How to Become a Strength Coach (Tips Most Won't Tell You) transcript

hey what's up rep Bartholomew here back again today I'm gonna talk about my tips for anybody that wants to get into strength and conditioning anybody that feels like working with athletes or military or any of those populations is really something I want to do you know what can I do to really make myself stand out or how can I approach it the right way first and foremost you really have to question why you want to do this because one thing is really clear you should not become a strength coach just because you like working out just because you like being in a weight room just because you like sports just because you want to be around athletes anything like that those are the absolute wrong reasons to want to get in to strength and conditioning and I know that may seem counterintuitive because that's a lot of what the job is gonna entail but here's the thing being a strength coach or being a successful professional of any kind is not just about passion I know you hear that advice a lot people say oh I'll do something you're passionate about but there are a lot of people that are passionate about things that they're not really good at so more important than passion is you've got to have purpose and you've got to have perseverance because being a strength coach much like many other specialized fields is not easy they used to be something where you could go get a degree in a related field whether that's exercise science can you see ology things like that you could get an internship get your certification and then by and large you're set as long as you can get your resume in front of somebody and get some opportunities and stick that out for me I did two unpaid internships I have a master's degree I did a graduate assistantship and that still didn't guarantee me a job so another thing to understand is the old way is broken many people send resumes and it doesn't matter how immaculate the resume is it doesn't matter what the background is on that the bottom line is a lot of people don't read your resumes and not because they don't like you but because the stack is this big if not bigger and most of these people are coaching they don't have full-time HR staffs and so you have to understand a resume is not gonna be enough so what do you do well I always want to see people actually coach that's great if your stack of paper says you have all the credentials and certifications but I need to learn a little bit more about your personality and when I'm screening people don't really think about or they perfect at this or they perfect at that I want to see a little bit about their personality sometimes I've even had people do a two-minute improv video one half of them don't even send it so that immediately cancels them out right away too that shows a little bit of what can you make something out of nothing which when you're working with athletes and you're trying to really get better at skilled interpersonal communication you're gonna have to do that there's a lot of professional athletes whether they be fighters football players or any other sport I've worked with that don't give you that much early on you ask them a question maybe about their background or anything like that and they don't respond if they do respond it's minimal you're gonna work with difficult colleagues you're gonna work with people that have egos you're gonna work with bosses who are difficult in their own right so if you can't fill two minutes of dead air with something entertaining or even a demonstration or are you just talking about your background that's gonna be your first problem and that's one thing that no matter how good the resume is will automatically disqualify you in my book you also have to have some examples of your coaching out there now it's tricky because in this world it's like the wild wild west you have so many YouTube videos and Instagram videos and all these other things and people doing crazy stuff to try to get attention understand that being a strength coach at least a good one is about doing the simple thing savagely well or fundamentals not fluff like I say but I want to see videos and I don't care how long they are somebody teaching a multi-directional skill is that cutting is that a transition is that just simple deceleration mechanics and how you'd address that in general is it acceleration I want to see what you do in the weight room can you go through a hand clean progression what do you do if an athlete has bad technique on this and again I'm not worried about it being perfect is just show me a little bit about that now I'd recommend that you have this somewhere whether it's on your website whether you have links that you can embed within a digital resume but there's got to be something that separates you from other folks and the The Improv video and some of the examples are another way to forget everything you've heard about networking screw networking networking connotates this transactional medium of oh this person might be able to help you shouldn't be worried about networking early in your career you should be worried about connecting building authentic relationships when you don't want something from someone but in actuality you're trying to help them when I was a young coach and still today I try to practice reaching out to people seeing what I can do to help it's a big reason why I started this channel I want to get more information out there but so many people will reach out and say hey can you meet me for coffee can you do this and it's all well intentioned but it should actually be inverted you should find hey coach I see that you're doing X Y or Z I know it's a busy time for you seeing if you need any additional hands on deck just find little ways to go out of your way and think about the other person as opposed to getting your business card in their hands that's not what it's about you want to create an organic trustworthy relationship where you can get in front of them on a daily basis showcase your skills in a way that helps them another piece here is this you've got to embrace the business side of what you do and I know that seems crazy early on and yes absolutely within the early part of your career you just need to focus on honing skills but you also have to be reality realistic about the things that could keep you from being a strength coach to begin with do you have the financial viability to be able to go do this amount of internships are you willing to move across the country could you support yourself if you do that you know and you've got to find some way to really provide for yourself as you build these skill sets because you're gonna have to invest in books you're gonna have to invest in clinics and courses nobody's just gonna be able to give you this stuff one example of easy access stuff you do have though is on my reading list on art of coaching com 200 of my favorite articles 200 of my favorite books early on the next common question is well where do I start so let's say that right now I've got these resources I've made some authentic connections I have some videos but where do I start in terms of my continuing education just get started anywhere one go coach the more hours you can spend on the floor the better and quit thinking you have to just coach high level athletes or professional athletes coach the person next door coaching youth athletes coach high school kids coach your Nate or coach anybody you can that you've got to make sure that you expose yourself to dense and diverse environments to build those skill sets I mean a lot of times people want to jump and just train pro athletes and the reality is a young kid may not even be able to blink and breathe at the same time in a coordinated fashion honing your skills trying to teach them that's more difficult and just get experience under your belt and when it comes to books and articles there's no one greatest book that you should start with a wise person once said your books will find you over time and nothing could be more true so start reading one book and define it based on what are my biggest gaps maybe you're not good at speed or agility training maybe you're not good at the weight room maybe you are really bad at communication all these things will guide you into where you need to go to really consolidate and close those gaps so you can be a better professional so start with those tips the journeys long do not rush it get used to hearing no take things into your own hand as much as possible because it's no other organizations duty to get you a job somebody is not just gonna call you out of the blue more often than not give you some high profile job you're gonna have to work for it and it takes more than just an understanding of Acts facts figures and setting in your resume if you guys want some more of my top advice I have a free ebook on my website filled with things that I wish I would have known earlier in my career it's 52 pages long it's free it's chock full of tips so make sure to not only subscribe to this channel for future tips but look for the link below for my advice for new coaches remember it's not just new coaches meaning people just coming up it's really applicable to any of you that are starting on a new journey or want to just make sure that you're checking your flank to ensure you're not making silly mistakes like I've made along the way hope to see you guys again soon