Below are my Top 5 qualification recommendations (with helpful resources for coaches wanting to gain education and experience) for prospective clients to consider before participating or paying for a sports-specific or high function exercise program.
For those of you reading this article, while this may be a pipe dream, I truly hope this blogs reads as common sense affirmation. This Blog is designed as a tool for qualified sport science and conditioning professionals to pass onto athletes and parents. By outlining key aspects of 'qualified' conditioning coaches, perhaps before deciding to waste their hard earned money in sports specific training programs with unproven and unqualified 'professionals', a parent or athlete will ask the right questions. I highlight professionals, but the vast majority of fraudulent, money grab organizations who claim 'TOP' sports specific training often have an ex pro player on staff, who 90% of the time has little or no related education or coaching experience.
So, why am I inspired to update last year’s article? Well in short while working out yesterday I had the ‘pleasure’ of watching a group of 6-8 hockey athletes working with a trainer. Picture this; it was late afternoon in a packed weightroom.
- A group of 6 (semi experienced with weight training)
- Upon arrival 3 of the athletes began to ride the bike, 3 began bench pressing and bicep curling (no warm-up at all).
- 10 min later the trainer showed up, 5 min late for the beginning of the session.
- The bike athletes joined the other athletes who then began (no additional warm-up and limited instruction) to perform a circuit based training program consisting of a series of exercises designed to train the chest, back, core and quads.
- For a while I turned my attention to my own workout, but like a bad car crash my subconscious forced me to tune back in. The last exercises of the training day were as follows:
- Loaded Countermovement Jump Squats (x10-12)
- Heavy Squats (x10-12)
- Cable chops (x10-12/side)
- One other upper exercise
- Many of these athletes would have started off-season training within the last 2 weeks. Therefore, a Loaded Counter Movement Jumps (LCMJ) should not be performed. There are a number of other foundational plyometric exercises which need to be mastered before progressing to the LCMJ : Ebben et al. (2010) J of Str & Cond Research, 24(2): 300-306.
- In order to prevent neuromuscular fatigue, contrast or complex training (heavy load followed by light load exercises) should always occur with a max of 5 loaded plyometric repetitions: Alves et al. (2010). J Strength Cond Res 24(4): 936-941.
- More importantly, unless a trainer is using a reverse periodization for power endurance development, plyometric training should always occur early in the workout.
- And finally, during early off-season workouts, the athletic movement focus needs to be on mobility, transitional joint stability, eccentric control and perhaps power initiation, not rebounding in a fatigue state.
The take home message is simple; regardless of the level, anyone participating in sport should source out qualified, experienced professionals who they respect and can meet their individual needs. The volume, intensity, frequency, and recovery strategies required to create high function performance are much different than the standard health considerations taught to trainers with a basic personal training certification. More importantly, high function prescriptions require a strong biomechanical understanding of movement, mechanical breakdown and the athlete’s sport. Most university graduates trained / schooled in biomechanics lack this skill, so don’t expect a trainer with a basic certification to have miraculously developed this skill.
Top 5 qualification recommendations:
1.Education & Credentials: a performance coach should have gained 2 types of credential, purely educational and educational / practical. Look for the following qualifications:
a. A university PE grad / Kinesiologist. This not only ensures they have the sports science knowledge to write proper programs but also the biomechanics knowledge to one day, with coaching experience, correct poor movement and technique. More importantly, the designations below forces those practicing to work with a code of ethics and stay current via renewal and CEU`s.
b. A sports performance certification like the NSCA`s CSCS http://www.nsca.com/Certification/ with testimonial backed experience. http://www.arctraining.ca/Main/Testimonials
d. A Physiologist: a great credential to look for in Canada is http://www.csep.ca/english/view.asp?x=739 a CSEP Certified Exercise Physiologist. Back in my day I landed the PFLC credential. Both of the previously mentioned CSEP and NSCA certifications guarantee your coach has a sport sciences undergrad.
2. Extensive Experience & Mentoring: coaches can gain invaluable experience learning from the best and knowledge through extensive practical study in CEU based sports performance courses. Some of the most valuable courses allow conditioning coaches to gain experience in:
a) Movement error assessment / detection & correction. Gray Cooks FMS http://functionalmovement.com/en/certification/fms_course is a good example of this. My soon to be released Module 3 of ACTivated would also be good. I haven`t studied the Combine 360` yet, but I suspect it does some of the same.
b) SAQ (Speed, Agility & Quickness). SAQ International http://www.saqinternational.com/ & Twist Conditioning`s, Sport Movement Essentials http://www.twistconditioning.com/learn/twist-coach-education/program-structure/silver.asp credentials would be good start points.
c) Strength & Power. For Olympic lifting technique, the NCCP Level 1 Technical is the gold standard here in Canada http://www.bcweightlifting.ca/calendar/. You can also obtain credential in alternative multijoint techniques from Twist Conditioning`s Sport Strength module, and ACTivated`s Module 5 `Athletic Strength`
d) Mentorship in my mind is huge. I participated and gained invaluable hands on application and experience. Athlete`s Performance, Twist Conditioning, ARC Performance and highly experienced, highly credentialled conditioning coaches are the goto`s in this category. I would suggest a minimum of 6 week (40hr) internship with an experienced functional / performance coach.
3. Walk the walk – talk the talk. I test drive my programs so I can gather understanding of the training
protocol’s impact or outcome prior to unleashing it on the ARC athletes. Of course I can’t repeat this process for every program but I can honestly say, I have never instructed an athlete to perform an exercise I have never executed, semi perfected, and examined for technical difficulties or injury risk. I believe this is an essential process which does 3 things; it allows me to remain empathetic to the athletes performance goals, it affords me the opportunity to gain respect and become a role model for athletes to aspire towards and one day exceed.
4. Played the Sport. While a sport sciences grad are often taught how to do a sport needs analysis, nothing replaces the experience of having played a sport, particularly at a high level. Playing at a high level usually implies a coach has experienced good coaching and therefore should have learned and mentored under someone with a strong skill set. However, that isn`t always the case. In my experience, the individual must have a true passion for conditioning and have aggressively applied the practice to his own benefit. But, being `pro` does not teach you how to coach or help you quantify / evaluate how the programs that worked for you will work for someone with different genetics, drive, nutritional status etc. That takes years of experience to go along with the `been there done that credential`. A player fresh off his pro career may talk a good game and probably execute a hard program but truly is the definition of an `unarmed Jedi`.
5. Insurance & CPR: is the trainer insured to train athletes? While it isn`t required of emerging athletes, most insurances won`t even cover a PT credential to train athletes. The credential on the right below is a well respected personal training (PT) certification, but it does not permit me to train elite level athletes; only the above credentials permit and insure athletic training. For elite, carded, Olympic and pro level athletes, a PT would be deemed negligent (i.e. an illegal action), if a serious injury were to happen under their guidance. You will note the attached insurance doc above. If a coach cannot provide this document, you can be assured they are not credentialed or at the very least, the athlete is not protected under their supervision.
If your performance coach has most or all of the above credentials, he or she should have the capacity clearly articulate a philosophy and experiential knowledge of functional performance training. If this isn’t the case, they either haven’t given it much thought, lack passion, are inexperienced or have poor communication skills and therefore will not educate you throughout the process. Buyer beware, a trainer who can name
entire teams full of athletes or can recant every highlight from last night’s game is either an armchair athlete or an idiot savant but it is usually the former.
Hiring a Performance Coach or following a well chosen sports specific program should never involve a high risk to your performance goal(s). In fact, if you chose poorly, your chances of becoming injury resistant is far less than your chance of becoming injured. Chose Intelligently, play safe & play hard!!
Chad Benson, ARC Performance Training Systems Ltd
604-315-9734
