So You Want My Job: NBA Strength and Conditioning Coach

Brett & Kate McKay www.artofmanliness.com

Once again we return to our So You Want My Job series, in which we interview men who are
employed in desirable jobs and ask them about the reality of
their work and for advice on how men can live their dream.

Are you a guy who loves athletics, working out, and learning
about health and fitness? Did you always dream of playing
professional sports, but werent blessed with the talent or
body to compete at the highest levels? While you may not be
able to play yourself, you do have a shot at becoming the guy
who trains those world class athletes. Of course, as Shawn
Windle, strength and conditioning coach for the Indiana
Pacers explains, that shot is nearly as slim as being drafted by
the NBA: this is an incredibly competitive career path. Do you
have what it takes? Read on.

1. Tell us a little about yourself (Where are you from?

How old are you? Describe your job and how long youve
been at it, etc).

I am a 38 year old strength & conditioning coach for the

Indiana Pacers, which for those of you that do not know,
means I am responsible for the building and rebuilding of
NBA bodies. I am responsible for the performance of nearly
60 million dollars of annual assets. My duties include the design and implementation of
programs to improve strength, speed/agility, power, nutrition, recuperation, and rehabilitation.

I was born and raised in Auburn, Maine or as my friends like call it, Southern Canada. While
building my resume, my wife and I have lived in Florida (Lehigh Senior High School),
Massachusetts (Auburn High School), New York (Minor League Baseball), Connecticut
(University of Connecticut), New Jersey (Rutgers University) and now here in Indiana. My
career is at 15 years and counting, 6 of which have been with the Pacers.

2. Why did you want to become a strength coach? When did you know it was what you
wanted to do?

I really stumbled upon this career path. I bounced around to a few colleges trying to find what
was right for me, even being told by one to not return. It took being asked by a boss at a pool
store to clean the floor with a handheld brush that was about eight inches long for the light bulb
to really go off for me, and I decided that if I did not go back to college, scrubbing floors would
be my lifelong vocation.
I began taking courses to improve my grade point average so that I could get back into college as
a full-time student. I really enjoyed lifting weights in the typical meathead sort of way, and I
loved athletics, so when I went on a college visit to the University of Maine at Presque Isle and
the athletic training program director mentioned Strength & Conditioning as a related field, I was
hooked. In my first class back in college (History of Physical Education) I listed being the head
strength coach of an Olympic Team as my career goal. Although I have trained Olympic
athletes, I have not been a strength coach for an Olympic team. Which is okaythe government
doesnt pay as well as the NBA. LOL!

3. If a man wants to become a strength coach how should he prepare? Should he go to

college, and if so, what should he major in?

Although nearly anybody can be a personal trainer and there are many courses online to do so, to
be a strength & conditioning coach, a 4 year college degree is the first step. Not all strength
coaches have degrees in kinesiology, athletic training, or exercise science, but most do, and
having a degree in one of those areas will help your chances of getting hired. There are
numerous certifications that are either mandatory or highly recommended. The National
Strength & Conditioning Association is one of the most prominent entry-level requirements to
becoming a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist. The College Strength & Conditioning
Coaches Association offers a certification process that is steadily gaining in popularity. Once
those baseline requirements are met, there are numerous parallel certifications that employers
look for. For example in addition to the NSCA certification, I am also certified by the National
Academy of Sports Medicine as a Performance Enhancement Specialist and also as a Corrective
Exercise Specialist, a USA Weightlifting Level One Club Coach, Certified Athletic Trainer by
the National Athletic Trainers Association, Certified in CPR and AED, and finally in the
Functional Movement Screen. Each certification obviously adds to your toolbox of knowledge
but also improves your likelihood of landing a job. Many strength coaches also attend graduate
school to seek a masters degree since some jobs strongly encourage applicants to have an
advanced degree. Coursework includes a heavy dose of science, and if that scares you, take a
deep breath. I did not enjoy or do well at biology or chemistry because they seemed very
abstract to me considering my career goals; however, when it came to exercise science,
kinesiology, and motor learning, I found the movement sciences much more interesting and
actually easier because I knew those courses would directly affect my future.

4. Once you have the necessary skills, how do you go about getting your foot in the door
and landing your first job? How do you go from the bottom of the ladder to becoming a
strength coach for a professional sports team?

Volunteering!!! Nobody wants to hear it, but you must be willing to work for free. I was
fortunate in that I have received at least some form of payment throughout my career, but I know
plenty of people that are professional interns. Jobs working with athletes are hard to find, jobs
working with really good athletes are really hard to find, and working with elite athletes is nearly
impossible. Many young coaches build their resumes by interning with well known strength
coaches at well known universities to increase their visibility and to prove that they are capable
of handling the stress of working in a pressure cooker. We have seen the stakes grow each year
in college sports, and new coaches usually have 4-5 years to make a significant impact in the win
column (2-3 years in professional sports); therefore, the will to win and prepare to win are
extremely high on the priority list. Losses can be very tense times for everybody involved from
the head coach all the way down to the interns. Higher profile jobs generally lead to other high
profile jobs. A great deal of effort, determination, networking, and preparation help move you
through the field just like any other profession. Most strength coaches I know have moved
around the country quite a bit with the intention of building their resumes and sometimes
because they are forced to move. If you are a strength coach in the NFL, you could have a short
shelf life since many are directly linked to the head football coach. When that coach gets fired,
many times the strength & conditioning staff is released as well. The ideal situation is to be
hired by the owner or general manager since these positions do not experience as much turnover.

5. How competitive is it to land a job as a strength coach at the top levels? What separates a
candidate for a job from the other guys?

The numbers are stacked against you if you think you are going to fast track to professional
sports. If my memory serves me right, there are over 20,000 members in the National Strength
and Conditioning Association and last time I checked there are only 30 NBA teams and about the
same in the NFL, NHL and MLB respectively. Do the math! My profession is like any other
profession in the sense that you have some people in my position because they are the owners
cousin, and you have some great strength coaches, and some down right head scratching bad
ones. I think most things function on the bell curve, and I would say most professions follow
that distribution from terrible to great. I feel like I prepared myself through education,
certifications, and practical experience while meeting the right people along the way. Everything
in life comes down to your relationships with people. I
have seen a lot of great strength coaches never advance in
their career because they didnt understand relationships
or refused to play a game that they felt involved too much
ass kissing. If meeting people, being nice to them, and
working hard is called ass kissing, then I puckered up
long ago. If you treat people with respect and show a
genuine interest in them, I call that being a man.

6. What is the best part of your job?

I wear shorts to work! Enough said! Seriously that is one

of the many perks. If you like shorts, sneakers, socks,
sweat suits, or virtually any athletic apparel, the NBA is
for you. I have more gear than I know what to do with,
and it is hard to pass it on to family and friends because at
6 6 and 250 pounds it is pretty hard to find people that
wear my size. If you are a basketball junkie, you have a
courtside seat to the best basketball players in the world
for an 82 game regular season schedule. We travel on
chartered planes that have outlets for our electronics
(everybody is attached to something whether its an iPad or a laptop), and first class seating
throughout the plane. In my position, I have had some great opportunities to go to concerts in
suites, the Indy 500 in a suite and have met countless celebrities/athletes/actors. We stay in the
top hotels in the country and every time you turn around there is food. Remember the freshman
15? Watch a rookie staff member relive his freshman year. It takes a lot of discipline to lay off
all the food, and it can easily get out of hand.

Outside of the peripheral perks of the job, you also get to be part of a team. Not a clich team,
but an actual group of men working toward ONE goal. Living in close proximity of one
another. It is a bond that many people will never grasp. Being a part of the process and helping
each player reach his potential can be very rewarding. I see my role as a strength coach as more
than just telling them to lift weights. These are pretty young guys and many do not have strong
guidance. They have never been asked to grow up, so I like to talk to them about the importance
of developing a daily routine and leadership. Great teams understand that none of what we do is
really about basketball. It is about developing men. When you teach respect, discipline,
accountability, and hard work, everything else falls into place.

7. What is the worst part of your job?

People see the lights and the glamour of the NBA, but what people dont stop and consider is
what we do when the final buzzer sounds. If we are on the road, we usually spend an hour in the
locker room while media comes in and guys shower before we even leave the arena. Most
games start at 7 pm and end at about 9:30 pm, meaning that we start making our way to the
airport at 10:30 pm. The average time in most cities is 20 minutes to the airport, then add in
another 30 minutes for the bags to get loaded and get airborne. Usually we get in the air about
11:30 pm if all goes according to plan. Sometimes things dont run so smoothly like overtime,
post game x-rays, stitches, the bus breaks down (oh yes I have seen it), and dont forget we play
mostly in the winter and that means de-icing which can add 20-45 minutes to our departure
time. If we are going home, we get to sleep in our own beds, and those of us with kids can
expect an early wake up call, so there are plenty of nights I get 3, maybe 4 hours of sleep because
when my kids know that Daddy is home from a trip, they usually come in and jump on me bright
and early. Sometimes we are on the road, and we get into a city like Denver at 3:00 am, unload
the plane, and take the longest ride in the NBA to get downtown. The job can be physically and
mentally draining. During the fall the only way we know what day it is depends on if we are
watching college football, NFL football, or Monday Night Football. I also always know when it
is Thursday because that is trash day at home.

I paint a bad picture, but those are some of the realities of working in the NBA. It is certainly
not for everyone.
8. Whats the work/family/life balance like?

With all the travel and home games included I missed 110 dinners and bedtimes at home,
causing my wife to function as a single parent from October until April. When I am in my house
my phone stays on vibrate, and I only check it a couple of times during the night, only
responding to emergencies. I want my kids to have my undivided attention since we have so
little time together during the season. That means my wife gets whatever is left over and most
times we are so exhausted at the end of the day that leaves our free time to be spent side by side,
sound asleep. Family balance does not exist during the season. You do the best you can to make
amends during the summer since we dont work as many hours, and we get to sleep in our own
bed almost every night.

9. What is the biggest misconception people have about your job?

I have heard a lot of people tell me that they would not want to deal with overpaid prima donnas
all day long. Dealing with rich young men that dont want to work. In six years I have really
only worked with a couple of divas; the majority of the players are appreciative of everybody on
staff and understand that each staff member is there to help them succeed. These guys did not
make it to the NBA by simply being tall, and although that helps, it takes countless hours in a
gym while nobody else is around working on their skills. Nobody sees these guys come to the
arena 3-4 hours before a game. Or come back after the game when the crowd is gone to shoot
extra shots. Of course not everybody works like this, but isnt that why coaches have jobs? I
view myself as more of a teacher than anything.

10. Any other advice, tips, commentary or anecdotes youd like to share?

As a side note, this interview took me almost four weeks to complete. During that time I have
visited current players in New York, Los Angeles (twice), and North Carolina in addition to
helping with the draft process where we have injected, inspected, and detected nearly 50 draft
eligible draft prospects in Indiana alone not to mention a week spent at the NBA Pre Draft Camp
in Chicago where the evaluation process includes height, weight, wingspan, body fat, upper body
strength, lower body power, speed, and agility. Welcome to the OFF-Season where you spend
time with your family!