Todd Riedel

Running a Successful Low Budget Strength & Conditioning Program

By: Todd Riedel

Congratulations you have dominated the interview process and received the position you’ve always wanted. It’s a position with the title of director of strength and conditioning at a respectable institution.  Your responsibilities are to train 18 teams 367 athletes and you have a total department operating budget of 40k a year including you and your assistant’s salary. So basically you have no budget.

If you are anything like me, you are going to do the best you can with this opportunity.  The first thing you do is commit your life to this position and put everything else second sacrificing your next few years to further your carrier. You most likely just received your masters, got your USAW & CSCS, completed your second internship, your second paid internship, your first full-time paid position moving your family all over America by the way and recently took this low budget director position. So you are in way too deep to back out now.

It’s your first day on the job and you walk into this amazing facility that you will call home for the next few years.  The first thing you notice is you have platforms, weights, and open space.  Now what are you going to do next?

From personal experience, in no particular order, here are a few tips to making your low budget situation work!

1. Meetings – Make sure you have meetings with your supervisor and sport coaches as soon as you get in place.  These meeting should outline everything that is expected of you.  If your job is to train every team on campus, do it, if your job is to be a bus driver and drive the trainers to the football game, drive the bus, if you have to set up the sidelines and load and unload the equipment truck, do that as well. At times you may feel a little taken advantage of but it is what it is. It’s a low budget program.  Most importantly try to make a connection with all the staff members at your school.  Most likely it is a stepping stone position for them as well and maybe one day you can help them or they can help you get that dream job.
2. Network and ask questions – You probably are not the only one in America who has been in a situation like this so network and ask questions. You will not learn unless you ask questions.  I have never found a bad networking experience and now that you hold the title of Director you will actually have people call you back and respond to your calls.  Maybe it’s because you’re not looking for a job and you can hold a meaningful conversation.
3. Be Pro-active – You are certainly not the only under budgeted program in America and you are competing against schools with way more resources.  Don’t sit back and feel sorry for yourself.  Take charge of your situation and hit the floor running.  The first decision you must make is can you handle the work load or will you need help?  I have met coaches who want to be a one man show and others like myself who would rather take the team approach and get some help.  I feel having a staff is much more efficient.  Having a staff is great but you can come across some bad apples that can cause you some unwanted negative attention.  So, please be very careful when making intern hires and make sure they understand what is expected.
4. Continue your own education – During this time you will be really over loaded with teams, responsibilities and projects. However, you can’t forget about your own personal growth and education.  Try to read everything you can get your hands on including articles about training, programming, nutrition, mobility, injury prevention, rehab and motivation.  If you are not in meetings, coaching or cleaning you should be working on your own personal development.
5. This will be a sacrifice – Running a successful low budget program will take tons of time and you better be prepared for it.   This is a position that will be at times very over whelming.  With a position like this you must check your ego at the door because you will be the guy who is cleaning the glass, wiping down the benches, sweeping the floors, and even cleaning up the vomit in the bathrooms. So be ready and willing to do anything.
6. Try to take it to the next level – In this type of position you can be just another strength coach or you can be a difference maker.  Choose to be the difference maker.  Treat this program like it is a large school and go out and recruit a staff of interns and build a staff around you. When establishing a staff, understand there are great coaches out there who aren’t yet established and need a school like yours to build up their resume.  This can be a win-win for both parties.  You need them and they need you.
7. Present yourself as a professional – Be professional and act as if you are running the huge athletic program and treat every situation as if it is going to affect 400 people because it does. This position is a big deal and you can brand yourself for life.  You can be known as the guy who won numerous championships with a low budget program or the guy who burnt bridges and got everyone hurt in the process. Remember you are one of many coaches who have gone through that program and try to be the coach who made the biggest impact and earn the respect of the coaches you work for.
8. Be a work horse – This statement is pretty much self-explanatory and it applies to the little things that we have to do as coaches. Don’t just sit around and wait for the next team to break the plane of the door.  Get up and do something productive.  You can always rest when you sleep.  Use your open times to be prepared for anything when that next team comes in for their session.  You never know when that coach may throw a wrench into things or an unexpected circumstance may arise. Remember, the biggest thing you are trying to teach your athletes is you must outwork people in life to be successful. Therefore, you must be a role model of that behavior.
9. Don’t be annoying in the eyes of administration – Most likely administration knows you are a one legged man in an ass kicking contest and your chances of success is not great, but little do they know you are a fighter and you will take this opportunity and run with it.  I suggest to be constantly thinking of innovative ideas and present them to administration with the understanding you are going to be doing all the leg work.
10. The grind – This is going to be a very difficult situation and the odds are not on your side.  You’re going to be waking up at 4am a few days a week and wondering why you took on this project.  Your often going to ask yourself is it normal to work 70+ hours a week and still be strapped for cash.  Other times you will experience a splitting headache, sore knees, sore feet, sore back, and you taste blood in the back of your throat from yelling.  This could be one of two things.  It could be a wakeup call saying you are not fit for the profession or it will be a reminder of what every great coach has gone through to get to where they are.  I always think of guys such as Craig Fitzgerald, Duane Hall, Jeff Dillman and Ron McKeefery who have gone through the struggles of the profession and who are now on top.
11. Take advantage of your resources – If you’re working in one of the nicest facilities in America or one of the worst at least you are working.  Take advantage of your work place and work out from time to time and stay in shape.  Athletes will always listen to a guy who walks the walk and lives the life of a champion.  I always like to be able to say to the athletes, “Yeah I know the workout is brutal because I just did it. Now it’s your turn.”  Also, make sure your staff is able to perform every movement you are asking your athletes to perform.  It always impresses them to see a coach dominate the movements better than they can.
12. Be friendly with the staff – Attempt to befriend everyone in your athletic department.  Unfortunately, you can’t get along with everyone on earth but you can at least try. Having a good rapport with coaches can help you tremendously.  When you enter your coaches circle of trust they are less likely to give you a hard time.  They may crack on you a bit but that’s usually a good thing.  That friendship could also pay off when it comes to needing help with a project or needing a reference.
13.  Remain humble – Understand if you grind and give everything you have to this program you will make a positive impact on the entire department.  This noticeable impact will become blaring obvious when athletes are healthy, strong, confident, and wins are coming out of the woodwork.  During this time please remain humble to not offend those sport coaches around you.  Everyone on earth may see the positive changes made in the department but always give the kids and the sport coaches all the credit.
14. Focus on becoming a better coach – Coaching isn’t only about what happens on the floor.  It isn’t only yelling motivational phrases and blowing a whistle.  It’s all of those things and more.  It’s about living the life of a champion, having withitness, being educated, prepared for anything, being organized, relating to people, willing to change for the better and being a great motivator.  So, don’t be afraid to give yourself a little attention to make this all possible.  If you aren’t able to help yourself, then you will never be able to help someone else.
15. Be a fund raiser – If your situation is anything like ours here you do not have a budget for ball, bands, or anything you may need to run a strength program.  We also do not have a budget for supplements or anything related to nutrition.  Therefore, you must be a fund raiser to compete at this level.  You must look at your unique situation and see what you can do to raise money.  Things you can do are hold camps, clinics or approach companies to see if you can receive funding or sponsorships.  Either way you have to be creative to get the little things it takes to run a successful program.  Most schools attempt to have the sport coaches buy a few things.  The most important thing to remember when stepping into a new position is to make shuttle changes.  If you hold camps or clinics make sure you are not embarking on other well established camps to avoid stealing other coach’s thunder.  You must innovative and find your own unique twist and roll with it.
16. Enjoy the process – Building a program is truly a process.  You are given something minimal and you are expected to do great things with it.  Therefore, take ownership in the program and process and it will be quite rewarding. Get after it!