What Is Required to Be a Strength and Conditioning Coach?

Strength and conditioning professionals play an important role for athletes. They help them develop stronger bodies to improve performance and reduce injury risk. A lot goes into this job, which requires a solid foundation of knowledge in fitness, exercise, and related topics. 

If you’re interested in a career working with athletes or clients interested in getting better at their favorite amateur sports, strength and conditioning could be a good option. There are no official requirements, but to be taken seriously and to be hired, you’ll need to meet a few basic qualifications. Here’s what you need to know. 

What Do Strength and Conditioning Coaches Do? 

If you have been an athlete or work in another area of fitness, you might already have a good idea of what this role entails. In the most general terms, a strength and conditioning coach’s role is to improve their client’s athletic performance and reduce injuries through strategic exercises. 

Before jumping into strength and conditioning as a career, be sure you fully understand what it means. Strength and conditioning coaches’ duties include: 

• Evaluating individuals’ strength, athletic performance, and body condition

• Designing training programs for athletes

• Implementing training programs

• Assessing clients throughout the training program and adjusting as needed

• Educating clients about exercises, athletic skills, and conditioning strategies

• Coaching clients through their training

Duties vary depending on where the coach works. If you work with an athletic team, for instance a high school or college team, another role is collaborating with other coaches. You might be expected to develop training plans for the entire team as well as for individuals. 

Here’s a specific example of something you might do as a strength and conditioning coach for a runner looking to reduce injury risk.  

What Is Required to Be a Strength and Conditioning Coach? 

Like many areas of fitness, there are no official requirements for working as a strength and conditioning specialist. Many employers have requirements. If you work as an independent coach, there are some fundamentals you should have that will help you reach clients. 

In general, and for any job in strength and conditioning, you should have these basic qualifications: 

1. Education

To be a successful coach in strength and conditioning, you need to know what you’re doing. Just because you have been strength training yourself for years doesn’t mean you have the knowledge necessary to coach and train others. 

An education in the principles of strength and conditioning is essential and a first step toward working in this career. A solid program should teach you about: 

• The principles of body mechanics, anatomy, and metabolism

• How these principles apply to athletics, energy, and performance

• Developing fitness and training programs for individuals

• Using nutrition to improve athletic performance

• Injury prevention strategies and the signs and risks of overtraining

• Performing fitness assessments

• Sports psychology, behavior science, and motivational strategies

• Instructing and educating clients

Another option is to earn a college degree in exercise science, kinesiology, physical education, or another related subject. This is not necessary to begin working in strength and conditioning. A degree can certainly open more career doors, but it also requires big time and financial commitments. You can always consider earning a degree later after gaining some experience in the industry. 

2. Certification

Choose an education program that leads to a recognized certification. You can have all the knowledge and education necessary to be effective as a coach, but clients and employers want to see an official credential. 

Getting certified doesn’t have to take a lot of time or be expensive. You can find reputable, accredited online programs that offer strength and conditioning certification. They allow you to learn and complete requirements at your own pace and on your schedule. This can be especially helpful if you need to keep working and earning as you begin this new career. 

Look for a certification program that is accredited. It should offer a full range of subjects relevant to strength and conditioning as well as all the necessary educational materials. The developers of the course and the instructors should be experts in the field. 

3. Experience

Once you have an education and certification in strength and conditioning, you need some practical experience. Experience is a tricky qualification because clients and employes are often interested in hiring experienced coaches. But how do you get experience before someone hires you? 

You might be able to land a job or clients right away, but if not, look for other opportunities to build relevant career experience that will help. 

For instance, you might be able to volunteer with a community organization to work with young athletes. Or, consider finding an experienced strength and conditioning coach to shadow and learn from as you build your own career. Some teams offer internships, which offer excellent learning opportunities.

Education, credentials, and experience all affect what you can earn. Learn more about how to maximize your salary as a certified strength and conditioning coach. 

Important Skills Required for a Conditioning and Strength Coach

In addition to the concrete requirements of education, certification, and experience, you should also have certain skills. These skills will help you be a successful and effective coach. Some might come naturally to you, while others you can improve with experience. 

Interpersonal Skills

This is a skill that often either comes naturally or does not. You should be able to work well with people, which means being a good listener, having empathy, being patient, and putting people at ease. If you’re interested in this kind of career, you probably already have good people skills, but you can work on them as well. 

Communication

Your clients will look to you for instructions and guidance. You must be able to clearly communicate training plans, nutrition strategies, good exercise form, and more. If your clients cannot understand what you’re trying to teach them, they will not progress or see results. 

Communication also involves listening and observation. A good coach takes in information from their clients in these two ways so that they can prepare effective strategies. 

Adaptability

A coach is a constant problem solver. You may start out with a client having a clear picture of what they need to do, but what happens when it doesn’t work? What if something changes, if they get injured? A successful coach adapts to unexpected assessment results and changes with their clients. They aren’t too proud to make changes to what they thought was a good training plan. 

Organizational Skills

Not everyone naturally excels at organization, but you can work on it. This is an essential skill for coaching clients. You need to be able to keep track of each client’s appointments, training plans, assessments, progress, and more. Time management is an important part of staying organized. Effective coaches stay organized and work efficiently. 

Motivational Skills

When you think of a sports coach, you probably picture someone yelling from the sidelines, motivating their athletes. As a strength and conditioning coach, you might not be in that exact role, but you still have to be a motivator. As a coach, you’ll use the fundamentals of behavior science and motivation to keep your clients going through a tough program and inevitable setbacks. 

Patience

This is another skill that is natural to some people but that can be improved. Patience is important when working in any service industry. In coaching, it means remaining calm and focused on the goals in the face of setbacks or difficult clients. 

Meeting the requirements to begin a career in strength and conditioning doesn’t have to take years. Start with an online certification course, gain valuable work experience, and then consider if you want to advance your career with additional education. 

How to Become a Strength and Conditioning Coach

ISSA’s Strength and Conditioning Certification is the perfect place to start. You’ll learn exactly how to help your clients work with what they have to build unbelievable endurance, strength, power and speed. You'll be able to pursue your passion for fitness and help coach athletes to reach their peak performance.