This is going to be a quick post before I forget to put this thought down in writing!
A long time ago in a far off galaxy a young man called Nick Grantham used to do Taekwon-do...and he was half decent! He learnt a valuable lesson that he'll now share!
Right, I'll stop talking in the third person.
I think I've got a valuable lesson to pass on to aspiring S&C coaches and I picked it up from my taekwon-do days. In taekwon-do you have a belt system and it usually takes about 3 years to progress through the belts before you can become a black belt. Once you gain the black belt you then have another 9 grades to achieve!
Here's what I learnt. I spent three years training my nuts off to then take my black belt. I passed my grading and was awarded the black belt. I thought I was Johny Concrete and knew everything there was to know about taekwon-do. How wrong could I be. You see, in taekwon-do the blackbelt is seen as just the beginning of your learning and understanding of the art. There's a huge difference between a 8th Dan blackbelt and 1st Dan blackbelt. You are looking at between 2-3 years between each blackbelt grading so the 8th Dan will have a huge amount of knowledge and experience compared to the novice 1st Dan!
Here's the point. Graduating with a degree in strength and conditioning is not the finishing point. You will not walk straight into a job with a professional team. The degree is just the start of the journey.
If you want to be a strength and conditioning coach you've got to be a black belt coach, and remember, some of these black belt coaches have been in the game a long time so you need to work hard and work your way through the belts.