We recently connected with Dashward Jappah and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Dashward, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

My name Is Dashward Jappah. Most everyone calls me Dash, or they refer to me by my last name Jappah. More recently I’ve adopted Coach Dash after I established my Track and Field club, that is Team Renegade out of Cumming, Ga. I humbly accept the recognition and true relationships I’ve built upon be addressed as all of those names.

What may seem like such an everyday regular interaction is not to be taken lightly. Let’s put things into perspective. I’m a certified personal trainer with no degree. At the time if you asked me why I didn’t graduate, I’d probably give some passive humble response about the colleges degree program seeming useless. In all honesty, I’d been so used to just being good and not really having to put in more effort than needed into activities. I was still in a high school mindset.

It’s so much easier to see how wrong I was. And wrong how? I’ve been a personal trainer for 5 years. I’ve worked with over 100+ documented clients from ages (5-72) with the goal of moving better for every day functional activity, fat loss, strength training, athletic performance, and recovery. I’ve been able to be the manger/director of 3 different major youth performance facility’s across north east Atlanta, Georgia. And as previously stated, I’ve been so happy to start my track club this year. Some may wonder how all of this is possible without a degree program, mentorship, or formal practices.

For me, I’ve always wanted to be a trainer. I knew that at around 17 years old after I spent that final summer training for football at Collin’s Hill High School in Suwannee, Georgia. We used to have these guys for a gun called Georgia Sports performance located in Lawrenceville, Georgia. GSP is now more known for their coach Dr. Joel Seedman, who has a PhD from UGA. The Facility also Harbors athletes like Alavin Kamara and Younghoe Koo. I never knew what specifically the sun group of the field was, I just understood we were getting trained to get stronger, run faster, and hit harder.

I am not someone with a large frame. I never have been. I used to consistently get taunted for being super skinny and weak. It’s honestly a very underwhelming environment for a 14-15yr old boy to feel outcasted from peers because he isn’t really good at what they are. It’s even worse when he just yearns to get better, but financially he’s tied to what his parents can provide and his creativity. Most of High School was spent trying to gain weight and looked insanely ripped. It didn’t matter what my families circumstances or what anyone said, I was going to get bigger.

Now in the midst of this journey it’s an uncontrollable blockade in my families past that’s contributed to how My frame was. It was a decent amount of time in my childhood where my family was not doing the best financially. The recession in 06 hit and we caught ourselves getting evicted out of our house, sleeping in hotels, churches, and sometimes storage units, and of course we had to ration food. One of my favorite memories of the period was when it was my Dads 50th birthday. We were weeks from getting evicted out of our house. It was December 18th, 2008, just a week before Christmas. It was freezing in our house. It was probably warmer outside in 34 degree weather. That day, My dad walked 3 miles in the blistering cold to get a loaf of bread for his family to eat. My siblings and I took the liberty of making him a birthday jello. We couldn’t afford a cake. So we made Jello, and to reiterate how cold it was we simply cracked the window open and set it down next to it and the jello froze in hours. We surprised our dad with the happy birthday song and in that moment it was almost as if we weren’t poor. In those time, I could recognize the sacrifice my parents and siblings would make for me. I am the youngest of the 5 of us. I’ve seen my brother, sisters, and both parents eat less so I could have more, and it may not have always made me full, but it made me appreciate the small gestures. Over the years I as we continued to grow as a family, our financial situation got better and my dad and siblings were able to get a house. Out of fear of always going back to that situation, I’d save my food for later like I did when the recession would hit. Think about eating for sleep so breakfast tastes so much better. Or think about saving your school lunch in case there isn’t any food at home. These are habits I carried well into my early 20s. Today I am 26.

Even with no certification, no body builder frame, no real connections in the industry, why continue to try? Well why not? Is this not what I want? When I started training, I had this strange fear that I would get exposed as some fraud who never finished college and people would think I’m too quiet. I felt they would think of me as this poor kid who couldn’t eat everyday or get bigger when he worked out. Maybe they would ask “why should I listen to you”.

But then you have to think about it. No one said that. Just relax, and act like you know what you know. I have always been someone who’s rather personable. I just used to be so socially awkward, I’d try to avoid as much interact with anyone as possible. But it actually is the strongest trait I have as a trainer. I’ve learned it’s more about how you train than what you train.

Something else that has confirmed my insecurities to be wrong is getting these jobs in management. I remember being the Director of Sports Performance at a gym in Roswell, Georgia. I’d built great rapport with kids and parents, the athletes were improving and memberships meets selling. We just needed a decent team of trainers that could coexist together. It’s just the manger of the gym and me at the moment. We start doing interviews and it’s funny that the COO wants us to be really firm about getting guys with a degree considering most of these guys are kids. You will more than likely need to the most basic of exercise knowledge to train them. But he’s very adamant about making sure these guys finished college.

Now I’m ok with that. I actually prefer being in a setting where people know more than me. I can’t be lost if I can ask someone else questions. But as I’ve stated previously, if you cannot be relatable with these kids, or whatever population, you will get weeded out.

The manager and I interviewed this British guy who had a Physiology degree from the University of Georgia. He finished Grad School at Vanderbilt and he just finished an internship at IMG Academy. Very impressive resume, but the guy was a cone. He didn’t know how to interact with the kids. That isn’t the biggest red flag, because some people just need time to open up, but it just wasn’t in our ball park.

I asked him where did he see himself in 2 years to which he responded very humbly that he had no idea. And to be honest I get him. It’s so much pressure to get this education behind what we teach for safety purposes and security. That’s understood, but it’s not enough emphasis on the why.

Here I was at the beginning of my career feeling everything I had been through was going to make a worse trainer. Al it did was make me take the risk that changed my life. I could have easily decided that no one would want the skinny trainer with no formal higher education, but I bet on my knowledge, who I was, and my why.

In the future, will I return for school? I may, but it will not be for exercise science. I still believe in higher education, but I had to take the hand I was delt. Sometimes that’s the risk alone, but it’s always worth it rather than questioning what if.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I got into training after I dropping out of college. But that’s didn’t mean I stopped educating myself. I’m really good about researching and finding out for myself. I like to feel so immersed in what I’m learning it feels like I’m having a conversation with who ever I’m learning from. It helps me simplify things for my clients. I’ve always loved the saying, “if you can teach it, you know it”

I’ve always felt my ability to meet people where they are in their journey has always kept me on all ten. You don’t have to be in the best shape to train with me or know anything. That’s my job. These are the relationships that have people leave gyms to continue to train with me anywhere else I go.

I’m really proud of myself for not stopping regardless of try situation. Training is very volatile. Trainers come and go, and I’ve seen just as many decide on another field then keep up with clients. It gets tricky, there are weeks where everyone is consistent and it seems like you could open up your own gym, and you could have months where people are inconsistent, or tragedy/death has struck them or their family and they have other obligations. I don’t blame others for why they may or may not leave, but I’m thankful I haven’t waived the white flag

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I don’t quit this job where I was the only person with no degree. Instead I stuck it out and ended up being the director with a full salary and benefits.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

No, I would do orthopedics. Then I would be a trainer

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Jappahtunity
• Facebook: Dashward Jappah
• Linkedin: Dashward Jappah

Image Credits

chanelle portraits