Look at what I got in the mail

It oofficial I have the cert to prove it! I am a Tri Coach

Take home exam

So I have been tied up doing this take home exam they gave us. Holy smokes I thought it would be easy being a take home exam. WOW was I wrong! I have spent 6-8 hours on this already and that was just on the multiple choice section. now I have 15 essays and sample cases to write.

Phew!

Tri Coach training Day 2 and 3

Well day 2 and 3 went fairly well, lots of good information. the presenters during this session were not as exciting in their approach but the info was great. My attitude could also have something to do with the fact that I was out drinking with a group of the other students the night before, so the morning was a struggle to stay focused. So it didn't help to have a monotone talker. But after some coffee I was good to go!

Here are some Highlights:

Saturday, March 28

Communication, Ethics and Risk Management ( ie Dont get sued!!)
Yep Pretty much how not to get sued and how to protect yourself if you do get sued. IE health forms, training logs etc record what you said

Sports Psychology & Mental Skills

Real interesting. Made a statement that 90% of athletes do better in practice than they do in the actual race or event. This is due purely to how the race stress affects their performance. Made mention that its good to play music when running but not always. there is a mental battle played out on a competitive race that an athlete needs to know how to win. If they are always distracted or need music to motivate themselves then they have not fully been traininging for the race. Not against using music at all but said there should be certain workouts that as a coach we make sure the athlete is not using it Like during race simulators.


Periodization and Planning-Practical Application

Repeat of the prior days work only we got together to build a training plan for a sample athlete. This was good except They used an Elite Athlete for teh example, which doesnt make sense sinse Level 1 coaching does not involve Elite athletes. They gave us a weekly hour range up to 25-30 hours to work with. NO Age group athlete has that kind of time. But anyhow the emphasis was make sure to combine hard workouts followed by a Recovery type workout. Example morning HARD run, should then be followed by a Swim that afternoon since swimming is less harsh on the body. We went over several different means to do a plan, But the key is Recovery needs to be built into all schedules. Improvement comes from Adaptation, adaptaion comes after stressing the muscles and then letting it rebuild and recover. If you never rest, then your body cannot fully recover. This eventually leads to OVER-TRAINING.

Other things leading to Overtraining: Too many races, too many HARD workouts, Monotonous overly repetitive training over extended periods, Stress at home and work are major contributors also.

What to do if over-trained? First get a medical checkup to rule out any medical condition, second Rest! If your race is close as in a few weeks away, then adopt a maintenance schedule to try and maintain your fitness. But you have to work in some rest. Maybe this means an extended taper. If over-trained an athlete will not Improve further but CAN lose fitness. Rest is what is needed. I specifically asked Bobby Mcgee after his session to discuss this because I have an Athlete that I just started to coach who is dealing with this. Who is Bobby McGee? He is the USA Olympic Triathlon teams Running coach and Sports Psychologist as well as a Level III tri coach. Since this athlete is training for Marathon I figured who better to ask than an Olympic Running coach :)

Running Skills and Economy Training
Went over the general skills and assessment of athletes at Running. gave great pointers on drills and such like teh Kenyan Running drills. Other things like fall forward when running, high cadence is important the stride length is what changes when going slow or fast.

4:15-5:30pm Triathlon Specific Training and Key Workouts

Make sure to work in Tri Specific stuff, Like transitions, not just the Bike to run that everyone thinks of but also the swim to Bike, which is generally the longest transition for folks. Also bring up things like have athletes practice putting their goggles on in the middle of the swim. This may be needed if your goggles are kicked out of place. deal with teh stress in training NOT in the race.

Sunday, March 29

8:00-9:30am Cycling Skills

Good stuff and pointers. Criticality of a Bike fit. Make certain to write down the measurements when done. You never know when you will need to readjust the bike seat because it slid down or if you travel and you have to rebuild the bike.

Make sure to do rides in a variety of terrain. to get experience but find the terrain that is closest to what the race will be ( ex hilly or flat).
pedal stroke, work to get power throughout the pedal cycle not just pushing down. do single leg pedal drills. Make sure to focus on the non-dominant leg because we all have tendencies to use one leg more than the other. If you want to see some fast improvement in power, work on the non dominant leg.

Swimming Skills and Economy Training

Again make sure to throw in workouts to simulate Tri conditions. Such as Start with Fast and hard drills, then go to the longer sets. This simulates the swim start which is usually fast and gets everyones HR up. Do NOT send a newbie to a MAsters swim course unless there is some focus for beginners.

A beginners focus should be on Form and technique, and should not be stressed about finishing laps like all others on the Masters team.

Overall I really enjoyed the course. There was such great instructors that were truly leaders in the field. In fact most if not all are current Olympic team coaches Such as Bob Seebohar, John Crawley Bobby McGee ( former Olympian and the teams current running coach), Susan Williams 2004 Olymoic Bronze medalist and the first American to medal in Triathlon. Just good stuff all in all.

Tri Coach training Day 1

Well day one was Brilliant. If you like, scratch that, Love triathlon you should do this course just to get more information that you can use yourself. More notes to come later but here are some highlights! (Note: the instructors are awesome they are the TEAM USA coaches and they coach the folks like Sarah Haskins, and such) What I felt really good about is that allot of my philosophy that I have picked up over the years seems to match quite well. I have been doing the right things so far for my athletes. This is Great news! But I have already learned some other things of what to do and what NOT to do that are really of great help.

Friday, March 27

8:30- 9:00am Introduction to USAT Coaching Certification Program 9:15-10:45am Triathlon Nutritional Strategies

KEY! Nutrition needs to be tied to training phases. We all know this but this was a real good emphasis. And they demonstrate why.

11:00-12:30pm Exercise Physiology

Note: Sports and Triathlon specifically is getting far too tied up with technology. Focus on the basics FIRST then worry about aero-wheels. Far too many athletes use these as crutches and fail to focus where they need too.

12:30-1:45pm Lunch

1:45-3:15pm Periodization and Planning

BASE BASE BASE At some point in the year ALL athletes need to have a block of base training. All pro's do this without it, the body is not being trained properly. But also when going slow go really slow, when going hard, go really HARD. Make the workouts count.

Along these lines there is specificity. meaning if you are running, then run. No stopping to interrupt and do anything else. Your workouts have to have a goal. Pushups in the middle of the run disrupts those goals. That energy you have should be used for having a quality run workout, not spent to do strenth training.

3:30-5:00pm Triathlon Specific Strength Training

Not what you would think, Its more about functional strength training and not Weights. New phrase Neuro Muscular Adaption training. You OpIron and RwP Triathletes Folks, keep your eyes on your training plans :)

You can stop the static stretches. Dynamic stretching is beter and safer.

Tri Coaching Certification

Well I am at this moment sitting at JFK Airport, waiting for about another hour to get on a flight to Colorado where this weekend I will be attending the USAT Triathlon Coaching Level I Clinic. Pretty excited about it, it looks to offer much excellent information. Here is the outline from the agenda they sent:

Friday, March 27

8:30- 9:00am Introduction to USAT Coaching Certification Program 9:15-10:45am Triathlon Nutritional Strategies

11:00-12:30pm Exercise Physiology
12:30-1:45pm Lunch

1:45-3:15pm Periodization and Planning

3:30-5:00pm Triathlon Specific Strength Training

I am interested about what they will say about periodization. I assume they will teach the standard Prep/Base/Build/Race yada yada yada. Also Nutritional strategies are of interest.


Saturday, March 28

8:00-9:30am Communication, Ethics and Risk Management ( ie Dont get sued!!)

9:45- 11:15am Sports Psychology & Mental Skills

11:15-12:45pm Lunch ( What the!! 11:15?! Brunch?)

12:45– 2:15pm Periodization and Planning-Practical Application

2:30 – 4:00pm Running Skills and Economy Training


4:15-5:30pm Triathlon Specific Training and Key Workouts

Sunday, March 29

8:00-9:30am Cycling Skills

9:45-11:15pm Swimming Skills and Economy Training

11:30-12:00pm Certification Process/Exam Distribution (I believe its a take home exam)



Overall Pretty excited about this. I feel this will provide some excellent info that I can apply the athletes I am coaching both for OpIron Multisport, and Race with Purpose ( We have an great program we are planning for 2010)

Now to the real negative, I am leaving almost springlike weather in NY to fly into a Colorado Snow storm WTF!!

So Why do I think this is necessary? Well to be honest I put myself in a potential clients position and you have to wonder what qualifications does someone have to coach? Meaning is it experience? Knowledge? What? Whats to stop a quack that happens to know how to sell from starting a coaching service online with little experience? Nothing really. Well hopefully verifiable certification will help. It tells athletes that I am serious enough about coaching that I have taken the steps necessary to get the official credentials. Its no different than when you hire someone for a job. Will an accountant be a better accountant because they have a CPA? Maybe not, but it tells me that the person cared enough to at least learn a minimum of base knowledge on the subject. He/She had to take a fairly hard exam for it and display some knowledge on the subject.

Well I think this is the closest officially recognized certification(If not the only) for Triathlon Coaching that we have in the US. As such I figure it shows a level of commitment on my part. There is also the additional knowledge gained ( although not expecting much more on the side of planning since I have read just about every book on the subject and have actually used this info for a couple of years.)

Overall I am psyched. Should be a good time.

Ok thats it for now, will keep you guys updated