What degree would I need to become a weightlifting teacher at a highschool level.?

I want to be a weightlifting teacher and ultimately a football head coach. I need to know the minimal amount of education I would need to be accepted for a job like this.|||I have been teaching high school for 11 years. It is my experience that you would have a difficult time teaching something as specific as just weightlifting. More realistically, you would be teaching physical education classes, and if enough students signed up for a class like "weight training," you may get a section or two out of a full-time schedule (usually five classes, depending on district/area of the country). In most states, you would have to complete that state's requirements for a physical education teaching credential.





As for a head football coaching position, in most areas you do not have to be a credentialed teacher to be a coach. Each district sets forth its requirements based on state laws. However, head football coach positions are very hard to come by. The seniority factor is first to consider. Those positions usually go to someone who has been part of the program's coaching staff for many years; this person generally is part of the school's teaching staff as well. They're rare positions, and generally people cling to the head football coach position with dear life. At my previous school, the man there was head football coach for something like nine years. The man who replaced him is a teacher at the school, and had been at the school for years. He had also been part of the varsity coaching staff as an assistant coach for at least five years prior.





To end this long answer, you'd need to focus on the state's requirements for teacher credentialing in physical education, from what i can tell. Be prepared to teach general phys ed classes, too; it is unlikely you'd be hired full-time with only weightlifting classes. And, be patient in working your way up to head football coach--unless you are interested in frosh or junior varsity positions.|||It's possible that you wouldn't need a degree at all.


If you have coaching experience, you could apply for the assistant coaching position and go from there. Once you've been there a few years and they get to know you, when the head coach position becomes available, you could apply for it.


Some schools want the coaches to also teach at the school, but many schools hire folks just to coach and they don't need degrees at all just to coach.


If you got a personal fitness training certificate, it would help you to become a fitness trainer/weightlifting teacher.


Check out all of the certificates this guy has:


http://www.darwinfit.com/Trainer.asp|||A degree in Kinesiology is most appropriate for seeking a teaching position in physical education and coaching. But it is not necessary, you can graduate with any major and then take the certification exams in kinesiology and if you pass them, then you will be certified to teach. Many of my friends who coach were either kinesiology majors or minors.