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What is the best academic route to follow if I am trying to decide on a career as either an athletic trainer, personal trainer, or possibly as a coach? #Spring25

I have always been involved in sports. I played volleyball in high school and will be playing beach volleyball in college. I would like a career where I am still involved in sports in some way. I would love to help young people achieve their athletic dreams. I have been inspired by so many trainers and coaches along the way and would love to share that love of sports.

sports athletics sports-medicine trainer athletic-trainer personal-trainer volleyball
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Jane’s Answer

Hello Blakely,
Your desire to be a personal trainer is commendable because Personal Training is a fast-growing profession in the United States.
Employment opportunities are available in diverse settings, across diverse populations.
The Personal Trainer is a profession well suited to enhance the quality of life in our aging and increasingly sedentary population
However, you will require:
The ACSM Certified Personal Trainer (ACSM-CPT®), possessing a high school diploma or GED at minimum, works primarily with apparently healthy individuals to enhance fitness.

The ACSM-CPT® also works with individuals who have stable health challenges and are cleared to exercise independently.

The ACSM-CPT® conducts basic preparticipation health screenings, lifestyle inventories, and fitness assessments for health and skill-related components of fitness.

The ACSM-CPT® assesses behavior adaptation readiness and offers guidance in the development of realistic, client-centered goals related to health, fitness and wellness.

The ACSM-CPT® develops and administers programs designed to promote optimal cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and body composition, as well as agility, balance, coordination, power, speed, and reaction time.

The ACSM-CPT® facilitates client motivation and adherence and honors client confidentiality.

The ACSM-CPT® adheres to all agreed-upon terms with each client and stays within the scope of practice of the ACSM-CPT® credential.

The prudent ACSM-CPT® makes referrals to appropriate allied health professionals when clients’ needs exceed the ACSM-CPT’s scope of practice.

I hope this helps.
All the best
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Zen’s Answer

Being an athletic trainer is going to have the highest academic standards (you’ll have to have a master’s degree). So look into some programs and see what the prerequisites are. In general and exercise science or kinesiology degree will get you in the right track.

If you are leaning toward coach, it would be helpful to have a teaching certification. As almost all coaching positions in high/middle school will require you to also be a teacher.

If you are leaning toward personal trainer you technically don’t need a degree although a degree in exercise science/kinesiology would be very useful
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Alex’s Answer

Hi Blakely! As a fellow athlete I totally get the desire to remain close to sports. Some of the best ways to do that academically would be trying to find schools with good programs for the following majors:

- Sports Management
- Exercise Science
- Kinesiology
- Sports Medicine
- Athletic Training
- Physical Therapy
- Communications (with a focus on sports)
- Business Administrations (with a focus on sports)

There's more content online around each of these tracks so do some research and see what feels like it may be the best fit for you. There are sooo many ways to be involved in sports so make sure you align it with the aspects of the major/career that most speak to you.

Best of luck!
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Chris’s Answer

Hello! Professor of Exercise Science and Athletic Training here...

All three of those options are excellent career choices. Unfortunately, I cannot help you decide what you want to do for a career. You are going to have to do some soul searching to decide what is right for you. But, I can offer the following:

All three have the same basic undergraduate curriculum. That is, you can choose a major in Exercise Science and go the route of Personal Trainer or Sport Coach as the Exercise Science pathway will generally have a concentration of courses in either personal training, sport coach, strength and conditioning specialist, biomechanist, etc. And, the Exercise Science major will lay a terrific foundation for a master's degree in athletic training. Zen's answer on this is spot on, although I may disagree with him about a teaching major. An English degree has nothing to do with volleyball. But, again, he's right that most high school coaches are teachers, but it is not required (at least in Kentucky).

I have laid out a few links below that are specific to the university in which I teach. Check them out and if you decide to come out here, let me know and I may be able to assist.

Chris recommends the following next steps:

https://www.nku.edu/academics/chhs/programs/undergraduate/exercisescience.html
https://nku.edu/academics/chhs/programs/graduate/athletictraining.html
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Holly’s Answer

To pursue a career as an Athletic Trainer, one must obtain a master’s degree from an accredited university and successfully pass the board certification exam administered by the Board of Certification for the Athletic Trainer (https://bocatc.org/). In addition, state licensure through the appropriate department of professional regulation is required.

Holly recommends the following next steps:

Visit https://bocatc.org/ for more information.
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