5 Ways to Make a Great Living as a Certified Sports Psychology Coach

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business ideas for sports psychology coaches

How to Make a More Money as a Certified Sports Psychology Coach

It’s simple.

All athletes want and need more mental toughness. All fitness enthusiasts benefit from better focus, reduced distraction, and improve motivation.  Anyone who participates in sports, of any kind, benefits from improved concentration and determination.  Sports psychology coaching addresses all these issues.

You have many options for making a substantial income helping people improve performance through better mental mastery. Here are five options that can be mixed and matched in any way you like.

1. Become a Sports Psychology Coach for a Sports Club or Team

This can apply to numerous sports or activities.  For this example, we will talk about a cycling club/team.  Just recently, we became aware that a local cycling club (400 members) selected a massage therapist as their “preferred” bodyworker for their members.  Even with a fraction of the members getting a massage on a weekly basis is a huge annual income for that career.  The same can be true for mental skills training.  You can work with the team/club in any of the following ways:  You can offer weekly group coaching. You can offer special programming in a one-on-one format, and you can speak at the club’s monthly meetings. You can get hired on a retainer for the club and be available a given number of hours or days per month for a set fee. 

2. Work with Younger Athletes Wanting a College Scholarship

In many cases, parents of gifted athletes have spent many thousands of dollars on strength, conditioning, and nutrition coaches for their kids to ensure they get into their preferred university on an athletic scholarship.  It happens all the time. These same parents will want to hire you to help their kids master mental toughness, focus, distraction control, pain management, leadership, self-talk, and more. You can work with college-bound athletes across the country (or the world) via Zoom or Skype.  Because younger people are so engaged with their devices, this is an easy way to get them to commit to the process.  And, it also dramatically increases the number of people you can coach because you’ve eliminated geographic limitations. We do have a successful graduate of the Spencer Institute Sports Psychology Coaching program who builds a “coaching office” in her home. It’s comfortable and convenient. She works with local high school and college athletes. She’s home for her own kids more often and saves time and money by not traveling.  She still offers some coaching via Zoom to athletes outside her local area. She is in control of her schedule. She’s able to be a “present” mother. She makes a good living doing what she loves.  You can do the exact same thing.  There are millions of youth athletes (in wide-ranging sports) throughout the U.S. and globally.  If you worked with just 00.001% of these athletes, you’d have more clients than you could handle.  Of course, you can also offer group programs for youth athletes using group calls, apps, and online communities.  

3. Become a Life Coach Who Wants to Work With Athletes

In general, life coaches help clients with life goals, motivation, clarity, career advancement, productivity, communication, and similar aspects of life.  However, it’s also possible to be a life strategies coach who specializes in working with athletes.  In general, athletes are highly motivated, coachable, and willing to put in the work.  This certainly makes your job as a coach easier.  Combining two complementary skillsets makes you more qualified and your clients will get even better results. As with other coaching niches, you can work with groups, individuals, clubs, etc.  You can build a thriving coaching practice online, in-person, or offer various hybrid models.  So, how would you offer help using these two skills?  Well, it depends on the person and the timing. If a sports event is pending, the client’s focus is shifting.  So, they would need to master emotions related to confidence (or lack of confidence).  They may also be struggling to balance training and family.  They may be overwhelmed, overtrained, and underslept.  They may need to learn new skills for gaining family support for their challenging schedule. You may even help them determine what is most important as an “aging athlete” who still enjoys competition, knows they are “going pro” and yet “want it all…”  They want to be fit, athletic, successful, and experience love.  Sure, it can be done.  And, you can be the key to ensuring their success and happiness. 

4. Become a Head Coach of a Sports Team

Of course, you will want to have passion and experience for this sport of choice (football, baseball, MMA, soccer, tennis, etc). You cannot JUST have sports psychology training and not have other high-level skills in the sport itself.  Coaching a sports team is complex.  However, if you coach a team (or club) now, and you add a credential in sports psychology, you will be a far more effective coach and your team will thrive.

5. Become a Sports Injury Recovery Specialist

Yes, that is a “thing”. Any athlete has a significant response to injury.  It can depend on the severity, frequency, duration, proximity in time to an important event, and amount of pain. Worrying about re-injury can limit performance, cause biomechanical imbalances, and cause secondary injuries from compensation.  Complimentary certifications for this career path are the NESTA Sports Injury Specialist Certification and the Biomechanics Specialist Certification. As you can imagine, you won’t have a huge amount of competition in this very special niche, yet many people need your help.  Essentially, 100% of athletes have some type of injury in their career regardless of the sport. 

Getting Started

The above five career choices for sports psychology coaches are just the beginning.  You can do any of these, and more.  You can also combine any niches to help even more clients. 

Spencer Institute and NESTA have been helping people just like you since 1992. We’re honored to guide you each step of the way with your successful career.  Are you ready to get started? Enroll in your favorite programs now.  If you have more questions first, contact us now. 

That’s it for now.

Take action!

NESTA | Spencer Institute

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