I am a passionate
and caring coach and I back this up with knowledge and understanding. I am now
qualified in 3 countries by the national triathlon governing bodies (Triathlon
New Zealand, DTU Triathlon Germany and Swiss Triathlon). I have a goal that
next year I will have my Level 3 coaching or A licence in these 3 countries, plus
a degree in sport and exercise. I am also a qualified personal trainer and am
very close to having my B licence in Cycling in Germany. I have worked very
hard to be able to call myself a coach and I am constantly reading to expand my
ideas and test what I believe. All in the aid of trying to do my job better,
and it has taken years of learning to get to this point. When I look back at
the knowledge I had just 2 years ago I am amazed at how little I knew, and I
hope when I look back in 2 more years I have the same feeling.
I am increasingly
worried and concerned about the state and level of coaching in the sport of
Triathlon. I believe currently there are more and more coaches that are under qualified,
but for the athlete it is getting incredibly hard to tell who is qualified and
how is not. And these already muddy waters are sadly getting worse.
One of the worst candidate
state of affairs for this is Ironman. They have now built a for profit
triathlon coach training scheme. This is all built around their Ironman
University, which sounds really impressive, and they even have national
federation's support for their scheme. But if you look at the fine print stuff
gets scary to me with Ironman U.
I am going to use
the information compared to the DTU (Triathlon Germany) because I have been
though this system and currently in the process of getting my A licence.
Ironman say with their course you can have 15 credits towards a trainers
licence in Germany. Wow that sounds great, till you realise that it takes 120
credits to get the basic C licence in Germany. I know what is required for a C
licence in Germany and it is what I believe the very basic information.
What that means
is the Ironman U coaching qualification gives you under 20% of what is required
for a basic trainer's licence. And for this they charge you $699 USD for the
Online course, plus a membership fee of $39.99 USD per month ($479.88 USD per
year). To me that is a lot for not much, and in no way can this be seen as
anything other then another way to make money!
I was told by the
DTU that the online coaches' course from Ironman U takes about 15 hours at most
to do. Which means that you can be qualified as a coach faster then a lot of
people can complete an Ironman. Let that sink in for a moment.
Do you think that
this course can do anything other then make money for Ironman? I personally do
not. I hope that now that Ironman corporation is owned by the Chinese there
will be some changes, but I am worried this will not happen. The Pro athletes
need more prize money, this will attract more and better sports people. It is
time that Ironman saw the athletes as more then cash machines ready to hand
over their hard earned dollars to a industrial machine selling us what ever
they can turn out.
Please to not be
fooled by flash names, get a coach that is properly qualified!
My current
qualifications and what I am working towards:
Current:
B Licence (DTU)
Level 2
accredited coach (Tri NZ)
C Licence
(Radsport – Cycling Germany)
C Licence (Swiss
Triathlon)
C Licence (DTU)
Level 1
accredited coach (Tri NZ)
Personal Trainer
Currently working
on: These will be completed 2016.
BA Sport and
Exercise (Massey University New Zealand)
A Licence (DTU)
Level 3
accredited coach (Tri Nz)
A licence (Swiss
Triathlon)
B licence (Swiss
Triathlon)
B Licence
(Radsport – Cycling Germany)
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