There was a time when if you wanted to be a strength coach, all you probably needed was to be fairly strong physically and have a solid background as an athlete. Now, most coaches are required to have at least a bachelor’s degree in a field related to kinesiology and at least one, maybe multiple internationally recognized certifications. There are even coaches out there holding a PhD. If you look around, there are some incredibly intelligent, ambitious people out there applying their knowledge to the scientific art of coaching athletes. I’ve had the fortune of meeting some of these coaches who are considered to be at the top of the industry, and the work they do is impacting athletics for the better worldwide. However, among similar professions, coaching doesn’t quite seem to hold its own in terms of their worth to their organization.
I want to address a concern I have that is widespread within the profession of coaching specifically, of the strength and conditioning category.
Its no secret that job insecurity and the rate of turnover run rampant across coaching. Turn on ESPN, and on any given day you see stories developing about coaches transitioning into different programs. Whereas other industries may boast a low turnover rate as a factor of their success3, it seems that within coaching, frequently bringing in new staff members may contribute to the success of your next season. If the head football coach of an NCAA Division I institution leaves a program, often he will bring his assistants with him. Depending on the relationship between him and the strength coach, that staff will be included in the move. Unfortunately, this creates a concerning level of career instability, turnover, and attrition and brings up a lot of questions in my mind. Why are strength coaches associated with high turnover like sport coaches? What impact does the lack of job security have on the profession and is there perhaps a way to counter the problem?
Obviously, at any job, if you’re not producing you’re probably going to get fired sooner or later. Coaching is no different. Whereas the sport coach’s job is partly dependent on wins and losses, a strength coach’s job is largely dependent on keeping the athletes (especially the major contributors) healthy. Our job is to train athletes so that their risk for non-traumatic injury is as reduced as possible. However, injury is an inevitable aspect of athletics. Players are going to get hurt at times when nothing could have been done to prevent it. Injuries can obviously have a devastating effect on the athlete and are a massive expense to treat. In today’s litigation-crazed society, anyone can be sued at anytime for almost anything. When our job involves implementing programs that hold the potential to seriously harm someone, if mismanaged; that amount of liability places a massive amount of pressure on the strength coach, sport coach, and athletic administration.
With that being said, it would be logical for administrative officials to take all necessary measures to place and retain a competent professional in that position. Organizations that have invested in such a coach can likely attest to the difference he or she makes to the program when athletes are well disciplined, healthy, and improving their performance on the field or court.
Still, our profession has a few kinks that need to be worked out for it to continue its progress. It’s highly beneficial for strength coaches to earn certifications, Bachelor’s, Master’s and even PhD degrees in complex sciences specific to human performance. Copious amounts of research has shown that knowledge and competent implementation of these sciences can significantly improve an athlete’s performance, longevity of their career, and overall health and wellness. Certain paths in our career field allow us the opportunity to work with elite level athletes worth millions of dollars and assist in providing an unparalleled level of entertainment to people around the world. With all these things considered, strength and conditioning still fails to stand on its own as a primary component of an athletic organization.
Athletic Trainers have the ATC. Physical Therapists are considered doctors after a three-year post-secondary program. Physicians must pass the MCAT to first be accepted into medical school and then complete residencies for a doctorate. You would be hard pressed to find a major NCAA institution or professional organization, or even a high school without one of these members on staff. You can’t be a physician without a doctorate degree. You can’t be employed as an athletic trainer without ATC accreditation. You can’t be a DPT without passing physical therapy school. In strength and conditioning, there is no law requiring that you have a bachelor’s degree before prescribing programs. There is no law mandating that you obtain a second or third degree along with a minimum amount of practical experience. There are certifications in existence and certain institutions that require some of the aforementioned factors in order to be hired, but there are also accepted certifications and institutions that do not.
Essentially, if someone suddenly decided to be a strength coach one day, it would not take nearly as much, in comparison to the professions mentioned above, to enter the field. It is literally as easy as taking a weekend class to become certified. On the other end of the spectrum, you have coaches earning extra degrees and spending years as volunteer or entry level help in order to build credibility behind their name. A Master’s in Business Administration has the highest ROI of any Master’s degree.1 A strength coach earning the relative equivalent is hardly guaranteed that his or her investment in education will be recouped. I believe this underlies a number of the “kinks in the system,” including market saturation, turnover, attrition, and comparatively low median salary.
The problem at hand is not one of wage or compensation equality between similar professions, but simply one of what is earned and how some professions are supported in comparison to others. The education strength coaches obtain consists of studying much of the same sciences (albeit applied differently) for the same length of time as other members of an athletic performance staff, yet still rank lower in median salary (~$45,000 for Athletic trainers).6 As I mentioned before, strength coaches also take on a healthy amount of liability and spend significantly more face time with the athletes than most other coaches on staff. All the more reason why a thoroughly vetted strength coach can be an extremely valuable asset to an organization. However, this is a difficult task when education and certification is not mandatory and uniform.
The National Strength and Conditioning Association Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (NSCA-CSCS) certification is the most prevalent throughout the field. In the NBA, approximately 68.2% of strength coaches hold CSCS accreditation (86.4% in total have some certification). Throughout Div. I basketball, the number certified with the CSCS is 78.3%, and among Div. II, 38.7%. Of the total 55% of certified strength coaches in Division II basketball, only 19.4% of them are strictly strength coaches. Throughout football, 72.5% of Div. I strength coaches hold their CSCS and 69.5% in Div. II. At the Div. II level, the number suggest that coaches are sport coaches first, and strength coaches second, often not having the proper education.5 Note that numbers are not even provided for the NCAA Division III or NAIA levels because chances are there is no strength coach at these levels.
One of these things is not like the other. What do physical therapists, physicians, athletic trainers, registered dietitians have that strength coaches do not? Either a single, well established, nationally recognized governing body that issues nearly all accreditation within their discipline, or a mandated level of education that must be reached in order to operate as a professional in the respective career field. Strength and conditioning has the NSCA. It also has the CSCCA, the USAW, and we can’t forget to mention the personal training certification boards such as the NSCA-CPT, ACE, CrossFit, ACSM, NASM, ISSA, AFPA (probably not an exhaustive list) through which some institutions and organizations accept and employ candidates. The NSCA and CSCCA are the two most highly recognized organizations for strength coaches, however they are the only two that require someone to have or be working towards a Bachelor’s degree. The CSCCA requires candidates have at least 640 hours of experience under a Master Strength and Conditioning Coach or approved mentor. Even with the existence of these two organizations, other certifications will suffice for some employers. Its unfortunate because this largely devalues those who choose the more diligent path to becoming a strength coach. They are left to fight for jobs with people who are perhaps under qualified and therefore, will work for less. Anyone not qualified to handle the myriad of situations that a strength coach may face presents a significant liability to the entire existence of the organization or institution. Read this story about what recently happened at the University of Oregon and my point is made.
At times I have been overwhelmed at the assumed responsibility that comes with being a strength coach. The level of job insecurity and rate of turnover is concerning, especially for developing coaches working to move up the ranks. So what, if anything, can be done about it?
The professionals mentioned above, including strength coaches, all make up vital members of an athletic performance staff. They serve specialized roles that all involve an intense studying and understanding of how the human body responds to the stresses of athletics. Consensus among who is qualified and who is not and mandatory minimums on education requirements would be a good start towards better job security for strength and conditioning coaches.
References:
- Byrne, J. A. (2015, October 15). Should You Get An MBA? Is The Degree Worth It? Retrieved March 29, 2017, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/should-you-get-mba-degree-worth-john-a-byrne
- Haggerty, L. (2005). A Profile of Strength and Conditioning Coaches at National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II and III Member Institutions. Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Retrieved from http://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1094
- Inc, G. (n.d.). The Truth About Turnover. Retrieved March 29, 2017, from http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/316/Truth-About-Turnover.aspx
- LLC, A. of M. (2011, August 4). So You Want My Job: NBA Strength and Conditioning Coach. Retrieved from http://www.artofmanliness.com/2011/08/04/so-you-want-my-job-nba-strength-and-conditioning-coach/
- Magnusen, M. (2007). Assessing Differences in Strength and Conditioning Coach Self-perceptions of Leadership Style at the NBA, Division I, and Division II Level. ProQuest.
- Salary: Athletic Trainer. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2017, from https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/athletic-trainer-salary-SRCH_KO0,24.htm
- The Football Four Podcast on Alabama’s coaching turnover. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2017, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2017/02/10/football-four-podcast-alabamas-coaching-turnover/97754540/
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