High School S&C and Private S&C: The best of both worlds
(Noblesville, IN) Noblesville High School’s weight room circa 2018
Some of you may not know this, but I spent 4 years as an assistant high school strength and conditioning (S&C) coach at a large local high school (Noblesville, IN) before starting my own business as a private strength and conditioning provider. I know the pros and cons associated with both the public and private sector, so I’ll give it to you straight.
High School S&C Pros and Cons
High School S&C has a lot of great things going for it. If you train with your team, you’re building valuable camaraderie. And participating in your high school program? It’s free. Hard to beat that!
However, in the high school S&C setting, it’s difficult for a coach to give individualized, specific attention. As a high school strength coach, you have anywhere from between 32 - 100 kids in a class. I say this with experience– there were 100+ athletes in our Athletic Weights classes. It’s impossible to take all of the time in the world to interpret individual assessments or correct individual technique without risking letting the rest of the group suffer.
High school strength coaches have a tough job. They have sport coaches that aren’t bought in with their program. They have administration, red tape, and budget constraints that tie their hands on what they are able to do. School councilors will sometimes drop random students into their advanced weights classes like a normal wellness class, so they have to be conductors in a symphony of organized chaos.
I have the utmost respect for them.
And while this is certainly improving due to organizations like the NHSSCA, a lot of high schools don’t have qualified strength coaches on staff… leaving the program design and execution to a sport coach with no experience.
Private Sector S&C Pros and Cons
In the private sector, we’re able to give the attention needed to each athlete individually, even in our group sessions. Our largest group is 12 people– nearly a 1/3 that of the smallest class in high school.
We can spend time… and not just to make sure techniques are executed correctly.
We spend time…
making sure that our athletes understand important concepts like hydration and nutrition
teaching our athletes how to advocate for themselves with their coaches (and in life)
assessing and re-assessing our athletes to improve how they bend and move on an individual level
getting personalized with the program design
We can be selective about who we accept, meaning that if you join us, you’re training amongst other committed and driven athletes.
What can’t we do? Work for free! Seriously though, we can’t build school team camaraderie, unless the team contracts with us. It’s also harder to train consistently with us since a drive is involved and we aren’t on campus.
I’m not writing this blog to tell you to choose high school S&C over private S&C… or private over high school. I’m writing this blog to tell you how both can work together.
Let’s dig in to how we work with athletes that participate in a school S&C program.
Athlete ownership and communication
Our athletes take ownership of their training. We ask them to let us know what their program was like at school before they train with us.
We adjust our program by factoring in…
the movements performed at school
the sets/reps/tempos at school
the weight used at school
presence or absence of speed and agility work at school
what the athlete needs to work on individually (from our movement correctives and their sport/positional goals, etc.)
athlete responses to their app readiness questionnaires
athlete feedback on how they are feeling when they walk in.
Our goal is to not do redundant work. We try and hit things that we know they aren’t getting in school. We fill in the gaps, because we know that it will set athlete up for better success.
Do we sometimes do the same things as in school? Yes. We know when techniques are not being performed at a good standard at school.
In the end, we adjust all of our inputs to our programs on a case-by-case basis.
Sport coach communication
When applicable, we also speak with the sport coaches about what team practices and dynamics look like to better enhance the athlete’s time with us.
It comes down to meeting athletes’ individual needs
We fill the gaps that aren’t covered in high school strength and conditioning on an individualized basis… in more ways than just teaching them how to perform weight lifting movements. We build athletes that have specific sport goals, yes, but we also build relationships.
It’s important for us teach athletes the X’s and O’s that aren’t covered in school to set them up for success in sport, in school, and in life.
If you’re looking to work with a qualified strength and conditioning provider in Central Indiana, or open to qualified online training, we’re here for you. Drop us a line below, and we’ll reach out.