To be certified or not?
There are so many organizations offering certifications for personal training, that it gets to be overkill. Does having a certification guarantee you’ll be successful and make the kind of income you desire? I don’t think so. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs in our country barely have a high school education, and some even dropped out.
Now I’m not advocating skipping a degree or certification, but I do want to play devils advocate. To be a Golf Fitness Professional, you should have a college degree, several years experience in the field, whether it be in a club setting or as an independent trainer.
As I mentioned in a previous article, you must have a clear understanding of golf swing mechanics, as well as be able to administer a golf-specific fitness evaluation to determine limitations and starting point of the clients program. This is critical! Taking a golfer “off the street” and training them is wrong! Do NOT do this! You MUST evaluate them first.
There are many very good instruction books available, and in a future article I’ll mention a few. But just know you need to acquire golf swing knowledge to have success in this specific niche of fitness. If you want to take the next step and get a certification, just type in golf fitness certification in Google and you’ll find a few.
The bottom line will be how effectively you can communicate your knowledge onto the golfing client and have them understand it and be motivated to trust it. Golfers are very fickle. They still think that lifting weights will hurt their swing. You must educate them with valid information as to why and how it will not only not hurt their swing, but in fact greatly enhance it!
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