First off, congratulations on becoming a graduate assistant, let’s get started. If you are like me and got hired on at a school with a student athlete population of over 500 students and 22 varsity sports, good luck. This is a unique and challenging endeavor. With that many athletes that can mean small weight room space and small weight room budget, things you wouldn’t think matter, but do. This may also be your first year as a full-time paid coach meaning one or more of these things has happened that got you here:

·  You just finished playing collegiately and therefore still see yourself as an athlete.

·  You excelled at your sport and feel you are already a good coach.

·  You excel in the weight room and feel you are a good strength and conditioning coach.

·  You have paid your dues as an intern (maybe multiple times) and are ready to step up to bat as a grad assistant.

Your first year in the field is going to be the hardest. You are going to need to learn, adapt, and understand more than when you were an undergrad. This time as a grad assistant is crucial to set up your career in this field. So, here are some of my ideas and tips so far to help guide you to do your job as a graduate assistant and succeed in the process.

1. Create good time management skills

    Being in grad school and working full-time is not easy sometimes. Granted I had way more classes in my undergrad than I do now it still takes a chunk of time out of my week. When you have sessions as early as 5:45 a.m. and do not get home until 7 p.m., it can be very hard to make time. Much like our athletes who juggle a billion things, your schedule will also be tough to get used to but with the correct time management, it is doable.

    Solid advice that I was given once upon a time, create your schedule early. Print it out, write it down, make a planner, do whatever you need to do to create opportunities to get some schoolwork done or get some programming done. Finding times to schedule your teams around the other teams will be a struggle at first but just talk to your coworkers and you will figure out a solid schedule. There will be downtime with this job, do not take it for granted, use that time wisely and get organized.

“Work life balance,” a phrase commonly thrown around in our field, personally I think that statement is bologna, I like the phrase “work life integration” more. Work life balance has the implication of work and life being separate but equal. I believe you can mesh them, bring your life into work with you, carve out time in your day to do things that are important to your life and your well-being. I personally take time most days to try and call someone I love on my downtime; it gives me joy and helps on the long days. Create time for things you love doing, you and your athletes will be better off for it.

2. Be vulnerable and curious

    When I first started as grad assistant, I was hesitant to ask my head coach or fellow assistant coaches their thoughts on my programming, my teams, my periodization model, exercise selections, etc. Two reasons for this: pride and fear. This was my first semester as a full-time paid coach programming for more than one team. Did I need guidance? Of course, but I avoided asking questions out of fear they may not think I knew what I was doing, I was ignorant, and it stopped me from asking their opinions.

Coming fresh off an incredible internship I was on a high of knowledge and confidence. There were days when I was able to answer questions like it was my full-time job and I felt good about it. Of course, I was then humbled when asked a hard question and realized I knew less than I thought. My confidence was shot, and I felt limited while doing my job. But the cure for this was to learn from my mistake and move on to do the next hard thing.

Figure 1. Dunning Kruger Effect

After a couple weeks of getting used to how things roll around here, I started asking questions, and to no one’s surprise, my fellow staff members wanted to help me. How else would I learn unless I was a student to my peers? Pride and fear are how we make mistakes. Do not be afraid to ask questions and be vulnerable every once in a while.

3. Build relationships with the Athletes

    Essential duties of a S+C coach involve:

·  Design of strength and conditioning programs in all sports season of contest in a manner that reflects research-driven practices.

·  Implement written programs in a safe and constructive manner

·  Work in cooperation with sports medicine staff in rehab and strengthening of injuries.

·  Facilitate a relationship with sport coaches, administration, and other staff.

·  Annually conduct and review departmental risk management and emergency services plan

·  Conduct evaluation of fellow staff and included design of professional development2

    What is the one phrase you did not see on this list? “Create a long lasting and impactful relationship with athletes in a respectful and motivational manner.” There is nothing worse than an athlete not respecting your opinion or not taking your coaching because you have not said a word to them in the 2-3 months you’ve been there (I’ve seen it happen), do not let that be you. Communication and relationships with athletes are a major component of this job. Athletes are information sources, they will tell you things that you may not want to hear, but it can be insightful into your programming, how you run a session, how your meeting with a sport coach will be impacted. Learn to read athletes and build relationships with them to not only gain their trust and respect but to craft a double edge sword that can benefit both of you. Asking an athlete “how are your classes going?” goes way further than you may think. Sometimes they actually want to talk to you, take that first step and the rest is history.

4. Learn from your classes

    In some cases, the master’s program you choose will be directly related to the coaching field you are working in: for example, a Master’s in Exercise Science, Coaching, or Strength and Conditioning.

    But this isn’t always the case. I am earning a Master’s in Organizational Leadership with a focus on Sports Management, but my main focus is pursuing a career in collegiate strength and conditioning. Even though I am not uber passionate about 80% of the classes I take, some of them were brilliant for developing my coaching philosophy and role as a strength coach.

    In my first leadership class my professor was a great writer and asked impactful questions. Thanks to his class, I developed a greater awareness of the type of leader I was and the various class assignments that semester really challenged me to embrace public speaking and become a better leader. Even though your master’s may or may not be relevant to your job and career path, there are still opportunities to learn as a coach from your classes.

5. Be creative with the technology you have at your disposal

    I am the graduate assistant for 4 teams: Women’s Basketball, Women’s Softball, Coed Golf, and Coed Track and Field Throwers. Here at Waldorf University, my coworkers and I work with about 500 student athletes. Between team lifts and open-hours sessions where we roll kids through 16 half racks, not to mention typical administrative work, we don’t have the ability to regularly attend any practices or as many sports staff meetings as we’d like. To create a high-performance model with context, I use some technology to track key performance indicators and create athlete profiles that give actionable information for the strength staff.

    The three of pieces technology that I use with my athletes are the JustJump mat, Brower timing system, and a 300kg Crane Scale. Early into each lift, we get a four-jump RSI score and a vertical jump as a readiness method once each week, both of which I enter into Excel. I am also able to get an Explosive Strength Deifict (ESD) score when I take the athletes veritcal (cmj) and their static vertical (smj) and put it into this equation ESD = 100 X (CMJ-SJ)/CMJ. This score gives me a better idea as to what I should program in-season, low velocity strength or high velocity plyos. Low numbers get high velocity plyos (1-10), high numbers get heavier lifts (10-20)

RSI 4 Jump:

To estimate acceleration times and horizontal force we use the 10-yard sprint from a static position measured with the Brower timing gates. This is not an in-season test, they will get almost all of their acceleration work done in practice and games. We test this once before off-season, once before they start practices, once after season, and once after their post season rejuvenation and strength blocks. A 10yard sprint will give an accurate reading on how they are producing horizontal force, RFD, and where we can make up for that in our weight room programming. This also allows for a good amount of work to be done in our small hallway we use for sprints, quality over quantity.  

    Peak force (N) is another one of the key performance metrics I can track for our weight room work in-season. Using an Isometric Mid-Thigh Pull with a crane scale, a chain, and a handle bar I can get a reading in less than 3 seconds that is used to assist in my programming decisions as well as give a metric on force. It is quite literally 100 times cheaper than Force Plates and faster to use, it does not give a chart on RFD but that is okay. I also can use the crane scale to get a quad and hamstring force score with return to play kids and injured athletes . Considering it tests for force development and asymmetries in each leg I can get a solid reading on which leg could be lacking. For example an ACL return to play athlete I was able to get a 7kg difference reading between her right and left leg in a test that is less than 1 minute. From there I made programming decisions to enhance those scores and correct those asymmetries.

Figure 3: (Iso Mid-Thigh Pull w/ Crane Scale)

 The athletes’ lift numbers are tracked each session, so we can compare them across time to their position group and team. Every new block their numbers are adjusted and their scores on all of these metrics are tracked via excel in an athlete profile sheet. It can be tricky to set up this sheet, but it is well worth the time for the visualization and monitoring of your athletes.

Here is an example of my sheet that I use weekly (fake numbers).

Link to how to make this sheet: 

    The reason that I discuss the technology aspect is that at a smaller school, with large amounts of varsity teams, your budget will be limited. Don’t let that stop you from getting what you want out of your programs. The jump mat was rarely used so I broke it out of retirement to be used weekly, the Brower systems were from the track coach that rarely used them, and the crane scale was $40 on amazon. Your first semester as a grad assistant coaching is such an important time for you to grow and develop. I hope my words have been an encouragement and will provide direction for you to maximize your time as a graduate assistant or intern. To summarize, take these tips, manage your time wisely, be vulnerable and curious, build relationships with athletes, learn from your classes, and be creative with the technology you have at your disposal.

References

Divya Jacob, Pharm. D. “What Is an Example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect?” MedicineNet, MedicineNet, 19 Mar. 2021,

“Sample Job Description – High School Strength and Conditioning Coach – Full-Time.” National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA),

Youtube Links:

RSI 4 Jump:

Brower Timing Gates:

Iso Mid-Thigh Pull w/ Crane Scale: