Perhaps you have already read quite a lot of my articles and thought that the life of a coach is very fun and exciting. It may seem that my life is filled with such unusual stories and incidents that it takes your breath away. Yes it is.
But don’t think that everyone can become a coach. Although anyone can really become one, it is much more difficult to become a good coach.
Now I’ll tell you what it takes to become a fitness trainer, and for girls to trust you with their not-yet-firm buttocks, and for guys to beg you to turn their frail little body into the body of a real man.
Is it easy to become a good specialist?
Now I’ll tell you how easy it is to become a good coach, and not just a guy who received a piece of paper and now walks around the hall with an important look and a high nose, fluffing his feathers.
What kind of coach is good? As for me, a good coach is one who has all the necessary information that will help a person transform and, most importantly, will not harm him.
For example, the coach just repeats that the base is what you need for a good result, the golden three, you don’t need anything other than the base, the base is like a mother, one for life. Do the basics and everything will be fine for you, muscles will grow, fat will go away, you will pay off the loan, your wife will return, your children will get a job and it doesn’t matter that they are not even three years old. And he says this to absolutely everyone, both men the size of the cruiser Aurora and girls who can barely raise their hand with a spoonful of buckwheat.
Most likely, such a coach often had dumbbells fall on his head . With such a coach, a person’s prospects are not the brightest.
Yes, undoubtedly, nothing more effective than the base has yet been invented (except for the butterfly, which clings to the abs and burns fat with electrical impulses, naturally). It’s just that it all works together. It’s not enough to just lift weights; you also need to eat right, monitor your rhythm of life, and much more.
A good trainer will definitely find out about the injuries of his ward in order to correctly create a training program that will not harm, but rather strengthen his health.
Another good trainer will always draw up a nutrition program and explain what and how to do.
If from the first training session a coach loads you with a weight that 23 Tajiks can hardly lift, and then also forces you to dig up a garden at his dacha and chop firewood, then you won’t last long with such a coach .
The load must also be selected individually and gradually increased. To do this, a good coach will keep a training diary. Or at least make you do it.
Also, a good coach will always give you maximum attention. No good trainer will allow himself to eat shawarma and watch a new TV series on his phone while you can hardly lift heavy dumbbells off the floor.
And a good coach will always be happy to tell and explain to his ward what exactly he is doing and why.
We’ve figured out the definition of a good coach, now we’ll find out how to become a coach in general.
Where to study to become a football coach in Russia
If we summarize and systematize all of the above, we need to highlight three main steps that you need to go through to become a professional football coach :
- It is advisable to obtain a special higher education - in Russia, professional football coaches are trained in three universities: in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Volgograd, but there are also universities where specialization in football is combined with other sports;
- graduate from the Higher School of Coaches;
- undergo training in special centers to obtain a license.
The Higher School of Coaches is a product of the Soviet era. At that time, a kind of football elite was accepted here: coaches with certain achievements, former famous players. We studied not only tactics, but also biochemistry, psychology, and physiology. The training lasts for a year and includes three three-week sessions. A total of twenty people are recruited annually.
But the Higher School of Economics does not yet give the right to work at a high level. You also need to have the appropriate license. Its phased acquisition has already been discussed.
What does it take to become a fitness trainer?
To become a coach, you need to have:
- education;
- experience;
- good physical shape.
Education
Let's talk about education first.
Knowledge is the basis without which it is impossible to work as a coach. The easiest way to gain “knowledge” is to take a special training course.
such courses and they all differ in duration, number of disciplines studied and depth of study.
The education needed to work as a fitness trainer can now be obtained in any city, forking out tens of thousands of rubles.
Upon completion of the course, you are issued a certificate that allows you to proudly call yourself a trainer. Is this enough to become a good specialist?
One thing I can say for sure, with this piece of paper they will take you to work somewhere , but this knowledge will definitely not be enough to turn the wimpy boys who have twigs instead of arms and legs, like snowmen, into pumped-up males capable of winning ladies’ hearts with just one glance.
Various fitness schools will be more effective. In them, training takes much longer and is more in-depth.
In the most advanced schools you can even get an international diploma . That is, you will have a chance to go to France, get a job as a coach there and take revenge on these plump baguette lovers for the burning of Moscow in 1812.
But the best option for a fitness trainer is still a higher education. No course lasting one or even two months will provide the opportunity to study a discipline that people have been studying for years. A higher education for a fitness trainer, as a rule, is not mandatory, but if it is, it will be a good plus.
As for me, it will not even be sports education that will be more effective, but medical education . In medical At universities, everything you need to know for a safe and effective training process is studied in such depth that you can even train frogs.
In addition, if suddenly your ward suffers any injury, then you will be able to advise him from an expert point of view, and not at the level of “yes, it’s all because of the weather, it’s raining now, and anyway, you’re already in your thirties went, what did you even want, did you think you’d be forever young?”
In addition, I believe that even after taking courses, graduating from school, or even receiving a diploma of higher education, you still need to study additional literature, look for new information, and apply it in practice. You need to constantly develop.
Experience
What about experience?
Now stones will fly, like: “Where can I get experience if I’ve never worked as a coach?” And, strictly speaking, I’m not talking about experience as a coach. I will also talk about him, but a little later.
Now I want to say that if all your life you sipped beer on a bench at the entrance and put out cigarette butts on the sole, and then took a week-long course and became a coach, then even a fool understands that you will not become a good coach, at least at least in the near future.
To be a good coach, you must have training experience . Theory is, of course, good, but in practice things are often a little different.
If a person has been building his own body for some time, then he understands how it works and it is easier for him to explain it to other people.
Now let's talk about the experience that comes with years of working as a coach. Each person is individual, so in order for this person to progress, you will need to find a certain approach to him.
There is no universal way to pump up all people. Also, many of them have injuries, and to prevent these injuries from making themselves felt during training, you need to make a plan taking this factor into account. Therefore, with every new person you gain new knowledge, new experience.
Physical form
This is a bit of a controversial issue. Of course, a person would rather turn to a fit trainer - with six-pack, with muscles through which sweat flows, as if in slow motion, who looks at you with a languid gaze.
The psychology is simple - if he could do it with himself, then he can do it with me.
But I can say from my own experience that, having a muscle volume slightly larger than the pumped-up girls in the gym, I had enough knowledge in my head to pump up half of my city. But they didn't trust me.
And then, when the first people began to appear, they began to take a closer look at me and gradually began to listen to my advice. In addition, every year I became more and more like a coach .
And if you take the coaches of athletes performing on the professional stage, then there are generally men who can easily be confused with a physical teacher who drinks with a Trudovik while sitting in the back room. But they have enormous experience and knowledge behind them.
Therefore, I can say one thing: a coach still needs to look appropriate. But if you have enough knowledge to shut up the smart guys who laugh when your belly flutters in the wind like hair after head and shoulders, then why do you worry about it?
And if you are still worried, then do something about it and transform from a caterpillar to a butterfly.
Is it possible to become a coach from scratch without playing experience?
It is quite possible to become a coach, as they say, from scratch. Two-time Champions League winner Jose Mourinho came to Barcelona as a translator.
Andre Villas-Boas went to study to become a football coach at the age of seventeen and two years later received a license giving him the right to work as an assistant. Then, at the age of 32, he became the head coach of an adult club and a year later won the Portuguese championship and the Europa League with Porto.
There is a similar example in Russia, and it is quite eloquent. Leonid Slutsky, at the age of 19, fell from a tree and seriously injured his knee. He dreamed of becoming a professional football player, but an injury dashed his dream. Then he began coaching a children's team in Volgograd. And as a result, he brought up many strong football players, even national players - Denis Kolodin and Roman Adamov.
Then, as you know, he took the helm of Moscow, worked with Krylia Sovetov, led CSKA to the championship and, finally, reached the position of coach of the national team. True, he didn’t do very well with the national team at the European Championships, but his career is still impressive. And it continues today at Rubin, too.
How to get a job as a trainer?
To get a job as a coach, you need to pass an interview.
And to pass it, you just need to have knowledge and a suitable appearance. First, you need to choose a place where you want to work , you should be comfortable there.
When you have decided on a place, then go and surprise the employer with your wealth of knowledge, make him beg you to work for them, show everything you are capable of.
The next stage after you have already been hired is to find clients . Now, in the age of technology, when everything is possible on the Internet, you can create work pages for yourself on social media. networks and start offering yourself to people, no matter how piquant it may sound.
You also need to avoid sitting quietly huddled in a corner all day. Approach people in the room, help them, give them advice, then perhaps they will want you to become their mentor. Or they may recommend you to their friends.
The most reliable way to find clients is through your work. Do it efficiently, with results, then people will advise you to others, citing their own experience.
First steps to define your career
We advise you to analyze your career preferences in the same way as people do in the case of other professions. Do you have an entrepreneurial spirit or are you an excellent performer? Would you like to work for a start-up or small company where you can become an owner? Or do you prefer reliable and constantly growing companies from the lists of the most successful in the country? Answering these questions for yourself will help you figure out whether you need to build your career, for example, within a large network that offers long-term, secure employment and various opportunities for advancement, or in a small club where you can learn how to one day start your own fitness business. Some people need a ready-made career path in order to see where they are going. Others take the path of entrepreneurship, where they can try a variety of activities.
Your personality traits should also be taken into account. What kind of person are you? Are you ready to help people and communicate intensively for 8 hours every day? Most likely, a job in the fitness department or as a sales manager is suitable for you. Maybe you're inspired by your work in fitness, but don't feel the need to constantly interact with clients? In this case, you can participate in the work of the company, for example, in its accounting or service department. Both of these options require full-time work. But one involves working with clients, the other is helping the people working with clients to provide the commercial side of their work.
No matter what your end goal is, don't underestimate where you start. Most successful fitness professionals choose positions early on that serve as a springboard to their desired end goals. Whatever you work for along the way, try your best - put your heart and soul into your work and people will appreciate it.
Pros and cons of being a gym instructor
Let's start with the pros . The biggest benefit of being a personal trainer is the ability to train for free, whenever and however much you want. Another huge plus is that you can mock people with impunity .
For guys, a huge advantage is that they will be surrounded by a large number of beautiful girls with good figures (if, of course, the coach tried and gave the girl a good figure).
For girls, the advantage will be that many beefy guys will be eager to back them up on squats both in the gym and outside of it.
Another advantage is that working as a coach means communicating with people, different people. Everyone has their own life, their own stories, everyone is interesting to listen to. Therefore, it definitely won’t be boring .
This work can also be called creative; you can use your imagination in training, which means you will never get tired of this work.
Now to the cons . The biggest disadvantage is that you bear great responsibility not only for the result, but also for the life and health of your ward. Therefore, at work you need to be as concentrated as possible, you cannot relax.
You also need to constantly develop, look for new information, and spend a lot of time on it. Although this can be considered a plus, because girls also love smart people.
Well, the last disadvantage of working as a coach is that if suddenly some chubby woman weighing 150 kg loses consciousness during training, then you will need to give her mouth-to-mouth artificial respiration.
Be an example that you want to emulate
A fitness trainer should look like a fitness trainer. This is the most banal rule, but sometimes it is also broken. What does it mean? This means that the coach must be:
- fit;
- have a beautiful figure;
- have a healthy appearance and good aerobic and strength abilities.
No one says that you have to grow biceps and triceps or acquire pronounced six-pack abs, but your figure and weight have to be ideal. Agree, a trainer who has excess belly fat or noticeable excess weight will not be at all convincing in his recommendations to clients.
You must be an example for those who learn from you. Therefore, do not forget about personal training, keep yourself in shape and constantly improve. Let clients see the power of regular physical activity through your example. Your figure is the main motivation for clients to workout.
Be careful with customer gratitude
Nobody says that you should not accept congratulations, flowers and chocolates on your birthday and other important holidays. Clients want to show you their gratitude, and they will be pleased if you are happy about it.
But every gratitude must have its own measure. For example, an invitation to dinner in a cafe, tickets to a concert and other invitations to spend time together are already attempts by the client to switch to personal communication with you.
Know that if a client becomes your friend, he may ask for a lenient attitude towards him, which the management of the fitness center does not always like. Try not to single out those in your client group who you have made friends with. All clients should be equal.
Speak intelligently
A fitness trainer, of course, is not an orator or speaker, but he still must speak competently. Avoid:
- slang;
- colloquial expressions;
- profanity;
- Be tactful and polite in your communication.
Address your clients as “you” and switch to “you” only if they themselves ask for it. Remember the names and patronymics of all your clients: you should not get confused with names and make mistakes when addressing your clients.
Take care of your education
A fitness trainer must also have a specialized education. Where to study to become a fitness trainer is up to everyone to decide on their own, depending on their goals and objectives. This could be an institute of physical education or high-quality courses for fitness instructors with an appropriate diploma (certificate). Your clients need to know that you know what you teach, show, and recommend.
Of course, practice for a fitness trainer is more important than theory, but you still need to master the basics of your professional knowledge and terms. Ultimately, training to become a fitness trainer will give you an understanding of basic physiology, which is extremely important when creating personal training programs and explaining exercise techniques.
