Becoming a Strength coach

I did post this on the Official forums but i’m also looking to get some of yalls advice and experience. Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this question. As someone starting from Square one what recommendations do yall have to an aspiring Strength Coach. I know I have years to go before I can call myself a “Coach”. But everything starts with the first step. So from your experience what are some things you would do or do over?

Bayou

First you have to attain RBE10: train your spouse.

lol just kidding. Have you ever trained relatives for fun? I tried teaching my brother and my girlfriend the basic lift and I found it very hard

There’s no right of passage where at the end you’re a coach. You’re a coach the moment you decide to be one and take on a client. What kind of of a coach you are is up to you. The best way to become a better coach is to coach. I would start coaching people now and become as learned and familiar as possible with what you’re teaching. Be very competent in the lifts and being familiar with anatomy can be useful… and if you’ve completed the SSLP and are familiar enough with the material, coaching people through their LP’s is a solid place to start. You can get a NASM or NSCA cert if you have a degree, which, depending on where you live and how you’d like to coach (personal trainer at globo, or in your garage gym, etc) can help with business, but if you’re going to break the bank or need a long time to get up to snuff, it might not be worth it. You will learn a ton just by doing, and you’ll gain more experience than any NSCA certification can provide.

For what it’s worth: I’ve coached 4 people through their LP’s at the gym I train at and it was challenging, but great. One was a 73 year old woman with arthritis (that Women and barbell training ig live video that Leah made was so helpful). I don’t really want to do the globo gym trainer thing, though it would be a great way to reach lots of clients and gain a lot of coaching experience, but there isn’t an SS coach even close to my area and I’ve been familiar with that material for years, so I’m going to study up and try to grab the cert. Hopefully that will set me apart enough to grow a client base inspite of less exposure and get more people training. Just stuff to think about, ya know?

Reviewing and commenting on the many form checks posted on Facebook and Reddit is a good way to expose yourself to a lot of varying-quality form. Along with that, begin offering free in-person coaching to friends, family, colleagues, etc. I did that, and it was eye-opening how much more difficult it is to coach someone IRL.

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Try offering free form checks on your social media. Let them know that they assume all risk for using the advice given and what not. This will give you a chance to see many different people with different body types and you can practice looking for ways that they can improve their form. Start from the top and work your way down. 1) is the head in the right position, 2) is the bar in the right position, 3) chest 4) elbows, 5) wrists 6) hands, etc. Give them only 2 or 3 things to work on at a time so they can focus properly, start with the things that will increase safety, then fix all the small stuff. Also record yourself and critique your own lifts to practice. Hope this helps