USFA National Coach – “Formal Master Coaching certification from the USFA”

[MdA]

I was reading the position requirements for the USFA National Team coaching positions and I am a little confused by the very first requirement …..Discussed a lot in this forum.

What do they mean by the following?

POSITION REQUIREMENTS
ESSENTIAL:
• Formal Master coaching certification from the USFA or other recognized international organization OR A proven history of successful coaching at the top international levels of Fencing.

What is a “Formal Master coaching certification from the USFA”? Do they mean Level 5 Coach from the Coaches College? Is it a typo…did they mean USFCA instead of USFA? I guess they mean Fencing Master of Maitre d’Armes when referring to “other recognized international organization”

[noodle]

i was wondering this myself. probably intentionally vague.

[AaronK]

It's worded vaguely enough to be useless.
Unless the purpose was to justify the appointment of a specific individual or bar said individual from one of the national coach positions.

[MdA]

It's worded vaguely enough to be useless…..

It would have been better to say something like other job postings asking for certifications or degrees…why couldn’t they just say something like the following?

The successful candidate should be a Fencing Master OR have equivalent coaching related experience.

If the 20K is meant to support a coach/ or coaches who are developing Olympic level athletes on a regular basis, then make the title and the money performance based awards. They are already doing this type of work for their fencers.

[darius]

The USFA has continuously failed to provide a path for American coaches to get to the Master level and they have failed to support the USFCA in its efforts to certify coaches at this level.

I don't know much about this, but have been told by others that the USFCA has been far from blameless in this situation. (I've never asked Michael about it, although he'd probably know.)

Alex Beguinet does run a USFA-sponsored coach development program. It may not be optimal, but it's disingenuous to say that the USFA has dropped the ball entirely on coaching development. Supposedly that's one of the requirements of the Nat'l Coach position, to at least assist with coach development, but we'll see how that pans out.

darius

[Allen Evans]

I would be very surprised if this was anything besides a clumsily worded job description by the USFA, an organization which has never been noted for the excellance of its prose.

[AaronK]

Wendell,
I only have to pick at the statement that "no body in the fencing world knows what a Level 5 means..." [paraphrase]
I will concede that "Level 5" is an ambiguous classification, but other than the semantic baggage that comes with the word "Master", no less ambiguous in what it actually means...As far as the Level 5 designation, as I understand it there hasn't been a Level 5 program at the CC in some time- if at all. They haven't defined what it means for themselves (you can't hold a program if you don't have a curriculum).

On the other hand, there are quite a few other sports (Badminton, Judo, Hockey, and Swimming are ones that I have been familiar with) both here and abroad that use a similarly ambiguous: "Level 1, 2, 3, 4, 5" for their coach-development [+certification] programs. Unlike the current situation in fencing here, there seemed to be some significance in terms of selecting a national coach, working in their high performance programs or in conducting coach-education.
Where these programs are developed as part of a multi-sport NGB or Coaches association (such as Canada) I take it that a "Level 4" swimming coach should be the equivalent to a "Level 4" coach in judo, fencing, badminton, etc. in terms of ability to train, coach, or manage athletes. The certification meant that the said coach had required a particular number of hours of study- theoretical and practical- related to their sport.

As a requirement or prerequisite for a national coach position, it would have served them better to leave it out- if they where trying to avoid a more concrete criterion.

[MdA]

.....

What is a “Formal Master coaching certification from the USFA”? Do they mean Level 5 Coach from the Coaches College? Is it a typo…did they mean USFCA instead of USFA? I guess they mean Fencing Master of Maitre d’Armes when referring to “other recognized international organization”

Got an email today from VP Jerry Benson. Allen was right again. This is a typo and will be corrected.

I apologize for the over-reaction.

[Allen Evans]

Allen was right again.

This actually happens with a frequency that is startling, even to me.

[Jason]

This actually happens with a frequency that is startling, even to me.

Considering your own spelling impairment, that's really saying something.

[Allen Evans]

Get along, you. Quit picking the low hanging fruit and go to the General Fencing Discussion, where someone needs help teaching his student to do binds and envelopments in foil and you can put that fancy European degree to better use than correcting my spelling!

[MdA]

The USFA National Coach job description has been updated on the US Fencing website to the following:

“Formal Master coaching certification from the USFCA”

I would like to personally thank Kurt Aichele, Mike Pederson and Jerry Benson for this quick clarification and their obvious support for the USFCA and certified Fencing Masters from all nations. This is a big step in the right direction for coaching development.

So what does this mean to those in this forum who say you don’t need a US Fencing Coaches Association (USFCA) or an AAI certification?

The USFA obviously recognizes the value of an international certification….as does the 80-year-old fencing club in Copenhagen referenced in the thread below...

Fencing Master Diploma – Need one?

The anti-certification forces have lost some ground.

[Jason]

The anti-certification forces have lost some ground.

I'm not sure if there are any actual "anti-certification forces", Mr. Quixote.
As I recall, most of the discussions about the USFCA regarded the value of certification without any standardized educational system in place (or, at least, those were the discussions I was a part of).

To the organization's credit, there appears to be an increase in coaching training--though, I think it's still far too early to say that the USFCA has entered a more relevant era.

[VorpalCat]

To the organization's credit, there appears to be an increase in coaching training--though, I think it's still far too early to say that the USFCA has entered a more relevant era.

Now if they can spend just a wee bit of effort on little things like letting members know their membership is about to expire. It's such a little thing but I have to wonder how many members are lost simply because they don't realize their membership has run out and by the time they do realize it, well, they've been without it for this long so why renew? (Just thinking out loud, mind you!)

[Allen Evans]

It would be good if FIRST they would work on figuring out who their members ARE. Every five to seven years I seem to have to remind the secretary that I'm a member, and that I have a diploma. The same thing happens to my wife. I can only assume that this coincides with a cycle of locusts who consume all of the USFCA's (written) records.

Since it would appear that the USFCA has reached a critical mass of computer savvy people who understand how information can be stored and backed up, this will stop happening, and they will move forward.

I do see a push by the USFCA to be more relevant to the average coach. I hope that Salem keeps up this pressure.

[MdA]

I'm not sure if there are any actual "anti-certification forces", Mr. Quixote.
......To the organization's credit, there appears to be an increase in coaching training--.

I'm sorry if I appear to be jousting with windmills….I don’t want to seem mean-spirited. I appreciate that you recognize a trend towards more education and training in the USFCA.

Salem has more big changes that will move the USFCA in this direction at the Annual General Meeting and National Conference this summer in San Diego….but we will need votes from members to change some of the By-Laws.

Unfortunately, we have our administrative challenges, like any volunteer organization. Our Secretary resigned again; third one in six years….that contributes to the records problem…even with the help of computers.

Fortunately, I keep copies of every membership spreadsheet since 2002 …so if you ever need someone to vouch for you…send me a PM.

We already have a new volunteer Secretary in place and our Treasurer, Carolyn Gresham, has been doing a great job and has the financials in order. The USFCA is always looking for volunteers and dedicated officers.

Here is a list of past officer in case you are interested….