Education experience?

[ashcraftpv]

My best friend was the vault coach at Carmel up until a couple of years ago.....small world

[vcpvcoach]

I met him at our Sectional meet. Seems like a nice guy and a knowledge coach.

He understood my pain when I brought up the lack of pole we have. Hard to coach with only seven usable poles. I did surprise him that was able to ten new ones. Altuis buy four get the fifth free really sold the AD.

Where is he coaching these days? I got to coaching and forgot to ask.

[slowest5.50]

I have been very fortunate to have great coaching throughout high school and at the college level. Because of this I was able to get out of high school, earn a college degree, master’s degree, and a Principal’s license. All of this because of running down the runway with a pole and jumping over a bar! At the high school level Rick Rogers, Gary Hunter, and Brian Kimball, who were all college vaulters, gave me the guidance to stay in school and work hard on the technical part of the vault. We all knew I wasn’t going to be the fastest or strongest vaulter, so they taught me the value of a strong work ethic and an understanding of how to plant and swing. At the University of Illinois Jerry Clayton, Lane Lohr, and Chris Leeuwenburgh coached me. Again, all great coaches who gave me the knowledge and opportunities to improve in the vault and in the classroom. After teaching 14 years and coaching at the high school level, I’m now the Athletic Director at a high school with 2,300 students. I never expected to go to college until the opportunity to vault at the next level was within sight. Without all of these great coaches and the opportunity to pole vault I don't know what my profession would be right now. I coach and give back to the pole vault because of what the pole vault gave me!
High School 16'6"
College 18' 1/2"

[baggettpv]

Hey,
My original post was an inquiry as to the teaching background (formal) of the coaches that read this board. Again, I am a 25 year Vocational teacher with experience (teaching) in Middle/High school Math thru Trig. I am up to date in at least 10 different teaching stratagies, 7 Intelligences, Problem Based Learning, Inquiry Learning and the New Urban schools. So my question to you Altius, is whats your educational background? Not how high you vaulted either!! It doesn't count as to your credential for being a good TEACHER.

Rick Baggett
WSTC LLC

[Barto]

USATF Level I
USATF Level II Jumps
USATF Level II Multis (back when they sort of meant something)
USATF Lead Instructor Cert.
BS - Liberal Arts/Business
MA - English - Modern American Lit

3 years classroom teaching experience at the university level
2 years classroom teaching experience at the high school level
12 years teaching experience on the track

My teaching methods on the track are very similar to the ones I use in the classroom. Break down the skill set to it's most basic components and then practice those components over and over.

[slowest5.50]

Level I
6 years teaching Elementary Physical Education
8 years teaching High School Physical Education + Weight Training
BS in Kinesiology
MS in Administration
14 years coaching High School

My teaching and coaching philosophy is based on an emphasis of developing a strong work ethic and technical improvements. I like to break down the vault and teach the parts with drills and analysis of film to see how the parts make the bigger picture. I have been blessed with having kids who are willing to put in the time to develop their skills and are willing to work hard.

[vcpvcoach]

Hey,
My original post was an inquiry as to the teaching background (formal) of the coaches that read this board. Again, I am a 25 year Vocational teacher with experience (teaching) in Middle/High school Math thru Trig. I am up to date in at least 10 different teaching stratagies, 7 Intelligences, Problem Based Learning, Inquiry Learning and the New Urban schools. So my question to you Altius, is whats your educational background? Not how high you vaulted either!! It doesn't count as to your credential for being a good TEACHER.

Rick Baggett
WSTC LLC

I and others must have misunderstood the purpose of this posting.

But, let me pose another question, Because you are a teacher, does that make you a better coach?

I'm a walk-on coach who got married and never finshed college. That makes me a second class citizen here in IL as their bylaws state that school must hire a teacher first, then a person with a teaching credentals, and, finally, a coach who has taken $400 of class in coaching.

I'm standing on the outside at seed meeting as all on the other coaches talk about teaching and school politics. I still see a few these coach/teachers coaching a "grip it and rip it" style of vault. Scary!!!!

I will give you teachers that coach have a better understanding of students in their schools but after a couple of years, I get to know the kids. My program is as strong as the schools that we compete against.

If I've offended you, I apologize. This was not my intention. This is just an observation that I have seen as someone outside of the daily school routine.

[master]

Hey,
My original post was an inquiry as to the teaching background (formal) of the coaches that read this board. ...
So my question to you Altius, is whats your educational background? Not how high you vaulted either!! It doesn't count as to your credential for being a good TEACHER.

Rick Baggett
WSTC LLC

There is a nice summary written on the second to last page of "From Begginer to Bubka". If you don't have a copy, or if it is desired, I could probably scan it, convert it to text by OCR and post it. Of course I would ask Altius' permission first.

- master

[baggettpv]

A Generalization:
A certified teacher (a good one that is) has many more teaching tools available to them than non teachers in the coaching arena.
There are always poor teachers, carpenters, pricipals and doctors if you go look for them.

Rick Baggett
WSTC LLC

[baggettpv]

A Generalization:
A certified teacher (a good one that is) has many more teaching tools available to them than non teachers in the coaching arena.
There are always poor teachers, carpenters, pricipals and doctors if you go look for them.

Rick Baggett
WSTC LLC

[altius]

Glad to see you feel stongly about that issue Baggett -not many people put a post up twice to make a point.

[altius]

I can see myself getting into even more trouble here!

Teaching and coaching are not synonymous - for one thing you are usually dealing with different clientele -the coach with a fairly homogeous but small group of committed youngsters keen to learn and improve - the teacher with larger groups of much wider ability ranging from the brilliant enthusiast to the reluctant and resistant learners who see no future in anything.

However there are common elements. The most important of these is the "Instructional process" which is a subset of both roles. I think it would be reasonable to assume that someone who has a theoretical understanding of this process and experience in applying it, is more likely to be effective as a 'teacher' of anything than someone who has not -all other things being equal of course. It is VERY easy to assess an 'instructors' effectiveness - objective analysis of just one lesson or training session would provide enough evidence one way or the other. On the other hand it might take a semester to assess the effectiveness of a 'teacher'. So the better you are as an instructor the better you are likely to be as a coach.

My experience suggests that the difference between trained and untrained teachers working in the coaching role is really shown up at camps and clinics - where the untrained teacher/coach is put into the broader teaching role with groups of wide ranging ability. I also have some evidence that few understand the important principles of small c curriculum development for clinics - another skill a trained teacher would bring to the table.

Dont forget that all professional coaches in Europe have taken a four year degree course in sports science AND pedagogy. They dont simply walk up and hang their shingle on the front porch - to coin a phrase. One of the major weaknesses of the amateur coach education programs run in most western countries is that they emphasise technique, tactics and training but often ignore pedagogy - a situation I have been trying to remedy in my own country. Yes I am/was a teacher.