Coaching Education?

[PVJunkie]

Lets talk about coaching education.

Coaching education is important HOWEVER its cost to develop, implement and maintain will be high. Coaching education is the most expensive, least reliable way to impact safety. Looking at USATF's level programs as a benchmark, it has proven to be less than adequate at achieving even a moderate level of advancement in coaching ability and knowledge.

A single class once a year will not solve anything. Developing the lessons/establishing certified instructors/hosting the classes/travel/meals etc. will add up. Who would be responsible for those costs? Certainly the cost to register would not be free.

A USATF Level 1 school costs 150.00 for early registration. It is a 2 day class so there will be meals, travel and hotel costs. So lets estimate the average cost is 300.00 per coach.

Who will develop the program? NCAA? NFHS? USATF?
How often will a class be required?
Will people actually fail? Or will the person slumped over in the corner be certified because they were there physically?

Jan Johnson took this task on a few years ago (big surprise there right, Jan interested in safety) but the task quickly became overwhelming.

A safer environment, safer equipment and safer rules are different than Mandatory coaching education. One cannot be substituted for the other.

Bad facilities are already addressed in the rules in many ways and its a shame that schools choose not to enforce them at home or at an away event. This is also another topic not directly related to coaching education, although my expectations would be that rules would be a part of the lesson plan.

Discuss.................

[vaultmd]

My observation with coaching education is that people may go to a course, even a good one. Then most go right back practicing the same crap they were doing before the course, no matter how stupid.

As Mike Tully used to say, "Everyone is an expert."

[botakatobi]

Another problem is one tends to listen to the last person that says something to them. This can be good or bad.

In the pole vault, if possible, athletes should stick with one competent coach. Try to avoid every unsolicited suggestions on how to improve your form.

There are exceptions. As technique changes it can be beneficial for coaches to listen to the experts on that new technique. My wife is involved in another sport (dog agility) and puts on frequent regional and national seminars featuring the current world champions who are mostly from Europe. These world champions are evolving the sport's technique and are well worth listening to if one wants to improve.

[PVJunkie]

There has been a consistent message the past few months, when discussing the NCAA box collar rule, that the root of the problem is a lack of coaching education. I was hoping to generate some discussion about this path and what it might look like, cost and how it would be measured.

I am struggling with the idea that it would have a meaningful impact on the safety of the event. Or at least a measurable one.

[rainbowgirl28]

I think at the HS level, that it is best managed at the state level. What works for Vermont won't work in California.

We have a great coaching education in WA, IMO. Is there room for improvement? Sure.

You have to attend once every three years, though you can certainly go more often. The clinics are taught all over the state. I think the cost is about $30. The program is aimed at teaching coaches with little to no knowledge of the sport, how to coach safely. Big emphasis on standards being back, grips low, how to select poles, etc. There is a written test at the end.

We had our first meet of the season today, against two local public schools I've never coached against. I didn't know the other coaches. They don't have a reputation one way or the other that I am aware of, just average joes. All of their kids were vaulting safely 99% of the time. I was pleased

I would not want to see the NFHS force a cookie cutter program on us. The way we do things would not work everywhere. HS PV coaches need to get involved with their coaches association and lead the way in developing a program.

10 years ago, the talk was all about helmets. We were blessed that the leader of our state athletic association recognized that coaching was the root of the problem, and chose to support that route over mandating another piece of equipment.

Accidents still happen. We are one of the few states to have a death in the past 10 years. Some coaches ignore the program or are unable to apply it. But I think our approach is better than taking the attitude that it's too hard and having no program.

[rainbowgirl28]

At the college level, coaches are already required to take online tests for recruiting compliance or knowledge or whatever. I had to do that once. No one told me it was open book. I studied pretty hard for it! haha

I think all college coaches AND ATHLETES should have to participate in some kind of basic education online and take a test. This does not have to be ridiculously expensive to implement.

Perfect? No. Will most of them ignore it? Yes. A step in the right direction? Yes. Something that could reduce the liability of schools and the NCAA in a lawsuit? Possibly!

[rainbowgirl28]

My state HS Association requires all head coaches of all sports to take an online test about the rules of their sport. ALL coaches of ALL sports have to watch a concussion video. We take concussions VERY seriously up here.

[PVJunkie]

Lets focus on just HS coaches. If we get proper training to the athletes early it should carry into their collegiate years.

If the root of the problem is coaching knowledge and we leave it up to the states to develop, train and implement a program, what does that program look like? Who will develop it? Who will teach it? Who will maintain it?

I guess the problem here is, no matter what you teach to the masses there will be some that will continue unsafe practices. I know 2 coaches in my area that have attended lectures teaching proper, safe technique yet they go home and keep doing the same things. One has had his fair share of accidents as well. The lectures were voluntary but they attended at least 3 years in a row that I can recall.This is a good idea but I don't think it saves the event from the lawyers.

[rainbowgirl28]

I've never suggested that it's going to single-handedly save the event, but continuing to focus solely on equipment isn't the long-term solution.

The more we emphasize padding, the more we run into trouble with pits located just inside the track. Soon the lawyers are going to demand we not allow pits near tracks, that surface is too hard. Bam, you suddenly lose PV at 25% or more of high schools.

Or better yet, let's require that every pole in existence be recertified to meet some standard flexing/weight rating system. Oh you can't afford to drive to a testing facility? You can't afford to ship your poles somewhere? Bam we just lost PV in 50% of high schools.

Let's require a new box. Bam 75% of high schools just dropped the event.

The NFHS should tell each state to develop their own PV education program. It doesn't have to be a national thing, I think that would be less effective. Every state association already requires coaching education in a variety of forms, this is not as hard as people are making it out to be, you don't have to reinvent the wheel.

Yes, some coaches will ignore it. Guess what, many coaches ignore existing rules now. Several of the catastrophic injuries over the past 10 years have been on facilities that did not meet the rules, or occurred in cases where athletes were not following the rules.

Pushing coaching education does not HURT anything. It doesn't magically fix everything, but it's not going to cause any schools to drop the event.