Sean Finnegan

Responsibilities

Responsibilities during this internship were quite beneficial to a variety of careers. Interns will work with a variety of different athletes from different sports. Skill levels differ highly which is good to gain experience with higher level athletes, versus lower-level athletes. This internship also provides experiences with training individual athletes along with larger groups of athletes. More responsibilities include leading exercise for strength and conditioning, speed agility, and a variety of other settings. One cool responsibility is putting athletes through a series of different tests (40-yard dash, flying 10's, vertical jump, broad jump, and pro agility). This internship also provides opportunities to further the skill of creating, and then running different programs.

Accomplishments

I would say my greatest accomplishment during this internship experience was gaining the ability to run athletes through effective warmups, speed/agility training, weight room programs, and cool downs all in one session. I am much more confident in my ability to run wide varieties of athletes through complete workout sessions. Along the way I picked up a lot of little details, but overall, it felt great to lead athletes through effective sessions all the way through by myself.

Learning experience

I learned many great lessons during my internship experience. To start, I learned that you must have a reason for doing certain exercises. It is very important when you start your career to always have a purpose for each exercise you have your athlete/client do. Another lesson I learned is the best way to learn, is to go out there and give it a try. Most of the time it will be good for new employees to be "thrown to the fire" so to speak. I found that when I was put in an uncomfortable position, where I had to figure things out myself, that that was where I learned the most. Lastly, always come prepared. If you show up to a session or work not prepared for the day, most of the time that day will be useless. Coming with a plan ensures that your clients/athletes will get the most out of their time with you.

What advice would you give?

One large piece of advice I would give to students in my major is to keep up with the knowledge that they are learning in school. More often than not, right when your internship begins, you will need to use those skills you just learned in school for your job/career. Another piece of advice is to always try to make new relationships. Whether it be with your co-workers, or your clients. Making new relationships and being personable in this line of work is essential. The last piece of advice I would give is to always be eager to learn new things. Our major is an always changing major. New research is being done every single day. So, I would recommend always staying up to date with new information so that you do not fall behind.