ARE ATHLETICS COACHES WITH PHDs RARE?

Also it's very important that none of these PhD coaches demand that their runners refer to them as doctor.

You don’t need a degree to be a good coach.

Jack Daniels coached many all Americans and multiple national champion teams.

Not so fast, Dr. Joe Vigil, PhD, got his start in coaching first as a football coach then moving on to become one of the all-time best middle to long distance running coaches.

I'm not technically a PhD in Sport Sciences (Running-related dissertation) yet, as I haven't completed my public defense. In addition, I work as an online coach and hold a Master's degree as an athletics coach. If you're interested in my publications, you can find them on ResearchGate under the name Bence Kelemen.

Brother Colm trained racing dogs before humans.

A PhD trains you to do research...

While these days a coach should have a strong fundamental understanding of exercise physiology... that can be obtained without a PhD. Then a coach can keep abreast of any interesting research that is done on competitive runners to stay updated on ideas.

But no, a coach doesn't need to know statistical models and research design and a lot of other stuff that a PhD gets trained in.

Doesn't hurt... if you have the time, money and energy to get a PhD... but isn't necessary.

While

That means if you were the Oregon AD way back when you would not have hired Bill Bowerman. Clown.

are they doctors of philosophy, real doctors that is?

are they _not_

What do you think the D in PhD represents?

Probably not as common as it used to be when Track & Swimming coaches were also PE professors. Perhaps the greatest swimming coach of all time was James 'Doc' Counsilman at Indiana. He was one of the first coaches to truly promote sports science into his coaching methods.

When I was an Anthropology professor (with a PhD) at a D3 school and they wanted to start a women's track program, but had no coach in mind, they came to me (because I was a runner) and asked me to be the coach. No, really. I took the job so as to start the program, on the understanding that if there was interest from the students, they'd go for a real coach the next year.

We had a lot of fun. Lost every meet...they ran us against D1 schools in the area...but the next year, yes, they did hire a real coach.

"In my experience"?!?! What are you talking about? You have ZERO experience as a coach. You're just a crazy person who posts lots of nonsense on Letsrun. You've never coached a day in your life.