Here is a piece that was submitted to the NSCA, incase you missed it:
Before we get going, I would like to thank the National
Strength and Conditioning Association. The NSCA has been a constant source of
professional development and information, and having this opportunity to share
some thoughts and experiences about what a NCAA Division III strength and
conditioning professional faces, is an honor and a privilege. The powerful play
goes on and I am humbled to contribute a verse.
So you want to be a DIII strength coach? I don’t blame you; it is a pretty sweet gig. Yes,
there are over four hundred and fifty DIII schools, more than DI and DII. Yes,
the athletes are not given athletic scholarships. And yes, you better be ready
for a few things you are not going to see anywhere else. And no, I am not
talking about the unbelievable amount of time that you are going to spend on
campus, or the frustrations we all share when the sport coach decides to up and
change their schedule just because. Those are things that every strength coach
is going to wrestle with; I am talking about things that are unique to the NCAA
DIII world.
The first thing is to understand athletics is one of the
most powerful recruiting arms the institution has. Whether or not this is understood, or even embraced
by the administration, doesn’t matter. As part of the recruitment of potential
students, it falls back on you to help spread the brand of the institution and
to help create top of mind awareness in the local area. This happens by the
countless small invisible actions that help funnel students into a particular
institution over another. Try and account for the influence that the high
school coach has over their athletes. That is where you come in my friend.
Reaching out to the local schools and see what you can do to help them in the
weight room or inviting the coaches over to the gym to “talk shop” are small
steps to gain the trust of coaches and help them be confident in giving advice
about your institution.
Every school has a handful of retired faculty, coaches, and
other prominent community members that gather together at the local diner and
talk about how things are going while drinking strong and cheap coffee. While
these people are not quite the exact same as the boosters of large DI schools,
never underestimate the power they have. Most DIII schools are very involved in
the local community and local college sports always have a place on the
rotating topic list. This group of potential allies, are often neglected, which
is a shame. Not only do they have hilarious stories and outlandish experiences
that you can learn from, but they have an abundance of the most precious
commodity: time. Time to talk to people like the Athletic Director and the President
of the school about how the community perceives the college community and give
their ideas of what the college is doing well or what it could be better at.
Why is that important, you ask?
Politics, that’s all. At our level, the more the AD and President
knows and hear about all the good things you are doing from people other than themselves,
the more they are going to want to support you and the program moving forward.
The more support you can get, the more you can do, which means getting the
things you need to have, like money for assistants. More assistants mean more community
outreach. After all, the more community support the school has, the more
students enroll, and the more money the school brings in.
On the DIII campus, you better be ready to share. No
surprise to anyone, there are only 6 open hours (2 hours before classes start
and 4 hours in the afternoon) in the day to have training sessions with every team.
Logistically that is going to be a challenge. What about the size of your
facilities, you ask? They are probably going to be smaller than what is needed,
and depending on your training philosophy, there might be useless equipment
taking up precious space. By the way,
the overwhelming majority of DIII schools do not have separate facilities for
athletes to use, so you better find a way to account for general students or
staff members that want to work out when you have a training session. There are
few things more upsetting than coming into the gym with a team all cranked up
to have a squat session, to find half of the racks being used by other people
doing who knows what. I doubt that is something Ohio State or Oregon has to
worry about. Not only does sharing have
to happen in the weightroom, but in other areas on campus as well. Being in a northern
Great Lakes state the majority of the academic year, we have to plan for two
old friends, snow and cold weather. So, say you want to do some speed and agility
work with an offseason team. You better be prepared to check what other teams
need to use the space. What about academic classes? Yes, check with them as
well. Does the campus community need this for recreation use? Better check with
that user group too. Welcome to the world of multi-use areas and facilities.
Did you think the only thing you have to share are
facilities? Quit being silly. Look at a job description for a DIII position.
Expect to have your dream position as a strength coach be just one part of the
full description with other duties like being a sport coach, teaching,
equipment manager, or even doing game management. The typical work day is the
same for any strength coach, usually 6 am to 6:30 pm, but with most DIII
coaches, you have to change your mental gears as well as your clothes multiple
times over the course of the day. Be ready to do all the programming, coaching,
and make workouts sports-specific (yes sport coaches and administrators still
talk like this) with a staff of one. It take more focus and discipline than you
can expect, to go from coaching in the weightroom, to teaching in the class
room, back to the weightroom, then off to practice. It is unbelievably
difficult to do a great job while being pulled all those different directions. Remember
how the general adaptation syndrome warns that when people are exposed to
multiple contradicting stresses, they will experience maladaptation? Same idea
here.
Don’t misunderstand me, not everything is doom and gloom. If
you are looking at an open position for a DIII school, just be ready for it.
Clear eyes, full hearts. Right?
The experiences at this level of competition are not going
to be anything like what you expect it to be. First of all, the athletes are
generally good people and are willing to try just about anything you come up
with without wondering if this is going to help or hurt their chances of going
pro. Once you accept the fact there are significantly better athletes you will
not be coaching, you begin to realize just how great of an impact you can have.
After all, helping an athlete go from a 4.28 second forty to a 4.22 is a great
reason to celebrate if you’re working with a potential draft pick, but what
happens when the athlete goes from a 5.16 to a 4.82? We DIII coaches are not
going to draw any attention with that blazing speed, nor receive a bonus check
from their agent, yet at the end of the athlete’s career, they might come to
see you with misty eyes and offer a very sincere “Thanks Coach for everything
you did to help me…” and offer a hand shake. Then something shows up in the
mail that you would not expect: an invitation to their wedding. Asking you to
be there for one of the most important days in that athlete’s life is something
that goes beyond words. All because you spent some time and taught them to be
on the right path so they can live a successful life.
Besides the bonds that are made with your athletes, there is
one other key concept that is attractive about working at a DIII school. These positions
allow coaches to be as creative and successful as they choose to be. Most of
the athletic administration wants your success, but the coffers are bare or earmarked
for other more visible investments than an athletic support service like
athletic training, equipment, or strength and conditioning. The easy answer for
administration to give for the majority of your problems is that you are just
going to have to do more with less. I call shenanigans on that! It’s not about
doing more with less: it is about getting the most out of what we have. Your personal
resourcefulness. We all have this wondrous collection of white and grey matter
that rests between all of our ears, so let’s get a mental sweat going.
Everything comes down to time and money, and luckily, those are
not impossible to get. You saw the example for the typical day above, and that
has to change in order to be successful. How do you get help then? If your
university is fortunate enough to have an exercise science department, there
are opportunities to get some undergraduate help. Remember this help will
generally be suited for some of the simple busy work until you can develop them
as young coaches. To get some higher quality help, you are going to need to put
some money on the line. After all, experience is a great reward, but it is hard
to pay the rent with it. There are simple and easy ways to generate some cash
flows, just have your art department (or an artsy student) design an image and
use a website like Zazzle.com to sell products to students who are lifting in
the weightroom. You might only make a few bucks per transaction, but with
revenue, enough streams can eventually turn into the mighty Mississippi. Need
more scratch? Host a lift-a thon. What about getting some money and
professional development? Why travel all over to see people speak, throw a
clinic and get them to come to you and make a small profit to boot. You can
figure out the areas that are undeserved in your world and find a way to fill those
areas, then, lay it out in a way that your administration can easily say yes.
Before too long, you can afford to get new equipment or even some new staff members
to assist you.
For those of you who feel this is up your alley, I salute
you. These positions are not just for anyone who wants to get in our field.
Here is a special message to the people who are still
working on your undergraduate degree. Get in a gym every day. Period. If you
are going to talk with a coach about volunteering with their staff, you first
need to pass the eyeball test. Understand that it is a sin against all that is
good in this world if you look like you cannot do at least ten continuous push-ups
and come ask a coach if you can help them with their athletes. If an
opportunity pops up for you to volunteer, and yes undergrads will almost never
get paid, keep your mouth shut and learn as much as you can. It doesn’t matter
if you think what they are doing is right or wrong, you can learn as much from
what not to do, as what to do.
Keep in mind that unlike larger scholarship schools, there
will not be an Olympic strength program and a football strength program: you
have to be able to fluently speak the language of multiple sports. For example,
a potential intern was talking about a recent basketball home game and said “we
just stood at the top of the half circle bouncing the ball before someone took
a shot.” They were thanked for their time and quickly shown the door. If a person
does not know enough to call, “bouncing”, “dribbling” or that the half circle
is the three point line, how can they speak and relate to the basketball teams?
In that case, it was better to be alone then in poor company.
Regardless of what you think, football is still the biggest
kid on the block and will most certainly have a hand in determining the top candidates
for an open position. If you do not have football as part of your background
that is not a make or break. If you want to immerse yourself into that world to
gain the moniker of a “football guy/gal”, just get involved with the local
football program for a season. If not, just be the best possible coach as
possible and that will improve your street credit.
The last tip for all the job seekers out there, is to get
experiences outside the normal exercise science curriculum. Does someone do powerlifting
nearby? Ask to workout with them for a few months. Same with people who do
bodybuilding, the O lifts, strongman. You might even try your hand with the CrossFit crowd. Learn from everyone who is competent to teach you and
live in that world for as much as you can. This is going to give you a gift
that cannot be read in a text book. This gift is called diversity, it lets you
to see things from different perspectives and offer solutions in problem
solving situations. Do this enough and you will steer free from blind dogmatic
beliefs. When most good coaches hire for positions, they are not looking for
people to tell them what they already know: they want you to use your strengths
to amplify their own.
Here is a thank you for you. Taking time to read is a lot
like flossing your teeth: we all know it needs to be done daily, but it is one
of those things that are really easy to skip. Keep reading and improving so
together we can raise the bar.
