RRCA Certified Coach

This June I attended the RRCA coaching certification and in August officially became a certified RRCA coach.

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The course was held over two days in Portsmouth , NH and was taught by Randy Acetta the Director of Coaching Education for RRCA, and has made the most recent updates to the coaching certification course. He was incredibly knowledgeable and I liked his teaching style and sense of humor. Over the course of the two days I feel like I honed some of my coaching skills and confirmed that the principles I was innately using to coach myself and my clients is well structured and effective.

I also have the USATF coaching certification, which I got in the spring of 2013,  and feel like the two coaching certifications compliment each other nicely.The USATF coaching certification  is a broad overview of all track and field events, geared towards high school and college track and field coaches. A section of the course is dedicated to the sprint, relay events and distance events (the 5k and 10k) but is not exclusively about running coaching. A large majority of the time is dedicated to the jumping and throwing events. Despite this broad focus, I felt like all the details of the course were beneficial to coaching running: so many of the skipping and bounding drills used to teach the throwing and jumping events translate well into building power in running

The RRCA was much different than the USATF course. It was geared towards recreational running coaches who primarily coach athletes who run on the road or trail (as opposed to a track). While the USATF coaching certification covered short distances on the track (and considered "long distance" as the 10K), the RRCA coaching certification covered distances from the 5K to the marathon. Many of the same principles are the same when it comes to building fitness and endurance regardless of the distance. The method is similar but the application changes with the increase in distance, which is why I feel it's helpful to have both coaching certifications.

I thought the most helpful part of the RRCA course were the break-out, small group work where we were given a theoretical client and asked to create a training plan. It was helpful to work with other to create a plan and then hear the constructive criticism from the group as we presented our plans.

I also appreciate that the RRCA coaching certification requires that you have your CPR-First Aid certification, I had a chance to update that since I'd let it lapse. It's information you never want to have to use, but is always helpful.

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Overall I thought the course was helpful and well worth my weekend. I'd highly recommend the course if you are looking to become a running coach or improve your own running.

Have you taken and certification courses for running or any other sport?

Interested in coaching with RunFarGirl? Click HERE. You can read testimonials HERE.

--Sarah