USAT Coaching...He who makes the rules gets the gold

Triathlon Forum
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  1. Below is a press release from our friends at USAT

***USAT Holds First Level III Coaching Clinic ***

USA Triathlon held its first Level III Coaching Certification on Nov. 28 in Colorado Springs, Colo.* *

The coaching candidates who attended the five-day clinic were: *Dennis DePriest, Gale Bernhardt, John Crawley, Bob Seebohar, Alan Ley, George Dallam, Scott Schnitzspahn, Ric Rosenkranz, and Joe Friel. *

In 2005, the coaching certification process will begin with the Registered Triathlon Leader, which is a primer on the basic concepts of multi-sport training for those without a degree in exercise science. USA Triathlon Level I and II certifications are needed before applying for the Level III, along with five years of triathlon coaching, a degree in exercise science, service to USA* Triathlon and a proven record of coaching elite athletes.*

  1. The following are the members of the USAT Coaching Commission: Gale Bernhardt, George Dallam, Scott Schnitzspahn, Steve Tarpinian, Bob Seebohar, Neal Henderson, Mike Ricci.

  2. Basically what we have here is a situation where members of the Coaching Commission got together and decided to create a Level III certification with criteria that only they and some of their comrades in the USAT coaching bureaucracy could satisfy. Everyone (other than Friel) who got this certification is either a member of the coaching commission or holds an official coaching position with USAT. What purpose does adding an additional level of coaching certification serve beyond giving these coaches an additional item to put on their websites so they can claim to be superior to those Level I and Level II coaches who are not so fortunate to be a part of the USAT political circle? Why does someone with a “proven record of coaching elite athletes” need some one day self created certification, especially when USAT requires juniors and other aspiring pros to jump through the hoops created by these coaches?

It is one thing for USAT to play ideological political games but it is quite another for the leaders of our sport to manipulate the coaching market and expect that no one will notice. True, many professions provide barriers to entry with certification requirements to maintain market share for current members. But this Level III certification is nothing more than a cheap attempt by the USAT politicos to use their clout to gain an advantage over the rest of the coaching community. This move is totally unfaithful the mission statement of the coaching commission, which is to “promote professionalism in multi-sport coaching.”

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I’ve been a reserved critic of the coaching acredation “system” in our country for while, or, more accurately, the lack of one.

Currently, in order to be a coach, the only thing you really have to do is call yourself a triathlon coach. Boom, print some business cards- you’re in.

I had a customer in my store who told me they were a triathlon coach with 28 clients. They made comments such as, “Oh, I see you carry these Sir Vee looo bikes, I hear they are very popular…” and the person asked me (I am so not kidding here) “What is a Compu-trainer?”

Now, I would presume that someone in touch with the sport enough to call themselves a coach and have 28 clients who apparently agree with them would be well versed in the sport enough to familiar with terms and brands batted around every day in a triathlon forum, bike shop, tri club, whatever…

Right now I feel a primary shortcoming is that there is no formal, academic or scholastic requirement in the University arena for triathlon or cycling coaching. I believe ther actually is in Europe for cycling coaching. Also, and I may be wrong about this- I think in Europe to call yourself a “Cycling Coach” there is some scholastic accredation that has to be earned within the education system.

We really have nothing like that in the US.

Now, there are some competent people dispensing sound and prudent training counsel, some of them on this forum- but for every one of them there may be at least one who is a toal hack with only the vaguest notion of what is going on, a few triathlons under their belt, and the misguided notion that they are a “coach”.

Heck, for that matter, bike fitting isn’t much better. There is no standard accredation for that either yet. Maybe that should be USAT’s next venture!

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The coach was most likely a TEAM IN TRAINING coach.

Paul

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I agree with Tom here. Actually being in the coaching and training industry, as well as being part of the “exclusive” personal training industry I chuckle. There are coaches and trainers who actually go to school and received degrees in ex. phys, biomechanics, kinesiology, motor behavior, phys ed., athletic training… the list goes on… those of us that have go on and get Ms, PhD., CSCS, PES, ATC, PT (physical therapy) etc and actually WORK hard to get where they are. Then there are the “trainers/coaches” who I meet on a daily basis who do not get the education, but merely pass a test (more importantly, they pay the $350 fee) and call themselves trainers…they have no idea or knowledge on functional anatomy, human physiology, program design etc… BUT they are actors, singers, students who say “hey I like to work out” and get “certified”… because they can. Here in New York City I come across trainers all the time with certifications from cert. bodies that I have never heard of! There are too many certifications out there, yes you have the big names, NSCA, NASM, ACSM to name a few of best, but not much structure and direction, anyone who wants to can say the are a certifying body and create their own personal training certification…Not a very comforting thought since these are the guys who usually end up hurting people and giving people who work hard to stay in this industry a bad name. The other day I was on a “coach/trainer’s” website, it said, and I quote “I have no formal education in coaching, I did not go to school for this, but I love it and I race well, so I decided to be a coach”.

Think about it, why would anyone really want to go to school, study, learn, take board certified examinations when all they really have to do is pay a small fee, “study” for a week and take an at home test? Like Tom said, these people who work out, train or may have done one or two tris has the “experience” to be a coach… and nobody is saying they can’t be!

The other end of the spectrum are all of the great experts in the industry. Yes there ALOT of great coaches and trainers with great sound advice and training knowledge, they are the ones who will outright say they do not know everything and you can always find them at other workshops and seminars…the Mark Verstegens, Mike Boyles, Juan Carlos Santanas, Gray Cooks, Gary Greys, of the world…these guys (in the strength and conditioning world) all know there stuff, but always work on learning more and use the fine art of tweakology with each other’s philosophies.

Then you get the trainers/coaches who write the expert books and overwhelm the public with information regarding sport specific strength, speed, power, flexibility endurance, nutrition and rehabilitation. These training philosophies, based almost entirely on the experiences and goals of coaches, body builders and athletes has led to confusing, inconsistent and archaic training modalities with sometimes no scientific rationale to it.

What the industry needs, as Tom says is a formal, academic and or scholastic requirement for training and coaching. To be a physical therapist, you need to be board certified and have an education, to be an ATC (Certified Athletic Trainer, which really is sport specific physical therapist) you need to have the formal education and board certified… training and coaching should be too. It would give allot of validity to the coaching and training industry. In New York, you need to be licensed by the City of New York to be a Barber… to cut hair, but you do not even need to be insured to be a personal trainer, let alone have a recognized certification. Now, I don’t know about you guys, but I have heard more stories of trainers and coaches hurting athletes than I have heard about barbers hurting people!

Makes me sometimes ponder why I spent 6 years total at University getting my degrees, took and passed the NSCA CSCS exam, NASM PES exam, and spend countless hours at workshops and seminars to keep learning when all I had to do was really spend a few bucks and take an online exam if that, get some flashy business cards and a quick do it yourself website, and BAM I could have been a trainer and coach…wait I know why I did it this way… because I actually love what I do. Like Tom, when the trend of tris starts to die down and “tri” shops become regular bike shops again and Tom is still there doing the Tri thing… I will be to. When those coaches and trainers that are doing this for now, just to make a few bucks start to fade away, I will still be here, coaching, training, researching and learning.

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This looks like a dry-run. If I were them I’d do something similar. Put together a workshop for people I know well first, to work the kinks out. Then open it up more widely.

The degree in exercise science seems like an odd requirement to me. Leaves out degrees in biology, biomechanics, nutrition, physiology, lots of other things. But other than that everything seems OK to me.