What is the difference between the IFPA and NSCA?
The NSCAs CSCS (Certified Sports Conditioning Specialist) is a fine certification. The CSCS is designed for college and professional strength coaches. The CSCS is designed for the most popular sports. The IFPA has taken a different approach to sports conditioning. The IFPA has a basic sports conditioning and ten sports specific certifications. The basic course covers all aspects of sports conditioning of all components of fitness. The sport specific courses (baseball, basketball, football, soccer, volleyball, tennis, hockey, running, golf and martial arts) allow the IFPA to go into much greater detail in the sport or sports of your choices. The NSCA has more recently developed a personal training certification, but similar to the ACSM the NSCAs expertise is not in the fitness industry. The job description of a strength coach dealing with highly trained, highly motivated elite athletes is significantly different from that of a personal trainer dealing with doctors, lawyers, accountants,
