A Sporting Chance: Options For A Career In The Sporting Industry

With the athletes that have taken part in the Olympic and Paralympic Games, it will inspire generations to take up sports, whether as a hobby or as a career and life choice. Have you ever thought about taking up a sporting career, but you feel don’t have the necessary skills? There are ways to work in the sporting field without needing to be eight foot tall or run faster than the wind. Have a look at the following, and see what interesting and unusual job choices are available to you.

 

Physical Therapist

Physical therapists help patients to manage their pain and recover from sickness, injuries, and surgeries through rehabilitation methods like reflexology.

Sports physical therapists provide care to athletes who are recovering from injuries or illness. The job consists of diagnosing the patient, implementing a treatment plan, and to get their body working right again. They work with a staff of nurses and others who may oversee the treatments you assign to the patient. Similar to obtaining a doctorate, you need to train for years to get the right qualifications.
 

Fitness Instructor

This is a very popular choice of career. Fitness instructors train, coach and motivate their customers/clients to become physically fit. This is done through personal training, or running a class. Doing this you will need to have, apart from a passion for fitness, a qualification in personal training. Doing this as a sideline to your regular job will pay lucratively, and will be the best way to keep you in shape.
 

Coach

Being a coach for athletes and sportsmen is more than just being motivational, it is being a mentor, leader and best friend in one. Regardless of the choice of sport, whether coaching someone to a successful golf career or being the next Mr Universe, every sport needs its motivators. You don’t need to be an outstanding athlete to be a coach, there are some other skill set that you must have to be good at coaching other than knowing the game thoroughly and being passionate about it. To be a successful coach, you need to be good at motivating people, good at identifying athlete’s skills and strong points and most of all have a strong drive to guide your team or person to winning. But, as any profession it is good to start small and also learn by trial and error.  A way to get into a career in coaching is to start as a coach’s assistant. But leading that one person to victory is a long road, so if you want to be a coach, make sure you are in it for the long haul.

 

Sports Writer or Photographer

If you hail from a media background, or are creative with your words, being a writer is a great way to communicate your passion for the sport. You can work in newspapers, or magazines, documenting a game. Or you could be a sports photographer if you have a keen eye. Great sports photography is not easy, as you have to capture the action live and not put your camera down for a second. But having a passion for photography will serve you well in this arena.

There are some positions that universities and colleges offer on Athletic communications who can implement, administer and evaluate sports communications programs for the college or university. Your job may include student and game day worker supervision, preparing press materials, photography and sports information sharing on social media or press during the events. Sounds interesting! Look up some job descriptions in this field of expertise and hone your skills on what the educational institutes need. in a year or two you’ll have a strong portfolio to apply to for such a job if you have the enthusiasm.
 

Sports Psychologist

An unusual choice of career, but a very rewarding one. Being a sports psychologist involves working with an athlete to overcome certain issues they may be having. These could be mental or physical problems. In doing this, they are able to play their chosen sport successfully. Choosing this career would be a good springboard from counselling or therapy. This is because the challenges are similar to helping people overcome anxieties and similar issues such as phobias.

Such a job also opens up avenues for you to be a part of the military! If you have always admired the armed forces and wanted to be a part of your nations’ forces, you can consider a career  as a sporst psychologist to train military forces personnel. You job may include goal-setting, performance profiling, visualization, and performance planning and work on psychosocial, mental, and emotional improvement of the personnel.