I was asked this morning what I looked for in young strength and conditioning coaches and fitness professionals. It's pretty tough to nail down to one thing but I know it's not all about 'intellectual intelligence' and 'book smarts'.
At the moment it seems that everyone is still striving to pack as much knowledge in as possible but forgetting that it's how you apply that knowledge that will be the deal breaker.
If you've read any of Seth Godin's work you'll understand why being the smartest kid on the block will potentially limit your ability to deliver.
I did a quick search on the internet for three terms and this is what I got...
Strength and Conditioning - 59,500,000 results in 0.45s
Velocity Based Training - 1,260,000 results in 0.48s
Foce Velocity Curve - 427,000 results in 0.42s
You see, getting information is simple, just 'google it'. Filtering out the robust information from the noise is the tricky part, and then the element the seals the deal is the ability to apply that knowledge.
Whenever I deliver course and keynote lectures it isn't to add to the 'noise' in the fitness profession. It is to make sense of the information that's out there, at our fingertips and then most importantly show how it can be applied.
Spouting X's and O's is simple, shoe horning your client to fit the latest training paradigm that you're using requires no skill. What I'm interested in is, can you actually coach and improve performance?