Why This Exists
Most training environments aren’t built around mastery.
You want to change lives, not meet sales quotas.
You got into this industry because you want to help people move better, perform at a higher level, and build a lifelong exercise practice. These are beautiful things with the potential to change lives. However, most training opportunities live within big box gyms, franchise studios, and high-volume classes, where you get experience but not depth.
The result is that high-potential trainers stagnate. Instead of focusing on the details, you’re counting reps or cheerleading. Creating a motivating environment is great but we’ll let you in on a little secret: people are pretty motivated already. The real magic is in breaking down the barriers to meaningful action.
The Bang Coaching Apprenticeship is for trainers who are hungry to learn and grow — and because closing it takes time, feedback, and a specific kind of mentorship to get there.
10 Areas of Skill Development
Coaching is a science. Coaching is an art.
- Your Coaching Eye — Build your pattern recognition and visual assessment skills, and exploratory tools to see what’s going on below the surface.
- Exercise Regressions and Progressions — The best correction is often a regression. Learn how to choose exercises that bring out the best in people.
- Develop fluency in foundational movements – and how they translate into tools like barbells, kettlebells, and more.
- Understand how to contextualize differences in morphology, injury history, and training age to inform programming and coaching decisions.
- Work up to coaching semi-private sessions of up to five people with individual programs – and master the art of efficient cueing and coaching.
- Move beyond templates. Learn to design from first principles.
- Develop the skills of taking an integrated approach with clinicians and navigating injuries and pain – while staying within-scope.
- Master the art of client-centred coaching. Work in alignment with your clients. Leave the arguing and convincing behind.
- Understand what actually drives lasting change — and how to support it.
- Become an expert generalist while building a specialized set of skills that is uniquely yours.
Learn by Doing — With Support From a Greybeard Coach
Bang founder, Geoff Girvitz, based this program on the mentorship and clarity he wished for when he was starting out in the industry. Now he’s sharing what he learned through courses, certifications, consults with leading experts across multiple fields, and 20 years of in-the-trenches experience.
- You shadow experienced coaches across 1-on-1 and small-group sessions.
- You begin coaching with direct mentorship alongside you. After sessions, you’ll debrief. You receive specific, honest, actionable feedback.
- As your skills and judgement grows, your autonomy increases. You take on your own clients and sessions, supported by ongoing continuing education and regular coaching conversations with Bang’s founder.
Your Job Isn’t to Have All the Answers, It’s to Ask Great Questions
We’re not looking for swagger. Or people who feel like they already know everything. We’re looking for trainers with a service mentality, who want to master the art and science of coaching.
- Holds a recognized personal training certification and/or a degree in kinesiology
- 1–3 years of coaching experience in any setting
- Genuinely curious about movement, people, and the science behind both
- Dependable, inclusive, curious
- Comfortable receiving direct, specific feedback without defensiveness
- Motivated by mastery
- Committed to being better at this than most people ever get the chance to be
Let’s Be Crystal Clear
We’d rather you know exactly what this is and isn’t before you spend time applying. This apprenticeship is a genuine commitment for both of us.
- There is no exchange of money. We’re not charging and we’re not paying you to learn. Outstanding candidates may be invited to join our team after completion of the program.
- We’re not cool and we don’t care about looking that way on social media.
- We’re not a space-rental arrangement – you’ll work within Bang’s systems and standards.
- This isn’t a shortcut; it’s an onramp. Real mastery takes real time.
- We combine high standards and high support. None of this will be easy.
3–6 Months From Now, You’ll Be a Different Kind of Coach
You will have done real work and it will show.
You’ll identify what’s actually limiting a client’s squat, their hinge, their overhead position. And you’ll know what to do about it.
You’ll make a lifelong exercise practice possible – even for folks who have could never previously imagined themselves thriving in a gym setting.
You’ll be able to work with anyone from total beginners to competitive athletes. You’ll be able to juggle multiple clients at the same time while individualize coaching, cueing, and exercises. You’ll be some sort of incredible ninja-wizard hybrid.