From One Strength to the Next: NorthTec Graduate takes on new role

“I’ve been offered an internship with the Hurricanes in the Strength and Conditioning team,” explains Karlos. “I had heard about the position through the grapevine and put in an application. I didn’t really expect to get it as it’s a pretty competitive industry. I was lucky enough to get it.”

Karlos will be interning with the Hurricanes for the whole season, giving him valuable insight into the strength and conditioning industry and experience working with high-performing athletes.

“It’s going to be a roughly six to seven month position,” Karlos explains, “depending on how well the team does over the season. I’ll be in the gym with the players, using pretty advanced technology, getting a good look at sports coaching and training. I’ll see how you run analytics on a player’s performance and how their training can be shifted to better support their performance on the field.”

Despite the prestige of the position this isn’t Karlos’ first role with a sports team.

“At the start of this year I got a position working with the Taniwha’s,” Karlos explains. “As part of the course, I had to have a certain amount of work experience to pass the course.

“One of my tutors had connections to the Taniwha’s and introduced me to the strength and conditioning coach. I explained what I wanted to do and how I could work with them, and he was happy to take me on.

“I couldn’t have done it without my tutor, she was confident enough in my abilities to recommend me to the team. I think it helped that from the beginning of the course, I would put my hand up to volunteer with team sports. Any sport, any team, I was just happy to get the experience and that’s really paid off.

“It’s the same with this [internship] and while I was with the Taniwha’s I’m just focused on giving it my all. I don’t know what’s coming next, so I just have to give it everything I have right now.”

While his near future is laid out, Karlos still has a whole career path to work out. But for now, he’s happy to keep that open to opportunity, rather than being set on only one option.

“I want to get into this industry as a career, but as I said, it's pretty competitive. So, I’m not going to be too disappointed if I don’t go straight into a job. I’ll work up to it.

“Most people working in the industry have a master’s degree, or at least a postgraduate diploma, so I’ll have to look at doing that but I’m going to take a bit of a break from study. It’s been three years of hard work in that space so a short break will be good.

“I’d like to stay working in strength and conditioning for sports teams, and I’d be keen to take it overseas at some point as well. But for now, I’ll just keep working at it.”

Finally, we asked Karlos if he had any advice for those who are just starting out.

“I just think you should ask yourself ‘Why not you?’,” he says. “I remember we had a trip while on the course to see the blues and one of their strength coaches was telling his journey, and he has a similar background to me, a similar journey and I realised, that could be me. So why not you? You can do it if you just try.”

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