PEPonline
Professionalization
of Exercise Physiologyonline

An international electronic
journal for exercise physiologists
ISSN 1099-5862

Vol 2 No 4 April 1999

 

The Role of Exercise 
Physiologists in Athletic Coaching and Training
ELAINE GEORGE,  MA
Exercise Physiologists 
and ASEP member 

The fortunate and timely establishment of the American Society of Exercise Physiologists (ASEP) has prompted an examination of the role of exercise physiologists in athletic coaching and training.  My own interest in coaching and training track athletes further enhanced this effort to initiate a survey of status of our profession in the field of athletic coaching and training.
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.


     

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