It is clear to me where all this proto-licensing and regulation of coaching within the USAW is headed and I thought I would just offer up a warning. What started out as a voluntary program of coaching education is now rapidly morphing into an authoritarian, bureaucratic guild-like structure. The USAW has included its own certifications in the eligibility requirements for selection to international coaching assignments. Thus it isn't what you produce alone which determines your status within the USAW but how well you play the political game. You have to get through their various "classes" and jump through all their hoops if you ever want to coach your personal athlete(s) on international squads. And they have begun changing the contract after the fact when they feel like it, adding new hoops and fees in order to maintain your status including invasive searches by the state. Remember now, sport is supposed to be fun. Now it appears there is some "progress" toward restricting the right of the athlete to name their own coach. Certain coaches don't like other coaches getting what they view as undeserved credit and they want to force their opinions on everyone through USAW regulation. This is clearly a subjective judgment only the athlete and coach can make so the results of these efforts are quite predictable. It can only be used as a hammer to attack unpopular coaches and seize their coaching certifications, a trend well established now.

The bottom line is this movement is clearly a movement toward cartelization. The proponents of these "innovations" will tell you they are merely trying to "professionalize" the coaching ranks and screen out child molesters and a million other excuses to ram their rules down everyone's throat. Some may innocently and naively believe this is all necessary. Some likely are aiming at pure political goals and willing to say anything. Either way, the direction is very clear. There is going to be increasingly more difficulties in the way of rising to the top of the coaching ranks in the USAW. The people who got in first are re-writing the rules to restrict entry and competition. They are small fish fighting to fence in their little pond from bigger fish. They want to force conformity and obedience to their ideas of coaching and exclude any threat to their relative status from up-and-comers who want to do things their own way.

Good luck!

lol. Yep, that about sums it up Arturo.... Arturo FTW!