In an article currently
in press, "Middle Distance Running: Value of Predictive Testing;
Perspectives as an Exercise Scientist" -- Track & Field Coaches
Review, July 1999, the status of American middle distance running
is reviewed with respect to the absence of World Records for American
men and women for distances of 800 m and above.
Additionally, many of our
American records for the same events have remained unchanged for 10-30
years, if you count junior records.
Are our athletes trained
with state-of -the-art research conducted by exercise physiologists?
Is this research correctly translated
and purveyed to coaches and athletes, and applied as advances in
training techniques?
To what extent do elite sports
teams in the United States utilize exercise physiologists?
Can our professional job description
be promoted to facilitate the addition of exercise physiologists as team
staff members to work in conjunction with sports medicine physicians, coaches
and athletic trainers?
Many of the athletes who comprise
national sports teams train, at least part of the year, outside of
the auspices of the United States Olympic Committee.
These are the questions that have led to the initiation of a general
survey of elite sports teams in the United States that remains in process.
As a discrete group of professionals,
coaches and athletic trainers obtain a minimum level of exercise physiology
coursework in undergraduate or graduate academic coaching curriculums.
Some coaches may have been athletes themselves and opted for the coaching
profession without a physical education exercise science background. Many
of these coaches may report to sports medicine physicians, but not exercise
physiologists.
At Montclair State University
in Upper Montclair, NJ where I completed the Master of Arts Degree in Physical
Education, there is no exercise physiology course requirement for the coaching
and sport administration curriculum. Furthermore, national and state
coaching certification programs and licensure typically require only a
base knowledge of training principles.
For example, licensure for
coaches at the high school level in the state of New Mexico is required
for all high school coaches. However, an individual with an academic
degree in physical education or exercise science is allowed to coach for
a year while obtaining the same, required licensure. This state licensure
must be renewed yearly. The exercise physiologist has
a role in this domain, as well. Perhaps state licensure programs
and coaching seminars could utilize exercise physiologists to enhance knowledge
and seminars offered for coaches on a sport-specific basis.
Certification options
exist for youth sport coaches, through organizations such as National
Alliance for Youth Sport. Pediatric exercise physiology is a discrete
field of research. Can exercise physiologists, who specialize in youth
and adolescents, assist in directing these certification programs, as well
as the course of youth training programs, and do youth coaches understand
current pediatric exercise physiology?
My ongoing review of athletic
coaching and training in the United States was prompted by the viewpoint
that exercise physiologists represent a nexus between coaches and athletes
that is not utilized to the fullest in United States sports.
Furthermore, this involvement of exercise physiologists in the training
of elite athletes in the United States is the focus of my interest.
We experience great success in some sports, yet in the most basic sports
such as track and field , we have not established any adult world record
times in middle distance events in years.
Similarly, many of our junior
and adult American records have remained unchanged for many years.
Jim Ryan's American records from the 1960s in junior middle distance
events remain unchanged. The same applies to the junior 3000
m record established by Gerry Lindgren in 1965, as well as the junior 5,000
and 10,000 records established in the 1970s. As an exercise
physiologist, I am prompted to ask "why".
What accounts for unchanged
American records for 10-30 years in a sport event?
To what extent can exercise
physiologists contribute to proactive training and development in this
country?
These questions remain to be
scrutinized and discussed. An important consideration is that
most coaching creeds or codes of ethical conduct, whether they pertain
to adults or youth, include statements and commitments to sport safety,
training, and use of performance-enhancing substances. Exercise physiologists
play a key role in research of these topics and issues. Therefore,
our position, must be established not only in research, but in professional
sport domains.
Copyright
©1999 American Society of Exercise Physiologists. All Rights
Reserved.
ASEP
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