If you are a travel team playing in any ASA qualifying tournaments or may want to play in the MASA state tournament, one coach must be ACE certified and in the dugout.
If you are a recreational team, it is highly recommended that every a coach associated with a Junior Olympic team be ACE certified.
MASA highly recommends that all adults associated with a Junior Olympic team be ACE certified.
ASA/USA Softball is proud to introduce the ACE Coaching Certification Program. The
ACE (Achieve, Certify, Educate) Coaching Certification Program is a brand new certification program, developed and designed to provide softball coaches of all levels – from beginning coaches to experienced veterans – an opportunity to certify as a coach
with a national softball organization. As the National Governing Body of Softball, it is the ASA’s responsibility to ensure that our coaches achieve a certain level of understanding of what their duties are as coach of a youth softball team. The ACE Certification videos and the ACE Certification Manual are practical guides to the everyday situations you will encounter as a youth softball coach. After obtaining your ACE certification, you will be well prepared to coach a youth softball team.
The guiding principles behind the ACE Coaching Certification Program are:
A-chieve: A certain level of knowledge.
C-ertify: To confirm that a coach has obtained a level of understanding over that which he/she has been tested on.
E-ducate: To assist with the gathering of knowledge and information. There are now more ways to become an ACE Certified Coach.
Certifying as an ACE Coach is a simple, straightforward process. You can attend an MASA ACE Coach Certification Clinic, if your local association is hosting one, or you can now complete your ACE Coaching Certification online at http://www.registerasa.com In each setting you will watch the ACE video that corresponds to your certification level and then be tested on the material in the video. The videos cover such topics as Principles of Coaching, Legal Issues in Sports, First Aid, Practice Organization, Coach/Umpire Relations, and Sport Specific Skills. Once you have passed the ACE Certification test you are an ACE Coach and receive full ACE Benefits. It is that easy!
Benefits of ACE membership:
Here is a quick run through of the ACE Coaching Certification program and how one would become certified and achieve the highest level of ACE Certification
The first step to complete for any coach who is attempting to become certified using the
ACE Online System is a profile lookup. If you are an existing coach* who is coming to the site to complete another level of certification your profile should be located and you should be able to continue from the position that you left off. For example if John Doe has completed ACE Levels 1 and 2 in an ACE Clinic through its local association, when he looks up his profile the system will recognize this and make ACE Level 3 available for purchase and completion. For the system to properly find your coaches profile, you must enter your information (i.e. first name, last name, email address, zip code) exactly how you did when you registered. If you have moved since you last registered, enter the previous zip code under which you registered and then edit your information in the ACE Online System. If you are a previously registered coach and the system does not find your profile properly, DO NOT create a new profile which you will do in Step 2 on the ACE Online Program. Instead, contact the ACE Administrator at the ASA National Office. The administrator's contact information can be located on the ACE Website under the Contact Us tab.
If you are a first time ACE Coach or you have not certified through a local association in the last year, you will have to create a new profile and begin ACE Online Certification at Level 1.
Once your profile has been found or you have created a new profile here is what you will have to do to become an ACE Certified Coach:
ACE Level 1 Coach Certification
Benefits: Insurance coverage, certificate and ID card
ACE Level 2 Coach Certification
After your first year of certification, you do not need to watch the ACE video again to recertify. To stay an ACE certified coach for a second year you must:
Benefits: Insurance coverage, certificate and ID Card 3
ACE Level 3 Coach Certification
To be eligible for this level of certification a coach must have completed the ACE Level 2 Certification
Benefits: Insurance coverage, certificate and ID Card 3
ACE Continuing Education Certification
To be eligible for this level of certification a coach must have completed the ACE Level 3 Certification.
Benefits: Insurance coverage, certificate and ID Card 3