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GOHEAVY.COM Olympic Weightlifting Forum
Re: New proposed coaching and athlete ranking syst
Posted By: Dan Bell (24.165.134.45)
In Response To: New proposed coaching and athlete ranking system (Don McCauley)
Date: Wednesday, February 1, 2012, @ 6:40 a.m.
I am posting this on GoHeavy not to incite controversy, but because I know that no matter what many say, EVERYONE reads this forum, even if they don’t post on it.
I have to agree with Don. This new system is almost guaranteed to perpetuate the status quo which has us sliding down the international rankings year by year. Current Senior and Regional coaches get to keep the title temporarily, but rendered meaningless because they have not achieved the status of National Event Coach in the new system. To achieve that level, their athletes have to be evaluated by three current high level coaches. As Don said in his less than diplomatic way, it is disagreeable, unworkable and ultimately destructive to the mission of USAW.
This plan leaves Senior Coaches like me and Mark Cannella, and Regional Coaches like Don, in the almost certain position of having our athletes technique being judged by coaches with whom we vehemently disagree on technique. We and a few others have been actively working against what many of our high level coaches teach, believing that to be a significant factor in our poor performance at the international level.
Would we have NFL coaches with career losing records constitute the panel charged with hiring a new NFL head coach? I know the analogy sounds harsh, but given that we are delighted when we get an athlete in an A session at Worlds, shouldn’t we be taking some risks with how we do things? Here is Anthony Hernandez suggestion from Glenn Pendlay’s forum:
1. A Local level coach would be defined as someone who has coached no less than one Local athlete.
2. A National level coach would be a coach who has coached an athlete to the National Level, not just to the National Championships but to the newly defined National Level.
3. An international coach would be a coach who has coached an athlete to the newly defined International Elite level.
4. A senior international coach would be a coach who has coached an athlete to the newly defined Merited International Elite level.
I have no problem with the written or oral testing aspect of the new plan. But having coaches who have not produced medalists at the World or Olympic level evaluate the technique coaching of those trying to reach that goal is an insult to people like me, Mark, Don and others trying to change a failed culture.
Why don’t we try the American thing: let the market decide. Those coaches who produce high level athletes and pass the written National Event test advance. Those who cannot produce are left behind or must learn more and try again.
I know that in the past there have been problems with “paper coaches.” That is the area we need to address, not whether coaches know how to teach the “approved” technique. If a coach doesn’t have regular contact with the athlete he/she is supposed to coach, they are not their coach. Finding a standard for “regular contact” is a subject for debate, but not whether coaches who have not produced medalists should sit in judgment of coaches who are searching for ways to achieve that goal.
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