Director’s Page
By Robert Mitchell ED-CEO
Coach Academy Developments The USA Shooting/NRA
coach certifi cation program was established in 1997 through the collaboration of Howard (HQ) Moody and Bob Mitchell. That program was formed to train and certify rifl e coach competencies, and then later expanded into the pistol and shotgun disciplines. Those initial programs were further de- veloped over the years to in- clude more advanced Level II and Level III certifi cations. Those education programs have certifi ed thousands of coaches and have served our shooting community well. After almost 20 years of
growth and development, USA Shooting recognized that it needs an advanced coach education program focused on Olympic-style shooting. The current NRA/ USAS coach education program has trended to- ward focus on the various American-style shooting pro- grams that meet the need of basic coach education for broad-based programs. USA Shooting’s needs are solely for Olympic-style rifl e, pis- tol and shotgun disciplines with expanded emphasis on the development of more specialized education in physical and mental train- ing, nutrition, Safe Sport, recruitment and retention, program management, as well as other subjects, in ad- dition to teaching the techni- cal aspects of the discipline.
result, a USAS coach proj- ect has not been among the highest of funding priorities. In looking at the longer term picture as part of our stra- tegic planning process, the USAS Board of Directors ap- proved moving forward with an advanced USA Shoot- ing coach program at their Fall 2014 meeting. Mike Theimer, Youth Programs and Coach Academy Direc- tor, has been tasked with soliciting content experts, developing a program frame- work, acquiring a learning management system (LMS), training instructors and pro- ducing pilot programs in shotgun, rifl e and pistol by the end of 2015. I am pleased to report
Jay Waldron, one of the Shotgun coaches assisting in building the program, works with an athlete.
We have a great cadre
of club coaches, but now need to better prepare those desiring to progress to Certifi ed Training Center coaches, assistant national coaches, team leaders and candidates for national- level coaching positions. We will continue to partner with the NRA’s Education and Training Division in pro- viding broad-based, entry- level instruction to coaches throughout the country. Bill Poole, his NRA staff and the
6 USA Shooting News | July 2015
National Coach Develop- ment Staff (NCDS) do excel- lent work in training thou- sands of coaches annually. It is the objective of USAS to offer more specialized coaching education to those desiring to work in the Olym- pic disciplines. There are always more re-
quirements for funding than dollars available, and it has been a USAS objective to put as many resources behind Developing and Elite athlete programs as possible. As a
Mike and his Coach Acad- emy Advisory Team (CAAT) is well on the way to producing an excellent coach training program for Olympic-style shooting. There have been many lessons learned over the years. It is recognized the program must be ac- cessible, good communica- tion skills must be taught and current technical mate- rial must be provided by ex- perts in those areas. Toward those ends, course modules on specifi c subject matter will be provided online at a reasonable cost. A hands- on ground course and co- coaching a Junior Olympic Development Camp will be required to demonstrate that coaches can apply all they have learned in the pro-
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