My Coaching Certification Shows As Expired. What Should I Do?

In order to keep your alpine coaching certification status, a Continuing Education credit is required every two years based on the membership season.  For the 2012/13 season, coaches must have completed a full continuing education credit (1.0 credits) going back to May 1, 2010. NOTE: Officials continuing education requirements are in addition to these requirements. Officials updates do not count toward coach continuing education requirements. The question and answer section below should help answer questions about this change to the card.

Question: Why is my certification expired?
Answer: Our records show that you have not completed any continuing education credits in the past two seasons (since July 1, 2010 for the 2012/13 season). As a certified coach, continuing education is required every two years to maintain your certification.

Question: How do I regain an active certification status?
Answer: If you took part in an approved continuing education activity in the past two seasons, send record of the activity to the USSA Sport Education office at education@ussa.org or fax 435.940.2790. Upon verification, you will regain your previous certification status. If you have not done any continuing education in the past two seasons, there are many options available to complete the requirement.

Question: What is an approved continuing education activity?
Answer: There are many opportunities for coaches to continue their development and learning.  In general, a full continuing education credit consists of roughly eight hours of work outside the day-to-day activities of your regular coaching job.  This can be done in coaching clinics, classes, conferences, webinars, apprenticeships, or other enrichment activities that involve your sport, coaching, sport science or sport management.  These may be organized by your state, divisional, or regional organizations, USSA, or other entities.  Full details can be found here.

Question: Why is continuing education required?
Answer: All of our sports are continually evolving. We owe it to the athletes we coach to stay current and to improve our own abilities. Whether you coach one-day a week for a 10 week season or fulltime year round, coaching is a tremendous responsibility.  Research continually reveals more evidence of the important role of the coach in an athlete's development, both in sport and in their non-sporting life.  As coaches, we ought to require of ourselves at least this level of commitment for continued learning.

Question: What does my certification do for me?
Answer: The true value of certification comes from the learning and personal growth that takes place in working toward the levels, but there are other more tangible benefits.  In some cases, a minimum certification level is required to participate fully in events or projects (setting courses at races in alpine for example).  It can provide access to certain educational activities, and it provides additional discounts on some products and services. Certification must be current to receive these benefits. At many clubs, current certification is a required or desired attribute for certain coaching jobs.