I am thinking of becoming certified as a triathlon coach (I have 6 years experience teaching marathons and 15 years teaching scuba diving and have completed 8 IM)
I have looked through Ironman’s certification on Triathlon coaching as well as ITCA’s.
Any other coaching certifications I should review as a point of comparison?
Thanks.
Best tri coaches aren’t certified by anyone. Best coaches have athletes on the podium. I’m convinced the certification is just monetizing yet another aspect of the sport in which there isn’t much money to begin with. Find someone to coach. When they place well, or even KQ, they will tell everyone, probably right here, and you will get a lot more business.
To answer your question though, you can look at USAT coaching certification as well.
I am a USAT Level II certified coach. In the Level I clinic, I really did not learn anything (it was too basic for where I was knowledge-wise about the sport). Level II was basically more about “business building” although we had some great speakers. I’ve been through the USAT Elite Coaching Mentorship program (which was fun but just gave me exposure to working with multiple coaches in a training camp setting and hundreds of kids as well as with the resident US team in the Springs). I’ve also been part of the beta “Business Coaching Innovation Retreat” program last fall that USAT put on, as well as seminars put on by USAT (such as the Art & Science of Speed in Kona and same name) “…of Triathlon.”
What I can tell you is that USAT certification while not required to be a coach of course, is more of cert program that can be used as a “book cover” in your coaching business/life. What is in that “book”–your experience and knowledge, are the “pages”–should be developed by your own knowledge and experience, as a student of the sport. USAT can not teach you everything & I found the success as a coach came from my own self-education on the sport. Be it racing, working with others over time, reading, webinars, personal discussions and studying anatomy, dealing with the emotional & physcial ups/downs of athletes to see them through and interfacing with a broad spectrum of individuals. I had a USA Cycling coach cert too but found little to no value in upholding that cert, it was more of a money dump than anything.
You have to be able to listen and relate to the athletes and be on top of their programs. Too many crappy coaches out there. I’ve seen some pretty shady business practices that have yielded some disasterous injuries & results. Your loyalty should be to the clients and their success, not the pocket book. If you’re just doing it as a “job” or for just for the $$, don’t bother, you’ll be called out quickly on it & it will show. There has to be genuine desire to help the athletes or it will not work.
I don’t believe there is any one certification program that is better … (Ironman U is unproven and appears to be more of the same)
In the end we have NO COACHING EDUCATION program for triathlon in the United States. Translated: We do not have an educating system that actually teaches coaches how to teach / coach. All of our certification programs provide a variety of resources that tell you how one might build a training plan, be careful if libale situations, etc. BUT we have nothing that rivals that of say the National Soccer Coaches Association of America OR US Soccer.
For example the NSCAA has week long (not 2 days) National Diploma Courses that are very thorough, include multiple practice coaching sessions that are evaluated (these functionally teach coahes to teach / coach more effectively) and among other things you actually need to pass a practical coaching session, a written test, match analysis, and training session prep to actually receive your license. If you fail any of these you do not receive your credentials. … Prior to attending a National Diploma course you have to have a regional certification OR show coaching experience that allows you the equivalent.
I believe until we have a similar system then no certification will be held in any higher esteem. My suggestion to people that want to get into triathlon / run / swim coaching is: Hire an experienced, well established coach for yourself and peak for an event, ALSO, maybe use the same coach or find a different coach in a mentoring role. You can learn a lot about coaching in this format to give your coaching cert. more value. … I currently have 4 athletes that I coach that are coaches and they are open about expressing their desire to learning he “coaching trade” through our relationship.
Triathlon is one of the only sports I know that coaches don’t move through a mentoring role (Asst Coach) at a variety of levels before becoming a head coach. Part o that is its participatory nature and that there is no established model similar to say baseball, soccer, basketball etc.
May be more than you asked but I hope it helps 
Cheers,
Talking to customers and getting unsalted opinions from them is how all of my friends have come to land with their current coaches. Some found out the hard way by going on a certification or a nice race resume ‘so they must know what they are doing’ approach. Coaching certs are just like a FIST fit cert. Many just get the cert to hang on their door for business and do what they want. Nothing like talking to happy clients with a results driven conversation.
You know what they call the person who graduates last in their class in med school? ‘Doctor’. Exactly. If you are good people will flock to you even if you don’t have all the latest certs. I have watched 2 local coaches build their coaching around this approach with amazing success.
Thanks folks for your insights.
Yes, I understand a certification is only a small percentage of running a successful business. Personality, reliability and what I call 3rd gear behavior are crucial when building a brand based on reputation and word of mouth business. Here’s my TEDx talk on 3rd gear (‘good guy’) behavior. http://realhumanbeing.org/2014/03/tedx/
Btw my target market is not folks who want to be elite athletes or Hawaiian qualifiers. There are a significant amount of people in my circle of business and personal relationships who have told me they want me to coach them. I like the ideas presented about mentorship and structure and “the wisdom of crowds.”
Thanks folks for your insights.
Yes, I understand a certification is only a small percentage of running a successful business. Personality, reliability and what I call 3rd gear behavior are crucial when building a brand based on reputation and word of mouth business. Here’s my TEDx talk on 3rd gear (‘good guy’) behavior. http://realhumanbeing.org/2014/03/tedx/
Btw my target market is not folks who want to be elite athletes or Hawaiian qualifiers. There are a significant amount of people in my circle of business and personal relationships who have told me they want me to coach them. I like the ideas presented about mentorship and structure and “the wisdom of crowds.”
And that is a very sizable portion of the tri community as well so that’s a great avenue. We have a couple of those coaches around here who do it for camaraderie and some basic structure more than anything and they have just as much fun. Heck probably more than a lot of people who make their entire life about the next race. Those have been some of the most miserable people I see around the pool, people who sulk for weeks on end b/c they missed their PR by a smidge or had a bad race they are like energy vampires!