{"id":859,"date":"2020-01-15T14:00:59","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T19:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/?p=859"},"modified":"2022-01-30T08:27:23","modified_gmt":"2022-01-30T13:27:23","slug":"the-challenges-have-made-me-a-better-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/the-challenges-have-made-me-a-better-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"The Challenges Have Made Me a Better Coach – Good Mentors Are Key in This Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I really enjoy helping people achieve things they never thought\npossible, on the field, ice, court, while also providing opportunities for\nachievement outside their sport.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 CSCA<\/strong> \u2013 How did you get started in the industry?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with most\ncoaches, I started as an athlete, spending thousands of hours on the pitch. As\nwith most athletes, I was completely blind that anything outside of having my\nhands on a rugby ball would help me improve. As I got further into my\nKinesiology degree, I quickly started to realize the ignorance of those\nthoughts and started playing around with what I was learning in\nschool.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strength and\nConditioning was not really on my radar until I was completing my master\u2019s at\nthe University of Guelph. Firstly, I should clarify that my primary motivation\nfor continuing my education was to win a National Championship. Kinesiology was\nsomething \u201cschool-related\u201d that wouldn\u2019t hurt my career path and could keep me\neligible on the pitch. During this time, I stumbled across the first and most\ninfluential mentor in my career.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I met Trevor\nCottrell while I was giving a presentation about Hydration for Sport\nPerformance at an open house of a therapy clinic for a friend. In true Trevor\nCottrell fashion, he ripped me apart about certain physiological references\nthat I was using to support my work. Although he had 2 post docs and a million\nother letters behind his name, Trevor was spending several nights a week\n(somewhere that can literally only be described as a hole in the wall, for\ncompensation that most likely only covered gas) going to work with athletes\nfrom the National Wrestling Team.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He would have\nchosen to be nowhere else. It was an incredible thing to experience. So, I did\nwhat any normal person would do and hung around their gym sessions for the\nbetter part of 2 years and learned everything I possibly could from him. 10\nyears later, I am still learning from him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am coming up to a\ndecade in this industry, and it took me more than three quarters of that time\nto land full-time work where I was not piecing contracts together from various\nNational Sport Organizations (NSO\u2019s) and Provincial Sport Organizations\n(PSO\u2019s). I count myself lucky, as there are not many full-time positions in\nstrength and conditioning. The first paid position where I held any sort of\ntrue responsibility was at Sheridan College as their S&C Coordinator. This\nallowed me to pay the bills while juggling a variety of PSO and NSO individual\nathlete contracts to get my foot in the door.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My break into the\nelite athlete world came from my second mentor, Chris Chapman, who connected me\nwith a few athletes from Ontario Figure Skating, a sport I knew nothing about\n(I still do not know how to skate). This seemed to become a trend for me, as I\ntook on more contracts with unconventional PSO\u2019s and NSO\u2019s; Beach Volleyball,\nSynchronized Swimming, BMX, Track and Road Cycling. Some of the best advice I\never received was from Chris, as I initially hesitated when he asked me to take\non Figure Skating. \u201cHow can I positively influence and get buy-in from athletes\nin a sport that I have never experienced\u201d, I thought. Chris told me, \u201cGo out of\nyour comfort zone, into theirs, and experience the sport. You ask them to come\ninto your comfort zone every day in the gym, which could not be farther from\ntheirs\u201d. For every sport that I have worked with, I have heeded Chris\u2019 advice\nand embedded myself in their comfort zone.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the ice, in the\npool, on the track. Synchronized Swimming has my utmost respect, one of the\nhardest training sessions I have ever done.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My real passion is\npeople and education. Which has brought me back to the collegiate world, as the\nHead Strength and Conditioning Coach at York University. I really enjoy helping\npeople achieve things they never thought possible, on the field, ice, court,\nwhile also providing opportunities for achievement outside their sport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSCA – What have been some of the challenges you have faced?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This question\nstumped me for some time because I knew what I needed to talk about but had a\nhard time coming to terms with writing about it. Being a strength coach who is\nfemale, talking about being female as a challenge, is pretty clich\u00e9. It is no\nsecret that the industry continues to be quite a boy\u2019s club and cracking into\nthat club has not been easy.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, I\nhave not gotten to where I am today, without being sexually harassed,\ndiscriminated against or bullied by athletes, colleagues, and supervisors. More\nand more athletes and support staff are openly reporting on these issues, which\nis encouraging for changes in the environment for future coaches in this\nfield.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only thing I have found that works 100% of the time with any level of athlete, is putting their performance at the forefront of decision-making and showing them results. By doing this, the athlete will realize that you truly care, and they will trust you and follow you.  Sheldon Persad was my third mentor, who provided me with that key piece of advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, I struggled to get buy-in from (male) athletes who lifted extremely heavy (squatting 2.5x their body weight). Most of the advice from my male colleagues at the time was, \u201clift with them, throw weight around and look the part.\u201d I can say from experience, throwing weight around is an easy way to get weight room cred, and I do use it at pivotal moments with some programs and athletes, but it will only get you so far.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes you must\ndo something different to show them that you care about their performance.\nAlthough it can be challenging, I have found unique ways to connect with my\nathletes. For instance, in sports in which I cannot compete safely in (i.e.\nFootball), I show them that I also love and care about competition by\nchallenging them to life-size board games in the weight room. Surprisingly, you\nlearn a lot about a 6\u20197\u201d, 300lb graduating lineman when he has to carefully\nplace a Jenga piece during a plank! As a strength coach, you often need to find\nunique ways to forge a common bond with your athletes so that they trust you\nand follow you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSCA \u2013 Where do you see S&C going in the next 10 years?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am hoping with\nthe development of the CSCA, there will be more clear pathways for people\nlooking to get into this industry. I also hope that organizations will have a\nbetter understanding of a Strength and Conditioning Coach\u2019s value to their\nprograms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The industry is so\nsmall, yet very saturated at the same time. With so much information readily\navailable, it can be both a blessing and a curse when developing new coaches.\nWe need to establish some structure to support the growth of S&C coaches,\nas even those who are well established in the industry still admit to being\noverwhelmed by the amount of information they can access. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would like to see\nmore time and value being placed into well-established paid internships and\napprenticeship programs. Universities are a perfect place for this to be\ncultivated, but the institutions need to appreciate that this takes time; and\nthat this time is over and above face time with athletes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, I\nonly see Instagram and social media making things more difficult for the public\nto be protected to understand what good service is. The only way I see this\nbeing rectified is if the title of Strength and Conditioning Coach is\nprotected. I am not convinced that this is within reach within the next 10\nyears. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps we may even\nget to a place in 10 years where I can more easily explain to my relatives\nexactly what I do. My uncle still thinks I am a physiotherapist! Small\nwins. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I really enjoy helping people achieve things they never thought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":2538,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":874,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859\/revisions\/874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}