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Budgeting as a Strength and Conditioning Coach...

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Marla Bonser KRS 419 10/24/20 Reflection Question #2: Budgeting as a Strength and Conditioning Coach A strength and conditioning coach has many roles as a part of the health care team. One of their most important responsibilities is to design a strength training program as well as monitor training processes. To do so the coach must use their extensive knowledge and understanding of the physiological demands of the sports they are responsible for. Each sport and its game require different physiological demands, this is essential to keep in mind when developing a strength program and monitoring training processes. The coach must also be fully aware of the scientific approach to sport’s technology. This allows the coach to enhance an athlete’s performance to the best of their ability. When monitoring the training process, managing fatigue, and approaching recovery effectively technology becomes crucial. Another responsibility the coach has is that they must carefully select and apply appropriate monitoring tools and software’s to decrease the risks that are associated with possible inappropriate designs of training programs. These mentioned responsibilities are just a fraction of their job scope. The key to managing each of these responsibilities and assuring that they are accomplished thoroughly with the correct supplies and equipment is developing and utilizing a budget plan. According to Management Strategies in Athletic Training, a budget “is a plan for coordination of resources and expenditures…also serves as a tool for estimating receipts and disbursements over a period of time” (Konin, 133). A budget has the ability to prevent resources going to waste and to predict the financial health of a sports medicine program. Although a

budget can be considered tedious and a continuous process it remains a useful tool used by everyone in the sports medicine unit. It requires prioritizing, planning, documenting, and evaluating to strategically and operationally plan out how the unit will function, accomplish its goals, and expend available resources over a period of time. With the aid of a well thought out budget plan using a model that is individualized, specifically for the goals and responsibilities of a strength and conditioning coach can make the biggest difference. There are six budgeting models: zero based, fixed, variable, lump sum, line item, and performance budgeting. All of these can be an effective way to plan out financial activity of a strength and conditioning program. However, it is also important to consider the particular circumstances and nature of the program being directed because a specific model may fit better than others. For these reasons, I believe a fixed budget would work best for a strength and conditioning coach working under a sports medicine clinic. This method “projects both expenditures and program income, if any, on a month-by-month basis to determine total program costs and revenues for the fiscal year” (Konin, 134). This allows the clinic to reference to previous spending patterns and determine cash flow throughout different times of the year. The only time I wouldn’t recommend this budget for a strength and conditioning coach is when they are directing a school sports medicine program because they are not income orientated like a large, well established sports medicine clinic would be. Lastly, just as with every budget plan there are purchasing obligations, inventory management, and funding sources that should also be taken into consideration. The purchasing process is vital to implementing the budget plan. This is where supplies, equipment, and services are purchased that are critical to the sports medicine program. A strength and conditioning coach needs minimal supplies and most importantly well-maintained equipment to effectively do their

job. For example, supplies they might need would be resistant bands, bumper plates, plyometric boxes, foam rollers, barbells, etc. and the equipment from treadmills to cables and squat racks need to be maintained to last longer and function correctly to prevent injuries. This is important to keep in mind because a strength and conditioning coach’s purchasing obligations may look different from an athletic trainer’s. With that being said, inventory management is also an important aspect in both small and large operations because it leads to increased efficiency throughout the program. Depending on the size of the operation the management of inventory changes, “larger programs are more likely to operate multiple facilities, making the control and distribution of sports medicine supplies more difficult and requiring more attention to inventory techniques. Inventory control is important for small programs as well, because errors in inventory and supply management result in more financial hardship for programs with smaller budgets” (Konin, 149). This shows that there are pros and cons to working in both types of operations. In my opinion, it would be ideal for a strength and conditioning coach to operate inventory management like a larger program. Similarly, to inventory management, funding sources also vary depending on the size of the operation and program. They may also vary from year to year. Despite this potential uncertainty, there are also external funding sources such as the American College of Sports Medicine, National Institutes of Health, among other organizations that offer financial support from public and private funding sources. In conclusion, these are all important components to a budget plan that should be considered as a strength and conditioning coach or as any member of the health care team. As for having an efficient and reliable budget allows everyone in the sports medicine unit to do their job to the best of their ability.

References Konin, Jeff G., Ray, Richard. Management Strategies in Athletic Training. Pub: Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL. Fifth Edition, 2018...