The Partnership Between Volt and the NSCA - Why It Makes Sense

/ Volt HQ/

Big things are happening here at Volt HQ in Seattle. Our “Volt Family” of teams is growing daily, and our athletes are staying healthy and winning championships! Most importantly, we are moving closer to realizing our vision of a world where elite training is accessible (and affordable) to athletes everywhere.

This vision is now clearer than ever, as the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) decided to partner with Volt to continue advancing athletic performance and fitness. This relationship was forged by a mutual desire to advance the safe and effective principles of training on which the strength and conditioning industry has relied for decades. Volt has never been about creating groundbreaking training programs—those duties are better left to the world-class strength coaches out there researching and innovating in the field. Volt is about reimagining the delivery of workouts so that more athletes can access better, safer training.

Since our partnership with the NSCA was announced, we have fielded questions from all directions. Many wonder why the NSCA, as the governing body of the strength and conditioning industry and the certifying body of strength coaches around the world, would partner with a technology company like Volt. You can read more here about their views on the Volt platform, and I can provide perspective from the Volt camp and from the strength coaches we work with.

Here’s why it works from the 50,000-foot level: Volt was built to align WITH the strength and conditioning industry, not to fight against it. I’m a strength coach (CSCS since 2009) and a sport coach (football/wrestling/track, high school and college), so when building Volt, I wanted the technology to help push the industry forward and provide a service to coaches everywhere—strength and sport coaches alike.

After launching Volt in 2013, the question we heard most often was whether a technology like ours would put strength coach jobs in jeopardy. The answer is: absolutely not. Volt gives strength coaches a technology-based tool to increase efficiency, more easily analyze data and engage with athletes through the technologies athletes use most; yet, some misconceptions still persist. Here’s the reality we’d like to reinforce:

 VOLT IS NOT A VIRTUAL STRENGTH COACH.

You can never replace an in-person coach with a software (and really, why would you want to?). Volt is a strength and conditioning resource designed to complement and supplement coaches doing hands-on work with athletes around the world.

Established strength coaches nationwide—including Boyd Epley, founder of the NSCA and the “Godfather of Strength and Conditioning”—have embraced Volt’s technology, and continue to support its growth. Why? Because they want more athletes training on sound programs. Because they see a future where elite level training can be delivered to athletes anywhere. And because they know that fitness technology will inevitably change the strength and conditioning world—and that’s a good thing!

In addition to representing a new way forward for the industry as a whole, I also believe that Volt serves as a conduit between the sport coach and the strength and conditioning community. It is in that spirit that we partnered with the NSCA—we believe that through Volt, sport coaches will be exposed to solid principles of training and important S&C concepts and resources. Coaches who leverage the Volt platform for their training will have the exclusive opportunity to access a discounted rate on an NSCA membership to help them provide their athletes with a safe and effective training experience. I believe that every sport coach in the world should have the opportunity to be a member of the NSCA and take advantage of the organization’s education and training resources. If you’re a Volt coach reading this, I encourage you to reach out to your coach support specialist to ask about accessing your NSCA membership.  

Volt is committed to working with the NSCA and with our strength coach advisors to continue to iterate on the Volt platform with the purpose of serving strength coaches. In the next few months, we will unveil the groundbreaking new Volt platform, designed to not only support strength coaches’ immense efforts in their day-to-day jobs, but will also serve to extend their reach beyond their campus or facility. And with the NSCA behind us, there is no limit to what Volt can do to help the strength and conditioning community.

Join over 100,000 coaches and athletes using Volt's intelligent training app. For more information, click here.

 

Dan Giuliani is a regular contributor to the Volt blog. He is CSCS-certified, a co-founder of Volt Athletics and an adjunct professor of Sports Performance at the University of Washington.
Learn more about Dan and read his other posts