In sports performance, everyone wants to be an expert. Working with athletes is the “sexy” thing to do. Personal trainers and strength coaches want to train them, reporters want to write or comment about them, and healthcare professionals want to fix them. As everyone is well aware, a profession in anything related to sports is one of the most sought-after careers in today’s society. Regardless of what industry you work in, just being able to say your job has an association with a professional or NCAA team makes it seem to have higher importance. The notion, “If it's good enough for an elite athlete, it’s good enough for you,” seems to validate one’s quality as a professional or product. If you use the same deodorant as Shaq, you must have the best deodorant on the market, because only the best deodorant is good enough for Shaq’s armpits.
There is also a perception that in order to be seen as intelligent or an expert, you have to beat your drum a bit. That you need to come up with a new method of healing or training athletes or dismantle another individual or method to validate yourself. This seems to just lead to a lot of confusion and misinformation in the sports performance industry (whether it be health care professionals, strength coaches, or product sales). A lot of this reinvention and misinformation comes from individuals from my age group of the market (young professionals who are fresh out of school or have been in their industry for fewer than five years). Perhaps this is a new phenomenon, or perhaps I perceive it this way because I am constantly surrounded by it as a member of this younger group of professionals in sports performance. Either way, there couldn’t be a worse way for how to build your expertise than this method. The real answer is that sometimes you need to shut up, take a seat in the back of the room, and learn before you are ready to lead from the front.
1. Surround Yourself with, and Learn From, Other Experts
2. Evolve with Your Knowledge
3. You Have Not Arrived -- And You Probably Never Will
The biggest lesson young professionals can learn is to understand and respect the value of time and how to use it to your advantage. To understand this topic further, visit EliteFTS.com to read Dr. Detweiler's full article, Learn From the Back to Lead From the Front.