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Top 10 Tips for a Triathlon Coaching Career
1) Don't just get one certification. Carve out a niche for yourself by becoming a certified bike fitter, USA swim coach, ISSN Sports Nutritionist, or Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach. While the USAT Coaching Certification is a very good place to start your triathlon coaching career, you'll find that athletes will respect your coaching skills even more if you can become an expert in very targeted areas. 2) You're not a plan writing monkey. The purpose of a triathlon coaching career is not to sit and write "triathlon plans" all day long. You need to be prepared to give customized advice to the athletes you coach. If you write a good training plan, for example, for an Ironman, don't re-write the plan for every athlete you coach. Instead, use the plan skeleton, then customize it for each athlete, and be available to your athletes for more specific advice. 3) Get a website. No triathlon coaching career can really be highly fruitful without some type of online method of managing athletes, sharing workouts, or even accepting payments. With a website, you'll be able to handle more athletes and also generate other revenue streams, such as e-books or audio products. 4) Brand yourself. You need a highly recognizable logo and a name. Do not just be "coach John Doe". Instead name your business, and in most cases, form it as a sole proprietorship or LLC. By having an image, you'll also be able to make jerseys, shirts, cycling kits, etc. 5) Do everything once. If you write a fantastic workout, save it so that you can copy and paste it to other athlete's programs, rather than remembering and re-writing the workout every time you need it. If necessary, create a "swipe file" on your computer so you can copy and paste workouts quickly. 6) Race. If you're not racing, or not staying in triathlon shape, then your triathlon coaching career is not going to be fruitful. Athletes need to be able to see you at events, and also recognize that you know your stuff and practice what you preach. Remember - you can write of race expenses from your taxes if you're doing business at races. 7) Network. There are a bevy of triathlon industry experts, athletes, race directors, authors, and other coaches who would love to help you help your athletes, since it helps your triathlon coaching career but also helps these other individuals in their business. Don't "hole up" and ignore the triathlon industry. Take part in conversations, events, forums, magazines, conferences, seminars and as many other possible networking opportunities you can for your triathlon coaching career. 8) Be Open Minded. Stay on top of the latest research in sports science, and always be ready to change your approach if it is found to be inferior to a new training method. Don't bad mouth other training protocols, although it is fine to respectfully disagree. Always be listening, watching and learning, and your triathlon coaching career will blossom. 9) Follow the Golden Rule. Treat your athletes the same way that you would want to be treated by your coach. If they're injured, help walk them through ways that can help them heal faster. If they're overweight, help them develop better nutrition habits. If they're depressed about a race, help them develop a plan to have a better experience the next time. Don't just write them a plan. Remember their other needs. 10) Use triathlon coaching software to automate the coaching process and allow you to gather as much information as possible from your athletes in a quick and efficient way. TrainingPeaks is one great example of triathlon training software that works very well, and will significantly help your triathlon coaching career efficiency. If you want more triathlon coaching career tips just like this, then you MUST read Ben Greenfield's book "How to Become a Triathlon Coach"!
Introducing the complete career guide for triathlon coaches who want to make a living out of their passion: the new book "How to Become a Triathlon Coach" by Ben Greenfield! Inside, you'll learn about triathlon coach certifications and education, tools to enhance your triathlon coaching business, and even how to make your own books and DVD's! You'll get instant access the following 10 chapters that teach you how to get the best results from your athletes while making the money you deserve:
You can instantly get full access to an audio version of "How to Become A Triathlon Coach" to listen to while you swim, bike, run or drive OR you can download the print version of the book to read! For special, web-only pricing, you can also get full access to both versions in a gold-standard book + audio package. Just choose which version you want using form below:
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