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Thread: Other Coaching Credentials - A General Question about this Profession

  1. #11
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    • starting strength seminar april 2024
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    Depends the type of place you're looking for work, or the type of people hiring. But yes, sometimes you need some or multiple certifications to even be considered for a job, and you need the job to build up a resume and reputation in order to, in the long run, be in a position to where you can do your own thing and no longer need those certifications anymore. That was certainly the case for me. It's the case for a lot of kids going to college, too. This is getting pretty far off topic now, but just from what you wrote here, you might be interested in Bryan Caplan's The Case Against Education, specifically his discussion about getting a degree as "signaling" as opposed to learning much that's actually useful.

  2. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Shawnlock View Post
    Thank you, sir, for breaking down these certificates and sharing your valuable personal experience and thoughts! A follow-up question: Do you consider USAW to be the most reputable and widely-recognized certificate of all mentioned above?

    Additionally, I'd like to attempt an analogy to higher education here. Having a bachelor's degree doesn't necessarily mean you are any smarter or more useful than a person without it. Your skills and knowledge cannot be truly attested by a certificate or a degree. However, sadly and unfortunately, we are living in this huge organism that measures people through the certifications and degrees as a mainstream custom. The reality kind of requires a young professional, in almost any field, to knock open a few doors at the start of their careers with these arbitrary measurements that are almost a waste of time to obtain. I completely believe that real skills and knowledge are more often than not obtained from a great mentor and/or tons of real experience in the field, and most importantly your own willingness to learn the right things. On the other hand, in a more cynical way, would you agree that being certified with all these acronyms has helped smoothen your professional development in terms of gaining more access to different employment choices? If you want to spread your true knowledge to a wider crowd than those who have no business coaching the general public, I'd imagine having a reputable and widely-recognized certificate would help get you there faster and easier. Or maybe in the strength training world, performance records like your placements in competitions and meets speak more volume than certifications?
    Fun Fact: There is an exactly inverse relationship between the usefulness of any of my certifications (i.e. what did I actually learn that is useful) and the certification's utility in assisting with employment (as an employee).

    NASM & NSCA: Recognized and often REQUIRED by any major gym, health club, or personal training facility for employment. Zero utility in the actual practice of making people stronger and more fit. Zero recognition BY THE MARKET PLACE. In other words, 0 of 1,000 people have ever asked - "So are you certified by NASM?" before hiring me.

    USAW: Recognized or required by only a small handful of gyms. Usually those that focus on training young athletes. Some actual real world utility in the actual training of real people, but with the general public, we just aren't doing that much olympic lifting. Most of what I learned from my coach at this certification had nothing to do with olympic lifts, but rather programming in general, some good stuff on conditioning, etc. None of which was in the USAW texts, I just happened to have a good coach who shared some real life experience with me. Maybe 5 people in 10 years have asked me if I was certified by USAW.

    SSC: Recognized or required by NO GYMS outside of the SS Community. 90% of my real world programming and coaching is centered around what I have learned from my SSC credential and ongoing education. Have been able to build two businesses that are basically built on the foundation of my relationship with SS. So recognized by essentially NO ONE within the industry (i.e. useless for employment within mainstream fitness), but is my primary source of actual USEFUL education and my income.

    Interesting.

    I think the future of our economy, not just in fitness, but overall, will be in entrepreneurship rather than employment. The exception will be in things like engineering which require very specific and rigorous formal education. But I think the ease of information flow with the internet and the decreasing standards and utility of a university education will make the traditional pathways nearly obsolete in the future.

    The guys I know in fitness that are making millions aren't the ones with Masters Degrees in ExPhys. They are the ones who have mastered internet based marketing, personal branding, social media and are willing to put 80 hour work weeks until they crack the code.

  3. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Andy Baker (KSC) View Post
    Fun Fact: There is an exactly inverse relationship between the usefulness of any of my certifications (i.e. what did I actually learn that is useful) and the certification's utility in assisting with employment (as an employee).
    This is a great point by Andy. I was required to obtain a "nationally recognized" certification back in 2006 when I got my first job at a commercial gym as a personal trainer. I decided to get the CSCS because I was still toying with the idea of getting a Masters in Ex Phys and becoming a collegiate S&C coach at the time. Since I have gotten that certification, it has literally done nothing for me in terms of helping me get or retain clients and patients. Not a single person has ever sought me out because I have my CSCS. On the other hand, I went through the process of getting my SSC Certification in 2012 simply because it was a credential that I wanted, not because it was required of me to do so. Since that time, I have people contact me on almost a weekly basis inquiring about the possibility of training with me despite the fact that the majority of people in our industry have probably never even heard of the SSC Certification before.

    As Wolf said previously, the certification(s) that you chose to obtain really depend on what you see yourself doing with them. If they are required for a job you want or need, then get them, just don't expect to learn anything meaningful that will help you as a professional in this field from the process of obtaining them.

  4. #14
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    That is a very interesting fact indeed, and also makes sense: the general public is interested in exercising instead of training. The whole education, certification, and fitness business systems form one big chain and ecosystem that recognizes and promotes one another. I didn't have a clear idea about this feature starting this thread, and assumed one of these acronyms actually earns its keep. Now thanks to your answers, it all seems so blatantly obvious. I personally would never hire a coach that is not SSC certified because looking back, I have wasted a lot of money and time just screwing around during my precious rank novice years. And because what is harder to earn usually has more value. This value will soon be recognized more widely, if not by the industry, by the market, once people like me have had exposure to SSCs and the program.

    Coach Wolf, thanks for the book recommendation! Always welcome a good read. It was just released three days ago. I'm very impressed with how academically informed you are! (A nerd that lifts?) I'll get to it after I finish Practical Programming.

  5. #15
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    That seems like a pretty good analysis of how we got to where we are in terms of the alphabet soup certs - they're all based on the exercise model, and giving very vague, general guidelines about how to be an exercise instructor in a way that is "better than sitting on the couch" and that's about it. No wonder they have zero market value, beyond checking a box for some potential employers - which is more a "signaling" thing anyway - and that no one who holds them has ever gotten a lot of business from them.

    Thankfully there is a small but growing, and very dedicated, segment of the market that does already recognize the value of the SSC. Between SSOC, independent SSCs working in person, and SS Gyms, there are several thousand people actively being coached by SSCs on a regular basis and tens of thousands more who have been to a seminar, training camp, or done a 1-off session with an SSC. I don't know the exact numbers, but I estimate that as recently as five years ago, that number was less than half of what it is today. The market is growing, and as long as we continue to provide a good service that gets people results - which we will - it will continue to grow.

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