18 months ago I signed up for a Level 4 Strength and Conditioning course. A burst of enthusiasm as lifting stuff and training is my passion and hobby – but not something I ever saw as a career. I saw this as a personal development process.
The weekend practicals (2 weekends) were time consuming – but I went. Then I lost the will to complete to course. When lockdown arrived I thought this would be a good time to finally get this course completed. The task was – a case study, a practical examination and a theory test. All in all a lot of work.
The case study was on a lady cricketer – we trained as lockdown eased and we could use my garden and personal gym in the garage. New to the concepts of strength training I was able to achieve an increase in her personal fitness – she went on to join a local functional fitness gym in order to enjoy more lifting and fitness fun.
The practical assessment was booked for September – and cancelled at the last minute due to the ongoing situation. The option of submitting a video of me coaching the snatch lift and an agility session for a rugby player was offered. Less scarey than having someone watch directly I supose – but a completely different skill set – presenting, videoing (the tusty tripod). Anyway – I did that.
So far so good – both passed.
Today I attempted the online exam. I had been told the questions were based around the information in the summary video. So I watched that. I wrote notes, attempted to get my head around it – and with butterflies in my tummy, made a start – 60 minutes to do 30 multiple choice questions. How hard could it be?
Actually – quite hard! The questions took a while to work out what they were asking. The answers took a while to juggle in my head. But I got there – and with 4 minutes to go, submitted.
I don’t know the final mark – but a pass is a pass. And now I’m a qualified (Level 4) Strength and Conditioning Coach.
My 2020 Story 