For many coaches their education is only beginning when they become a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS). To maintain the CSCS many hours are spent completing continuing education. Lecture reviews, quizzes, conferences, etc. . . This is fun, it helps to further education within the field, but sometimes coaches become interested in other certifications in other independent systems.


For me, this came after being introduced to Kinstretch by a coworker. Kinstretch is a wildly fun and complex system designed to constantly provide self-evaluations  while increasing ranges of motion and function. We could “ooh” and “ahh” about it for hours, but we should move on.

In the previous post on education I recounted my experience at Hope College. While much of it was exceptionable, parts of it were inadequate. The exercise Science program was no exception to that statement. While many students in the program went on to Doctorate of Physical Therapy Programs, the career path for the rest of us was fairly limited despite Professor Slette’s awesome job of showing us different careers.


Besides physical therapy, the second major career path that was pushed in the program was to become a Strength Coach. In fact, I even took a 3 credit class that prepared students to take the test to become a Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach. And that is what I did. Those of you that know me may find this funny, as I’m sure you don’t imagine me as a whistle-blowing deadlift-yelling coach. It’s just not me. I never had interest in that…Although I do handle most of the strength work for the high school Track and Field team I coach.