Is Contracting Killing Strength and Conditioning?

Contracting is a dominant theme in military human performance because so much of the staffing for military human performance teams is handled through large contracts. In this week's episode we break down some of the key issues with defense contracting that make things harder in human performance. If we can't define the value of coaches, "least price technically acceptable" quickly becomes "lowest bidder." And that creates a race to the bottom for coaching salaries. Stricter requirements for coach certification might be counterproductive if pay doesn't increase. We've seen other related professions require higher degrees without the salaries to justify the additional schooling. Personal services contracting only happens within specific exemptions, mostly reserved for medical and special operations. Non-personal services comes with limitations that make it harder to get the right people. It's hard to come up with who is "at fault" for some of the current problems, because these systems are complicated. But we have to have these conversations if we're going to make any progress.