arguably best tri coaches in world have neither. Brett Sutton, Siri Lindley... So save yourself money from the certification scam.

Have you ever coached before?
Why do you want to be a coach?
Are you looking to be a full or part time coach?
Will you still compete as a coach?
During your 6 years of triathlon racing experience did you have a coach or were you self-directed? Do you have any other athletic experience?
If you were coached before, was it in person or done remotely?
Do you think you’ll be qualified to coach once you get a certification?
Have you reached out to any experienced coaches to ask if they will mentor you first?

Tim

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

If you can do your level 1 in person or at least do your volunteer hours at an Olympic training Center then hands down do it, I did my 20 hours at the NTC in Victoria back in 2003, Exposure for a brief period to some of the best coaches on the planet coaching some of the best athletes.

I honestly wouldn’t get your hopes up, with the rest of the certifications, level 1 is often required for insurance purposes...but I would do a bit of research on how/when you are covered and what has specifically changed in your area in regards to covid.

Maurice

I will be mentored by a pro triathlete/coach and his team of coaches for 1 year before coaching on my own. For our coaching team a certification is required. As for myself, I hired a coach last year but after a few months I realized that I enjoyed creating my own training plan so I returned to self coaching. I have performed very well in my own racing and combined with my degree in exercise science I believe I am prepared to coach others. I am looking for a certification to boost my knowledge and preparation and possibly also help for marketing (listing my name in coach databases).

These are great questions.

Another I'd throw in would be "who are you hoping to coach?"

I've considered getting the USAT level 1 since it's offered virtually now, not because I think all of a sudden I think it will give me a ton of knowledge to be a coach (The knowledge has come from my past 10+ years in triathlon, having a coach, seeing failures and success through trying different things, seeing what made people burnout...etc) but more of I'd like to target coaching relatively new people in completing triathlons of different distances. I really don't have an interest in coaching someone targeting a KQ or at that level of competition at this point and there are more qualified coaches than me to do that. For the target group I'd want to coach I really think that they'd put more weight on a certification than ot having one and not understand that the knowledge they are hoping to access comes from experience and not sitting in a class.

Additional contrarian advice...

Unless you have a strong swimming background, and can teach people to swim - not just race, I'd suggest at least looking at USMS/USA Swimming/ASCA certifications to have an appreciation of what goes on with swimming. My N=1 observation is too many coaches I have seen are all about surviving the swim and smashing the bike.

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#swimmingmatters
Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
The Doctor (#12)

I took the USAT Level 1 back in January.

It was great bc I got a lot of work done that I probably wouldn't have done otherwise since I was sitting in class a fair bit. Now none of what I got done was really tri related other than athlete schedules.

Did it teach me how to coach, or instruct or convey knowledge or answer the why behind how I coach? No. It was geared towards new to coaching/novice coaches.

They did do a lot of hands on stuff which was cool. I got to work w/the Podium 2020 kids who are extremely high level athletes. Not everyone in the class wanted to work with them for that same reason.

We also had the Level 3 candidates as instructors and some were great, some were good and a few were just mailing it in.

Fundamentally did that class do anything to help anyone become a competent coach? Probably not. Maybe it helped some people learn some new skills or drills to take back to whomever they worked with. It didn't help anyone answer the why am I going to do what I'm going to do question(s) regarding season set up, periodization to day in day out workouts

Think of any L1 course as your HS diploma. As you take more advance courses you may think of them as an undergrad degree or an internship.

The real learning takes place by working with athletes, or grabbing a few beers then talking with other coaches about what they are seeing/doing, writing schedules, getting athlete feedback, reading, studying, sharpening your game, expanding your knowledge base etc.

I look back to what I was doing as a coach 18-23 or 10-15 years ago and cringe, heck even 5 years ago I cringe when thinking about some things. Yet those cringe worthy moments are learning steps on the path to becoming a better coach.

The TLDR L1 or IMU certification is but the door mat in front of the door you need to walk through only to realize there's a whole world you still need to start learning about

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

I'm all for being a strong swimmer as possible as a triathlete, but for the majority of AG triathletes, they just don't have enough time to do what it takes to become a 'real' swimmer (like compared to a true competitive pure swimmer).

Most AG triathletes are lucky to even get 3 hrs of swimming per week. 1 hr/week is not uncommon. At that point, as a tricoach, you are limited to just surviving the swim as best as possible.

Heck, even if you had 5hrs/wk to train a typical random AG triathlete, even that isn't enough to get the vast majority of them to compete against adolescent kids on a serious swim squad.

Brian,
Was this not the basic foundation of each coach's presentation in the USAT course you attended?

Ian

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Ian Murray
http://www.TriathlonTrainingSeries.com
I like the pursuit of mastery
Twitter - @TriCoachIan

It really didn't seem like it. Mostly bc 1/3 of the class had never coached before, 1/3 of the class coached themselves and maybe 1-2 others and 1/3 of the class were actually coaching and most of that group for <5 years.

There were some sections that were good yet in some of the skills sections there were people who couldn't do the skill, didn't understand the skill being taught trying to then teach it. The L3 candidate who was supposed to be helping oversee / teach that section was not helping anyone achieve, learn or teach that skill.

I fully acknowledge that designing a L1 course is a tough endeavor bc there are people in there who had coached pro athletes to top 3 overall 70.3 & IM podium finishes and/or had athletes in their respective country's pipeline for the 2016 Olympics like myself and people who have never coached anyone in anything.

If it's designed to cater to the longest tenured coaches in the course and you'll lose 75+% of the people there. You design it to cater to the newest potential coaches and you'll lose 30% of the people there.

I learned more from talking with coaches at Endurance Exchange than I taking the L1 course and talking with the L1 candidates there.

In all honesty when USAT makes someone like Clif English sit through the L1 course bc he let his lapse, that's just fucking dumb on USAT's part

There should be a way for skilled coaches with some tenure to not have to sit through what is at best for them a colossal waste of time.

Don't even get me started on that pre course that we had to take.

I put all this & probably a fair bit more on my feedback form.

If you ever want to chat 1 on 1 with me about it LMK, happy to chat

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

You're dead on about the split - there's such a wide range in the room that it's impossible to do 90min on a subject and satisfy everyone. I've lead L1 and L2 certs for USAT of over decade and my plan was always simple: start at the bottom for the new coaches in the room, after a short while step of the level of info for the modestly experienced folks, and keep a close watch on guys like you for the eyeball glaze and bring you in for more a discussion rather than lecture. The only way to make if work was to research every name in the class in the days prior to the clinic and then do a very targeted intro so that I could assess who's at what level in their coaching career. It was manageable when we had classes of 20-25 but there were days at 44 that were such hard work.

I try really hard to relate to all ends of the spectrum - and what makes it easier is the CEUs I need to chase to keep my L3. I still go to something like a USMS L1 and 80% is either stuff I know or - heaven forbid slightly disagree with - and I try to stay grateful for the 20% that I don't know - and there's ALWAYS stuff I don't know. I really want to do a USTF coaching cert for the run portion and I know I'm gonna have to make it through javelin/shot/discuss/triple jump stuff that has little to do with triathlon. But even from those you can often capture aspects of human movement that can be applied to swim/bike/run. So much depends upon the teacher leading the course. Once and a while I take a one hour private in something where I have zero background (tennis, golf, would love to find a jai alai instructor one day) just so I can experience the receiver side of the equation. It helps me immensely.

Over the years I've watched coaches who got super close to USAT and how many of them got chewed up and spat out (mostly of their own doing). I feel like my connection is slipping of late - we'll see after we find a COVID balance. If I get called back in I'll touch base to get a fresh perspective.

Ian

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Ian Murray
http://www.TriathlonTrainingSeries.com
I like the pursuit of mastery
Twitter - @TriCoachIan

Oddly I've talk with 2 coaches lately who mentioned this same thing. I have some thoughts on the matter since they mimicked each other in what they said and to my knowledge don't really know each other.

Interesting.

This post of yours was a great post as well !

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

There really needs to be a certification and qualification body that is separate from USAT. Their incentives seem a little skewed towards minting as many coaches as possible.

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

QFT

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Has anybody gone through Ironman U?

I was asked to go through it during beta before it went live and share my opinions. I'm all about education and I don't think there's a bag course in the world - by that I mean you can learn something from nearly everything. Anybody can learn a lot via IMU and there are some really good coaching minds behind it. I do have two chief complaints: 1) safety is the coach's primary job and the first step of the safety process is that the coach is not a scumbag. Those get weeded out with background checks. The second step of the safety process is teaching coaches about predatory behavior - not just how not to be a predator, but also how to ID other potential predators in sport (PS this aint just about youth and junior). USAT does background checks and is mandated by the USOC to have their coaches go through SafeSport. Those foundational aspects are critical and they are missing at IMU. 2) As I was chugging along leading coaching ed for USAT I was thinking "this is really good...and what would make it better is practical education". When we launched Slowtwitch Coaching is was committed to getting the coaches up off their buts, out of the meeting room, and out into the field working with real athletes at all levels. The Slowtwitch Coaching Swim Cert is ~4 hours of power point and ~8 hours of coaching real swimmers from the pool deck and in the water (over two days). The Slowtwitch Coaching Run Cert is the ~4 hours of ppt and ~8 hours at the track coaching real runners. The Slowtwitch Coaching Bike Cert is ~4hrs ppt and ~8hrs on the bike on grass, in a parking lot learning bike skills and how to teach them. The Slowtwitch Coaching Power Cert is ~4hr ppt and then ~8hrs of putting an athlete through an FTP test, mapping out zones, meeting with power meter manufactures (nearly all of them) on how their device works, what is the cost, why they thing theirs is better than the competitors, etc. Okay so here's my point.... USAT was doing this good thing in person and what I felt was needed was more practical - IMU goes the other way, the presentations are tapped, you can't stop the expert/teacher/coach and say "hold up, when you say tempo what does that mean to you because heard in context tempo seems to have at least 4 different definitions?". or "Doesn't catch up drill cause as many problems as it solves?". or "can we discuss the concept of perfect circles on the bike because I have questions about the validity?" etc. I want that exchange in all teaching/learning situations.

Ian

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Ian Murray
http://www.TriathlonTrainingSeries.com
I like the pursuit of mastery
Twitter - @TriCoachIan