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USAT Coaching Certification and CEUs
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I'm looking on the USAT site and it looks like once you have your certification you have to complete a number of CEUs to recertify (15 CEUs over 2 years for a Level 1 coach). All the CEUs appear to cost money, are there any free CEUs available? It would be a shame if the only way you can get CEUs is to buy specific USAT webinars whereas other learning you may have done gets zero credit.

At $35 per CEU that's $525 over the 2 year period. It's not a ridiculous sum of money but given you need to spend a bunch of money to get the certification in the first place.

The World Triathlon Summit is selling 25 webinars for $50 right now so the USAT pricing is comparatively much higher...
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Re: USAT Coaching Certification and CEUs [dado0583] [ In reply to ]
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Not all of those CEU's need to be USAT CEU's. I believe only 5 of them have to come from the USAT list.

I got 10 of my 20 CEU's for my lifeguarding certification when I was a level 1 coach.

Of course this time around I have to get more because a renewal of the same certification only counts for 50% of the original CEU's (lifeguard is only worth 5 CEU's this time around). This was introduced only recently.


Not all of them are expensive. The book tests are $10 each, so are the Symposium DVD presentation tests. Both my wife and I got our required CEU's this last cycle for $380 or so. I bought one set of the 2010 Art & Science of Triathlon Symposium DVD and two sets of tests (10 CEU level). I'm sure someone here has the symposium DVD's they can loan you and then all you have to do is pay for the tests.

USA Cycling is a lot more difficult and expensive to maintain certification. Their list of approved CEU's shrank by about 75% in 2014. They also instituted stiffer penalties for low CEU earners (like taking the whole test over again in addition to a high fee.

Regards,


Dave Stark
dreamcatcher@astound.net
USAC & USAT level 2 certified coach
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Re: USAT Coaching Certification and CEUs [dado0583] [ In reply to ]
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It is my understanding that you only need 5 from USAT certified programs. I believe that our FIST course is worth 10, but of course that is not free either. Not sure you can get free credits anywhere, unless you are in a profession where some classes are included. Like the other poster, i was a lifeguard, and we took a ton of classes that could be considered credits. And we get free CPR training, you have to up that every couple years too as i understand it, and that is not free either..
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Re: USAT Coaching Certification and CEUs [dado0583] [ In reply to ]
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I think gatorade sport science webinars are free and count. They were last time I re-upped.
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Re: USAT Coaching Certification and CEUs [dado0583] [ In reply to ]
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I forgot to mention, perhaps unintentionally you stumbled on the secret behind trainer and coach certification. The money is in the recertification and CEUs, not the initial certification. And they all seem to steadily get worse about it.

The best one was (and still is) ASCA certification. Lifetime certification and still applies whether you are a member or not. Important to note, ASCA is an organization formed and run by swim *coaches* not the federation. In most cases a sport federation and its coaches goals are aligned, this is one of the cases where they aren't. A coaches association run by coaches would naturally want to make recertification easier, a coaches association run by the federation can be more likely to want to make coaches get their CEUs from the association itself, or otherwise make sure the federation gets their cut.

Another example would be the current one in USAT where the emphasis of the program is to produce coaches for draft legal racing, you can't get into the top level of certification unless you are coaching draft legal athletes. With a few dozen draft legal athletes in the country, and 170,000 or so non-draft athletes it seems an organization run by coaches might add some options for education of non-draft athlete's coaches.

The counter to that is that I don't think NO continuing education is the correct way to go either, there should be some. The asca setup though is that the top certification is difficult but doable. So, there is always a carrot to get people to keep up with their knowledge and continuing to work on new things.

One other counter is that in some situations, the existing members of an organization will engage in rent-seeking behavior - making it harder for new people to gain certification than it was for them. This happens everywhere and all the time, though it doesn't seem to have kicked in at ASCA yet. Unfortunately ASCA has stopped certifying masters swim coaches.
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Re: USAT Coaching Certification and CEUs [Kevin in MD] [ In reply to ]
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Phys Farm certified. That would (should) carry a weight infinite times greater than a usat "certification".

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Re: USAT Coaching Certification and CEUs [MarkyV] [ In reply to ]
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I'll be in Chicago, need to test your swallowing reflex again.
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Re: USAT Coaching Certification and CEUs [dado0583] [ In reply to ]
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dado0583 wrote:
I'm looking on the USAT site and it looks like once you have your certification you have to complete a number of CEUs to recertify (15 CEUs over 2 years for a Level 1 coach). All the CEUs appear to cost money, are there any free CEUs available? It would be a shame if the only way you can get CEUs is to buy specific USAT webinars whereas other learning you may have done gets zero credit.

At $35 per CEU that's $525 over the 2 year period. It's not a ridiculous sum of money but given you need to spend a bunch of money to get the certification in the first place.

The World Triathlon Summit is selling 25 webinars for $50 right now so the USAT pricing is comparatively much higher...

Endurance Corner has a good clinic going on next weekend. 1.5 days 10 CEU's something like $160. Only problem is that its in Boulder so travel might be costly.
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Re: USAT Coaching Certification and CEUs [Kevin in MD] [ In reply to ]
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Yes, Gatorade Sports Science Institute continuing education credits do count. They are still free and now they are USAT approved. Several new ones were added this year, too. Look for the USAT logo on the website. Here is the link to the continuing ed site.

Matt
(I work at GSSI)
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Re: USAT Coaching Certification and CEUs [dado0583] [ In reply to ]
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dado0583 wrote:

The World Triathlon Summit is selling 25 webinars for $50 right now so the USAT pricing is comparatively much higher...

So is that like a CEU "grey market"? Capitalism at it's finest. You could almost start a business just selling webinars for CEU's.

I think CEU's from any OSOC member organization will qualify. So if your someone with a USAC, USAT and/or USTF caching license, you can share CEU's between them. Plus just about any seminar or training given by a Level 3 coach will qualify. I think coaching at a coaching camp can qualify too in many cases.

In USAC, if you fall short on CEU's you can just perform additional training/testing to make them up.


TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com
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Re: USAT Coaching Certification and CEUs [motoguy128] [ In reply to ]
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motoguy128 wrote:
dado0583 wrote:


The World Triathlon Summit is selling 25 webinars for $50 right now so the USAT pricing is comparatively much higher...


So is that like a CEU "grey market"? Capitalism at it's finest.

Haha, no. It's just annoying that USAT CEUs are priced where they are.

Thanks everyone for the tips. I think I'll try and pick up a swim and/or run certification to get the CEUs required. I'm just trying to avoid spending loads of moneys on webinars that are a complete crap shoot whether I'm going to get anything out of it; versus; picking up other certs and then getting into re-certification hell every couple years when everything needs renewing. I'll check out the Gatorade units too. I guess I can do one every couple months so that I don't end up panicking down the road trying to get 10 CEUs together
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Re: USAT Coaching Certification and CEUs [motoguy128] [ In reply to ]
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motoguy128 wrote:
dado0583 wrote:


The World Triathlon Summit is selling 25 webinars for $50 right now so the USAT pricing is comparatively much higher...


So is that like a CEU "grey market"? Capitalism at it's finest. You could almost start a business just selling webinars for CEU's.

I think CEU's from any OSOC member organization will qualify. So if your someone with a USAC, USAT and/or USTF caching license, you can share CEU's between them. Plus just about any seminar or training given by a Level 3 coach will qualify. I think coaching at a coaching camp can qualify too in many cases.

In USAC, if you fall short on CEU's you can just perform additional training/testing to make them up.


I don't like CEU's, just continue your education, ask questions, ask why. A problem I see with many that go after CEU's is after they get their quota of CEU's for a qualifying period they just stop. Why? Isn't the point of continuing education to continue education? TWS had some good stuff, some alright, some no so great, but I would say I got more out of it then the USAT level I clinic. Unfortunately, the wrong speakers were picked for the encore, luckily I audio recorded all the important stuff :). Ok I will stop rambling.
Last edited by: bcagle25: Nov 25, 14 12:40
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Re: USAT Coaching Certification and CEUs [motoguy128] [ In reply to ]
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motoguy128 wrote:
So is that like a CEU "grey market"? Capitalism at it's finest. You could almost start a business just selling webinars for CEU's.

There are more than a couple people who make a living giving ceu seminars for the personal trainer industry. Probably not enough to make a living at it for usat coaches, but the folks who give seminars probably make a good few bucks doing it.

There are 2,000 certified coaches, all need at least 7.5 ceus every year. and $10 per ceu is a good rate, most are higher.

That $150,000 spent on ceus every year just for usat coaches, if everyone does it on the cheap.
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Re: USAT Coaching Certification and CEUs [dado0583] [ In reply to ]
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This is all a chain result that starts with journalists:

  1. Journalists convince manufacturers to advertise in their magazines.
  2. Manufacturers convince triathletes to buy gear.
  3. Triathletes convince themselves they need coaches to properly utilize the gear.
  4. Usat convinces coaches they need certification to properly coach the triathletes.
  5. Usat convinces manufacturers to advertise in its magazine.

As long as there is a constant influx of money into the triathletes (ie: they have jobs), the circle is endless and the ecosystem is happy.
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Re: USAT Coaching Certification and CEUs [dado0583] [ In reply to ]
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I know you can apply for credit for anything you feel should be granted CEUs towards recertification. They may not accept them, but I know in the past they did count tri related experience, teaching, etc for credits.

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Re: USAT Coaching Certification and CEUs [ggeiger] [ In reply to ]
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ggeiger wrote:
I know you can apply for credit for anything you feel should be granted CEUs towards recertification. They may not accept them, but I know in the past they did count tri related experience, teaching, etc for credits.

That sounds pretty reasonable.
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Re: USAT Coaching Certification and CEUs [dado0583] [ In reply to ]
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Yea, I think they do appreciate any work one does towards enhancing the sport. The worst they can do is say no..... Good luck.
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