
The ability to be seen but not be distracting.
I have a hard time with this one simply because I’m a loud guy. I like to goof around and tell jokes and play practical jokes on people, but a big thing about being a strength coach is you essentially need to be seen and not heard. You need to get the work done, get it done quickly, get it done efficiently, get it done effectively, and then get the athlete back onto the field or back on the court. The life of a strength coach isn’t glamorous. It’s a lot of track suits. It’s a lot of sweaty gyms. It’s a lot of grind and a lot of blood and a lot of sweat, but this in the trench style training existence and this occupational setting is essentially something you’re going to have to get used to. Your job is to get those athletes better, and one percent better, every single day, so that they can perform on the court and help the team and help the coach bring that team to victory.
Stay in your lane.
If you’re a strength coach, you know more than most in your field and in your line of work, so stick to what you’re good at. Don’t step on anyone’s toes. Don’t try to push anybody else aside. Just stick to what you’re good at and do that. Be your expert in the field and deliver your excellence and expertise, and let everybody else do what they are paid to do. Furthermore, work on what’s best for the team as well as the athletes. Those are the two things that you need to work on and you need to make right. Those athletes have to be better so that as a team, you have a greater chance of winning.
Have you won 20 back to back titles? Have you and your athletes earned 20 back to back MVP’s?” If the answer is no, you don’t know anything at all.
Slow your roll.
You don’t know everything punk! I always ask coaches when they think they’re getting to be too big for their britches, “Have you won 20 back to back titles? Have you and your athletes earned 20 back to back MVP’s?” If the answer is no, you don’t know anything at all. You’re still learning, because if you can win 20 back to back titles, you obviously have a formula for success, and you have a recipe for constant progression and excellence, but unless you have 20 back to back titles, you are constantly evolving and adapting and progressing. You always have to keep learning and be humble in your journey for learning. Just because you won doesn’t mean you know it all. It means you have a target on your head and people have now seen how things are done, which means they’re going to try and copy what you did so that they can achieve success as well. You need refine what you do so that you can get better.
Think laterally and be four to five steps ahead.
If you’re reactive in the world of sport, you’re going to struggle. You need to be proactive. You need to think in the future about what could go right and what could got wrong. Sure, there will be things that happen that are out of your control, but you need to think about these things beforehand and have a plan and a backup plan in hand and a system for overcoming these hurdles. Failure to do so will have you scrambling and chasing your tail. This is something I’ve seen in far too many sporting teams, but more so I see this in personal training businesses where trainers simply plan and hope for the best. They have zero systems and backup plans in place if the athlete’s not progressing or the athlete is injured, or they go away for Christmas. They don’t have these systems in place. If you don’t think about this or have backup plans, you’re going to be caught with your dick in your hand. Forward and lateral thinking is what you need to do. It’s also important in the long term if you want to keep your job.
It’s not about you. You’re not the athlete.
You’re not the one that’s competing, so stop thinking about your social media feed, and just get out there and train them. Plain and simple, the athletes are the ones that need your help. They’re the ones that are competing. You are support staff. Support the athlete and support the team because you are the foundation. You’re the behind the scenes cat that is helping the team in your very small but very important way. If the team succeeds, that means what you did was very, very, very important. But if you’re constantly thinking about self-promotion and everything being about you, you’re going to get found out pretty quickly and no one’s going to want to hire you, especially as a private sector coach, but also as someone who’s working with sporting teams.