And why I believe the coaching industry needs to be regulated
Endurance sports coaching is not a regulated industry. This means that any person, with or without qualifications, can decide to coach athletes. There are certain coaching groups, high performance centers, or college coaching jobs that can set barriers to entry such as an undergraduate or graduate degree in Exercise Science and/or a certain number of years of coaching experience.
I believe that athletes who decide to hire a coach deserve to have a safe and professional experience. Coaches need to have a very good, if not exceptional, knowledge of how the human body responds to both acute and chronic exercise. In order to understand how the body responds to exercise, you first need to learn about human physiology at rest as well as anatomy. Building blocks of physiology include concepts from biology and chemistry. Building blocks of anatomy include physics and biomechanics.
I am not denying that there are great coaches out there who don’t have an undergraduate or graduate degree in exercise science. I am also not denying that there are so many other aspects of what makes a good coach – human connection, ability to motivate athletes, workout design, marketing yourself, etc.. However, I believe with the coaching industry rapidly growing in numbers, athletes on the whole would have a better overall experience if the profession was regulated. We play a big part in athletes’ health and well being. You wouldn’t see a doctor who didn’t go to medical school or a physical therapist who didn’t get a Doctor of Physical Therapy, so why would you allow someone to control your day-to-day exercise choices who didn’t study exercise science? Even Personal Trainers at the gym and yoga teachers have necessary qualifications before they can work with people in those regards.
It is with these thoughts in mind that got me curious about what the coaching certifications are like. There are so many out there I could easily spend nearly all my salary on them. There is USA Track & Field, Road Runner’s Club of America (RRCA), United Endurance Sports Coaching Academy (UESCA), ISSA, McMillan, VDOT O2, 80/20 Endurance, and more! I don’t have the time, money, or need for all of these. However, UESCA has popped up consistently from other coaches I follow on social media. I also heard about them from coach Jason Koop when he launched partnership with the Ultrarunning coach certification. I ultimately decided to bundle two certifications and bought both the Endurance Sports Nutrition Coach Certification as well as the Ultrarunning coach Certification. I finished the Sports Nutrition course this week and passed the test to be a certified endurance sports nutrition coach. Here are my pros and cons from my point of view. Keep in mind that I have 16 years coaching experience as well as a PhD in Exercise Science, so someone else may have vastly different pros and cons.
Pros:
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Comprehensive
The course included 20 modules. Each module covered a different topic and included anywhere from a 30 – 60-minute video with course instructor, Bob Seebohar MS, RD, CSCS, lecturing about the material. There was a brief quiz at the end of each module which was motivation to listen to all the material and pay attention.
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Downloadable course material
I have taken many courses in the past that do not allow you to download the course material. The UESCA course allowed me to download all the course slides which was very helpful when reviewing the material before taking the final exam.
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Practical applications
I thought Bob Seebohar did a good job including practical applications throughout the course material. This included discussing sample case studies highlighting the complexity of the human body and how each athlete will respond differently to nutrition recommendations. I found these tidbits of information to be very helpful in thinking about my own coaching and athletes’ experiences.
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Applicable to novice – expert athletes
This course included information that could be applied to both a novice and professional level athlete. A novice athlete only running 2 – 3 times per week vs an Olympic level triathlete will have vastly different training loads and nutrition requirements. Also, a 25-year-old athlete and a 55-year-old athlete with a family history of high cholesterol will also have different nutrition requirements. I felt like Bob did a good job providing relevant information across the spectrum.
Cons:
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Very few graphics on the course slides
In particular, the modules reviewing the different body systems has an overwhelming amount of text with little to no graphics. When learning about physiology, it is really helpful to have graphics when explaining. I know course companies usually need to employ someone dedicated to graphics as there are copyright issues as well as it being time consuming. The course material would be enhanced with more graphics throughout.
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Tested on course material vs. application of knowledge
I completely understand why the 150-question test was all multiple choice and true/false. I was able to see my score immediately and my course certificate was emailed within one hour. The questions were snippets directly from the course material and far easier and simpler than tests I took in college. I don’t have a strong opinion on this but being transparent about it is important.
Summary
In summary, I learned quite a lot of new material in the course. I now feel even more comfortable educating athletes that I coach about sports nutrition. However, if I didn’t have an educational background in exercise science and had taken this certification with the goal of starting a sports nutrition coaching company, I don’t believe it’s nearly enough education or application.