Isaac Yao
Responsibilities
My responsibilities included a wide variety of coaching and training at The Athletic Club of Ames. I helped conduct personal and athletic training sessions, leading warm-ups, cool-downs, and assisted with strength and conditioning programs. The population of clients ranges included older adults, high school athletes, and collegiate athletes. I helped demonstrate exercises, corrected lifting techniques, monitored workout intensities, and ensured overall safety of all athletes at the facility.
Accomplishments
My greatest accomplishment was having the opportunity to work with football athletes preparing for their NFL Pro Days. One athlete in particular, Tyler Perkins, was one of the most successful punters in Iowa State Football history. Alongside Coach Ben Durbin, we assisted in building his strength and power development, mobility, and proper movement preparation multiple times per week leading up to his Pro Day. Seeing him perform successfully at the Iowa State Pro Day and eventually earning an invitation to the Jacksonville Jaguars camp was extremely rewarding.
Learning experience
One of the greatest lessons I learned was the importance of adapting coaching styles and programming to fit the individual client or athlete. Most of the my training background was centered around my own performance and strength goals so being able to work with all these different populations really helped me become mroe flexible with my coaching while also improving on my communication and patience.
What advice would you give?
My advice for future students is to take advantage of every hands-on opportunity. The classroom setting is a good foundation, but the real experiences and learning comes from doing the work. I definitely felt the classroom lectures were beneficial to grasping concepts of fitness, but actually working with clients and athletes has just tied everything together. I do not believe that building good communication and professional skills can be taught in a lecture hall so getting out there and doing more hands-on work is the best practice.