USATF Coaches Education Meltdown

Didn't Sylvia Kamp just leave a Head Coaching job at GA State to go to work for USATF and now she is resigning that new job???...not a good move for both her & USATF.

I know Al, Scott, and Boo and agree they are terrific unselfish teachers. I learned a lot from each of them. I also know Steve Vaitones and he is a great guy too. He has given back much to this sport through his tirelessly effective leadership of USATF-NE. I'm sure he knows much more about the CE situation than both of us put together. I appreciate that he came on here to offer some insight. Too bad you did not treat him with the respect he deserves.

no she left for a job with ustfccca ... somewhere where, you know, she doesn't have to do real work ... AND where she can't be judged inept at her job by those pesky "results" that cc/track has.

Concerned Coach wrote:

Didn't Sylvia Kamp just leave a Head Coaching job at GA State to go to work for USATF and now she is resigning that new job???...not a good move for both her & USATF.

I personally know most of the people involved because I live and run in New England and I have taken two Level 2 schools. Of those distance was the best. Schmidt may be the face of that program, but his other SEC friends are doing something behind the scenes because it is a well tuned machine series of presentations. Al and Scott (SEC?) do not tell you to have your runners run less. They tell you the pros and cons of mileage from a scientific view. At this level you are old enough to make your own decisions. You chose to leave the room. Maybe common sense will prevail here and fix all of this.

Unfortunately, common sense is far from common now.

Steve has a far more reasonable grasp on the inner doings of usatf, on all levels, than any of us. Most of the points he makes have been debated back and forth between associations and CE for over 25 years. I am an instructor in the Level I and II programs and have been on the CE committee, LDR and the Associations committee. This looks like a major FU from the top down.

It's time for Dr. Mike Corn to come in and fix the mess.

The only person qualified:

Average Athlete

Average Coach

Average Adminstrator

Typical Letsrun poster. Cristicize anonymously. This has been my experience with Mike Corn. I met him at the Baton Rouge Level II well over ten years ago now. He has never forgotten me even though I work at about as low level a high school program as there is and I could never do anything for him. He organized a Level II program there that completely changed my way of thinking about Coaching track and has led to a lot of kids who I coach being a lot more successful then they would have been if I had not attended. I went back to Purdue Level II and Boisie State Level II and found them each to be first rate. I am sure he has done this for little -- probably no -- pay. He did it because he loves the sport. He is not a self promoter and for that reason he is easily approachable. I thought he did a great job. I am sorry he is not part of Coaching Ed anymore.

The mean-spirited , poorly edited, anger-ridden posts just need a quick draw on the flusher. That will clear the air. They stink up the place. Does anyone even give them a second thought? Can an intelligent discussion even happen here? I believe so.......

FLUUUSSSHHHHH! Ahhhhhh......

The mean-spirited , poorly edited, anger-ridden posts just need a quick draw on the flusher. That will clear the air. They stink up the place. Does anyone even give them a second thought? Can an intelligent discussion even happen here? I believe so.......

FLUUUSSSHHHHH! Ahhhhhh......

The mean-spirited , poorly edited, anger-ridden posts just need a quick draw on the flusher. That will clear the air. They stink up the place. Does anyone even give them a second thought? Can an intelligent discussion even happen here? I believe so.......

FLUUUSSSHHHHH! Ahhhhhh......

Asleep in Boise wrote:

I went through the school and liked it. Name another olympic sport that offers this kind of school to high school and college coaches?

Pretty much every NGB does coaching education available to anyone (higher levels may have restrictions).

More questions... wrote:

Steve, I can see this point of view, BUT...

1. How has USATF supported the Coaches Education program in terms of real funding?

2. What is the pay for the national CE coordinator?

3. Are we asking busy people with demanding jobs to organize a world class curriculum in their spare time, and then criticizing them when we don't give them the resources to carry it out?

4. Do you know how much money it costs to develop on-line learning software? (Full disclosure: My wife is a professional education online learning developer. It's not cheap.)

5. How much money has USATF allocated to such development?

If the program comes across as half-assed, maybe it's because it's gotten half-assed support. The bottom line is the product you got in the classroom was an incredible value, BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT MATTERED.

1) The coaching education program should easily pay for itself. It does at other NGBs.

2) No idea.

3)That is why it should be a full time position. I cannot think of a NGB that has volunteers doing that job. (And I do know a bit about the NGB/USOC coaching education programs).

4) Nonsense. The cost is in developing the curriculum, not the service to provide it. USATF could easily partner with a university to serve as the portal. Why pay to build an infrastructure that most large universities have in place?

Denizens of Letsrun.com,

Obviously the topic of Boo Schexnayder's and Mike Corn's departures from Coaches Education (as well as other coaches) has been hotly discussed on this thread. Our Director of Coaching, Terry Crawford, wanted to comment especially on Boo and Mike. Understand that Coaches Education will continue, and grow. USATF knows how important good, well-educated coaches are to the sport. Change can make people nervous, but "different" isn't necessarily "worse." Stay tuned.

A MESSAGE FROM USATF DIRECTOR OF COACHING TERRY CRAWFORD ON BOO SCHEXNAYDER AND MIKE CORN STEPPING DOWN FROM THEIR INVOLVEMENT IN COACHES EDUCATION:

“We would like to thank Boo and Mike for their years of selfless service to USATF’s Coaches Education Program. More than 14,000 coaches have gone through our program since it began, and in recent years, Boo and Mike have done a tremendous job of shaping the curriculum and managing our schools. We greatly appreciate their contributions, and we look forward to an exciting next phase of our coaching development efforts. Coaches are our most important resource for developing athletes, from youth through the professional ranks. The opportunity to bring on new talent will continue to move Coaches Education forward, on Levels I, II and III, and ensure that we are on the cutting edge of coaching theory and practice.”

Terry Crawford was one in a large group of TAC members who was strongly opposed to the coaching education program in the beginning. There were many reasons, a major problem for them was there would be not grandfathering into the program, even the initital intructors were taken thru the entire program by Vigil. I know there were personality conflicts with many of the origional instructiors and the TAC faction against the coaching ed. program. It has taken Terry along time, but she finally got her hands on it, and look what has already begun to happen, her tenure will parallel what she did with women's development.

so i was planning on going to st louis in a few weeks for the level 1 clinic. should i still go?

old track-

Thanks for the info. That makes things much more clear. I wasn't around back then so I didn't know the whole story but here's what I have gathered from the recent meltdown along with some facts to clarify some previously mentioned misconceptions.

The meltdown is due to Crawford and other 'higher ups' trying to circumvent pre-existing plans for curriculum and program development, place priority on brand new projects (like a youth level 2) or pre-existing projects that never got anywhere because USATF didn't support them (namely making level 1 web based), and snatch remove authority from those selfless coaches who have . Those involved were being asked to do more with less and give up control in the process to those who have at least a minimal hand in the current development of the very successful coaches ed program.

Now time for facts:

-Coaches ed is self-supporting

-Contrary to what Steve said lists of level 1 instructors are readily available through the level 1 coordinator

-Contrary to what Steve said coaches ed gives plenty of room for associations to turn down 'outside' requests to host level 1s. The reality is that 99% of the associations NEED to have outside groups host level 1s because they don't / can't organize it themselves.

-Those mentioned who resigned will not be teaching at this year's level 2 unless something should change. That means the top jumps instructor in the history of the program is gone, the head physiology teacher is gone, the only biomechanics instructor is gone, over half of the endurance curriculum staff has resigned, the only school director of the last 10+ years is gone, and the director of the youth level 2 (which was to be held for the first time in July) is gone.

-Contrary to what may be believed, content development for an online course is very expensive and it's not just a matter of using a universities resources. Using a universities hosting or software has been discussed for years but nothing came of it because of in-fighting and lack of support. To make the content relevant and something that would meet today's standards for online teaching, it would cost approximately 12-20 thousand dollars. That could quite easily be recouped over time but it's clearly a large initial cost that would need the support of the governing body.

-None of the exec board or other level 2 teachers make anything beyond per diem, an extremely low honorarium and travel to go and spend a week of there time teaching track coaches. These people do it for the love of it and only have the best interest of the program in mind. This cannot be said for those currently trying to force themselves in to position of authority.

-The youth course is being forced on the executive board despite ongoing concessions to the youth organization over the years by the CE exec board. Youth complained about not being able to attend level 2 because of schedule conflicts but when level 2s were hosted at other times of the year outside of their competitive schedule very few youth coaches attended. Then they complained that they should have their own curriculum and be able to staff their level 2 with their own people. There's no precedence for this and ignores the long-standing way that instructors and curriculum writers have been selected for the 25+ years of CE.

-The online course is being forced down the throat of the CE executive board without providing the support necessary to actually do it professionally. Putting powerpoint slides online does not constitute an online school and would lessen the quality of education but that's essentially what USATF higher ups were demanding.

-Very few other NGBs have a CE program that is as extensive as USATFs. USATFs is both the cheapest (to make it available to all) and most thorough. USA triathlon is about the only other NGB that can compare. The IAAF course and the Canadian CE programs for track and field are the bench mark programs right now.

Here's a comment made by super coach Jay Johnson on the link posted earlier in this thread:

Read original here

Usher:

There's always that one person

that will always have your heart

You never see it coming cause

you're blinded from the start

Know that you're that one for me,

it's clear for everyone to see

Ooh baby, you will always be my boo

Jermaine Depri

I don't know about y'all

but I know about us and uhh

it's the only way we know how to rock (repeat)

Usher Verse

Do you remember girl, who was

the one who gave you your first kiss

Cause I remember girl who was the one

who said put your lips like this

Even before all the fame and people screaming your name

Girl I was there and you were my baby

Chorus 1:Usher

It started when we were younger and you were mine (my boo)

Now another brothers' taken over but its'

still in your eyes (my boo)

Even though we use to argue it's alright

(it's alright girl, that's okay)

And if we haven't seen each other in a while,

but you will always be my boo

Chorus 2: Beyonce

I loved you when we were younger you were mine

And when I see from time to time I still feel like,

And if I see you no matter how I try to hide

And even though there's another man who's in my life, you will always be my boo

Beyonce Verse

Yes I remember boy, cause after we

kissed I'm never gonna whipe my lips

Yes I remember boy,

that you were the one I would grow old with

Even before all the fame and people screaming your name

Boy I was there and you were my baby

Chorus 1: Usher

It started when we were younger and you were mine (my boo)

Now another brothers' taken over but its'

still in your eyes (my boo)

Even though we use to argue it's alright

(it's alright girl, that's okay)

And if we haven't seen each other in a while,

but you will always be my boo

Chorus 2: Beyonce

It started when we were younger and you were mine (my boo)

And see from time from time i still feel like(my boo)

See no matter how i try to hide

(it's alright now, it's okay)

even though there's another man in my life

you will always be my boo

Bridge

My ooh my ohh my ohh my ohh my boo (repeat)

Usher

It started when we were younger and you were mine (my boo)

Now another brothers' taken over but its'

still in your eyes (my boo)

Even though we use to argue it's alright

(it's alright, it's okay)

And if we haven't seen each other in a while,

but you will always be my boo