We discussed the importance of building a practical coaching experience from a fitness internship HERE, all very important if you want to become a good strength coach or NYC personal trainer. To continue on the importance of a fitness internship I thought it’ll be beneficial to discuss:
- Attitude
- How to land an fitness internship.
- What NOT to do during a fitness internship.
So let’s jump into it!
Attitude
I’ve dealt with a LOT of interns and have been through MANY fitness internships, so to say the least I have a good amount of experience on both sides of the fence. Most interns can expect to spend a lot of time and potentially money to learn from other established strength coaches and personal trainers. So they are very eager and hungry to learn in the beginning. But many fail to forget that the trade off for a great internship is also doing do the meager jobs that the coaches assign you to do. This includes:
- Wiping down equipment.
- Mopping up the floors.
- Un-racking weights and reloading weights.
- Equipment preparation for training.
While these are all meager jobs and may not seem important, it shows the mentors that you’re humble and willing to do the simple things in exchange for their time and efforts to develop you as a proficient strength coach or personal trainer.
While this seems like it’s pretty much understood, you would be surprised how quickly some of my interns and former co-interns got “comfortable” and slacked off. The bottom line is, if you’re hungry and want to become a better coach, you’ll do everything with pride and done right the FIRST time. If a strength coach asks you to mop the floors, that means mop the floors clean, not half ass it. This is a representation on your quality of work and respect for the facility and coaches that have gone through the same system.
Take pride in EVERYTHING you do.
How to Land a Fitness Internship
Ok, so you have a good attitude toward an internship and all the little meager duties to become a great intern. So how do you land a fitness internship?
In my experience, a simple email explaining who you are, what you want to do, and asking for advice on how to get to their level should suffice. With that said, do NOT send out an email blast, make it personal and reference their experience and anything about the coach in the email, do some basic due diligence. The quickest way to a deleted email is a generic email blast, I can say that because I’ve deleted every single one of them. This shows you lack motivation and common courtesy, after all you’re asking to learn from them and gain as much experience under their guidance. These all will extend the work day for the coaches or personal trainers, so take a few minutes out of your day to do some background research.
When you do get a chance to talk to the coach or trainer over the phone, make sure that you’re also prepared for this too. Have some basic questions, background information, your goals set, and be in a quiet area that’s isolated. This is basically a first interview and a time for the strength coach or personal trainer to get to know who you are. If you go in unprepared or preoccupied, why would the coach want to take you under their wing?
This all may seem, again like common sense, but it’s not. I remember taking on a call where the potential intern didn’t pick up the phone, 30 minutes later he called and it sounded like he was at a party. I had to ask him to step into a quiet room so that we both can hear each other… clearly this intern wasn’t dedicated.
What NOT to do during an internship.
Once you land an internship, the biggest thing to do is to come everyday with a strong worth ethic. Days can get long, we had 5am practices and finished with baseball at 9pm- MWF- then 6am track T/Th, to say the least, you work early and you work late but you gain a shit load of experience. Here’s a basic check list of what NOT to do:
- Don’t show up late- take the coughlin principle, “if you’re 15minutes early you’re on time”
- Don’t EVER talk over a coach. I know you’re eager to start coaching but when a coach is talking to an athlete and you try to interrupt with your puppy dog eagerness you’re going to be on their bad side. There is an established culture within each gym, respect it.
- Don’t skip any of the tasks assigned and do them right the firs time
Basically don’t be a jackass, I know you can get comfortable or in some environments may develop an intern “hierarchy”. But in the end, you’re being evaluated every step of the way, may sound cliche, but even when you think you’re not being watched, you’re being watched. The athlete and coaches all have eyes on you and develop a notion about you, make damn sure that they believe in you and want you there. So go above and beyond what they ask, stay the extra hours, be there early etc…
Hope this helps you potential strength coaches and personal trainers. And if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or email me.
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Stay strong,
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