Yesterday, I took the exam and passed the Practical Section with 98/110. However, I failed the Science Section by 1 point. 🙄 For me, I thought the Practical side of things would be the hardest section, but turns out not. So I want to list out a reflection on the exam and what to do differently for the Science section. For the Practical —> What Went Well • For several days, I had reviewed all of the agility tests in the CSCS book + I watched videos on them. I am really glad I did because there were a lot of questions on them in the exam (which I was surprised about). • Fortunately through my own coaching experience, I understood the faults to look for in the major lifts, like Back Squat, Front Squat, Bench, Clean and so on. I also knew the progressions for each, specifically the power clean and clean. I think if you don’t know what to look for, and how to progress these, you absolutely should as there are several questions / videos / photos on this. • I understood what the exercise order should be for testing day and training day. • I had a good understanding of what counts as power development, strength development, hypertrophy, and muscular endurance. And I’ve written programs on these already. There were questions like: “ Sally has the below characteristics: Height: 5’6 Weight: 124lbs Vertical jump: 15” 1RM Back Squat: 145lb What should Sally work on in her programming?” • There were a few questions on nutrition I felt good with. Such as, referral to an RD, understanding how much protein a person needs, carb loading strategies, and issues to look for such as bulimia, anorexia, and binge eating (and which sport has the most at risk for these disorders). What did not go as well: • Facility rules. I’m a little disappointed in this one as I feel like I should know, but spacing between racks, policies and procedures in the S&C gym, who a club team should ask to use the S&C gym, role of an assistant S&C coach…😅 • I forgot some calculations for some of the nutrition questions. Specifically calculating caloric needs using body weight only (“Bill is a college athlete weighing 100kg. What should his daily caloric intake be?”)

Hi everyone! I'm Alli. I'm a coach and I run my own training company out of Cincinnati, OH. At the moment, most of my training is focused on keeping me feeling athletic and able to enjoy outdoor activities but I grew up a competitive athlete and I'm finding myself with more and more athletes or clients pursuing more athletic endeavors, which led me here! I actually graduated with an Aerospace Engineering degree but quickly learned that wasn't for me so I transitioned to coaching in 2020 and haven't looked back. I haven't sat for my CSCS yet, but looking forward to this and being a sponge. I'm excited to learn with all of you! My fun facts are that I'm learning German and that I continue to play every generation of Pokémon every time there's a release. I'm fortunate to have access to a great gym called RTS Barbell but am slowly building out our home/soon-to-be garage gym.