USATF Certification

I want to become a coach when I grow up and my career is over. How do you become a USATF certified coach?

In college I am going into sports medicine with a minor in coaching and after I get my masters in sports medicine I am going to go back and take classes on nutrition and any other physiological type class that I may not have taken, or had time to take while I was earning my degree. Will taking these classes help out in any way or is the education you need what they give you? HELP!

Thanks.

BTW, in case you haven’t noticed, I want to become a Sports Physician and coach on the side.

Go to usatf.org and see when the level 1 certification is offered next (coaches education). Complete level 1 and then go to level 2 next summer (sprints/hurdles) and we can hang out.

Level 1 is a 2 day class i believe although they offered it at my college for a whole semester and level 2 is a whole week.

Dlive11 can shed some light on opportunities.

I think it was worthwhile(level II two weeks ago-sprints/hurdles/relays) and I came away with some new information/ ideas but it went a long way towards reinforcing a lot of concepts that I went in with. The networking you can do with other coaches and the exchange regarding their programs and coaching philosophy are often a big part of your education. I hope to go level II in jumps or multis next time around. Probably will be in Starkville, Ms. or Tucson, Az next summer. The one in Asheville offered a level I, Level II, Level III, and ITC(instructor training course). Level I schools are offered in all parts of the country. If nothing else, you might view it as a college degree, sometimes just having the piece of paper may not truly mean you know something other than theory or were willing to perservere for 4 to 15(in my case) years but it might open some doors for you in providing a certain degree of credibility.

ahhh, the warmth of Carolina women…so nice…so nice.

I think most of the learning comes from talking to other coaches like KT. The waffle house run after was fanatastic…

Hey! Nobody took me the the Waffle House when I was there!

Kebba and I went to the Urban Burrito place in your honor. I didn’t know what “Charlie’s favorite Mexican Restaurant” was. If you have a seminar here in Boston you and I can go to Fifth and Lou’s. REAL steak.

Well, I am going to make sure that the Waffle House is visited when you come down this fall.
Pioneer hit it on the head with his description. The level 1 school is offered everywhere and is the most basic of information, just to get everyone on the same page. The level 2 schools are more demanding and have up to now, been scheduled once a year. This is going to be changing, and may become event specific at various locations. I will be putting on a level 1 here in October or November for those on the East Coast.

What about on the west coast? I looked online and everyplace this year is on the east coast. When is it comin’ to the west because I NEED to be there.

Originally posted by 400Stud
What about on the west coast? I looked online and everyplace this year is on the east coast. When is it comin’ to the west because I NEED to be there.

If you go to usatf.org, you will see several planned Level I schools, west of the mississippi, including one next month in NM?

How come so many good coaches are not speaking at USATF level one schools? It seem like many do it for resume building purposes.:mad:

What do some of the Boston Brothers think of the level II school? Fluke and Magico…wasn’t it lame? Without Boo I am sure you wouldn’t have gone. THIS IS NOT GOOD FOR THE US.

That is your opinion and you are entitled to it. As you should know, the Level 1 program is of basic nature and is intended to teach everyone from the same beginning base of knowledge. There are people from varying backgrounds (high school educations to MD’s) so it is hard to come up with a program that will suit all.
The level 2 program is set up to teach a standard course of knowledge about a specific event. This is no way intended to be an “end-all” of learning. The level 3 schools are set up to further discuss and argue current training protocols with the hopes of coming up with better ways to train.

The level 1 schools are taught by instructors who have sat through the Instructors Training Course, (which is no cake walk), and who have been deemed knowledgeable enough to teach the material at that level. Some may be involved to use it as a resume builder, but if you can honestly say that you or anyone on this site has never done an act to promote yourself, then that is news to me. I think that it is the same as hosting your own website or publishing articles. These are all things which we show to future employers, which is nothing to be ashamed of.

Although you may or may not agree, this program has helped many coaches begin their knowledge base from reputable sources, whom we may not agree with all their training ideas, but we can always learn something.

my 2 cents…

When you have high school coaches (such as myself) fly or drive to another state with their own money for a week I feel that people are entitled to come back with some functional knowledge. My experience has been fantastic from level one to level III. But, we are talking about everyone as a whole.

With my own time and money I went to Seattle( remember Club Extasy Jermaine?) for the level I school. I learned so much about the art of coaching. And reviewing the foundation stuff about training was great.

Level II- was even better.

Physiology- Great
Biomechanics- Boo? Can’t beat that bad boy.
Training theory- Great
Sprint stuff?-Great

Level III-powerhouse each one.

I am very happy that you are going to be teaching…that is my point…we need people like you teaching the stuff…but what did the customers think about NC?

sprint people were told information that the instuctors did not use themselves…

people were told that stretching did not work…

and so on.

re:self promotion and resume builder

As for myself…if you look a my site notice that I make no reference to who I am. The site has no mention to my name, this allows me to shoot from the hip and speak my beliefs. That includes mentioning my sources such as Charlie. If anyone reads my material I call it and pull no puches. This content is available free to all people and all profits go to an athlete on this site that has a masters degree but he moves frigging fridges and washer machines to make ends meet. I have the burden every day of writing things in hopes to pay for the needed cash for my guy. I use hair color (grey hair) because I know what it takes money wise to be the best and plan to raise it!!!

I also endorse products I use…I could have gone with one company that would pay…but I felt that their stuff sucked, and I didn’t feel right about it.

Of course this honesty of what I believe is not very marketable. Some websites that pay writers to post content are not fans of my material. Since I don’t use overspeed cords or balance boards I am the great evil. I do write for elitefts.com and use my name since it only is fair. The people that read the stuff don’t know who I am, so they need some background to understand where I am comming from. My own site is more underground to everyday joes.

I am forced to get my level III, since being a male and technically not a minority, it is far harder for me to get a college job. So, I will go the swimming track later if track doesn’t work out by going through the ASCA ladder.

Dropping regenerationlab.com or a powerlifting website is not on my resume…

I loved the level three school, but when you hear people during the breaks thinking about getting the instructor school for jobs and that crap, my question is “where are we going?”. I endorsed the NC school, but when I hear over and over again the feedback I felt that sharing was important.

No bad feelings trust me.

I understand your points. I just feel that there are many of us in the Coaching Education Program that are involved to take the program as a whole to the next level and not in it for the money or fame. I agree that there is information in the program that is not up to par, or even useful, but to the instructors defense, they must adhere to the curriculum when teaching in the Level 1 and 2 schools, regardless of what protocols they use. The sprints manual is in the process of being rewritten and the Jumps was just finished (and actually presented here in Asheville). This program is still a work in progress and needs to be supported if we want it to continue down the right path. Even when I went through the school, I didnt agree with all that was said, but I knew that I would gain something from attending, (good or bad).
About self-promotion, I do see that your site has no mention of your name or credits. That was not a slam, just a comment on we are all trying to better ourselves for the future. I too have a website, and am not hiding that.
In the end, both of us, as well as all the younger coaches on the circuit need to work together to make sure the sport receives the best it can. We both agree that this program needs work, but giving up on it does not solve any problems. I appreciate your candor.

DLIVE,
whats the name of your website?