If you want to become a great coach or personal trainer you need to be groomed to be a coach or a personal trainer. Far too often people see online personal training certifications or shaky 6 month personal training schools and think it’s going to give them all the knowledge they need to know…because you know they’ve been lifting “all their life” so they need to do a few months of training and boom credible personal trainer…if you’re looking for a qualified personal trainer and you see this in their bio, just walk away.
Moving on from my rant :)…the point of this post is focused on practical knowledge. More often then I’d like, I’ve had discussions with personal trainers that can debate their butts off about training philosophies but when it comes to actually applying it, it all goes down the pooper REAL fast. These type of personal trainers are usually more worried about how they sound (i.e. the inferior of the scapula during protraction and shoulder abduction at a 30 degree angle….) the vs. what they can actually do.
The Chef vs. The Cook
I really like the Mike Boyle analogy of cooking. The cook may have all the right ingredients, have all the fresh fresh produce, know exact portions size, temperature to cook, and everything equal to a chef. But the CHEF knows all the small details and knows when to make adjustments if something a bit off- it’s undercooked, flame it up a bit longer without burning it and so on.
This is why we all go out to the nice restaurants we have in New York City, right? We all can cook and have the resources to get all the fresh ingredients for a kick ass pizza, burger, steak, fish, or what have you. But it’s the chefs that take it up another notch, not the extra butter 😉
Experienced Personal Trainer
ECU Strength and Conditioning Center (Murphy Center) I’ve spent MANY hours here.
It’s the same for coaching or personal training, book knowledge is great however if you don’t know how to apply that, then it’s pretty useless. So if you want to become a better coach or personal trainer, then you need to do a mentorship or internship.
Yes, this may mean that you have to volunteer your time or even pay for the coaches time and knowledge. For those that maybe whining about this, ask yourself how is this any different from paying for your education? Except now you’re paying for someone that has proven their worth and isn’t a graduate assistant or a “teacher” that took a quick licensing course.
Whatever you decide to do, I’ll tell you this, I learned the most when I volunteered my time and EARNED the respect of other coaches. It was enough for them to take time of their day to teach me what they’ve learned voluntarily. Don’t get me wrong they taught a lot along the way, but they really opened up once I showed I was dedicated to this field.
It came to a point where shadowed coaches for months without as much as a “good job”. You know why? Because they know people want to come in, learn what they can, then bounce, instead of actually wanting to be helpful to the team and coaching staff. Too many people want to take, take, take…and only worry about “what’s in it for me?” I knew that I wanted to prove them wrong, that I’m worth investing their time into.
I put in my hours, in the weight room at 4:30am, off to class at 8-11am back in the weight room at 11:30-3:00 back in to class at 3:30-5:00, back in the weight room 5:30-9pm (depending on the baseball team schedule), then repeat. This was the life of a college strength coach, they didn’t have time to waste with some ungrateful kid. If you did your time THEN you’ll get yours and if you prove yourself worthy you may just be offered a position or they’ll open up other doors for you. However you must be willing to not only put in the time but put your best foot forward. This goes pretty much for everything, work hard, put your best foot forward, sadly too many people are looking for the quick way up.
That’s it for today. A bit of rant but I hope this was helpful for those pursing a personal training or strength and conditioning job.
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Train smart,
Team Fusion Trained
About the Author
[…] great coach or personal trainer, then you need to be groomed to be a coach or personal trainer,” explains Chris Matsui of Fusion. “Far too often people see online personal training certifications of 6-month personal training […]