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Building Better Athletes

Blog

Stay Independent

9/29/2019

12 Comments

 
When you have your own facility, it can be awfully tempting to join arms with a sport club/AAU team. They have a lot of teams, a lot of athletes and it sounds like a potential match made in heaven. 

BUT be careful, these offers aren't typically ideal. 

Over the past 7-years, BBA has been offered a number of these with different academy's and AAU teams, and we've politely declined all of them. 

Why?

Let's go over a number of reasons.

1. Do you know all the coaches, employees, leadership with that facility? How do they present themselves on social media? Are the coaches qualified and have the athletes best interest? Do they have good athlete and coach retention? How is the husband/wife of the owner? What kind of freedom will you have as a "sub-leaser" in their facility? 
Do you really want to be associated with a facility that changes coaches every 6-months, has loud mouth coaches, an overbearing spouse of the owner, is about maximizing profits over maximizing player development and experience? Pretty quickly your business will be associated, for good and bad, with the facility you're under.

2. Athletes change teams ALL THE TIME. The turnover in academy's and AAU programs are insane. Every year kids are on new teams, so why set yourself up with 1-team when there is absolutely no loyalty in these businesses? It's far better to be in a position to help all athletes, from all teams. 

3. Just because you're in-house, doesn't mean athletes will use your services. Sure they have 15-teams, with 15-kids on each team, but that doesn't mean they will all train with you. In fact, I would guess less than 10% of athletes would actually use your services (if they are an extra service).
Now your service may be included in membership fees, which is nice, but as a coach who actually cares about athlete development, this is in no way a good setting for athlete development. What this usually means is you're allotted 20-30min, 2xday/week for 8-weeks with each team. So now you're crammed with 15-30 athletes in a session (they'll often give you 2-3 teams at a single time) for 20-30minutes, and somehow you're expected to connect and help these athletes improve? I'll pass

4. Lack of Control. I'm a control freak and I would hate having my schedule, facility availability, space, equipment, etc controlled by others. And this is what happens when you're in another facility. During certain periods you may have access to the whole facility. During other periods, you may only have 500sq/ft. Certain weekends will be all yours. Other weekends, they'll have try-outs or team practices and you won't have access. I'll pass.

5. As a business I think it's a poor approach to align yourself with one club. Why would you want to limit yourself? If you're business is under the roof of a certain baseball academy or basketball AAU team or anything else, you are eliminating yourself to athletes who are not a part of that organization. You are also eliminating yourself to athletes in other sports (if you're in a baseball academy, good luck getting swimmers or basketball players). 

6. Finally, while all of these organizations will make it seem like a mutually beneficial relationship, it is typically in their best interest.
They get someone to sub-lease space (reduce their rent). Space that they would otherwise be paying for. Space they still get to use. 
They get to add a low-cost addition to their programs without any additional overhead. This helps separate them from other programs, but like I mentioned earlier, this will likely have less of an impact on your business than you think.
Have you ever been to one of these places? Kids, siblings and even parents are hanging out/running around at practices, lessons, etc. I never felt comfortable with this as I know these kids, parents would be messing with my equipment, swinging/jumping on my racks when I'm not there. On a Sunday afternoon, when I'm not at the facility but they have a team practice, I do not want my expensive equipment being messed with. 
Finally, you're at the mercy of this business. They all of a sudden quit or move...tough luck. Owner gets a divorce...good luck with that. Coaches get drunk in front of kids at a tournament... great look for you to be a part of.


Overall, give yourself more freedom and don't neglect yourself to other athletes. And remember, there is no loyalty in youth sports. I have a varsity HS coach bring his kids to our program, but uses another person train his HS team. 

How does that make sense?

It doesn't, and that's all youth sports. They don't make sense, so don't put your business on the line by aligning with another.

12 Comments

Less Is More

8/29/2019

1 Comment

 
As a business, having more options = more clients/costumers...right?

The reality is this isn't true and it doesn't create a strong business. 

I've seen so many places try to have a new 'flavor of the month' and before long they have no identity.

In a rush to build clientele they'll offer a yoga, bootcamp, self-defense, boxing, powerlifting and they spread themselves so thin, they lose touch with what they actually want to identify as. 

Not only that, but you then ask your staff (or yourself) to wear many hats and this leads to being average in many areas, great in none. How can you expect your staff to be great when they're asked to coach a athlete session, a bootcamp session, a HIIT session, a mobility session and a yoga session in the same day? 

Depth > Width

Have a speciality that people know you for.  If you want to be successful long-term and work with a certain population, you have to let that be known. 

I've seen this first hand with competition in my area. Facilities try to offer a dozen different packages, for every crowd imaginable and before long this approach actually further helped to cement BBA as the place for athletes. They were so worried about trying to get people through the doors, in any way, that this actually distanced themselves from the athlete population. 

If you look at what we offer, it's very simple. Athletes make up about 90% of our business, with a small group of adults to compliment that. If you look at our social media, our posts, our content... it's all geared towards the athlete population. Our message and our model is pretty straight forward and therefore we get that population. 

We don't try to muddy the waters with different classes or programs to accommodate everyone, we focus on athletes and because of this any serious athlete in our area comes to our door and no one else. 

Now, is there a downside to this?

Absolutely, our adult program stays relatively small because many see it as something similar to our athlete training ie competitive, intense and having a specific athletic goal. Some of our athletes also mention how their friends are intimidated to join because they don't think they'd keep up. 

I have friends in the private sector that work in specialized facilities, for example a baseball facility that works with primarily baseball athletes. They speak to how athletes from other sports often don't know if they should train there because they are a 'baseball' facility. So they might lose potential football or basketball athletes.

That being said, I'll gladly lose a few potential clients who may interpret our programs as not right for them, for the many others that seek us out because they know exactly who we cater too. 

So as tempting as it may be to offer a myriad of programs to try and get as many people through your doors, this strategy will soon handcuff and worsen your product (unless of course you want to be just a general fitness & wellness facility with no real emphasis).

Make sure you stick and promote your main program. Less is more in this area. 
1 Comment

Private Sector Business Review

2/3/2018

0 Comments

 
Owning a gym/performance facility is the goal of many young and experienced coaches. You get to be your own boss, do things your way, set-up and organize a facility, get the equipment you need and want, and have total control of programming. 

I got into the private sector for many of those reasons - and overall I wanted to coach and coach my way.

BUT, little did I know the various facets of owning and operating a business take their toll. Not only that, if you have no experience with business (most of us studied exercise science or the like, NOT business classes) many of the facets of pricing, marketing/advertising, website design, accounting/book keeping, insurance/liability, taxes, payroll, etc can be daunting tasks. 

So I asked some friends in the private sector to give some short answers on some of the above topics. 

These are coaches who have made and run a successful facility for years and have been through the ringer when it comes to these business questions. 

No doubt you'll learn from their answers and hopefully their guidance can help facilities maximize their efficiency and effectiveness of their programs. 


Blue = Rich Schimenek - Trois Training
  • Instagram - @CoachSchimenek
  • Twitter - @CoachSchimenek

Red = Joseph Potts - TopSpeed Strength & Conditioning
  • Instagram - @TopSpeedLLC
  • Twitter - @TopSpeedLLC

Green = Drew Heisler
  • Instagram - @HeislerTrainingSystems
  • Twitter - @HeislerTraining

Orange = Jake Francis - King Performance
  • Instagram - @King_Performance_Systems

Purple = Engineered Per4mance
  • Instagram - @Engineered_Per4mance
  • Twitter - @EngineeredPer4m


1. What ages do you work with? How do you break-up ages/grades, ie do you have a middle school group, high school group, college group, etc?  Do you ever run into issues with a family that has a high school kid and middle school kid but don’t have the same training times/groups for them?
  
I work with athletes from 6th grade up. I only separate the high level high school and college athletes in their own group, every other session is a mix. The athlete schedules around here are really hard to work with, almost all of my athletes have some sort of “not required, but required” summer sessions with their fall sports teams. I will usually write the day’s session for the high school athletes and regress for the younger athletes, it’s what has worked the best so far.
In a perfect world I would love to break up by age group, but right now it would leave us with smaller groups that don’t maximize our time in the gym. Minnesota summers are weird like that, with the lakes around here there isn’t a ton of interest in training during the afternoon because every kid wants to be on a beach or a boat at that point.
 
As I general rule I only work with high school aged athletes or above. However, depending on the level of maturation we have had several 7 th graders join the program. We do have a youth class for athletes aged 5-12 that meets twice per week during non-peak hours.

I work with athletes from 6th grade and up. In an ideal world groups would be set up by sport and age. In the real world I have had to put groups together where middle school and high school kids have had to work together. I have had groups where some of my adults have had to work with some of my high school kids. It is not ideal but until I have such a demand that I have to hire more trainers, I have to make it work as best I can.

I work with mostly High school and College athletes. I do break it up that way, I have Youth, High School, College, and Pro groups. I have not ran into that problem yet.. But it is a good idea to find a solution for that before the program comes.
​
We have multiple groups starting with EP4Kids (3-6 year olds). We bring these little guys over from local daycare centers and travel to ones around the metro to do this class focusing on motor skill development and play. EP4Teens (mostly made up of 7-12 year olds but based on training experience. This class is focused on learning general exercise safety, technique, explosive moment and play/competition. Alpha Athlete is our sports performance program (mostly high school and collegiate athletes.) This is our general sports performance and athletic development class focused on creating general athleticism. During the summer currently we have a specific class for elite high school, top tier collegiate, and professional basketball players. After a growing interest we will have a separate collegiate and a separate professional basketball program this coming summer.
We have a few families that have kids in different groups which causes a problem with their scheduling. However, most seem very understanding of the need to separate the programs based on the needs analysis of the different ages and training history.


2. How do you structure payment - Pay per session? Monthly Packages? Set start and end blocks of training – August 1st – October 31st = $x?  How did you come up with your pricing structure? How did you decide on price points? If you’re willing to share – can you share what your prices are for your packages – if not, I completely understand.

We do monthly payments during the school year and a package payment over the summer. We charge $150/month for 3 days of training and $120/month for 2 days during the school year. Summer sessions are around the same price, but for marketing reasons I do it as a training package. For example, this summer was $350 total, which was about $13.50 per session. Last summer was $450, but we had 3 more weeks of training than this summer. I base the summer packages off how many weeks we train and what I want for price per session.
My pricing was determined by my personal cost of living and what I know people will pay around this area. Also, being a small business I’ve found it’s easier to charge like this since I have to enter everything by hand. Packages mean fewer checks to enter and cards to swipe, but monthly over the school year allows me to track who’s paid and who hasn’t each month. I wouldn’t recommend it for a big facility, but it works for us. 

We charge per session. To set my price I called around to local commercial gyms and found out how much they charged for personal training and prorated that out to allow for the semi-private versus private setting. Our sessions run $40-50 each depending on the package the athlete enrolls in.

I offer group rates of 180$ per month for 2x per week training and 240$ per month for 3x week training. I offer a daily group rate of 25$ per session and private sessions are 50 per hour. My rates have gone up a bit over the years, as my original pricing was fairly low. I have learned that charging a higher rate leads to more clients who respect you, your time and will work a little bit harder than those who want the world for less. I have also found that I am better able to provide high quality training when I am working with groups of 3 or 4 rather than 5 to 8. To keep the quality high and to attract the right clientele my rates will settle somewhere near charging 25$ per hour per person. This stuff is my least favorite part of owning. 

This is what I am currently working on restructuring. We currently do Monthly packages. But are working on adding in blocks of training instead of just the monthly option (1month, 3months, 6months, 9 months, and 12 months). I try to keep the pricing as reasonable as possible, especially for the high school and youth athletes.
​
All of our sports performance programs are month-to-month memberships. Due to the fact that the athletes participate in a wide variety of sports they need the ability to leave during season or when training/school/life outside of here becomes too much. They are year round to tailor to all sports and not separated by training time blocks. We do offer specific “speed/conditioning” blocks over school breaks for athletes that are back in town.
All of our adult fitness classes, however, are based on contracts. The longer they commit the cheaper the price. This structure allows for stability within the business because I can count on that amount coming every month regardless and helps drive all business/ marketing decisions.

 I came up with the structure by essentially reverse engineering what I needed to make to keep the business operable (utilities, rent, payroll, etc.) Our business plan was based on a three year building process where I would essentially not take a salary and always give anything extra back into the business, whether that be new equipment or employee, to keep pushing forward until we are where I need to be. I have many friends that started gyms across the country and many of them essentially just guessed what the market would pay and all of them are running into issues raising prices to match what they need. We have always believed our product is valuable and you must treat it that way. When I fist started doing market research I went to a big global box close to us that charges less than $20 a month. When I asked how they sustain that they said they have 2000 members. I then asked how they accommodate that many members and he told me “well maybe 10% show up”. These people are helping no one. If 10% of my athletes are showing up I have failed but I understand the business, that’s just not us. On the other hand, I have talked with a guy that lives in LA and he had to keep raising his prices over and over to force some accountability among his very wealthy clientele. Also I knew of one other facility that is in the sports performance world in the area and has been around with no competition for a very long time and they have gotten complacent in the programming/care of their athletes. I knew I wanted to be more expensive than them to prove to the athlete that we are more valuable. All of this to say I believe the price needs to be set at 1. what you need to make. 2. Enough to value your product/education/risk/ time. 3. Enough to force the members to value the product enough to show up and get results.
Pricing:
EP4Kids (1 day per week, 30 min sessions): $35/mo
EP4Teens (2 days per week, 1 hour sessions): $80/mo
Alpha Athlete (4 days per week, 1 hour sessions): $145/mo
All sport specific classes including elite/pro basketball (3-4 days per week): $145/mo Adult fitness (unlimited classes, 1 hour sessions)
12 month commitment: $135
6 month commitment: $145
3 month commitment: $160
month-to-month: $175
​
3. Do your athletes schedule for specific days per week at specific times – 2-days per week on Tues/Thurs; 3-days per week Mon/Wed/Fri – or do they have unlimited sessions or can they come in on any day/time?

Summer: Set schedule of day/time every week. We see a lot more athletes over the summer and have to schedule accordingly to avoid chaos.
School Year: Suggested scheduling. I try to encourage the athletes to show up in a set schedule but allow flexibility to accommodate the things that come up during the school year. Got a big test? Don’t train that morning. Want to travel to a football game on Friday? Let’s train Mon/Wed/Thurs this week instead. We don’t see as many athletes during the school year so it’s easier to allow some flexibility in the schedule. Every athlete has my cell phone number and is encouraged to communicate as things happen. 
 
They are allowed to book during any day/time that we’re open
​
In an ideal world I would set up my 3-day programs on Mondays-Wednesdays-Fridays and my 2-day programs on Tuesday-Thursday. I have some clients who are available on the same days each week and others who have to change their schedule a bit each week. If they purchase a package, I make sure they are able to train either 2 or 3 days per week. 

The schedule is based off the program the athletes sign up for (Weight room, speed or unlimited) We do speed Tuesday & Thursday and weight room work Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
​ 
All of the sports performance programs are set schedules ranging from 1 to 4 days per week depending on the program. We have three Alpha Athlete classes (6:30am MTThF, 5:30pm MTWTh, 6:30pm MTWTh). This typically provides enough freedom to work around our athletes busy schedule and avoids Friday evening (which we found people just wouldn’t show up to). Our adult fitness classes are unlimited. Each day is a different focus so we work with the client to decide which days/times/classes to come to to best meet their goals but ultimately it is up to them when they come.

​
4.Do they schedule online, and if so what platform do you use? Are athletes limited on the # of times they can come in during a week?

We’ve tried scheduling online through a few programs and I’ve found it just works better in person. It forces the athletes to interact with me to set their weekly schedule and to take responsibility for the schedule they ask for.
 
They do schedule online, we use the Mindbody service. I recommend that they not train more than 4 times per week. 

I don’t do online scheduling but creating an option for that is a feature I will have on my revamped website

All scheduling is based off the programs, or if they are personal training clients. For athletes we do a max 5 times a week.
​
We do online scheduling. We use Mind Body Online as the platform. Each athlete has a username and password to log into the app or website and reserve there spot in a class. The adult fitness classes are capped at 10 people so after 10 sign ups the class is closed. The Sports Performance program is sold out so we just don’t sell any more after a specific session is capped and we expect them to show up to that session each week. When the athletes get here they check in on an iPad at the front that tells the coach and our staff who is showing up etc.


5. What challenges have you found with your current system?

The only problem is when people try have flexible scheduling over the summer. We see about 100 athletes a day in the summer and it’s a huge problem if kids are jumping sessions or asking for special times. 

Mindbody updated their app and it lost functionality in several areas. It’s been that way for a couple of months now. Kids also forget their password and end up making multiple accounts for themselves which is annoying. 

I hate talking about money with my clients. I hate it so much that I have actually avoided telling clients they are due for payment and as a result I have allowed plenty of clients to train for free. Another big weakness of this industry is how much of our work is unpaid. I am sure you spend a large amount of time planning your athletes training and unless you have that time built into your rates, you aren’t paid for it. My fiancé is an attorney and she gets paid for sending an email. She gets reimbursed for driving to a settlement or a closing (she does real estate law). It makes me realize how much work I do for free. While I know it isn’t reasonable for us to get paid for all the time we spend working I would like to get paid for more of my time. ​
​
There hasn't been many challenges so far, luckily. A lot of people complain about having to register for a "program" rather than just having random sessions when ever they want, but that alone speaks for the commitment of those athletes. The athletes that buy into the "program" and are committed, love it.
​
We are constantly tweaking things so we are more than happy to admit a mistake and change the way something is being done. Currently we have athletes in all different sports/seasons/times of school/etc and these variables are causing some issue. Our coaches are great at regressing/progressing/lateralizing exercise and changing the volume for a specific athlete but I want more control over that.

​
6. If you could change one thing about your current system, what would it be?
    
Auto payments or EFT would be really nice, we just haven’t found a system that works for us yet.
 
When the app was fully functional I had 0 complaints outside of the lack of a multi-client check in option.
 
I want to figure out a system of recurring monthly payments. I don’t want to handle money directly from my clients and I want to get rid of daily payments. As I mentioned above, I would like to set up a system where I am paid for more of the time I put into the business.

The one thing I am working on, is guaranteed monthly income, when doing the monthly payments, athletes can stop coming and there goes that income, with long term commitment or automatic payments it would save a lot of time and fix that problem.
​
Our solution to the above problem is I am currently developing an iPad app that each athlete checks in at the beginning of a workout. The app asks for basic information regarding readiness (sleep duration, if they ate recently, when was last competition, next competition, current injuries, mood, etc). This will then put the athletes into 3 different categories that ranges in volume, intensity, and recovery methods.


7. What advice would you give to new or even experienced performance gym owners on pricing?

Know how much you’re worth, find how much they’ll pay, and get those two numbers as close as possible. I realize private training isn’t for everyone, but you are a professional and have bills to pay. 
 
Find out the cost for similar services within a 40-50 miles radius and be competitive with those, but also bear in mind your own experience and worth. I would laugh at an inexperienced/novice coach charging as much as one with years of experience.
​
Figure out your worth and charge accordingly. Do not undercut yourself. This is a great industry to be in but you might not want to train people all day for the rest of your life. Figure out what you need to charge in order to put some money away each month.

Don't be the cheapest facility just to get clients. Value your time. Provide the athletes more than what they are paying for.
​
I laid most of my advise out in the previous question. The thing I want to reiterate is you must value yourself. I had very hard time with that out of school as a chiropractor at first and then certainly as a coach. I listened to a podcast once with the advise to imagine a projector shooting out the back of your head that shows who ever you are talking to exactly what you are thinking. People pick up on what you really feel versus what you are saying. If you believe your product is valuable your athlete will too and everyone benefits.

​
8. How far do you pull athletes from ie 20mile radius?  What is the size of your market/how big is the city you run your facility in?

St. Cloud has a population of about 50,000 and is surrounded by a few smaller towns that add about 20-30,000 more people. There’s 7 high schools within 20 miles of the gym that we draw from, with a few kids driving from farther than that. Almost all of our recruiting is from word-of-mouth and athletes bringing friends in. We do some marketing in the form of apparel, buying ad space in sport programs where our clients play, and giving gift packages to local fundraisers, but all of these account for about 5% of our marketing.  I would say 95% of our clients are from referrals and “bring a friend” days from our athletes.
Social media is the king of marketing for me. My athletes beg to be on my Instagram and you’re a local celebrity at high school if you make it on there. I have no idea how this became a thing, but it’s been great for business and awareness with the kids in this area. 

We will occasionally have athletes come from up to 70-100 miles away to train but routinely draw athletes from up to a 30-40 miles radius. The city we operate in has a population of 53k, with bordering cities at 130k. The population within a 50 mile radius is estimated at 2.4 million.

I honestly couldn’t tell you how far our clients travel in terms of miles. I would say most of my clients travel between 5 and 25 minutes to the gym. I opened my facility in a small town because the rent was low and I had very little money. I am looking to move the gym or open a second location in a much more heavily populated area.

In recent months we have had athletes (college and professional) commit to driving 2-6hours to come train at our facility. It isn't a HUGE market here, and new gyms seem to pop up every week now a days. Our city population is about 320,000.

We chose Ankeny because it has a massive sports market. The city itself has a population of 59,000 and is currently the third fastest growing city in the US. They value their sports performance here and always have. When I was growing up Ankeny athletes were always incredible and the parents and fans were great. I chased that to this community. The vast majority of our athletes are local and live within a 5-10 mile radius. We have a couple that come from Carlisle, Waukee, and West Des Moines (about 20 miles in any direction) and that seems to be the farthest people have traveled.
0 Comments

Coaching In The Private vs Public Sectors

1/23/2018

1 Comment

 
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I've spent the past 7-years coaching in both the private and public sectors. That's 7+ years owning my own sports performance facility working with athletes from 1st Grade -> Middle School -> HS -> College -> Professional -> Adults.

In a few months, I'll also be wrapping up my 5th year handling the Strength and Conditioning duties for various college teams ranging from baseball, lacrosse, golf, and tennis. I also spent my 4-month internship at the University of Minnesota, primarily working with football, hockey, basketball, swimming, and wrestling.  

While short in comparison to others experiences, this timeframe does give me a  pretty decent amount of experience and appreciation of both sectors, and many of the nuances of each.

Young coaches are often dealt with the task of deciding which field to enter, and unfortunately in our field, the deeper you go into one field, the harder it becomes to switch to the other field; so understanding the pros and cons of each sector can help young coaches hopefully make better career decisions. 

I'd like to add that as a whole, both fields need to do a better job of coming together and working together INSTEAD of competing against each other.  A week doesn't go by where I don't  see some quote or tweet or hear from an athlete about a coach in the public sector bashing the private sector.
  • "They only want your money"
  • "Why would you pay when you can get the same thing here for free?"
  • "Only selfish athletes seek out private sector training"
  • "Private sector coaches just use flashy gimics that look cool in videos"

Believe it or not, most private sector coaches are NOT in it for the money; they're actually in it for the same reasons public sector coaches are - they love to coach, they love to work with and be around athletes, they want to make a positive impact. Another believe it or not, many, if not most, coaches in the private sector are not making much money, they're just trying to make ends meet and provide for their family. 

I also know, athletes only seek out services from the private sector when they feel they're missing something from their school. For me personally, the quality of product I'm able to provide is much better in my private facility than with my teams. The 20-30 athletes at one time, freshman through senior athlete experience, 1-hour time window, and facility/equipment restriction all handcuff many aspects that I'm otherwise able to provide at my private facility.

So before bitching about athletes seeking out the services from a private facility, ask yourself
  • Is your weight room open on Saturdays?
  • Is your weight room  open on Sundays?
  • Is your weight room open at 5:30am?
  • Is your weight room open at 8:00pm?
  • Is your weight room open over holidays seasons (day before/after holidays)?
  • Do you listen to your athletes and ask for their opinion during the training process?
  • Do you assess your athletes and seek to individualize their training?
  • Is your training really optimal for each individual athlete, especially when there are 20-50 athletes training at one time?

Instead of getting mad at your athletes and holding it against them, how about you look at yourself and auditing your own program. If a team sport athlete of mine sought after private training, I would understand why and I wouldn't get upset that they need the team training and they're being selfish. I would understand the limitations I can provide and know the athlete is just seeking what's best for them. 

So in no particular order, here are some broad categories pertaining to each the private and public sectors...


Caliber of Athlete

In the private sector, you're typically dealing with HS and middle school kids, and often kids who are absolutely new to a performance program. When I was young I wanted to own my own facility so I could work with professional athletes.  I was going to train these athletes with advanced techniques and create absolute monster’s!  
That’s everyone’s dream right?  
Well quickly you’ll learn that this probably won’t happen.  Heck if you work with a handful of college and professional athletes, you’ll be pretty lucky.  More than likely, most of your population will be young beginners and general population clients that have very low training age.

Understand that 90% of your clients will never be ready for most of the advanced and intense training regimes we read and study.  Advanced tri-phasic, shock method, stimulation method, Westside, French Contrast, APRE, etc are all great, but in most private settings, these will be out of the realm for most of your clients. 

Now don’t get me wrong, there are gyms out there that have elite athletes and can train with some of these advanced methods, but understand this won’t happen overnight. 


Hours

Oh the hours of being a S&C Coach!  No matter the sector, you’re going to be working some long, crappy hours. 

First get used to being up by 5:30am every weekday, and that’s late.  I arrive at my facility around 4:45am every morning to get things prepared for 5:30am groups.  Some college S&C’s arrive even earlier and often have a pretty decent commute to get there! 

If you are not a morning person, you should start looking for a different career, because by the time regular Joe’s and Jane’s wake-up, we’ve already put a couple hours under our belt. 

If the early mornings weren’t enough, then the 12-16 hour days might be.  In a public setting, coaches are typically there from 5:00am until 3:00-4:00pm.  Don’t forget about traveling with the team to games and working weekends. 

At my facility, during the summer it’s pretty much straight through 6:00am until 7-8:00pm.  During the school year, I’m a little more lucky because it’s 5:30-11:00am then off until 2:30pm, and then go 2:30-9:00pm.  

No matter your choice, they're LONG days and not only that, you’re on your feet for the majority of it.  Standing, walking, demonstrating, changing weights, cleaning, etc. Doing this everyday takes its toll.  This is one of the first things coaches learn when they enter the field.


Periodization

In the private sector, you'll typically get an athlete for an extended period of time, and KNOW that you'll have that athlete for 2-4 years. 

In the private sector, you don't know whether you'll have a certain athlete for a month, 3-months, 3-years. Obviously you hope they return for your services year after year, but in many cases you might only get an athlete for a certain 3-month stretch every year, and then not see them for 9-months. 

This means how you program and introduce concepts is vastly different between jobs. Knowing you have multiple years, and will be with an athlete for 11-months of the year allows you to have a much better idea of how to plan and progress athletes. 

Not knowing if you will have an athlete for 1-month or 3-months changes how you approach their training. You might exclude things that have longer learning curves, you will have a greater sense of urgency, you might stick to progressions longer, etc. 

Planning for athletes in the private sector involves much more conversation and daily/weekly tweeks to an athletes program compared to the public sector - some coaches enjoy this, others do not.


Duties of the Job

Working or own your own private gym is great and all, but be aware you’ll be wearing many different hats. 

My “cool” title as owner and head of sports performance is nice on a business card and it allows me to design programs for all my athletes and plan out all the aspects of physical preparation. 

Now what you don’t see are all my other titles: receptionist, marketing and advertising, janitor, account manager, handy man...
  • Toilets clogged?  That’s my job. 
  • Floors/Rubber Flooring (3000 sq/ft worth) need vacuuming/mopping for the 3rd time this week?  That’s me. 
  • Finished working a 14-hour day now benches and tables need wiping down and laundry needs to be done?  I’m on it. 
  • Phone calls and emails are piled up?  Guess I’ll spend the next hour taking care of those. 
  • Need to restock on toilet paper, garbage bags, disinfectant, light bulbs, soap, and protein supplies?  I’ll make an errand run.
  • 50 saved receipts from the past month need to be entered into a spread sheet? Hopefully you're well versed in excel

There are a ton of non-pretty tasks and jobs that need to be done, and if you’re in the private sector, that’s your job! If you're lucky you might be in a position where you can hire cleaning services or are in a public building that does some of these jobs, but it's been my experience that most of these jobs fall upon the business owner. 

In the public sector, these jobs are probably not your worry. You don't have to worry about the bathroom, or vacuuming the facility, or taking phone calls, or worrying about marketing/advertising, or filling out spread sheets, etc. You also probably don't have to worry about equipment issues or putting together new equipment - there are people for that. 

That being said, you may be part of hiring committees, leadership committees, required to attend athletic meetings, and sport coach meetings - so getting used to sitting in on hours of meetings becomes normal. 


Pay

There has been a rise in S&C pay in the past 5-years, and were now seeing strength coaches with salaries of 400k or more. The average DI head Football S&C is making around ~200k - that's damn good money. 

That being said, there are still plenty of assistants, Olympic sport S&C's, and S&C's at the DII, DIII, and HS levels making penny's compared to Football S&C. 

A rising tide raises all ships - coaches making more money and getting seen as more and more valuable is only a positive for our profession.

Instead of getting jealous or thinking so and so is making 300k! I'm a way better coach. Understand it can only be seen as a positive that coaches are getting paid better and it will only positively effect coaches at all levels sooner than later. 

In the private sector, understand, you probably won't make much money during your initial years - especially if you're the one starting the business. With all the expenses it takes to get a facility running and keeping it rolling, it's takes some time before things start paying for themselves. 

I spent my first year owning my business sleeping on a futon in the back storage room on my facility. I lived on protein shakes and $5 pizza's from Little Ceasar's. I hustled for every penny, busted my ass for every client, and knocked on every door I could to get things going.

No one saw what that first year was like, no one saw the 1am working on a programs or a project around the facility; no one saw the Sundays; no one felt the fatigue from coaching for 16-hours; no one felt the hunger from not eating solid food for days at a time .

But this is why I'm picky about every penny I spend, this is why I don't like not coaching every session - because no one can understand what I sacrificed to now have a gym filled with athletes and they'll never understand the sense of urgency and energy needed every single day.

People take for granted when they see something without appreciation for how they got that way. New interns or coaches take for granted having every session filled with athletes and think that's normal BUT they didn't go through any of the pains or hustle that got it that way. 

That being said, I truly think everyone should go through periods of their life where they struggle, they're poor, they're living week to week, they have to hustle for every dollar, go hungry - it's makes you appreciate the small things and the experience and lessons learned serve you well down the road. 

Sorry for the rant, but the beauty of private coaches is they don't have a ceiling for pay. If they do a great job, organize a well structured business, and are able to charge for their services - they can continue to increase their earnings. 

In the public sector, minus being at a Power 5 conference, you're typically set in your salary for multiple years. Teams could win championships, athletic programs can have tremendous success, but the S&C coach will likely stay at their set salary. 

This is a major reason coaches move quite frequently, in search of those higher paying jobs. For every DI coach making 200k-400k, there are another 100 coaches at other levels/schools making 20-30k.


Benefits

One of the often unseen benefits of working in a public setting is the benefits a coach receives. Typically, full health insurance, matched retirement, PTO, and vacation. 

In the private sector, don't expect any of that. No health insurance (hopefully your spouse can provide that), you're responsible for long-term financial investments, no built in sick days or vacation. 

I have many friends in the college realm, and depending on the sport(s) they coach, they typically get 2-3 stretches of the year where they won't have any teams for 2-3 weeks. So typically, a solid 4-6 weeks with no teams - great opportunities for vacation and/or a chance to recharge their batteries and catch up on project, programming, etc. 

In the 5-years of my business, we've never been closed for more than 3 days in a row. I've taken one 10-day vacation for my honeymoon, and when I do take a long vacation, not only do I have to pay for the vacation itself, but for my assistants to be there during my absence, so I'm basically paying for it twice.

​If I get a weekend of no coaching, it's a small miracle. 

As coaches get older and start families, many of these added benefits are huge and may override some of the potential luxuries of the private sector. 


Freedom

Working in the private sector generally gives you a lot of freedom in terms of programming, duration, and timing.  While coaching in the College setting you’re usually restricted to certain time frames and restricted hours; in the private sector, I can spend just about as much time as I want with an athlete and coach at many different times.

I have said this before, and will continue to say it - I'm able to put out a better product in my private facility than I am with my college teams. 

Why?
  • Better athlete to coach ratio
  • More time
  • More space
  • Better able to individualize training
  • No restrictions from sport coaches or head S&C coach

In many instances S&C coaches are at the will of their Head Sport Coach.  If a Sport Coach wants his team to Olympic Lift, you’ll likely have to implement Olympic Lifts.  If a Coach wants his athletes to run 300-Shuttles, you’ll probably have to follow his or her will.  

Also, many assistant S&C coaches are also at the will of the head S&C coach. So they may be implementing the head S&C's program or have certain restrictions based on what the head S&C stipulates. So even if it’s something you don’t agree on, you might be forced to include exercises/drills you don’t want to.

Now coaches for years have gotten around this by doing whatever pleases their coaches, but in low doses.  If coaches have good rapport and experience with their Head Coach, they can often talk to them about why they don’t want to do certain things or are given freedom to do what they please.  But for many coaches, the big boss runs the show and what he or she says, goes or you may risk losing your job. 

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Overall

There are plenty of pros and cons of each the public and private sectors, and it really comes down to each individual coach.

As a former athlete, I'm driven towards the team setting and to me nothing beats a big game. But as a coach, I feel more impact and more influence as a coach in the private sector.

As I get older, the public sector may be a better calling with the less physical stress of being my feet for 14 hours, added benefits, less stress of owning a business, and more time off for family.

For now, BBA is what I enjoy most. The population of athletes, freedom and growth as a coach, individual attention able to provide for each athlete... plus I get to bring my dog to work everyday too!

You might also enjoy a Podcast I did with Matt Gifford (NXLevel), Steve Brown (UW-Oshkosh), Zach Cahill (Northern Illinois), Korey Van Wyk (Northwestern College) where we talked about working in the public vs private sectors. 
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Owning A Gym: Things You Should Know

12/12/2016

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Within 20-miles of my gym, there are 4 Colleges with exercise science programs.  Every semester we go to 3-4 of these schools and talk to students about the S&C profession.  Add in every 4-months we bring in a batch of new interns, and this all equals to us working and talking with a ton of ambitious college kids looking to get into the field of S&C. 

One of the first questions I always ask when talking with the young professionals is what is your dream job?

A common response is to own my own gym.

When I hear this I can't help but think - NO…NO You Don't!
We are closing in on 4-years total in business.

It's been a hell of a ride, and owning your own facility definitely has it's perks, but let this be clear - IT'S NOT FOR EVERYONE.  Being even more honest - It's not of most. 

I think people want to own their own gym because it sounds cool and or because they love to train.

These are both poor reasons and probably a reason most of the gyms fail within the first 2-3 years. People make emotional and irrational decisions to open a gym rather than educated and dedicated ones. Let this be clear, if you want to own a gym, your own personal fitness will DECREASE! Your training will suffer, so please PLEASE don't try to open a gym because it will allow you to have your own personal space to train. 

Owning a gym, to put it simply, is a pain in the ass!  There are so many hidden or small things that go into a business that you'll never be prepared for.  All of these things add up, and if you're in it for the wrong reasons, it will eat you up. 

If you're not in it for the love of coaching, a passion for the intricacies of S&C, and because you truly/deeply care about the athletes - then you're in it for the wrong reasons.  If you think you're going to get rich or because you get your own personal training space or because you get to be your own boss - you're in for a rude awakening.

After sitting down and thinking back on these past years, here are some things that came to mind - in no specific order.


1. A Gym Is EXPENSIVE

If you're en employee or work in the public sector (HS/College/Pro), if something breaks, no big deal, they'll order another one.  Well when you own your own gym and something breaks, guess who pays for it - that's right, YOU do. 
Sometimes at the end of the month it comes down to paying yourself or buying a piece of equipment.  Which do you choose?

While you've probably gone most of your life enjoying the benefits of having a HS or college gym to train in - Did you know a quality bar and set of bumper plates can be a thousand dollars!  Yup, a bar and 230lbs of weight, which is enough for just 1-ATHLETE can cost about 3/4 of my monthly rent.

Let's look at some other "small" expenses
  • You want 1000sq/ft of rubber matting? There goes roughly 2-4k
  • You want 3 quality squat racks?  Chalk up another 3-5k
  • Dumbbells from 0-100lbs?  Dig deep for 2-3k
  • Liability Insurance?  An annual rate of 1-2k a year
  • Credit Cards? Most credit card outlets take a 1-3% cut.  If you take in 50k in credit card charges a year, that's $500-1500 LOST just by accepting credit cards.
  • Typical steel plates cost about $1/lb
  • How about a nice sign outside the gym? - Don't worry it's only about 1-3k and as I suggest to many - IT'S WORTHLESS!
This doesn't even include what rent, utilities, and internet costs.  So when you bitch about a gym not having some sort of equipment - just know the owner has sacrificed beyond belief to just keep the lights on and them taking $500 out of their own pocket wasn't worth your much needed piece of equipment. 

Oh and on that note - don't expect to make money the 1st month, or 1st 3-months, or even 1st year.  Everyone thinks you'll open your doors and people will come poring in… sorry it doesn't happen like that.  You'll have to hustle for every client, every dime, and use every waking hour to improve some aspect of your business in order to survive.  Which leads to #2



2. How Much Do You Value Your Social Life?

When your the sole proprioter, you are the business and every waking second is spent working or thinking about your business.  Here is a small list of things I had to give up or at least heavily reduce when I opened my gym
  • Going out on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights - I either have work early the next morning or I'm just too tired to go out.  I know people who could NEVER sacrifice a Saturday night for doing 2-hours worth of programming instead of downing beers downtown. 
  • Football on Sundays … Nope work from 1-6pm.  And this isn't just NFL, but any sporting event.  I'm usually working during these hours while most others are at home enjoying the game
  • Buddies going golfing or hanging out on a random afternoon or night - My busy hours are from 2-9pm - so while others are getting off work and getting to do things, I'm in the midst of my busy time.
  • Saturday Morning Farmer's Market - One of the things I miss most is getting to go to the farmer's market on Saturday mornings.  It's just one of the many small things I miss out on due to owning this business. 


3. You'll Meet A Ton Of Great People

Over the past 3-years I've been fortunate to meet a ton of great people, athletes, and families who have bought into what we do.  I've met people with amazing stories, personalities, and have had a ton of fun getting to know people of various ages and backgrounds.  

That's the beauty of this job.  I love my athletes and it's a joy seeing them get better each and everyday and seeing them grow and develop.  They drive me nuts from time to time, but at the end of the day it's the people that make this job great!

4. Advice

People love to give you advice, especially when you're a young business owner.

"You should try this, you should buy that, have you thought about doing this, you would could do a lot of things if you did this" 

While these are all well intentioned, it seems everybody has a better feel for what your business needs than you do.  And this is without spending more than 10-minutes in your facility!  

Don't get me wrong, sometimes there is a decent idea in there, but 99% of the suggestions you've already thought of, planned logistics, looked at your books/financials, and decided it wasn't a good business move.  Learn to take these in stride and be respectful and thankful for their advice.  



5. You'll Be Sleep Deprived & No Body Cares

For the past 3-years, my alarm is set at 4:45am every weekday morning, and I usually don't get home until 8:30-9pm every night - and guess what - NO BODY CARES! 

One thing I tell my interns at the start of every internship is once you walk through our doors, you drop all your other baggage and don't let it carry over to the gym floor.
No one cares if you're only getting 5-hours of sleep.  No one cares you work 7-days a week.  No one cares if you're having relationship problems, illness in your family, social stresses, or anything else - when it's time to coach - you need to be on.

We're in the service industry - we provide a service to our athletes and everybody wants special service.  Parents or athletes don't care you've already coached 8-sessions today or that you train 100+ other athletes - the only thing that matters is them. 

They want special attention for their kid, extra work on nutrition, focused attention to develop mental toughness, help them with getting their school grades up, talk to them about weight management, address behavioral problems, etc. 

Don't get me wrong, I am humbled that many ask these things from me and think highly enough of me to ask help in these things, but no one cares you get hundreds of other requests as well, they just need it to get done.  As a S&C coach you're not just a coach, but also a nutritionist, psychologist, counselor, therapist, tutor, mentor, etc.  I use all these terms loosely, but it's true in a sense. 

I remember early on in this business, I missed a morning training session to host a camp.  I had an assistant run my morning sessions, and I got a call from a parent asking why I wasn't there.  Here I was out trying to expand and extend my business and I miss one morning and I get called asking where I'm at and why I'm not there.  If you're the business, expect people to want YOU.



6. You're Not Just The Owner

It's awesome to say I own a business and hopefully down the road that will bring some added perks and freedoms.  But as a young business owner - that's only a TINY fraction of my job. 

Here's a list of other jobs that fall on my shoulders
  • Someone decides to hold in a huge dump all day just to unload it in your toilet - Guess who gets to unclog and clean the toilet - That's right, the owner!
  • Secretary - Answer and return anywhere from 5-10 emails/calls a day (This can take HOURS)
  • Keep spreadsheets of incomes vs expenses
  • Track receipts - I mean every receipt of everything you buy
  • Log miles on your car -  Every mile you drive for business needs to be tracked - yes every mile! 
  • Daily vacuuming, cleaning, maintenance - Approx. 30-60minutes a day
  • Living in the Midwest means winter, which means shoveling and salting at 4:30am before morning sessions.
  • Individual programming for hundreds of athletes - Each night I have around 2-10 programs to make.  Each program probably takes around 15-minutes - you do the math. 
  • Marketing, Advertising, Managing Social Media, Newsletter 
Also when you are the owner in a service business - you ARE the business.  No matter the issue, problem, or assignment - it's your job to address it.

When you own your own business, you don't have PTO, or built in vacation, or sick days, or weekends.   You don't get a 401K or IRA's or health insurance or any other built-in programs that you normally get as an employee.  It's been almost 3-years owing this business and I haven't missed more than 3-days in a row of work.  I haven't taken a sick day or personal day.  If I've missed a day at the gym, it's been to travel to a conference, speak at a conference, or attend a family function.  It truly is a 7day/week job that never quits.  Get used to being tired, sleep deprived, and worn down - or don't get into this.


7. Be Yourself and Stick To Your Principles

As a young coach, I wanted to be like some of the big names/coaches in the industry.  I tried hard to emulate them, program like them, talk like them, etc.  But I've now reached a point where I'm comfortable with myself and who I am.  

I still pull things from coaches but at the end of the day - I'm still me and my coaching should emulate that.  I like to have fun, I goof around, I allow my athletes freedom, and I know my strengths and I stick to them.  

Is my programming perfect?  No
Is my coaching perfect?  No
But what I've created over the past 3-years is special and when I take a step back and look at what BBA means to many athletes or the environment we've created - it truly is a special place.

8. People Will Want A Piece of You

A month doesn't go by where I'm not being asked to donate to something, be willing to help with this, or sponsor that, or if I have a job available.  In a given year, I donate between 3-6k to fundraisers, tournaments, charities, etc.  

This is great and I'm all for giving back to the community in whatever manner possible, but as a small  business, every cent matters.  I'm not a big corporation where giving away a thousand dollars is pocket change.  Like I said earlier, this very well may be a months income.  I will continue to donate items to charities and fundraisers because they are usually for great causes and it's important to me to give back.

I will say this though, the one thing I've stop doing is donating to sponsor a tournament or club or game or event.  Such as, "Donate $300 and we'll put your business on our t-shirts or in our program or on a banner". 

Here's the brutal truth, rarely are any of these actually good business moves.  I've never been to an event, looked at the t-shirt or a banner and thought, "I really need to check out that business".  Again, I will donate memberships or consultations, but I've stopped giving actual money in return for a sign or name in a program.  These are mostly financial losses.  Which brings me to my next point...


9. Learn To Say No

Early on, I said yes to every opportunity I could get. 

Extra sessions on Sunday?  Yes!
Extra 5am Session?  Yes!
Sponsor This Event? Yes!
Do 1-on-1 training during my only hour off during a 14-hour day? Yes!
Work this camp for dirt cheap, but it allows you to get in front of new athletes? Yes!
Do the S&C for a college team for a resume builder? Yes!

Now, I've learned to say no.  Keeping my sanity and getting freedom is much more important than doing these little things to help the business. 

After 2-years of working 7-days a week, I finally said no to Sundays.  I've turned down 1-on-1 sessions, reduced sessions, and turned away opportunities that limit my time and freedom to relax, read, research, or spend time with my family.


10. I Get To Be My Own Boss

While I've stated all the hidden costs of being your own boss and on the outside it's a lot less glamorous than it sounds; at the same time it has it's perks.  

I turn 29 in a couple of months, and for over 3-years I've been able to program for every single athlete I've come in contact with.  THAT IS HUGE! 

If I want to try this or that… I can do it.  If I want to buy this or that… I can do it.  If I want to change this or that… I can do it.  If I don't want to do this or that… I don't have to. 

If I want to experiment with a new program or exercise - I have the green light.  If I want to drop that day's training and have a competition/game day - I'm going to do it.  If I want to conduct a research project on my athletes - I don't have any hoops to jump through except for my own.  

I have friends in the college setting who are full-time coaches and they don't get to do any programming and training structure - they just implement what the Head S&C programs.  Not only exercise prescription but also warm-up, speed and agility work, recovery, rehab and return to training, youth, HS, college teams, professional, adults, males, females, every sport imaginable are all under this umbrella.  

NO and I mean NO HS or College or Professional S&C coach has this kind of experience.  Most public sector S&C coaches typically have 1-5 sports or specific genders or specific ages - while I get a little bit of everything.  I can tell you this has made me a 100x better coach than if I was strictly say a College FB S&C coach.  
I get to dress is sweats and a sweatshirt EVERY SINGLE DAY!  If I had to dress up or wear slacks to work everyday, I would go insane!

I get rewarded for doing a great job!  If I do a great job with an athlete or client, they'll usually tell someone and I get rewarded - financially.  In the public sector S&C coaches are often underpaid or have set salaries that can be very hard to increase, no matter how well of a job you may be doing.  I, on the other hand, have unlimited potential for growth and my salary is only dictated by the quality of my program.  I'd venture to say I earn more than 80% of S&C coaches through BBA, online training, team contracts, and our products - but this comes with the fact that I also work more than 100% of public sector S&C coaches.  I'm lucky not to have these restrictions while most public settings and/or if you're an employee DO have these restrictions. 


All-In-All

There are plenty of pro's and con's to owning a gym, but understanding them before thinking about opening a gym will save a lot of headache and regreat in the long run.

Plus, one of my favorite parts of owning a gym???
​I get bring this little boy to work everyday, which is a must!  Everyday is bring your pet to work day = awesome!
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Random Business Thoughts

12/12/2016

2 Comments

 
  • It's December as I write this, and here in Iowa we just got 6-inches of snow.  That's means I was out at 4:45am shoveling and salting the parking lot before morning sessions

  • Every December and June - I write thank-you letters for all of our athletes.  That's 100+ thank-you's - 2 times every year.  This takes A LOT of time, but it's the small things that matter
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  • Over the past 6-weeks - it's been sickness season.  Athletes, assistant coaches, interns have all been sick and had to miss days.  You want to own a business?  Guess what - you CAN'T get sick; you CAN'T miss days; you have to tough it out and be there. 
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  • You wanna know one of the hardest things about owning a gym? MUSIC! You need clean versions. No one likes commercials. Half the group wants Rap and can't stand Country - the other half wants Country and can't stand Rap - You can't please everybody.
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  • This year (2016) Christmas and New Years fell on Sundays, we have sessions on Monday - this meant the Holiday "break" consisted of just a weekend.  It also meant on Christmas night - I was at the gym getting set-up for the following morning.  It meant on New Years day - when most people were watching football - I had to be at the gym getting things set-up for the following morning.​
  • This may be more related to coaching than owning a business - but the most disappointing thing is seeing someone waste talent and opportunity.  Seeing an athlete who refuses to do the things needed to reach their potential.  I go out of my way for athletes - individual sessions, individualized training program, specific nutritional write-ups, early mornings, late nights, Sunday sessions, film review/breakdown, soft-tissue work, etc - and it's so frustrating when an athlete can't show up on time for a session, or be mindful during a warm-up, or get to bed at a reasonable hour, or wake-up 5-minutes early and make themselves a quality breakfast.  It reminds of something I was told a few years back - "You can't want it for the athlete - at the end of the day, they must want it for themselves".  It's a hard reality of coaching/teaching/leadership roles. 
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  • Even during the winter, but even more so during the summer, at the end of every day we have towels to wash. Sometimes 50-70 towels a day! Just an added job that no one really thinks about
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  • As a S&C coach, we often get caught up in exercise selection, reps and sets, rest periods, loads, accommodating resistance, etc. But you want to know what matters more and would have a much bigger influence on an athlete than any of our training sessions...
    • Sleep - A consistent bed and wake time, a quality sleep environment, a bedtime routine, a wake time routine 
    • Sunlight - Getting outside, experiencing nature for 30-60 minutes a day
    • Hobby - Having something else they're passionate about
    • No TV in bedroom
    • Nutrition - Get BW in grams of protein, 6-8 servings of veggies/fruits a day, adequate water consumption

  • Something that no undergraduate or graduate will teach you, but is extremely important to be a good coach 
    • Voice - How to command a group, often times over loud music
    • Standing on your feet for 8-12 hours. My interns complain about 6-hours of being on their feet - sorry you're not cut out for it
    • Movement - Some schools may actually teach you proper mechanics and technique of the compound movements; but what I know isn't taught is any kind of movement mechanics - linear acceleration and top-end speed, agility, jump/landing mechanics, basics of a dynamic warm-up, etc. Being able to demonstrate and understand these - to me - is a lot more important than knowing how to teach a squat or bench. 
    • Names - Remembering names is a skill - one that can and should be practiced
    • Engagement and Motivation - Half the battle of a coach is dealing with many different types of people with different personalities, different backgrounds, different learning styles, and different goals. Meeting the athlete with where they are at and trying to connect them with thier goal/purpose is no small task. Now try this with 10-40 athletes in a given session. My schooling didn't provide a single opportunity to work/coach with a single person during my studies - again this is something programs NEED to start providing or students need to get out and find these opportunities. 
    • Excel - Excel is such an awesome tool with so many capabilities and presentation of a sharp looking program is important - not going to learn that in school
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How To Be A Good Strength & Conditioning Intern

6/9/2016

1 Comment

 
Continuing on our theme of business from the past few articles, we'll continue with another important aspect of what we do at BBA, and that's educating young coaches! 
Every year we host 3 Internships - Summer, Fall, and Spring.  We typically host between 2-6 interns during these blocks, and in total over the past 3-years have mentored 34 young professionals looking to break into the coaching, fitness, or S&C world.

Having been an intern at a Big 10 school and now managing a ton of interns, I have seen my fair share of the good, bad, and ugly when it comes to internships. 

Our goal is to have our internship experience be the most valuable thing these students do in their collegiate career.  That and actually coach!  During my time spent as an intern, I was mostly a glorified spotter - with most of my duties being set-up, tear down, observation, and cleaning - not a whole lot of actual coaching. 

Pair that with my an undergraduate degree that left a TON to be desired in terms of practical information.  In fact, I'd go as far to say I didn't learn a shred of practical information during my time as an undergrad, and nor was it emphasized.  I learned far more doing my own personal research, talking with coaches, reading for hundreds of hours, and soaking in everything I could during my internship. 

I see it with all my interns, their practical knowledge of biomechanics, anatomy and physiology, exercise technique and prescription, and coaching/cueing/communication is extremely poor.

These students come to as juniors and seniors and we have to spend hours talking about exercise technique, communication and cueing, how to spot global movement errors, how a neutral spine looks like, what a good lower leg alignment looks like, and how to actually coach! 

It's baffling these things aren't reiterated to death in undergraduate programs - I have high school students who know this stuff by just training with us for a couple of years. 

All this is fine and dandy, as we take responsibility to REALLY educate these students on the nuances of S&C.  Every intern we've ever had, during our exit interview, states they learned more during the past 4-months then the past 4-years at school! - That's our goal.

We also use our internship to potentially hire or recommend for future positions.  We won't hire someone who hasn't interned or volunteered a quality amount of time so we can see first hand how well they interact with the athletes and their ability to coach in our environment.  Remember the internship is basically a long interview process.

Second, as our web of contacts continues to grow -  we love to see our past interns go on and do great things.  Currently we have 3 past interns working with Division 1 schools, 2 working in Division II schools, 3 are High School sport coaches, 2 are in graduate school, and 1 is a health coach for a large business. 

We take pride in helping our interns in any manner possible, BUT we also have very high expectations for our interns and as past interns can tell you we are very particular when it comes to work ethic, body language, and attitude. 

Here are 6 things, that take NO extreme levels of knowledge, all interns should exhibit if they want to stand out.


1. Don't Be Lazy!

Seriously, there is nothing, I mean NOTHING more frustrating than an intern that just stands there or walks around and doesn't say or do anything.  In our environment, interns should have a light sweat going from constantly moving, spotting, stripping weights, demonstrating, coaching, etc. 

We don't like lazy athletes as coaches - so don't be a lazy intern!


2. Be There Early, Stay Late

This is an old saying, but it's tremendously true.  We take notice who is consistently here first and who stays around asking if there is anything else to do.  We also take notice who strolls in at JUST the last second and who is asking if they can leave. 
For the latter, please don't ask for a reference because you will not get one.


3. Mirror What The Head Coach Says/Does

We expect our interns to come in with a lack of practical knowledge, but that doesn't mean they can't be effective. 

The greatest thing an intern can do is be adaptable and be a keen observer to how the head coach coaches. 

It drives me nuts when I lead a couple of groups through a movement practice and I use specific cues, specific mobility exercises, specific rest periods, and demonstrate/coach a specific way with a specific language and when it's the interns time - they don't do the same.

It takes no skill to observe and apply specific coaching that you JUST SAW multiple times.  It's called being a student and learning. 

I go bonkers when I lead 2-3 groups, and when the intern is up, they look at me and ask what's next, what should I say, what should I be looking for? 

Do things and mirror in the manner the head coach wants - it'll make everyones life easier.



4. You're Opinions Don't Matter - On The Floor

Every once in a while we'll get an intern that has read some things or follows blogs or has some actual experience under the bar.  This is great - except when they then try to teach something in a manner that we don't want to be taught.

Let's get this clear - you are the intern and you do things OUR way.  Eventually you'll put in the time and earn the right to do  your own programs/teams, but right now - I don't care what you read in the latest article on T-Nation, this is MY facility and we'll do things MY way.

I would never walk into another coaches environment and start critiquing the way they are coaching or say they should be doing a technique like this - not that. 

If you want to piss off a coach in the baddest way - this is a surefire bet. 

This doesn't mean you can't have questions - but on the floor, in front of athletes is NOT the place.  Especially in a combative or questioning manner.  Trust me, I have far more experience and far deeper understanding for the way I coach, and just because you read something doesn't mean you overstep our coaching cues/techniques.

We have weekly staff meetings for this, and that is the appropriate time to bring up questions. 



5. Anticipate

Anticipation is every coaches dream.  When I don't have to say something, and I turnaround and see I a drill set-up or a piece of equipment out and ready - it's amazing. 

Every program has a specific flow and progression to it.  Every program has the training sessions written on either a whiteboard or athlete card - read the training, anticipate when things/equipment will be needed, and have things ready for the head coach. 
The head guy has a hundred other things to worry about and having a piece of equipment out and ready without having to tell somebody makes their job soooo much better!


6. Be The Good Guy

Every once in a while we'll get that intern that wants to be a badass and show how much of a tough, meathead he/she is. 

Guess what - you're not and the athletes can see right through that. 

You're responsibility is to help carry out the head coaches programming, assist in set-up tear down, apply specific coaching cues, spot, and most of all - BE THE GOOD GUY.

I'll be the dick and play mean cop if the athletes need a kick in the ass - that's not your job nor your place.

You should be the supportive, positive coach and do the little things for the athlete.  The head coach will provide the discipline and control when needed. 

If you do all of these things, you will impact the athletes, impress the coaches, and leave a lasting impression on the environment. 

You know how I know if my interns leave a lasting impression... This simple checklist is an easy way I know if my interns impacted the athletes in a positive manner.
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1 Comment

Audit Your Coaching

5/17/2016

3 Comments

 
 â€‹ The role and impact of a S&C coach is hard to evaluate and quantify.  

How do you know a S&C coach is doing a good job or poor job?

Head coaches are evaluated by wins and losses.  
Coordinators and/or position coaches are evaluated by statistical success or success of their position players. 

But how are S&C coaches evaluated?
Here are three common ways people tend to evaluate S&C coaches and why it's a mistake

1. By the success of a team?   

People like to use this as a contention point, but there needs to be extreme caution with this.  

Where or who or the success of the team you coach doesn’t necessarily make someone a great coach or validate the coach.  

Remember this, there are a lot of great coaches on lower levels and coaching poor teams, and there are a lot of poor coaches, coaching very successful teams.  

2.  By how much their athletes lift?   

I don't know where this idea started, but it's another area I don’t feel is a good road to trek down.  We aren’t trying to develop lifters, we are trying to develop athletes.  

How much one can lift is no indicator of on-field success and solely using squat or bench numbers is a very poor approach to the job of an S&C coach. 

3.  By the amount of All-Conference, All-American, or draft picks 

The success and more importantly the improvement of an S&C athletes is undoubtedly important, but it's not smart to hang your hat on these things.

Remember S&C coaches are given athletes that the coaching staff recruits.  They cannot control who is on the team, and guess what?

Better athletes = better team = more honors/awards

S&C coaches cannot control what type of athlete they are given.  They also have a very limited role in whether they are all-conference, all-american, or draft picks.

First and foremost, genetics is most important, then the specific sport improvement and practice, and finally S&C. 

Don't take credit for the success of your athletes.  S&C coaches definitely play a role, but a small role, and don't ever try to put the spotlight on yourself when it deserves to be on the athlete.  


Better Approach

Here's a novel idea for S&C coaches, and one that I feel will give us a better evaluation of the impact a S&C has.

Why don't you ask your athletes, or coaches?  

Ask your athletes if they feel they are improving in all areas of athletic performance.  

This means a lot more than just purely strength.  Are they improving movement skills, increasing usable range of motion, getting faster, are they more confident and resilient, do they believe in the program and buy-in to what you are doing, are their specific conditioning and ESD demands improving?

Below is a questionnaire I gave to 153 of my athletes and to 3 sport coaches to fill out and asked them to be brutally honest with their responses.  

This might seem very scary or exposing for a coach, but doesn't it make sense to actually get a sense of what those experiencing your coaching are feeling? 

If you are afraid of what your athletes and coaches will write, then that alone should tell you something.  You should be excited and confident to hear the responses and use the info to make yourself an even better coach.

Here are the simple questions I asked.  The 153 athletes I asked included athletes from 7th grade – seniors in college - to professional athletes.   They didn't put their name on the sheet and again I told them to be brutally honest, my feelings wouldn't be hurt! 
 
1.     Male or Female?

2.     What is your favorite part of this S&C program?

3.     What is your LEAST favorite part of this S&C program?

4.     What is your favorite exercise?

5.     What is your LEAST favorite exercise?

6.     What do you wish we’d do more of?

7.     What do you wish we’d do less of?

8.     Do you feel you have improved since we've started to now?   In what areas do you feel have improved the most? 

9.     In what area do you feel you're stagnating or feel we could a better job addressing? 

10.     If you could change 1 thing or make 1 suggestion to this S&C program or for how I can improve as a coach, what would it be?


It was honestly refreshing to receive this feedback and delving into the information has been very beneficial to me as a coach – I urge you to do the same. 

After going over all the responses 3-4 times, a couple of things really stand out to me as interesting, and I think can really help all coaches out there.   Here they are in no particular order.


Gender Differences 

Females asked for much more feedback on technique.

I take this as a compliment and also great tool for improving my coaching. 

I am very open to having my athletes all exhibit differences in technique and giving them autonomy and freedom in their movements.  If I have 12 athletes squatting, they will all look different, with different depths, different stances, different toe angles, etc. 

With that being said, I have noticed that females tend to be more skeptical of their technique and lack a little confidence with their technique.  I will often tell a girl everything looks great technique wise, and they'll often come back and ask me to watch again to make sure here technique is solid.  

So my takeaway is when working with females, put more emphasis and feedback on technique and ensuring you are giving valuable and specific information on technique. 


Have Fun

One of the common themes in the feedback was that just about every response said their favorite aspect was how I made the program fun and the enjoyed the games/competitive aspects of the program.

Let me repeat that:

All ages, even professional and high level college athletes all stated they enjoye games, competitions, and play

We are a species that enjoys and thrives with play.  

One reason I dislike the idea of working in bigger college or professional settings is they tend to be really serious.  Their athletes can't be having fun or involved in "silly" games, and this is something I whole-heartedly disagree with. 

Not only do games and play-type environments enhance the enjoyment and fun for the athletes, but they also encourage the use of creativity, open-sided and reactive movements, stimulate cognitive function and recognition, encourage competition, and involve strategy and communication with teammates. 

Please tell me how this isn't beneficial for athletes?

Moral of the story, find ways to make your training more game-based, open, and competitive.
Least Favorite Exercise 

Everyone really hates the ISO BSS.

This means I'll most definitely continue to include this in their programs!
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Morning Training? 

People do not like early morning lifting, especially if the are doing it 3-4 times a week.  And to be honest, I really don't enjoy as a coach either.  I've been getting up at 4:45am, every week day, for 2+ years, and I'd be lying if I said I absolutely love it when my alarm goes off. 

What's interesting to me is we know the importance of sleep and how a lack of sleep has numerous negative effects on various areas of an athletes health and performance, but we continue to ask for 5:30 or 6:00am lifting sessions?

Obviously, those of us working in a University setting are restricted by things we simply can’t get around.   The fact that is we work with student-athletes and they tend to have classes from 8am-2pm and there aren't a plethora of time options for training times.

But can we shift the believe that these early morning sessions are essential??

I breakdown all of my college athletes sleep and bed times on a DAILY basis, and it’s rare to see these athletes in bed before 11pm despite the urging and preaching about the importance of sleep.  I can get pissed at them and try to educate them until I'm red in the face, but what better am I if I then go and have them train at 6 or 7am, for 3-4 times a week, knowing they are only getting 6-7 hours of sleep, at max each night.  

Obviously education is a integral part to helping our athletes and trying to get them to buy-into getting to bed earlier and improving their sleep habits, but I also feel we as coaches are often hypocrites when we continue to make them be up at 5am each morning.  

The feedback I received was very clear, they do not like getting up for 6am workouts.  My thoughts are this - if we can avoid these early morning sessions, then we absolutely should.  Obviously in a college setting, with limitations of resources, class conflicts, etc - then yes we need to use these early morning time-frames, but maybe we need to find ways to rotate teams, so it's not the same teams/athletes doing 6am every single day.

I look at it as, if we can even reduce a specific team needing to train at 6am, just 1-day a week, we are likely adding 2-3 additional hours of sleep a week for these athletes - which could be huge for performance and recovery. 


Buzz Words 

Athletes have a decent understanding of buzz words and they want to perform those buzz words.  

 In the question, what do you wish we did more of – three common responses occurred.  

1. Core
2. Explosive Exercises  
3. Arms

Two of the three responses would be what I would consider buzz terms.  Athletes probably couldn't even tell you what the "core" is or what muscles make up the "core", to them it just means abs.

Maybe throwing in an ab or arm burner at the end of sessions is a good idea from time to time.  Plus these won’t negatively effect or pull away from the CNS stimulus you're trying have the body adapt to.
  
Those questioned also tended to make notes to wanting to do more explosive type exercises.  We know we perform different med ball variations or jumping/bounding movements to train various power production applications, but do they?  

Just adding, hey this is to work on our explosiveness, might be something they really want to hear and enhance the intent of the drill.

Conclusion 

Well I hope this sheds some light as a way to give greater insight into your coaching.  I think ever coach should give this questionnaire at the end of a semester or year and really evaluate what you are doing as a coach.  This will definitely be something I address with my athletes and coaches every year from here on out and I encourage you to do the same or share your results as well!  

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