USATF Coaches Education Meltdown

I agree that it's about more than just the elite coach and that the other coaches play a role.

I think you're missing the point.

I'm not saying that coaches education is horrible. I'm saying that if our best coaches haven't been educated through USATF, is it possible that it's not the best way to do it?

If there is a better way to learn training or a better system or whatever, then wouldn't it make sense to teach/learn in that way?

Is the coaches education better than nothing? yes. Is it better than just have coaches read some book? Yes. Is it effective in helping coaches? Yes. Is it the optimal way to coach our coaches? Apparantly not.

Think of it in these terms. If all the top runners in the world were doing Renato Canova training, but the HS and college coaches were doing exact Arthur Lydiard training, would you not think...hmmm, I wonder if those top coaches are onto something? Arthur Lydiard coaching surely is effective, it's improving all the athletes, it's better than what they were doing before...but the elites are all doing something different...

Class of 75 is right... most [Division I college] coaches are not rushing out to get this certification. Maybe they would be more receptive if there was time to take these classes, but there is not an off season in a college coach's life - even the summer months involve international coaching for their elites.

If the intent is to get USA athletes to the podium at the Olympics, then high school coaches are absolutely the majority of the target audience.

How do coaches learn to coach? The best ones learn from accomplished mentors. It's not like you can get a Masters degree in coaching... these certifications are a modest attempt to standardize the profession.

Terry Crawford is not known for diplomacy and motivation, BTW. Maybe her intentions are sound (???), but she has a way of infuriating people around her.

Let us also consider the age of the program. It is relatively new, and many (not all) of the "elite" coaches and even current division 1 "head" coaches were well into their careers when coaches ed began. At that time, when coaches ed was very new, the certification was not a big part of the culture within the coaching society.

But it has grown, improved and now it IS part of the culture.

I bet if you polled the coaches who are say 40 years of age or younger, you would find a GREAT majority of them HAVE been through the USATF coaches ed system.

And therefore in 15-20 years, you will find that many (or even most) Olympians will be coached by those that have gone through the USATF coaches ed system.

Many coaches may not have been through the actual certification program, but may benefit from the program indirectly. The distance summits, the OTC programs on the steeple, the marathon, etc are all staffed by people who have also taught or advised CE. A problem that needs to be resolved is to have communication and links to these programs through coaches ed. Steve alluded to the problems seen on the Association level. Regardless of rebuttal from other posters these problems are very real.

One of the problems in USATF has always been people protecting thier little areas. This has caused the current strife and has resulted in many good people leaving over the past 30 years. I'm not sure that Terry can bring it all together. That is what is required to end this disorganization and strife.

Mike Corn is rounding up the horses. The big dogs of coaching education (Boo, Rock Light, Mike Young, Al Schmidt, etc) will be rocking a new joint before you know it that will crush USATF's feeble takeover. USATF thinks there name recognition alone is bigger than the CE institution and the loyalty that it's followers have to the selfless instructors.

Don't register for this years level 2 unless you want to waste your time on an application and money getting a 2nd rate course from 2nd rate instructors if they are even able to handle it at all.

Al Schmidt presentation....

http://www.gillathletics.com/articles/news021302.htm

Your point is?

and so....? Am I missing your point?

There is no way they will pull it off. I almost feel sorry for them. What a mess. The info and curriculum those banished CE educators wrote might be at USATF's finger tips..but believe me..it is all in the delivery.

It is not just knowing information that is important..it is the art of teaching.

pity wrote:

There is no way they will pull it off. I almost feel sorry for them. What a mess. The info and curriculum those banished CE educators wrote might be at USATF's finger tips..but believe me..it is all in the delivery.

It is not just knowing information that is important..it is the art of teaching.

I'd say the odds are even money that they try to do it. They don't know that although most of level 2 instructors who weren't administrators never officially resigned that they have already promised allegiance to the old crew.

It's going to be a massive fail either way- if they're able to pull it off (they've already extended the deadline twice) it's going to be with terrible instructors and bad management. If they can't pull it off because they can't find instructors or won't get enough people to sign up then clearly that's a huge fail too.

Mike Young and Loren Seagrave appear to still be doing USATF level 1 schools at least...

Don't know what that says about this situation.

The Overseer wrote:

I thought that when Congress got involved and we moved from AAU to TAC and then to USATF that the politics would take a back seat, but it is obvious that it has again reared it's ugly head.

Have you ever attended the year end meetings? It is unbelievable how political this organization is. You make it sound like once we got away from AAU that everything has been fine.

For four days each December "volunteer coaches" and "volunteer administrators" take a vacation from their cubicle jobs back home and make emotional decisions about everything from a 5th grade track meets to our Olympic teams. It is no wonder we are in an absolute mess in this country with top-end track and field. The USATF Annual Meeting is a political convention and always will be until the Associations become a small part of upper level track and field decisions. Leave the decisions to the professionals who do it for a living....high school, college, and above coaches.

Here's what Mike Young said over at elite track (http://www.elitetrack.com/forums/viewthread/8995/#76765):

I resigned as Biomechanics Chair and Sport Science Director on the executive board of Coaches Education. I no longer have any administrative duties (curriculum writing, updating curriculum, course layout, course restructuring, etc). I have several pre-existing Level 1s that were in place or in motion long before I resigned and I don’t want to back out on the director of all of them who is a good friend of mine. Unless USATF somehow banned me (and everyone else who recently resigned from the executive board), I should be able to teach Level 1s (or even Level 2s) if I am asked and I accept. At the present time I have no intention to teach at this year’s Level 2 or participate in any executive capacity unless some drastic changes were made.

I think this is the first of the big dogs to actually acknowledge leaving CE isn't it?

You know I would like to support these guys, I have read through all the posts, and I see they are loyal to each other.

Let's not say these guys are just out to help everyone out of the goodness of their hearts. It seems to me they are not just innocent at this point, but perhaps looking for something a bit more greedy like money. You can fault them, but at the same time, we should not just say they are totally perfect and not looking out for themselves. They certainly seem to be looking out for their own selves and not necessarily CE.

There is one thing in this world more valuable than money, and that is respect. Within 3 monthes of becoming CEO of USATF, Craig Masback spent the weekend in Orlando with the CE brass and chairs who were there for a level 3. Brooks Johnson as head of High Performance was in the CE room when key decisions were made. Not just for show at the USATF Annual Meetings. Terry Crawford, Benita Fitzgerald, DOUG LOGAN have been totally absent. They think a few emails are "staying in close touch". Ya, I think the resigned are looking out for each other, perhaps selfish, but it is certainly not about a few hundred bucks a year.

As someone who is on staff with one of the first to resign I can tell you it's definitely not about money. At least not for themselves. The only place money was involved is because USATF is demanding an online course and not providing any financial support to make it. The guys who quit (those who were administrators) wrote and revised the curriculum, made the powerpoints, and handled administrative duties for their area of expertise for no pay whatsoever and they didn't request to be paid. The only time they were paid was for actually teaching and the payout was practically nothing (under $400 for several days work). If anyone wants to claim these guys were or are out for money you're totally clueless. The mere fact that they have largely been silent on the issue is a testament to their class if you knew how poorly they were being treated and how disrespected they have been.

Since there seem to be a bunch of people who want to blame the executive committee without clearly knowing what's going on here's a partial excerpt from a Boo email forwarded to me (there's more but you'll get the gist from this):

Thanks for sharing that. It helps to clarify the situation. I've dealt with Boo, Ron Griggs and Mike Young quite a bit and have always found them to be great. Not only were they excellent teachers but you could tell they really cared about the students and always help me out if I call or email.