Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008 - (Page 18)

Capturing the athletic market Bored with the mainstream clientele of 78 million baby boomers, many trainers are looking for something more in their training profession to challenge them. A new wave of training specialist has surfaced over the past few years, and trainers across the country are looking to step into the arena of training athletes. The titles “Sport-Speciﬁc Training Specialist” or “Trainer of Elite Athletes” are headings we see now attached to many trainers’ names. Is the sport training world a specialized arena that only a few can expand their business to — or is the market open territory for everyone? Trainers who are looking to get into the athletic market need to understand that there is a difference between marketing and building a business to train youth, high school, college and elite athletes and establishing a training business for general clients. PRIZE By Mark Roozen TOP THE Be Speciﬁc A person looking to improve their overall ﬁtness and health can look to a variety of trainers with a variety of backgrounds. In the athletic market, many times an athlete, a parent of an athlete or the support team that deals with athletes are looking for a trainer that has a specialized niche (e.g. a speed training coach) or a trainer that has a specialty in a certain sport (e.g. a performance coach that works with soccer players). When dealing with a person looking to improve their ﬁtness or overall health, many times setting up a general structured program over a long period will help them see improvements. With athletes, speciﬁc training goals need to be established in the short period of preparation time that the athlete has. In some cases, a trainer may only have a few weeks to: 1. Build a bond with their athletic client 2. Work on speciﬁc areas that the athlete wants to improve on 3. Pinpoint the areas that need to be worked on during training sessions 4. Understand periodization and the phase and cycle that the athlete is in during their workouts with the trainer A huge key here is to help build trust, a bond and credibility with athletes. Many times “performance specialists” aren’t professional trainers at all but past athletes who feel they have an understanding of the sport and how to train others that are doing sports. This isn’t to say that past athletes who have taken the time to develop their craft and become professional trainers cannot be great trainers. Just because someone has competed in an activity, however, doesn’t make them an expert to give out training advice. I’ve worked on my car engine before — that doesn’t make me a mechanic! To build the credibility in the athletic ﬁeld, you need to ﬁnd athletes that you can work with. The key is to oﬀer them something they cannot refuse. Offer Complimentary Sessions A great starting point to train athletes is to oﬀer your services to some of the top athletes in your area — high school, college or even the elite person that may live in your community — for free. Once you have one of the top athletes coming to you for training, you also set up an agreement that you can use their image (if it follows regulating agencies guidelines), testimonials and name as marketing. An example of this was when I set up a “Six Week Vertical Jump Improvement Program.” I had one of the top volleyball players in the area come in for a free six-week program. Word got out that she participated in a program at our facility that helped her increase her vertical jump, and she was signed by a Division program. Over the next month, more than 16 young ladies also signed up for the program, and that number doubled the following year. By offering a free session to one top athlete, we positioned ourselves as a facility that trained volleyball players and helped improve a speciﬁc area in training. From 18 OCTOBER2008 · WWW.FIT-PRO.COM http://WWW.FIT-PRO.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008

Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008 Contents Letter from the Editor, Writers Current Controversies Combating with Obesity Pilates and Yoga for Athletes New! The Balancing Act The Top Prize Building a Base of Special Populations Datebook The Success Image The Anatomy of a Fitness Assessment Branding Training Ruts Product Profile New on the Market

Personal Fitness Professional - October 2008

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