My Experience With No Sleep, A Little Money and Lots of Work
My first job as a strength coach was to oversee the football strength and conditioning program for a high school in Keene, New Hampshire. The job had already been spearheaded by a local strength coach who was well-known and well-respected, so I had big shoes to fill in the eyes of the kids on the football team.
Needless to say, I didn’t fill them.
Every coach has their own training philosophy. Principles rarely change from one professional to the next but philosophy has an endless amount of variations. My philosophy when I first started coaching didn’t exactly jive with that of a well-traveled football strength coach. I didn’t like back squatting, I hated hang cleans and wanted nothing to do with nordics of any kind.
I quickly lost friends.
Within the first few months, half the team was training with the old strength coach at his gym down the road. What had once been a busy weight room after school became barren with a spattering of the old guard. I appreciated the kids who stuck around and we got some really good training in but losing the rest of the team stung. I had failed my first test as a strength coach.
What ensued was something that I didn’t expect. Instead of spending time trying to get the football kids to come back, I doubled down on what was happening in the weight room. Track and Field, Hockey, Wrestling Volleyball, Field Hockey, Soccer and Basketball all started coming in for training. The Athletic Director was feeding me teams and I had to find a way to keep them.
I was forced to change my philosophies, challenged to question what I thought was “proper training” and eventually had to succumb to the idea that I was learning on the fly. I wasn’t prepared, I was reactive. Every day brought a new challenge and a new fire to put out. Every day, I learned something that I could do a little bit better.
The first month involved training 11 high school kids. From there, the program grew.
I painted a blackboard on the wall and had every kid sign it on their way through the weight room. If they trained, trusted the program and asked questions, their name went up on the board.
By the time I moved on from Keene High School, there were more than 170 names on that blackboard.
What started as a complete and utter failure became one of my favorite memories of my career. I poured my heart out each day to try and be a better strength coach and the kids responded. They showed up, they asked questions and they worked hard.
The athletic trainers down the hall welcomed me with open arms. I was constantly in their training room. One even gave me a DVD set of Gary Gray and Dave Tiberio which jump started my interest in gait mechanics and what training for performance really looks like.
Ali if you’re reading this, I still have the DVD’s.
The lessons I learned during my year at Keene High School can’t be quantified. More often than not, they came from those around me. As a young coach with zero experience, I was liable to make multiple mistakes every day. By having some truly special people around me every day, the mistakes were manageable.
The janitor who made it his daily duties to make sure the weight room was clean even though it hadn’t been on his list for years. The athletic trainers who saved my butt countless times. The athletic director who literally housed me in his basement so that I could take the job. The sport coaches and parents who taught me what investing in a kid’s life really looks like. The list goes on and on.
My first job in strength and conditioning earned me a few thousand bucks every few months that wasn’t enough to live on. I had to find another job in the area to supplement my income. I worked early in the morning and late at night, burning the candle at both ends. I got frustrated and overwhelmed and had to find support on a daily basis. Some things never change I guess…
Since that job, I’ve worked in corporate wellness, with professional athletes and with hundreds of clients in the personal training space. I’ve had financial success, professional success and watched many of those that I’ve worked with have the same kind of success. I still learn every day and still struggle often but those lessons and experiences from my first job keep me grounded.
Success oftentimes is predicated on the people around us and our willingness to work without expecting an immediate reward. In times of struggle, those people and that work ethic become all the more important. I’m thankful for my experience at that high school in New Hampshire and thankful for the long days that forced me to grow as a coach.