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Sports
Careers
You Got Game
Of the 158,000 jobs in sports, only 15,000 are for professional athletes. Sure, being an athlete seems exciting but there are other opportunities in the sports world involving teamwork, competition and commitment. From coach to trainer to statistician, there's a job for anyone who wants to turn a passion for sports into a profession. Here are just a few ideas.
- Equipment Designer
- Industrial Designer
- Kinesiologist
- Psychologist
- Sports Doctor
- Sports Lawyer
- Sports Trainer
- Sports Writer
Equipment Designer
- Career description
- More Career description
- Things to do
- More Things to do
- People
- Classes to take
- What are you like
- More Career description
What's a Sports Equipment Designer?
Do you ever wish you were using a different bat, or had better tennis racket? Maybe you'd like a lighter bicycle or a more comfortable helmet? Sports equipment designers' create well-designed and safe sporting equipment for professional athletes and everyone who enjoys recreation.
What's a Sports Equipment Designer?
As a sports equipment designer, your job involves the following:
- Kinesiology - understanding muscular movement, especially the mechanics of human motion.
- Physics and engineering - understanding air and water flow, friction, mechanics, and more.
- Materials science - knowing which materials are right for which use.
Things to Do
When you use a piece of sports equipment, make a list of the things that it does well, and those it doesn't.
Check out the different designs of equipment that your school has. For example, different soccer balls, field hockey sticks, gymnastics floor mats, and safety equipment. See if you can figure out what is good about each design and what could be better.
Take a quiz to see what you know about tennis balls and tennis rackets.
Things to Do
- Helmets Helmets Helmets! Here is a cool timeline of bicycle helmet design.
- Read this article from Popular Mechanics magazine about professional baseball catchers' helmets.
- This site is full of pictures about snowboard design! It's kind of technical, but pretty cool.
- Play a game to check out super performance materials. Click on the red sign that says: "Improve Equipment".
- Read about how plastics make many kinds of sporting equipment possible. To find out about equipment for a specific sport, choose it from the pull-down menu.
Who Does Sports Equipment Designer?
Read about several sport equipment designers. You'll see that they all love the sport for which they design equipment.
- Steve Gluckman, bicycle designer.
- Noah Butkus, snowboard designer.
- Dan Levine, backpack and tent designer.
Classes to Take
In addition to the classes you take now, think about taking these courses in high school:
- Math (as much as you can)
- Chemistry
- Physics
- Computer science
- Biology
...and participate in the sports you love!
What Are You Like?
- Are you passionate about sports?
- Do you like science?
- Do you like looking for better ways to do things?
- Do you persevere to solve problems?
- Do you think creatively and come up with your own ideas?
If you answered yes to these questions, you have many of the skills necessary to be a sports equipment designer.
Industrial Designer
What's an Industrial Designer?
Cell phones, tennis shoes, even toasters have a person behind them, at least when it comes to their design. An Industrial Designer use principals of art, psychology, and technology to create products that are convenient, cheap, and easy to use. There are all kinds of designers, from people who design shoes to people who design golf courses.
Things to Do
- Visit Slam Dunk Science and learn about how athletic shoes are made.
- Read more about the profession at the Industrial Designers Society of America Web site.
- Check out your local library and read about the shoe industry in the Sneaker Book.
- Get some practice! Redesign a pair of scissors to make a more perfect product.
- Design, build and program a robot that is capable of accomplishing undersea missions.
Who does Industrial Design?
Meet Stephanie Michaud. An athlete herself, (she competed in the 1999 Nike Women's Triathlon in Vancouver Washington), Ms. Michaud has a Master's degree in Science. She concentrated on learning about the human body, studying prosthesis and orthotics.
See some student work at the Industrial Design Society of America Web site, where you can see an "unbathroom," a special backpack and reuseable garbage bags.
Classes to Take
In addition to the courses you take now, consider these kinds of classes in high school:
- Take as much math as possible: pre-algebra, algebra and any accelerated courses you high school offers, such as trigonometry, pre-calculus and calculus
- Carpentry, automotive or electrical courses
- Art, especially courses featuring 3-D modeling and graphic design
- Computer aided design (CAD). If your school doesn't offer any classes, look to your community center or your town's continuing education programs
Think Industrial Design might be a job for you?
- Can you see the whole picture?
- Are you creative?
- Do you enjoy writing and speaking with people
- Can you convey a concept in a quick sketch?
- Do you have mechanical abilities and a basic understanding or curiousity about how things work?
- Do you enjoy working with computers, especially 3-D programs?
If you answered yes to these questions, you have many of the skills to be a successful industrial designer!
Kinesiologist
What's a Kinesiologist?
Kinesiology is the study of motion, so a kinesiologist is the person studies the causes and consequences of physical activity as it relates to the human body, from medicine to sports and fitness to comfortable office chairs.
As a kinesologist, you'll find a job in a variety of settings including schools, colleges and universities, public and private agencies, clinical environments, government, business and the military.
An average salary for a kinesologist is $45,000 a year.
People
Watch video about kinesiologist Mark Simonson.Just click the video icon after you link to the page.
Read what Nicole O'Neill brings to her job as a kinesiologist.
Classes to Take
In addition to the classes you take now, think about taking these courses when you get to high school:
- Biology, Chemistry and Physics
- Calculus
- Health education
- Human Growth and Development
- Physical education classes, such as sports and dance
What Are You Like?
- Do you play sports?
- Are you interested in sciences like biology and physics?
- Do you take things apart just to see how they work? Are you good at getting them back together?
If you answered yes to these questions,you have many of the skills to be a successful kinesiologist.
Psychologist
What's a Sport Psychologist?
Physical training is only part of what it takes to be an athlete. Mental fitness is important too. A sports psychologist helps athletes to believe in themselves and become better at their sport. As a sports psychologist, you'll help athletes prepare for competition by setting goals, managing anxiety and maximizing their peak performance. One of the most important things sports psychologists do is to help athletes deal with stress and learn how to channel their energy into giving their best performance.
Sports psychologists earn between $22,000 and $200,000 a year.
Things to Do
These are some activities that will help you become a sports psychologist:
- Play lots of sports.
- Play memory games and do word association tests. Word association tests reveal something about your personality and the way your mind works. You respond to each of a series of words with the first one that comes to mind.Try an online version at puzz.com.
- What's stressing you out? Take the Stress-o-meter quiz to find out.
- Give some good advice with the Comic creator.
Books to Read
"Strength Training Anatomy," by Frederic Delavier. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. 2001. "A Risky Prescription" by Sandy Stiefer. Minneapolis: Learner Publications. 1997.
People
Visit Mr. David Cook. He's president of a San Antonio company that helps athletes improve their skills. His clients include Texas A&M University, the basketball team San Antonio Spurs, U.S. Olympians, and many other athletes.
Classes to Take
In addition to the classes you take now, think about taking these courses in high school:
- Biology
- Health
- Psychology
- Social Studies
What Are You Like?
- Do you communicate well?
- Do people ask you for advice?
- Do you like helping others think through a problem?
- Do you like to teach others what you know?
If you answered yes to these questions, you have many of the skills to be a successful sports psychologist.
Sports Doctor
What's Sports Medicine?
If you enjoy sports, you know you can get injuries. Because sports injuries can create special problems for your body, there's a special branch of medicine to deal with them. But sports medicine isn't any one thing: it combines medical science with knowledge of how the human body works. Research plays a big part in this field, but there are doctors who diagnose and treat injuries that happen during sport events and/or physical activities. There are also specialists who manage pain after an injury, as well as deal with illnesses and diseases that might have effects on health and physical performance.
Things to Do
- Visit Sportsmedicine.com to learn more about the profession.
- Try your hand at a knee surgery.
- Bone up on body basics at The Virtual Body.
- You've lost your skin! Play Skull Adventures and get it back.
Who Does Sports Medicine?
Susan S. Wilder is one of six doctors who practices sports medicine at LifeScape Medical Associates.
Mike Stone the team doctor for the Manchester United, a high profile soccer team in Great Britain.
Dr. Eric Heiden, gold medal Olympic Speedskater who hung up his skates to become physician.
Classes to Take
In addition to the courses you take now, consider these kinds of classes in high school:
- Algebra, Calculus, Statistics, Probability and Applications
- Accelerated science, especially biology
- Public speaking
- Take a writing class or two
- A CPR class. If your school doesn't offer one, check out your local community center or American Red Cross
And don't forget to read. The more you find out through your own exploration, the better!
Think Sports Medicine might be a job for you?
- Do you communicate well?
- Can you stay cool, calm and collected in a crisis?
- Do you have an interest in learning about how the human body is constructed (anatomy) and how it works (physiology)?
- Do you understand sports and the sports world?
If you answered yes to these questions, you have many of the skills to be successful in sports medicine!
Sports Lawyer
- Career description
- More Career description
- Things to do
- More Things to do
- People
- Classes to take
- What are you like
- More Career description
What's Sports Law?
Sports law is a special branch of the law (usually grouped with entertainment) practiced by lawyers who represent famous (and not so famous) athletes and entertainers.
What, you may be wondering, makes it so special? Well, for starters sports is big business and that means there are big legal issues. Sports are usually played in facilities that are expensive to build and maintain.
What's Sports Law
If you're interested in sports equipment, you can represent equipment manufacturers, player unions or sports stadiums and arenas. If you think you want to be a lawyer for organizations like the NBA, NFL or NCAA, you'll need to understand those games. If you practice sports law this way, you become a member of the organization just like the players. The organization is your only client.
If you're interested in sports equipment, you might want to be a lawyer for an equipment manufacturer. In this job, you'll need to understand how all the gear works and affects the people who use it.
Things to Do
Check these Web sites:
- Read "Agents of Change," an interesting article about the way attorneys and their athlete clients interact.
- Or try a field trip Capital Hill in Washington, DC.
More Things to Do
- Run for office at your school. Does your school have a student council? Try running for any of the positions that interest you. Since laws are really just an adult version of rules, student government is a great introduction to the tools that lawyers work with.
- Join a debate team. Learn how to think on your feet, defend an argument and speak in front of people.
- Read!
Who Does Sports Law?
Meet a pro. Kristen Kuliga. Her first job was as a lifeguard on Cape Cod. Now she's top lawyer at K Sports & Entertainment.
Classes to Take
Though there are plenty of jobs, there's plenty of competition for them. But if you get started now, you'll have a leg up. In addition to the classes you take now, think about taking these when you get to high school:
- Writing
- Public speaking
Think Sports Lawyer might be a job for you?
- Do you communicate well?
- Can you think well on your feet?
- Are you fair? Can you see both sides of an issue even though you only agree with one?
- Do you understand sports and the sports world?
If you answered yes to these questions, you have many of the skills to be a successful sports lawyer!
Sports Trainer
What's Sports Training?
If you play any sports, you know injury is part of the game. Often, the first person to evaluate the nature of an injury isn't the doctor, but a sports trainer. Trainers provide on-the-scene evaluation and assistance. But good trainers try to keep injuries from happening. To do so, they make sure their clients are in top physical condition, getting strengthening and condition exercises and proper nutrition. Part MD, part educator, part friend, a really top notch trainer can communicate to both physician and athlete and offer guidance for making the best medical decisions.
Beginning sports trainers earn about $25,000. Those with more experience and who work for the pros earn between $40,000 to $80,000 a year.
Things to Do
Check these Web sites:- Even though it's geared to high school students, take a look National Athletic Trainer's Association. You'll get a good idea of the kinds of things you'll study and the work you'll do.
- Sports Medicine Australia tells you want it takes to become a trainer.
More Things to Do
- Try putting together a skeleton.
- If you're a fan, you probably already read sports news, but try determining who's been injured and what sort of treatments are being used to help them.
- Read, Read, Read. Check out your local library for cool titles (you might even be able to get them online!) Here's book tip: - Careers in focus. Coaches and fitness professionals.
People
Well, you could say you've already met a pro -- your current gym coach -- and you'd be right. But here are some other people:- Juan Ivan Martinez at the University of California. He helps the athletes at the University of California achieve their personal best.
- Ron Middleton is now a coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But he didn't start out that way. Read about him here.
- Kevin N. Johnson, who first did Sports Medicine and now heads the trainer team for the 76ers.
Classes to Take
In addition to the classes you take now, think about taking these when you get to high school:
- Lots of math and science, especially biology classes
- Public speaking
- Take a writing class or two
- Check out a CPR class at your local community center or American Red Cross
Think Sports Trainer might be a job for you?
- Do you communicate well?
- Can you stay cool, calm and collected in a crisis?
- Do you have an interest in learning about how the human body is constructed (anatomy) and how it works (physiology)?
- Do you understand sports and the sports world?
If you answered yes to these questions, you have many of the skills to be a successful sports trainer!
Sports Writer
What's a Sports Writer
By Nissi Wei
There’s more to sports than athletes running the field, coaches screaming by the sidelines and sportscasters relaying the action back to the viewers at home. From behind the scenes, sports writers have the important role of documenting everything that happens before, during, and after a sporting event. They don’t get the fame or the glory, but they play a vital role in the sports industry. It’s the perfect job for a devoted sports fan who is low-key but has a passion for the action.
Read more about sports writers...You'll find sports writers doing columns in seemingly unrelated topics; for example, business. That's because sports affects a lot of different things.
Being a sports writer means staying on your toes pretty much all the time. Because officially your job title is "news reporter," you must be prepared to write about any subject at any time. It’s a pressure-filled job full of late nights and stressful deadlines, but it’s also a antastic opportunity to meet interesting people up close and personal.
You can expect about $25,000- $65,000 annually in this line of work.
Things To Do
- Try it out! Watch your favourite sport on TV and play the role of a sports writer by writing exciting reviews and/or newspaper articles about it afterwards.
- Research a sport that interests you. The more you know about a topic, the easier it is to write about it.
- Learn the appropriate sports terminology for different sports.
- Learn about and play the first ballgame known to man. Read an ad for a sports writer.
People
Meet Tom Hoffarth title="Tom Hoffarth" target="_blank", a sports writer for over twenty years.
Read an interview Roger Angell. He's been sports writer for over 40 years.
Sports writers may also work on the radio. Here's a story about
Classes to Take
In addition to the classes you take now, think about taking these classes in high school:
- Writing
- Physical Education
- Math
Think Sports Writer Might Be a Job For You?
- Do you have a passion for sports?
- Can you work under pressure?
- How well is your attention to detail?
- Do you enjoy writing?
- Are your social skills commendable?
- Do you like working with numbers?
If you answered yes to these questions, you have many of the skills to be a successful sports writer.
Updated: December 5, 2008