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8. How can I get BFS Certified? Click here for a Direct Link to request more information. You’ll need to sponsor or attend a BFS Clinic. With the help of their BFS Certifications, coaches often receive raises or job offers. Call us at 1-800-628-9737 to schedule a clinic at your school or to find out where you can go to attend another school’s clinic check our Web Calendar.

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9. My son is in Junior High School and has never lifted weights. Do you have a beginning program?

Yes, we call it the Readiness Program. This program focuses on perfect technique. Whether you decide to use our program or stay with your own, you should focus primarily on perfect technique. The strength will follow. Just remember not to allow even the slightest variation from perfect technique.

The Readiness Program also has graduation requirements to let you know when the athlete is ready for our high school program. Some kids develop faster than others, and these graduation requirements are a great standard to go by. To learn the program you will need the Readiness Program Video and a Readiness Program Record Book. The video will help you know what potential problems to look for and will also explain how to coach all the lifts.

You may also want to consider purchasing our 15-pound Aluma-Lite Olympic Style Bar, our 5-pound Training Plates, our 10-pound Bumper Plates and our Youth Hex Bar. Our 15-pound Olympic Bars with the 5-pound training plates are perfect for teaching the power clean.

We bring a set of these to every one of our clinics, and each time the coaches are sold on it. It makes teaching the power clean and power snatch a snap. The Hex Bar is great to have because it takes all of the risk out of doing deadlifts. Even beginning lifters can deadlift with perfect technique with the Hex Bar.

10. I am the Athletic Director at Northern Valley Regional High School, Old Tappan. I need the definitive answer to this question; Do your weightroom supervisors in the state of New Jersey have to be certified in strength and conditioning? Is this a law? Please advise. A lot of New Jersey Athletic Directors are very confused and do not know this ruling. Thanks for your help.

Do your weightroom supervisors in the state of New Jersey have to be certified in strength and conditioning? As far as I know, there is no law that says a weightroom supervisor at the high school level has to be certified in strength and conditioning. So the simple answer to that question may be "No."

At the high school level, coaches usually teach classes, and as such would be certified teachers or working under the direct supervision of a certified teacher. Further, many sport coaches at the high school level (especially at smaller schools) also administer and supervisor all the strength and conditioning programs for their athletes. At larger schools, there are some coaches who handle the strength and conditioning of all athletes, but this is rare.

At the college level, as far as I know there are no laws governing the educational requirements of strength coaches. As long as a strength coach can produce results, he or she can gain employment. (BFS Editor in Chief Kim Goss was a strength coach for the US Air Force Academy for eight years, and at the time his college degree was in journalism, not physical education.) Although most college coaches delegate strength and conditioning to their strength coaches, often they will have some influence on the training protocol.

Why get certified? First, let me refer you to a video clip that we have online at www.maxcast.com/BFScertification. Dr. Rabinoff is a full professor at Metro State College in Denver, Colorado, who has served as an expert witness in over 300 lawsuits. In this video clip he discusses the reasons why he believes certification is important.

Our position at BFS is that certification provides evidence that an individual was qualified to perform what he or she says they are qualified to do, and that their instruction follows the standards of care in the industry. And one way that we ensure this is by having our certification clinics provide hands-on instruction, plus an assessment of the coach in which they not only have to be able to properly demonstrate key exercises, but also that they can coach them. It’s not simply a multiple-choice or true/false exam as you’ll find with many certifications. Says Dr. Rabinoff: "I would prefer that any certifications involving strength and conditioning have a practical portion to ensure that coaches know how to teach these activities. I haven’t seen any of the certifications being questioned in a court of law as to their validity, but lawyers are becoming very sophisticated. So although it hasn’t happened, it doesn’t mean tt it won’t in the future."

Being certified will not guarantee that you will never be sued, as people are always going to blame other people for their problems. But, with a BFS certification you will minimize the chances of being involved in a lawsuit, and we believe it will improve your chances of winning if you get sued.

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