Before I review my internship at the National Strength and Conditioning Association, I thought it might be helpful to give some background information about me. I went to the University of Dayton in Dayton, OH [UD] (same alma mater as my good friend/teammate/current PhD student at ETSU Ashley Kavanaugh) where I majored in K-12 Physical Education and minored in exercise science. While there I was able to work with the UD men’s football and soccer teams, women’s soccer, volleyball, and track and field team.
I enjoyed my time immensely at ETSU. I learned more in my two years there than I thought I would have. At ETSU I was able to be apart of the SPEC [The Sports Performance Consortium] program and work with the men’s golf team as a coach, and the track and field team. Now that ETSU is an OTS [Olympic Training Site], I feel fortunate enough to have not only been a coach, but also have been a competitor as well. I graduated ETSU December of 2011.
I accepted an internship to the NSCA [The National Strength and Conditioning Association] before graduating from ETSU, and began my experience in January of 2012. It was a great drive out west, seeing as I’d never been further west than Shreveport, LA. The NSCA is located in the most optimal of cities I feel. COS [Colorado Springs] is so active and the NSCA headquarters is right beside USA Hockey and World Arena, where the Colorado College (CC) hockey team plays. CC Hockey is well documented, with 14 winning seasons in a row, and ranked in the top 15 annually.
This was my favorite group to work with at the NSCA. Being in the collegiate setting my whole coaching career, the CC guys were awesome. They showed up after practice and worked as hard as they could. Their head strength coach, NSCA Performance director Scott Caulfield, is assisted by Coaching Performance leader Kevin Cronin. Both coaches preached team unity and to work smart yet work hard. I really valued their interaction with the players. The players trusted them and sought them when things were going wrong. For example, one of the players had a sore wrist and went to one of the coaches seeking alternate exercises because he knew how important lifting and training was as the season progressed. Both Kevin and Scott are good coaches, with different styles. I liked seeing different players respond to different styles. Observing them really made me think how do I want to be as a coach. By the end of the internship, I really felt like I had found my own coaching style. This was by far one of the best things to happen to me at the NSCA.
A close second to working with CC at the NSCA was working with the tactical athletes. Head tactical strength coach Jason Dudley was not only great to work with as a person, but by the end of the internship I found him to be a good person as well. He met with the interns and one of the things he stressed was this:
“It’s our job to be the best possible coaches for these guys. They’re willing to put their lives on the line for us, least we can do is show them the attention by writing quality programs and be good coaches.”
The tactical athletes are great to work with. They’re punctual, respectful, and hard working. They make being a coach easy, and it makes you realize why you want to be a strength and conditioning coach. I was fortunate enough to receive a trio of FBI agents to program for. One of them did the Manitou Incline multiple times a week. They were animals! The tactical guys were great to coach. It was a great challenge to program for at times because many of them have to go or miss a workout on a days notice, sometimes less than that. Programming was difficult at times because I wanted to plan for a few mesocycles, but wasn’t sure if they’d be gone of not. In any case, I received valuable coaching experience, and the tactical athletes enjoyed their time with me. Before I left I also worked with a female firefighter. She was interested in crossfit, but I convinced her to take another path. We programmed a few mesocycles and periodized her running and weight training. She seemed to enjoy it better and had better testing results.
My final group of athletes I worked with was figure skaters. These ranged from youth (10 years old) to late teens (16 years old). Two of the top figure skaters in the world train at the NSCA – Canada’s Patrick Chan, and U.S.A.’s Agnes Zawadzki. Elite level skaters train incredibly hard, and put in a lot of hours. It’s quite interesting to learn of the amount of G forces put on a skater when doing turns. I really had my education on skaters while out at the NSCA. I enjoyed working with them, and really learned a lot on skating and it’s physiological, biomechanical, and psychological demands.All in all, my experience with the NSCA was good. I learned a lot, met some great people, got to network, and work with athletes. My goal is to be a head strength and conditioning coach, and I’m hoping this experience helps me in that goal. Recently, COS battled devastating wildfires, so I hope everyone is safe. Lastly, as especially as a weightlifter, adjusting to the altitude was tough. It was even hard when I did the “INCLINE.” I actually did it twice. If you’re ever out in COS, I recommend you give it a try. It’s neat to see the views and the challenge is great.
Ethan Owens has since accepted a job with the Houston Astros professional baseball organization and is currently based in Greeneville, Tennessee.
Interesting information from Ethan Owens. Congrats on the position in the Astros Organization. Just curious about a ballpark on the salary the Astros are paying you? I know it's probably not much but appears to be a good place to start with Dr. Coleman being with the Astros.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it's interesting about CC using NSCA HQ SC instead of hiring their own SC fulltime. It's a D3 school (I believe) and I wonder how many schools at this level actually hire fulltime SC? And I wonder what a ballpark on the salaries would be?
Way back in the late 90's I was in Nebraska working with Gallup (during family illness) just talking on the phone and I was making more than the Head SC at Creighton. In fact, a couple of basketball players at Creighton told me this individual did a fine job but did not get paid much at all and was often over-ruled by the Head Basketball Coach (now at Oregon) who they described as a "power-monger" in the athletic department.
Addiionally, as Dr. Stone knows, Boyd Epley hired an ex Nebraska/NFL player who had used PEDS and had no training at all (NONE!) in exercise or "sport science" as "Coordinator of Performance Education" instead of me before I stumbled into Gallup. And Boyd was on the "task force" for the NSCA's Professional Standards & Guidelines document at the time he had this individual working for him as "Coordinator of Performance Education." Just a complete SCAM that has all been covered-up for years. What would this individual educate people about unless it was how to stick a needle in their butts?
How many people who obtain degrees in exercise/sport science and wanted to work in SC/sport science actually obtain decent positions in the field? Where's the data on this? Share it with me.
I'm guessing, since there's been no response from Ethan, that his position with the Astros pays something on the order of a thousand a month with meal money, travel expenses, no health insurance etc. That's the way most baseball organizations run their strength and conditioning in the minor leagues. The jobs are basically seasonal without benefits, very low pay, etc.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it would be interesting to have some data from ETSU on my question at the end of the above post:
How may people who obtain degrees in exercise/sport science and wanted to work in SC/sport science with athletes actually end up working in the field with decent positions that have a future to be able to purchase a house, support a family, etc?
Hi Justin
ReplyDeleteApologies for the late response to your comments!
I cannot give any information on the pay that Ethan received with the Astros organization. He has since moved in to a full time position elsewhere in sport science. Like you said - it was a good place to start.
You have identified a number of issues in the sport science and strength and conditioning fields. The situation is not great currently, but a big part of our mission here at the Center of Excellence is to help improve things.
I do not know of any data on your last question regarding exercise & sport science graduates getting jobs in the field. What I can tell you is that opportunities for our graduates are improving. Perhaps we can look at this more formally sometime and post our findings here.