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This is where I helped Aidan with the personal training sessions.

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Conclusion

In conclusion Aidan has said that I had performed well throughout my placement but there are a few areas I can improve on but also stated this will come with more experience within these jobs. Anytime Aidan needed me I was there and he said I performed well in the coaching sessions and in the personal training sessions. Aidan mentioned that he could see me grow in confidence throughout each session as I got used to do these jobs and seemed comfortable when even under pressure when I had to adapt a few sessions to meet a client’s needs. Even in the personal training session he noticed me trying different exercises with clients which worked the same muscles where the client was looking to develop so this meant I was mixing the program up for the client. Overall I felt my time with Aidan has given me lots of experience and confidence to go on a become a coach or maybe even a personal trainer. I was happy with helping Aidan and for him to let me take some of the sessions show how much faith he had in me to go on a do a good job. Hopefully in the future I can become a coach or personal trainer.

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Promoting business

Aidan had said especially nowadays for the personal trainer it’s important to promote yourself as much as possible. He said with the increase of personal trainers over the past few years he has to do as much as possible to get himself out there and attract as many clients as possible. He does this through the impact of social media, posters in the local shops and word of mouth. He needs to build up a certain amount of clients to make a profit and a full time job. This was another side of the job that I can learn from if I wanted to be a personal trainer, get yourself out there as much as possible so you can get as many clients as possible.

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Creating sessions

I asked Aidan what it takes to create sessions for both the coaching and personal training. He said it does take time but you need to make sure you include the right exercises for the groups or clients so that they are working hard throughout the sessions and that they are also developing themselves every time the participate in a session. Aidan stated you need to consider where the group in the coaching session needs to improve their skills so he would design a program around that so they can work on their weaknesses and develop them into strengths. For a client he has to understand what the clients wants from the program so he has to make a program suited to the client but also sometimes he stated you might have to adapt the programme throughout the session and this might be if the client is struggling so you alter the program so the client can strive and work towards their goals. Aidan said the FITT principle is key to designing programs for clients so it is also important you know the limits that you can push the client. So in conclusion Aidan said its important to keep an eye on where the group or the clients are struggling in their sessions so he can design different programs in future to work on them. For me this was a big learning curve especially when Aidan said that you need to be adaptable even in the middle of the session so the client can reach realistic targets so this was for useful for me.

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Personal training

I had asked Aidan a few times throughout the placement what made a good personal trainer. Aidan first of all stated it is important to have an interest in health and fitness as he stated there were too many personal trainers out there that hadn’t a real interest in health and fitness and this showed in their programs they were creating for clients. Aidan had said it was vital to have a good knowledge of the body during exercise and being able to create a program for the client’s needs. Nutritional advice is also important to have for a personal trainer as from time to time you will need to offer nutritional advice to clients. You will need to be able to teach and correct the techniques for each exercise on the program. People skills is vital for a personal trainer as you are dealing with different people throughout the day every day you work. Aidan said you need to be positive and build a relationship with your clients to help them though their programs. Aidan talked about trying to build a good name for yourself in other words a good reputation for yourself so you can attract more clients. Aidan also added you need to be confident so that you get your point across to clients or small groups. All in all, these are the main things involved to be a good personal trainer. Aidan said I had done well when helping the clients but I need to be a wee bit more confident so this is something I can work on for the future.

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Coaching

One of the many discussions I had with Aidan was on what make a good coach. Aidan had said it is a mixture of many things to be a good coach. He mentioned skills such as good communication, good organisational skills, approachable, fun, understandable, have patience, adaptable, enthusiastic and also someone who is trustworthy. You need to have good communication skills as you need to be able to communicate to the participants throughout the session. You have to be organised so you can have the session set up before the participants arrived and take them through the session easily because you can’t have the participants standing around as they will get bored easily and lose interest in the session. As a coach you have to be approachable and Aidan said this is very important and this is because if a participant has a problem they should be able to come you and talk without any fear or problems. This is especially important for when you are coaching children because as a coach you have to be as approachable as possible. Aidan stated as a coach you need to know how to have fun especially when coaching children as children can lose interest easily if they’re not enjoying the session so having fun has a big part to play for one of the many roles as a coach. Another important skill for coaches to have is being understandable and being able to listen to anyone who has a problem. Coaches have to be patient and Aidan stated this is vital as he has had his patience tested a few times so it is important to stay calm in certain situations. Aidan mentioned that if I was to be a coach I would have to be adaptable and a few times Aidan had to adapt his sessions to suit the needs of the clients so he said that you have to be ready for anything and be able to adapt. Coaches have to be enthusiastic so they can help the participants enjoy themselves and have a good time. Aidan mentioned one of the most important skills a coach so have is trust, it is vital that the team can trust a coach as they put full faith into the coach to help them reach their goals so important a coach can be trustworthy to help the team. In one of the sessions I had to be patient with one of the children who was misbehaving and Aidan said I handled that situation very well and got the child involved again with the group without any fuss. Aidan said for me to become a good coach I will have to work on a few of these but he mentioned I did perform well throughout the sessions as I was able to adapt and made sure the children had fun but also that I took the children through the sessions in a safe and effective manner which is important.

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Careers in sport

The purpose of this blog was to highlight the key aspects of my work experience adventure as I got to experience what it’s like to be a coach and also a personal trainer. For this assignment I had to do a sixty-hour work placement where I attended a local leisure centre where I observed Aidan Mc Cluskey who was a coach and a personal trainer. Here for the duration of the sixty hours I was going to be Aidan’s assistant. It gave me an insight to this line of work and also gave me valuable experience for the future. Aidan was a coach for the local leisure centre which runs a program around the local schools where he goes out and coaches Gaelic football to schoolchildren. When we were out coaching I got to watch Aidan and help him throughout the sessions. For the first few sessions I just helped Aidan set up the sessions and clean up after the sessions. After the coaching was over for the day I would have went and observed Aidan taking his clients through a personal training session. Here again I would have helped Aidan set up the sessions and cleaned up after the sessions. I had mentioned Aidan that I was a qualified level two fitness instructor and for the next few sessions he let me take a few warm ups and cool downs and also a few exercises throughout the sessions. He also eventually let me taking the coaching and personal training session towards the latter end of my placement which was a huge experience for me. I told Aidan after the first day that my main goal was to learn as much as possible as I was interested in becoming a coach so he agreed as the placement went on he would eventually let me take more and more sessions which resulted in me gaining more experience. I also stated that I would like to try and take more personal training sessions as I enjoyed observing Aidan in the first few sessions. The overall aim was to observe and help Aidan as much as possible while trying to learn and progress myself as much as possible.