NICK GRANTHAM
My boss called me and said, “it’s career suicide, it’s not even a job what are you doing, you’re a physiologist?” And I was thinking to myself, I’m going to do it, that’s what I want to do.
Strength & Conditioning Coach in the Premier League
The athleticism of top-level sports people is unlike anything we’ve seen before. The skill and ability is something we see with generational players like Pele and Maradona. What’s different today though is the ability to play year after year, travel more and more. Cristiano Ronaldo has been playing Champions League football for nearly 20 years. What the majority of people don’t see is how these athletes take care of themselves, or the people behind the scenes helping them keep their bodies at the absolute peak, week in week out.
Nick Grantham has worked across multiple sports and teams and currently works for one of the most well-loved and followed teams in the Premier League. The story of how he got there shows the need to pivot when your gut tells you, to ignore careers advisors and certainly ex-bosses who think you’re making a huge mistake...
Jonathan: Thanks for catching up Nick, so currently you’re working in football, right?
Nick: That’s right, working as strength and conditioning coach in the Premier League. Probably the last ten years I’ve been consulting for a range of teams. I’d been wanting to work closer to home for a while, but there weren’t many opportunities with professional clubs. When the previous boss left and the new manager came in, the opportunity came up. I loved working as a consultant, but right now it’s absolutely the right thing for me to do.
So how did you get into becoming a consultant in this space?
I was working at the Sporting Institute in England, but there is a kind of glass ceiling and so it was tough to grow there for me. Most people there love the safe job that a governing body gives you, whereas I went out as a consultant, which was fairly risky in comparison. But it was good, actually I was one of the first ones to do it, which always gives you a little bit of headway and first to market is always quite good.
Through that time, I worked with rugby teams, Middlesbrough Football Club, the Chinese national team, GB Basketball, West Brom FC, Trek Mountain Bikes, GB Netball. So, all kinds of things really.
So is this what you studied at university or college?
No because strength and strength conditioning didn’t exist then. I went late to university. I was a mature student when I went. So I worked a career before that. When I studied I went to study sport science and psychology. I thought I wanted to be a psychologist. I realized that psychology was just kind of common sense and it wasn’t flicking my switch. I loved the sports science side though, so pushed my modules towards that. Then I stayed and did a post grad (masters) on exercise and nutrition science.
When I finished, I got a job working for the British gymnastics team. And at the time, sport science was kind of having a real explosion in the UK as we had done badly in the 1980s Olympics, so there was a lot of investment. It was a good time to be a sports scientist.
I have a friend that’s based in the States, and he was getting into this thing called strength and conditioning. I was getting bored, as in our role we would just test athletes and come back six weeks later. I wanted to see how we could work through the bit in the middle and improve physical preparation.
Strength and conditioning eventually started to come into the UK. I sat the first certification in that in the UK and went to work for the England netball team as a strength and condi- tioning coach, which was one of the only jobs in the field at the time.
My boss called me and said, “it’s career suicide, it’s not even a job what are you doing, you’re a physiologist?” And I was thinking to myself, I’m going to do it, that’s what I want to do.
So, you’ve obviously learned a lot, I would love to know if you have a couple of things you would tell yourself as a teenager?
Yes, definitely don’t listen to any career’s advisor. They don’t know what they’re talking about. Mine told me to go back and redo my GCSEs, even though I got some As, Bs and Cs. She said I would never get a proper job. Super motivational stuff. The other thing is just be yourself. When I started working in my career and doing more public speaking and presenting, I tried to show up like other people, like academics and I’m not an academic. The way that I talk and the way that I speak, It’s not everybody’s taste and I know some people in the audience won’t like it because it’s not science based enough. I just think you have to find your own style and get comfortable with it
So, if someone wanted to become a strength and conditioning coach, what would you suggest to them?
To read one of the best books I’ve read recently; Blowing The Bloody Doors Off, by Michael Caine. That book has got so many nuggets of wisdom as he was written off as an actor who can only do one thing. His book is full of these notions around sweating the small stuff, being prepared, learning your lines. One of the things you see a lot with the younger coaches coming through is this kind of instant gratification. They want to graduate and then work for Man Utd. It’s one of the things he wrote in his book, is that people always asked him, “will I make it as a superstar? Will I be a Hollywood star?” He always says you can make it. I’m not saying you will make it, but I’m saying “you can make it”. It’s the same in this field. If you want to do it. You absolutely can do it, but there will be sacrifices along the way. There will be hard work, there’ll be setbacks. So I can’t promise you that you will get a job at Man Utd. yet, but if everything lines up nicely and you do all the work then you could do it.
I think it’s just doing the small things really well. If you are applying for a job, make sure all the spelling is correct, as if I see anything like that, you won’t get in the door. The other thing is to make the most of where you are now. So, if you’re working on local council doing the trash, be the best trash person the local council has got.
Thanks Nick, Any moments that stand out for you with your job?
Well now up at Newcastle, being able to take my son to games is pretty great. Last year we were at home against Chelsea and right at the end we thought we’d lost, but in the last minute we scored. The Geordies are singing, I’ve never seen or heard anything like it and on the way home my son goes, “I wish we could have stayed all night dad.” That was pretty special.
