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I think thats pretty good advice, definenly would suck to be in that girls position.

I enjoy lifting weights and like learning about the human body etc, but have absolutely no desire to train other people especially not the mainstream kind of clients most would see. Being involved in high peformance training with a professional sporting team wouldnt be too bad, but those opportunities are rare. That is just my opinion though.

But if its something you want to do then who are we to stop you doing it.

This is what I'm aiming for. An opportunity has risen so i'm jumping on-board.

Michael Clarke, the Aussie Test captain?

In regards to working with a top sporting team. I've always considered it the pinnacle for a strength coach.

A few years back I missed out on working with the Storm. A friend of mine does. Another works with Collingwood.

So when I got the job with the Frankston Dolphins, who play in the VFL, the 2nd top AFL league in Oz, I was stoked.

They've had 2 players drafted to the AFL in the last 2 drafts.

A couple of months in, I'm pulling my hair out. Coach makes decisions, physio's make decisions, everyone makes a decision on strength training EXCEPT the strength coach.

So I ring my mate Marty at Collingwood and explain my dilemna, the boys wont squat, wont deadlift, just curls and bench. I tell him I have a real issue.

He just laughs and tells me its not a Frankston thing, its a football thing. He has been clashing with doctors, physios and sports science guys for 5 years.

He has LOTS of Elite clubs train at his gym, Elite in Victoria. Theyre all the same, science has taken over, strength people have no say.

My son Max always thought that working at an Elite club would be the best job, he wouldnt take one now.

I explained the difference was our clients WANT to train with us, footballers train because they HAVE TO.

Most got to where they are without weight training, they feel they dont need it now.

Goosey, the coach, even got his 2 ruckmen out on the field to jump some high hurdles, up against Max, just to show them how much squatting would help their vert

Max is 173cm, Russ and Khan are 198cm, they couldnt match him. The vids are on my YouTube channel somewhere

Khan is a big chance to get drafted this year, he was drafted as an 18yo by St Kilda but let go

The best job in strength, IMO, is where talented lifters come and pay you to train them. Rippetoe, Louie etc

The money isnt as good, but geez its more enjoyable

I had free rent, electricity, water, no rates and a good size facility at Frankston. After 12 months I got the f**k out of Dodge.

Poor decision money wise, excellent decision satisfaction wise

You are all aware that not every facility/gymnasium makes their personal trainers pay rent or sign a sub contract/lease style agreement dont you? As a suggestion some of the local government style Leisure facilities would be the perfect place. This means that you could earn a healthy hourly rate and study to work in rehab or strength and conditioning if you like.

Markos - in regards to the girl that you know having issues with leaving, i think there may be some more information required here. As a rule of thumb, lets say Les Mills Body Trainer for example, you have 3 months to gain clients, money does not just start coming out of their account before a mutual agreement is organised and signed off similar to a "sub contracter" style situation.

At any time did she tell the gym manager owner she was leaving and in which case did she sign the correct forms to do so? I know its a techinicallity but generally they do stipulate. If it is a chain of gyms running multiple sub contractors (PT's) sometimes it can be difficult noting who is coming and going. For all we know the PT manager may have thought she was on leave, either way the contracts generally stipulate that is up to the individual to sign off the cancellation of the lease, similar to a gym membership you could say.

Of course I have heard of some nightmare situations like this, but what i generally find is that it comes down to technicallities in the contract signatures, where the leasee did not read it correctly or even misunderstood for most cases.

I would guarantee there is more to it than she is letting on, my point was more to the kind of person that thinks its a great career change. The best thing that couldve happened was that she is now pursuing another career and she is out of the gym game

There is a member on here who worked as a PT at Fitness First that had his "rent" deducted for the last 3 months of his lease, he's a close friend

I have another friend who works out of a Leisure Centre and he loves it, is doing okay, he's about to go it alone from home, he highly recommends this way as opposed to the Big Gyms

What is the point of having a strength and conditioning/high performance coach if you aren't going to let them dictate what kind of lifting/fitness training the team is doing?

I have seen first hand how things go on at the brumbies and the high performance coach seems to be in charge of every thing exercise related. They are definently squatting and dead lifting judging by the size of the players...

Well, the guy that was the strength and conditioning coach at Storm is a friend of mine

I was very curious what they were squatting and deadlifting

He told me they only were to do half squats and they didnt deadlift

They did do lots of benching with some impressive numbers

Another friend works with Collingwood, not Martyn Girvan, Luke Vella.

He said no player could deadlift more than him. He weighs less than 67.5kg. Martyn confirmed this

At the Dolphins, theyre goal was to outlift my 63yo powerlifter. They had to squat more than him or deadlift, either was fine

None managed it. Fit young men in their prime against a 63yo who started lifting at 59yo, in 12 months none could do it

Clearly there are some that have better programs than others, Essendon for instance, but look at the drama that caused this year

If you truly love heavy weights and want to train athletes, train powerlifters, no money, great job satisfaction

Look I love those that chase their dreams, but if youre not training hard with BB's and DB'd for years before doing this course, and doing it on a whim, stay out. The industry needs experienced lifters, not course experts

It is Saturday, going out tonight, gunshow FTW

lol, this. I've been at the gym on a Saturday evening before and had one repeat offender walk in and literally do nothing but bicep curls on the cables using the rope handle, flex in the mirror, and walk out. I was speechless.

We have a monolift now Simon, but we simply use it as a squat rack most of the time, walking the squat out, before a comp like Nats or Worlds, where we have to use it, we start practicing with someone operating the gate.

If your going to compete at National and Worlds level, you better used to one

Yeah when I used Scotts one like it was meant to be used, it took a while to get my foot position right . After only ever walking the weight out and then getting the feet set, then breath and squat, it was very awkward to get under the bar in the spot you want to squat in and already be holding your breath etc. It is better though once you get the position right.

Much easier to get a huge deep breath in before unracking than with the weight already on.

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