I'm was an IRONMAN Certified Coach and never got matched with anyone.
If you're looking for a Coach let me know.

I am fine for a coach, I think, you are not alone though, the coach match may not work too well.

Ironman makes money off people taking the cert, not by getting athletes to be matched to coaches, at least from first glance that is how I view it.

Personally its just another cert in a sport that has almost as many coaches now as athletes. The Ironman cert if very limiting for coaches as it only really targets athletes signed up for long course races and to a further degree Ironman branded races.

Compound this all with the fact that most athletes doing these events that want coaches for the first time and/or doing the event for the first time want a coach in person so they look locally to their clubs etc, not an online program.

For athletes this is probably their last place to look for coaches. For coaches looking to get into coach this is probably the last place they should look for athletes.

So where is the first place someone should look for a coach? When should they start looking for a coach (right away/off season)?

I ask, because I am currently looking to bring someone into my training program to help me with an objective view. I used to coach college ice hockey and see the value in a coach.

For now, I have been doing my own training plans and diet, while at the same time trying to plan a race schedule for the upcoming year that makes sense.

End of the season/ before you plan your race schedule next year. One of the hardest situations for myself is when I start working with an athlete too close to their important races.

Are you just looking to use it to find a coach or also interested in taking the course?


The Ironman Cert got a lot of flack when it was announced, but it is the most informative and well put together certification in triathlon. The course at least required you to spend hours and hours going through each individual page and lesson before taking a quiz. As important as that though, was the plethora of information on how to actually structure a training plan plus all types of sample workouts. It might be surprising, but of my graduating class of 30 in the Exercise Phys Program at Baylor, only a couple of us could've written an effective coach to 5k plan, let alone triathlon or any more complicated. I think the Ironman course is the most informative cert right now for people getting into coaching. It's more repeat once you've been coaching for a while, but I enjoyed seeing how much time they put into it. It doesn't give hands on experience, but what online cert can? Compared to the USAT level 1, it's much more informative.

I was connected with several athletes through the coach match program, but I also made myself very available and was one of the first to complete the course. I have a feeling a lot of coaches aren't into working with the majority of athletes likely to use this service; the just get it done in under 17 hours crowd. It's a lot of fun sending people to Kona, but in my view it's not any more rewarding than helping someone check the one and done box. If you leave yourself open to those athletes, you'll probably get some. I also think they are more likely to pair new athletes with coaches in their system who have gotten good reviews. The athletes fill out a survey on their satisfaction, so it would make sense for IM to keep giving the same coaches more athletes rather than risking it on coaches who just got the cert.

That is really helpful, I am thinking about doing the programme and whilst it won't be my main source of income would like to think I have something to offer to potential students.

That said I believe there are costs to being on coach match which may make it uneconomical.

yes, I think you have to pay now. They gave the first year free I believe, and then I didn't renew. Have you written them? When it was starting up they were very responsive and interested in feedback.