I've been a Starting Strength Coach since 2011 and have been staffing Starting Strength Seminars since 2013. I've been teaching and coaching people for most of my life in some capacity, starting in high school helping out in the weight room and then through running fighting, self defense, and "fitness" training for hundreds of people in my twenties. I rediscovered barbell training in 2009 through CrossFit and soon after started using the SS method with all my trainees. I've always enjoyed training trainers, coaches, and instructors the most and I've learned quite a bit about working with coaches over the years. I'm currently helping with operations and media production at The Aasgaard Company and am in charge of coach development and gym operations with Starting Strength Gyms.
Starting Strength Coach development for The Aasgaard Company has been a project of mine that has been subject to many starts and stops for the better part of the last two and a half years due to how busy things have been with Starting Strength. Over the last year, we've been working hard on launching Starting Strength Gyms and a huge part of the successful growth of the Gyms will be generating new Starting Strength Coaches through a pipeline run primarily out of these gyms. We refocused our efforts and launched the Starting Strength Coach Development Program in December 2018 which serves not only as part of the apprentice program at Starting Strength Gyms, but as an SSC Prep Course for those interested in a career as a Starting Strength Coach either at a SS Gym, Affiliate Gym, or in their own practice.
Becoming a Starting Strength Coach
For the first time ever, we're able to point you toward a career path as a Starting Strength Coach. Click here for lots of info on what it takes to pass the evaluations and career info for people who are serious about becoming a coach. The main thing I want to emphasize is that the SSC certification is a coaching certification. The background knowledge and cursory coaching knowledge can be attained in a variety of ways and can be done relatively easily with an Amazon account, the books, and the internet. It's mostly a matter of time and effort. But Starting Strength Coaches are valuable not only because of their knowledge of the model and the methods. Starting Strength Coaches are valuable because they can coach anyone who walks through the door effectively. Getting to this level of proficiency, which represents an extremely small minority of people coaching/training in gyms and as professional S&C coaches, requires a huge commitment out of the SSC candidate in terms of gaining coaching experience using the SS method. Most overestimate their ability to coach because they conflate COACHING with TEACHING. Coaching is the process of evaluating movement and communicating efficiently to get the person moving closer to the model of the movement in real time, rep to rep. Doing this right takes thousands of reps in real life, on the platform, with people of varying levels of athletic ability. We pride ourselves on being able to evaluate whether or not a candidate can actually do this in a relatively short period during the platform evaluations at the Starting Strength Seminar. So the answer to "How do I become an SSC?" is to start coaching a year ago. If you didn't start a year ago, start now and figure out a way to coach as many people as you possibly can. Through the jobs tab on the page linked above, we intend to help those who are willing to commit get this done. If you are near a SS Gym, contact the head coach/owner and try to get an apprentice spot. If you're near an affiliate, sign up, start training, and ask about internship opportunities. If you're a personal trainer, start using the SS method with everyone you can get your hands on. If you're in your garage training your family and friends, you're going to have to figure out a way to branch out if you want to go beyond this being a hobby. The payoff is worth it if you are looking for your life to head in a different direction than its current trajectory.
Coach Development Camps
These are open to anyone wanting to learn how to teach the lifts or wanting to improve their coaching of the lifts. Limited attendance and lots of time working on the platform. The coach development camps serve as a great way get started with coaching or to get a reality check on where you stand with your coaching now.
SSC Prep Course
An educational program designed to teach you the Starting Strength Model and to guide your coaching practice over 5 months. You will be assigned a mentor who will offer feedback on coaching and writing assignments and you'll interact with other future Starting Strength Coaches regularly through discussions and peer review.
I look forward to discussing coaching with you guys.
