4 things your sport science degree won't tell you about working in S&C

Me at 18 years old

My story

In 2012, I was starting college, not really having any clue what I wanted to do professionally. What I quickly did realise was that I wanted to do something involving training people. So after just a few weeks, I dropped out of philosophy and german in Trinity College, and re-applied to UCD for a Health and Performance Science degree. I knew that the most prestigious and scientific jobs in that area involved training athletes and required a science degree, so it seemed like the logical decision.

I then went on to do a Masters in S&C. During this time, I worked as an S&C coach in schools, colleges and gyms - with various populations, including rugby, rowing, swimming, soccer, American football, MMA, sailing, basketball, etc.

By 2018, I had graduated from my Masters and completed an internship. And I was sure that S&C was not the path for me, and that personal training was a much better option. Here are some of the things I wish I had known earlier, that you almost definitely won't hear about in college:

The pay is terrible

You might be under the impression that after years of specialised education that allows you to optimise results for athletes who make millions, you would be sufficiently compensated. Unfortunately not.

There are three big things that dictate how much you get paid in any industry. Supply, demand, and the pain point your are solving.

Electricians make bank because there's a lot of people with electrical problems, only a few people with the skillset to help them with it, and most people lose their minds without access to electricity.

Strength and Conditioning on the other hand? There are far more S&C coaches than places looking to hire them. And the pain point you're solving? Well, this leads me to perhaps my most controversial take...

@cfcunofficial (Chelsea Debs) London from London, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

S&C has limited effect on popular sport performance

If great S&C had a huge effect on helping teams win championships, then you'd at least have the pain point solved.

However most popular sports in the world are invasion style team sports like soccer, basketball, rugby. For these sports, skill is the difference maker, and that is not within a strength coach's control. Don't believe me? How do so many successful athletes get away with doing absolute nonsense for their strength training? The skills work on the other hand, has to be on point. Jonny Wilkinson for example would execute approximately 250 to 300 place kicks, 200 to 250 punts with each foot, 20 drop goals per foot, and 15 to 20 restarts daily, six to seven times a week. His S&C on the other hand?

It's my experience that most of these athletes are already very close to the point of diminishing returns with their physical fitness' transfer to the game. So really what you are bringing to the table is marginal gains and injury risk reduction. Which leads me to my next point...

You're hired and fired by people who don't understand your job

You don't have to work in S&C long to realise that most head coaches have no idea how to discern good and bad training practices.

This is most evident by the number of S&C coaches who get hired purely because they played sport at a high level.

The general idea of S&C from the powers-that-be is that it needs to look 'functional' and 'cutting edge'. This is directly at odds with what good coaches preach: boring basics.

"Squats, presses, pullups, and deadlifts? Nah, that's what gym bros do and it looks nothing like kicking a ball! We saw a guy on Instagram who said he's a functional expert doing these wobble board exercises. We'd like you to give them a go with the lads. Don't be close-minded!"

No work/life balance

Let's say you've made your peace with having to network your ass off to get a job, and all the bullshit that comes with it. You just really love training athletes that much.

Do you love it enough to start at 5am and finish at 8pm? Could you do that 5-6 days a week? Do you love it enough to have to move across the country (or the world) an average of 3-5 times in your career to find a new job?

Think long and hard for what that means about your life outside of work. Other hobbies and interest, social life, a relationship, starting a family etc.

And then remember that you'll be doing all this for organisations that think a monkey could do your job, and hence are paying you peanuts.

A better way

In my next article, I'm going to tell you about how this encouraged me to look at another way of making a living from coaching, and how you can as well.