2020, the year I become an accredited S & C coach under the UKSCA (United Kingdom Strength and Conditioning Association).
Now I know some people are probably like, 'yeah, big deal, that's just a fancy name for a personal trainer who loves weights' or 'what the hell even is a strength and conditioning coach anyway?!'
Not only does the accreditation process allow me to broaden my horizons when it comes to weight training and performance based athletes, I become a part of a very exclusive club with some of The Best coaches in the world. These coaches are not only the best in their field, they work with some of the top performance based athletes in their respective fields. So far, whilst attending university and the UKSCA's workshop weekends I've met some pretty amazing people.
I've had the pleasure of meeting both Southampton FC and Reading FC academy/first team players, the Great British wheelchair rugby team and various other Olympians. I have also met university lecturers with PHD's in S & C, learnt from them and been trained by them.
Not only have I had the chance to meet these incredible people, I've learnt so much from the workshop weekends about training and testing athletes as well as learning about myself as a coach. I'm a firm believer, as I'm sure a lot of people in this world are, that perfect is unattainable. The higher you climb in the sporting world, the more critical you become. I'm sure if you asked your sporting idol, 99 times out of 100 they would tell you there was something they could have done better in their last match/event.
Having already learnt so much from so many different people, given the opportunity to work with performance based athletes for 12 months and hone and develop your skills, not just as a personal trainer but an S & C coach as well has hugely helped me to progress. It has allowed me to highlight the similarities between those in the general population, looking to get a bit fitter and a bit healthier and sports men and women as well as highlighting the vast differences between the two.
I am a FIRM believer that you treat everyone the same. Now I certainly don't for a second mean everyone will be doing the same, regurgitated workouts time and time again... no two people are the same. For example, I look after two central attacking midfielders in one football team and two second row forwards in a rugby team. Now positionally and physically, they are almost identical. Stature, weight and training ages are all very similar within both pairs, however, functional fitness tests and movement screenings have highlighted different individual issues, therefor very different exercise programs have been prescribed.
What I meant by my earlier statement is that EVERYONE, regardless of training age, training ability or the level they are competing at, will be treated with the same care and dedication. You can come to the gym once a week, you could come five times a week. You could be playing Sunday league football or you could be an international star. No matter where you are in your journey or career, you'll get 100% from me each and every session.
The course itself is fairly straight forward; perform various exercises in front of a panel of assessors, sit a 60 question multiple choice test and present a 12 month case study you have completed with an athlete of your choice. Simple, right? Well with a 25% pass rate for first time candidates, maybe not so much!
25% - that's a pretty narrow margin for error... good job I'm a massive fan of narrow margins and working against the odds! After all, who doesn't love an underdog story? The sense of achievement you get when you pull it off, you can't beat it.
Just remember, with some careful planning and serious dedication anything is possible. Put your mind to it and you can achieve great things.
Any questions, please fire away
Ryan
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