A Letter to a Young Strength Coach
Drew, many years ago, looking suspicious as hell…
The dawning of 2024 marks the “official” 10-year anniversary of my time in the tactical human performance industry. After graduating with my master’s degree in Scotland in 2014, I stepped into a role as the strength and conditioning coach for a squadron of Air Force pararescuemen within US Air Force Special Operations. At the time, I thought I knew it all. Looking back now, I realize I had no clue. What better way to celebrate 10 years than by writing a letter to my young self…knowing full well that 10 years from now I’ll look back again and realize that I still know nothing at all!
“There is no right answer, only an endless collection of best guesses”
Past Drew,
Congratulations on your first real job! The time you spent overseas pursuing your master’s degree will be instrumental in setting you up for success within tactical strength and conditioning; however, you might be disheartened to hear that you still have no real understanding of what it means to train human beings. Have no fear! I am contacting you from 10 years in the future to share a few of the lessons we have learned over the past decade. Knowing you, you won’t listen to any of this and you’ll be convinced you have it all figured out. If I can get you to put your young ego aside for a brief moment, I think you may find some nuggets in here that will serve you well in the future.
Chalk math on the gym floor. A budding coach’s most valuable tool.
First and foremost, there is no right answer, only an endless collection of best guesses. You will spend countless days and nights struggling with trying to figure out the ideal arrangement of puzzle pieces to assemble into the perfect program that can be replicated from one athlete to the next which, you will eventually come to find out, is what most coaches spend their entire career struggling with. The first several years will be spent chasing your tail trying to read as many strength and conditioning books as possible, assuming that “the answer” is but a page turn away. Consume all of that information, undoubtedly, but understand that at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.
Which brings me to my next point: prioritize athlete-coach relationships. No magical combination of sets, reps, or exercises will contribute to an athlete’s success as much as the extent to which they like you. Compliance with a program is derived from the enjoyment an athlete receives from that program, not the fact that you put back squats before deadlifts or included a ski erg in a metabolic conditioning piece. You may get two to three weeks out of an athlete just based on the novelty of what you’re giving them, but you’ll get several years out of them if they like and respect you. Spend time researching interpersonal skills, psychology, and the art of conversation in addition to all the time you put towards strength and conditioning literature.
On that note, you will also do well to gain a better understanding of the medical side of human performance. As a coach in the tactical human performance space, you will oftentimes find yourself in meetings alongside physical therapists, athletic trainers, and even doctors and surgeons. Since you have the “easiest” certification, you’ll already be at a disadvantage when it comes to discussing patient/athlete outcomes. Do yourself a favor and put some effort towards understanding where all these pieces fit in the human performance puzzle. You’ll never be able to lead a multidisciplinary team without having an idea of where all those disciplines can contribute and enhance the end product.
Guinea pigs…
At the end of the day, the role of a strength coach is less a carpenter and more a gardener. You’ll never be able to bend an athlete’s physiology to your will; instead, you’ll constantly be managing various inputs and stressors completely outside of your control to try and navigate an athlete to the general vicinity of where you hope their performance outcomes end up. The sooner you can understand this, and the sooner you recognize where you sit in that exchange, the better off you’ll be as a coach.
I’ll leave you with this. One of the two quotes you’ll end up with on your desk is from the Dalai Lama and it states: “know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.” You won’t regret diving head first into the standard tome of strength and conditioning literature. You won’t regret spending all that time trying to craft the perfect Excel-based training program. You certainly won’t regret using yourself and a close circle of friends as guinea pigs for your ever-changing training methodologies. But understand that through all of that, the best coaches in this business are the ones who know the supposed rules of the game so well that they feel complete confidence in breaking them and going against the grain. No single tactical athlete ever won in combat because they were able to deadlift double bodyweight. They did, however, outperform the enemy because they had a foundation built on robustness, resiliency, and dedication to the task. Those are all things you can have an impact on if you’re willing to think outside the box and put the athlete ahead of yourself in the coaching process.
Enjoy the ride! See you in 2024.