Sports Trainer Overview
Working as a Sports Trainer
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a sports trainer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $45.98 an hour? That's $95,628 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 13% and produce 45,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Sports Trainer Do
There are certain skills that many sports trainers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, instructional skills and motivational skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a sports trainer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 23.8% of sports trainers included professional athletes, while 11.4% of resumes included sports training, and 10.9% of resumes included strength training. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the sports trainer job title. But what industry to start with? Most sports trainers actually find jobs in the health care and hospitality industries.
How To Become a Sports Trainer
If you're interested in becoming a sports trainer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 66.5% of sports trainers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 15.0% of sports trainers have master's degrees. Even though most sports trainers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a sports trainer. When we researched the most common majors for a sports trainer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on sports trainer resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a sports trainer. In fact, many sports trainer jobs require experience in a role such as internship. Meanwhile, many sports trainers also have previous career experience in roles such as personal trainer or volunteer.
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Sports Trainer Jobs
Sports Trainer Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a sports trainer can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as coach, progress to a title such as team leader and then eventually end up with the title general manager.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Sports Trainer
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Ultimate Performance Complex LLC Manager/Sports Trainer Manager/Sports Trainer | Ultimate Performance Complex LLC Ultimate Performance Complex LLC | 05/22/2012 05/22/2012 | $25,73005/22/2012 $25,730 |
Tim and Allison Coleman Family Sports Trainer Family Sports Trainer | Tim and Allison Coleman Tim and Allison Coleman | 09/22/2010 09/22/2010 | $73,04509/22/2010 $73,045 |
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Top Colleges for Sports Trainers
1. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC
2. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL
3. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA
4. California State University - Bakersfield
Bakersfield, CA
5. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA
6. Stanford University
Stanford, CA
7. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN
8. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL
9. Howard University
Washington, DC
10. SUNY at Buffalo
Buffalo, NY
Entry Level Jobs For Becoming A Sports Trainer
Top Skills For a Sports Trainer
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 23.8% of sports trainers listed professional athletes on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and instructional skills are important as well.
- Professional Athletes, 25.2%
- CPR, 15.4%
- Training Materials, 10.2%
- Emergency, 10.0%
- Strength Training, 6.3%
- Other Skills, 32.9% See All Sports Trainer Skills