This Olympics has brought to the forefront the role of the strength and conditioning coach. Julius Naranjo, the strength and conditioning coach of Hidilyn Diaz, has a degree in Kinesiology from Guam and is currently finishing his Level 2 Australian Strength and Conditioning Association (ASCA) certification. Our Olympic boxers’ strength and conditioning coach, Jeff Pagaduan, has a PhD in Human Movement Science from the University of Tasmania.
Fitness training and the field of strength and conditioning are like tools in the human movement toolbox.
Fitness training is quite important since it’s the base for keeping as many people in our population healthy and free of lifestyle disease. Strength and conditioning is geared toward specific performance parameters that help individuals gain an advantage over their competition.
Injury prevention is key in both disciplines, for fitness folks, you want them to be injury-free to keep people healthy and moving. On the other hand, for strength and conditioning coaches, keeping athletes injury-free is critical for performance as an injury can cost years of training and possibly up to millions in opportunity cost.
A good fitness coach will be versed in human physiology, have the ability to stimulate and keep individuals interested in fitness, and be able to provide variety and decrease boredom. A strength and conditioning coach’s job is a little more pedantic. One must have a good base of the sciences of physiology, biomechanics and statistics. Strength and conditioning coaches are expected to provide data-backed training programs to optimize aspects of performance that help an athlete succeed in sport. To the uninitiated the strategies may look similar, however the rationalizations and conclusions to each strategy are obtained through dissimilar derivations.
Currently, the Professional Regulatory Commission does not regulate strength and conditioning as an occupation, hence, it is quite easy for someone to claim they are a strength and conditioning coach. Ideally, one must have gone through sports science or a related field of study as an undergraduate course and get certified by a reputable organization like the ASCA or the International Strength and Conditioning Institute. These are the organizations I recommend the most for strength and conditioning coaches.
For ASCA, all of us have to go through practical and theoretical assessments, familiarize ourselves with doping protocols, coaching mentorship, and write a paper that contributes to the body of knowledge in our field. All these take around six months to a year to complete on average. There are weekend courses that profess to say that they can certify strength and conditioning coaches—I find this to be a dubious claim. I do not believe that strength and conditioning as a field of study can be condensed within a weekend.
So if you’re looking to be fit, get motivated, and if you want to be able to move and not get bored, find a good fitness coach. Assuredly, keeping people interested in fitness and movement is both an art and a science that I respect immensely. However, if you’re looking to optimize sports performance, a strength and conditioning coach who can explain the nuances of each training variable may suit you better. Whatever you choose, the most important part is to have fun and keep moving in a safe manner.