They Can Never Take Away Your Education

This letter told the coach that "you will lose your certification level when your membership expires—meaning that you cannot represent yourself as a Level 3 certified coach to parents, employers or potential employers."

This sentence stopped me in my tracks. The message clearly implies that a coach needs to pay ASCA every year. If you do not pay, you will be falsely representing yourself as an ASCA certified coach. My first thought was that ASCA is holding a coach's certification hostage as a means to ensure dollars to the ASCA organization.

I called John Leonard, ASCA's executive director, to understand how a coach can lose his or her certification level just by not being a member of ASCA. His answer contradicted the wording in the letter. He said, "The word, ‘lose,' should not have been used in the letter. Coaches will not lose their certification if they are not members. We just will not service their certification." Leonard went on to say that the letter should not have been sent, and it only went to a limited number of coaches. He said, "It was wrong."

OK, I will take him at his word.

However, the error certainly brings up the next question: "What does ‘servicing' a certification really mean?" So, I asked him to explain.

Leonard said, "I personally review every certification application myself. We service certification files as a service of membership. No one pays for certification; they pay for education. When a membership lapses, we provide, if asked in writing, by an employer, the coach's certification credentials as they exist in the file, and note that at that present time, the coach is (or is not) currently a member of ASCA. While a coach is not an active paid member of ASCA, if they submit educational units or experiences, those are placed in their file and they are notified that we will process them once the membership is renewed. At no point does anyone ‘lose' their certification, level status or anything else connected with certification. We resume servicing their file when they are once again an active member. All certification activities are voluntary on the part of the coach."

All right, I will accept that answer, knowing the ASCA will confirm certification levels while informing membership status.

But why remain a member of ASCA year after year when you attain your desired certification level and you are gainfully employed?

Leonard's reasons centered around advocacy for the sport. But to me, ASCA is all about continuing your education beyond certification.

As an ASCA member, coaches receive newsletters and the ASCA Swimming magazine. More importantly, the ASCA World Clinic is nothing but a hotbed of shared knowledge that begins with featured speakers and flows into hallways and rooms every September. Being a part of this environment is an education within itself and is worthy of credits.

I would recommend that ASCA consider offering continuing education credits to those who attend ASCA's World Clinic. Learning is a lifelong process.

You will also be educated by reading books, watching videos, etc. You can receive credit for this sort of "self-education" by simply sending us an email with between 5-10 ideas that you got from each source. We urge all coaches to get their coaching education from a variety of sources for the most well rounded possible coach education. ASCA Enrichment Courses also typically provide 12 units of education per course and 26 such courses exist. You report results either by providing a test if it comes with the course, or an email as above if no test is provided. Again, tested education provides more education units than untested educational efforts.