I think they do teach it in college, I just don’t think most students listen or care about it. It doesn’t matter as the directors of athletics, team owners, and other directors of sporting operations look to former athletes to be coaches. While a former athlete certainly has experience of competing, they might not understand all the little nuances of coaching especially when it comes to motor programs. That requires a good deal of practice by new coach and a great deal of knowledge on the subjects motor learning, motor control, biomechanics, motor development, and sport psychology. All required classes within a college’s PE degree requirement. However these subjects are not fully appreciated in coaching education courses. Even the USATF Level I class is missing this. You have coaches who have level II certificates who don’t understand the basics of all those subjects and are absolutely horrible coaches, but they are certified at the next to highest level as competent coaches. The ASEP program written and developed by a sport psychologist for Human Kinetics doesn’t even come close in a basic coaching certification course.
It seems the focus is on the systems great coaches have produced and if you trained under them then you are believed to be able to replicate this great system into performance. The problem is most if not all these great coaches weren’t great athletes or athletes at all past HS.
Lets name some great coaches, Bowerman, Winter, Tellez, Pfaff, Boo, Lydiard, Hart, McDonnell etc… Hart was a state champion miler and McDonnell a 6 time AA distance runner.
