PoleVaultPower.com

Just a question. What teaching qualifications/coaching certification/evidence of coaching success are required for someone to offer coaching at clinics/camps on a professional basis?? I have the impression that just about anyone can put up their shingle and go into business in the USA. Is this the case?

Well basically yes, the biggest limiting factor is often obtaining liability insurance. Most facilities won't let you rent their facility without having liability insurance.

There are also issues with properly reporting the income to the IRS, but that's not related to coaching credentials.

I don't think USATF provides insurance to camps. I am not familiar with the companies that do.

For USATF clubs, all coaches/supervisors have to go through background checks. All participants must be USATF members. All practices must be registered with USATF in advance. They do not have any requirements for coaching education though.


In Australia, what stops someone with no coaching experience from putting on camps? Let's say they are doing it in their yard and don't care about insurance. Does the government step in and arrest someone that is deemed not knowledgeable enough?

“ They do not have any requirements for coaching education though”. I suggest that this should be a cause for concern.

For one thing it may leave coaches relying only on their own experience to solve the problems they face. Even more damaging is the possibility that if they are never formally assessed they may never come to understand their strengths and weaknesses as a coach, or learn to reflect on their performance. They stay locked into the ideas and methods they experienced as high school or college vaulters. This is probably why I still see film of talented youngsters who will never fulfill their potential because of the limitations of a coach who sill teaches an outdated technical model.

As I understand it – and I may well be wrong –if you want to coach in a US high school you need a teaching degree in some subject. So it would seem to me that at the very least if folk are going to coach outside the school system they should have some level of certification to do so. Now I have some good friends in the US who are successful coaches – but in my view they would be even more successful if they really understood the theory and practice of instruction and had had to expose themselves to a system of formal assessment..

“In Australia, what stops someone with no coaching experience from putting on camps? Let's say they are doing it in their yard and don't care about insurance. Does the government step in and arrest someone that is deemed not knowledgeable enough?”

To answer your basic question – the government is certainly not going to intervene in such a system if it were to occur – although it does try to ensure that every citizen has access to housing, universal health cover and education, strangely enough Australians do not need personal weapons to protect their freedoms – or to ensure the government does not become a dictatorship. The normal democratic processes seem to take care of that. Sorry about the digression into politics!!!

However the questions are irrelevant. I will explain why below. But first I should make the point that anyone who wishes to be involved in junior sport - any junior sport -in OZ, must undergo a police check and gain the appropriate certificate. Incidentally far more stringent checks are required if you want to purchase a firearm.

The reason there are no backyard coaching in OZ is that there is no market for it here in the same way as there is in the US. This is because pv hardly exists in schools here so parents do not feel the need to send their kids for "specialist" coaching and of course there are no college scholarships, so again parents and athletes do not feel the need to pay for coaching in the hope of having their performance enhanced. With no market, no one is daft enough to invest in the facilities/equipment needed. Certainly - unless they are idiots -they are not going to risk teaching an event like the vault without insurance. They can get it through Athletics Australia - where it is astonishingly cheap (A$40)- but they MUST HOLD ACCREDITATION gained from attending a coaching course . I doubt they could get it commercially, except as a personal trainer – where again accreditation is required.

This means that youngsters who do want to pole vault are forced to go to an athletics club - where there are usually – but unfortunately not always - specialist coaches, pads and poles. Sadly this means that far fewer kids – even on a percentage basis – get access to the event in OZ than in the US. However it does mean that beginners in Victoria do get access to coaches of the quality of Mark Stewart and Julian Shuravetsky in Melbourne for example or Dennis Polizzi in Geelong.

Each school or district sets the standards for what they require in a coach. Most high schools do not require you to be a teacher or have any educational background.

A few states require PV coaches to have a special safety certification. Some have other certification requirements, for example in my state, all coaches in all sports have to watch a video about concussions.

for example in my state, all coaches in all sports have to watch a video about concussions.[/quote]

Thanks Becca - apologies for being flippant - but I have to say it might be better if they learned how to prevent concussions. Unfortunately that would mean they would probably to have to ban American football!

altius wrote:

for example in my state, all coaches in all sports have to watch a video about concussions.

Thanks Becca - apologies for being flippant - but I have to say it might be better if they learned how to prevent concussions. Unfortunately that would mean they would probably to have to ban American football!

Well, it's going out to all coaches in all sports, and concussion prevention is more sport-specific, but there is a big focus on recognizing concussions and making sure that kids don't return to play until they have been checked out by a doctor.

The head coaches of teams have to do additional online education, and all coaches are supposed to get a certain number of educational clock hours every few years, although really it's kind of a money-making racket by the WIAA because they won't recognize anything as clock hours unless you pay them a fee per hour

But I digress. That is for high school in my particular state, and you asked about private coaching. No, USATF does not require anything like that. They offer various educational programs, but in any given area, a Level 1 school might only be held once every few years, so it's not exactly super convenient.

All I can say is that it took tremendous effort to get the background check program in place, and it only went live a few years ago. Having any kind of mandatory coaching educational requirement would be darn near impossible to get approved. It's really hard to get anything through the youth committee. I submitted about 6 rule change proposals to them this year and I think the only one that got passed was moving the minimum standards from 40cm to 45cm (matching the change in the HS rules).

I would hope that any parent who is sending their kid to a private coach would do some kind of research, but experience tells me this is generally not the case.

We have lots of coaches because we have many that did the event, know the event and enjoy keeping it going helping youth. If few do it in a country there likely would be few older vaulters around to coach. If only the elite coach counts, then fewer schools would offer the event and result would be drop off in participation. We do see vaulters we think could benefit from better coaching and collectively try and help. There are certifications that are helpful for “credentials” but one willing to coach is likely one willing to know and learn too. Biggest risk I have seen is coaches that begin to feel special or elite and care about their reputation rather than love of youth and sport. They want points and coaching glory. Can be a delicate line. We need to support those that want to do it right, learn from them and continue to build the sport. As a coach, our success is not always the heights one's athletes clear but the enhancement of character that will carry on with the athlete long after their competitive days have passed.

To coach at our school: Criminal background check, online test on bio hazard, sexual harassment, general safety objects and chemicals and AED/First Aid.

My safety problems didn't start until one of my kids went out to a regional legend expert and brought back his ideas.

altius wrote: strangely enough Australians do not need personal weapons to protect their freedoms

The Queen probably got tired of sending ships down there to keep you in line.

altius wrote: Unfortunately that would mean they would probably to have to ban American football!

There is a good chance that may very well happen within ten years. However there is some evidence that head shots to the ball ( European football) cause those injuries too.

Yes, anyone can hang a shingle and start a club with camps and clinics in Michigan without any qualifications. Insurance is optional but obtainable.