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ACE Coaching Education Program

To become ACE Coach Educated, please visit RegisterUSASoftball.com.

The ACE (Aspire, Challenge, Encourage) Coach Education Program is a coaching program, developed and designed to provide softball coaches of all levels – from beginning coaches to experienced veterans – an opportunity to be educated as a coach with a national softball organization.

As the National Governing Body of Softball, it is the USA Softball’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 Education videos are a practical guide to the everyday situations you will encounter as a youth softball coach. After obtaining your ACE education, you will be well prepared to coach a youth softball team.

The guiding principles behind the ACE Coaching Education Program are:
A-spire: to achieve a comprehensive level of knowledge for the game. 
C-hallenge: your understanding and knowledge through continued education and growth. 
E-ncourage: yourself and others to be prepared and knowledgeable as a coach in order to provide your athletes an environment in which they can achieve success.

There are now more ways to become an ACE Coach Educated. Being educated as an ACE Coach is a simple, straight forward process. The best and quickest way to complete your ACE is online at www.RegisterUSASoftball.com. In each of the first three levels you will watch the ACE video that corresponds to your education 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 test you are an ACE Coach and receive full ACE Benefits. It is that easy! Please allow 2 weeks for processing.

Benefits of ACE membership:
Here is a quick run through of the ACE Coach Education program and how one would become educated and achieve the highest level of ACE.

The first step to complete for any coach who is attempting to become educated 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 education 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. member ID, first name, last name and date of birth). If you are a previously registered coach and the system does not find your profile properly, DO NOT create a new profile. Instead, contact the ACE Administrator at the USA Softball National Office. The administrator's contact information can be located on the ACE Website under the Contact USA tab.

If you have never registered with USA Softball you will need to create a new profile before you begin the ACE education program.

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 Educated Coach:

ACE Level 1 Coach Education
Prerequisites: USA Softball’s background check clearance.

  1. Purchase the ACE Level 1 option (includes background check and education exam).

  2. Submit your background check information.

  3. Wait for background check to clear.

  4. Successfully complete the Level 1 ACE education exam (questions will be taken directly from the ACE Level 1 video)

  5. That’s it! Your ACE card will be shipping within a few business days.

Benefits: Insurance coverage, background check clearance and ID card

ACE Level 2 Coach Education
Prerequisites: USA Softball’s background check clearance and must have successfully completed ACE Level 1.

To maintain a current ACE education in subsequent years you must:

  1. Purchase the ACE Level 2 option (includes background check and education exam).

  2. Submit your background check information.

  3. Wait for background check to clear.

  4. Watch the ACE Level 2 Video and complete the ACE Level 2 education exam as you watch the video.

  5. That's It! Your ACE card will be shipping within a few business days.

Benefits: Insurance coverage, background check clearance and ID Card

ACE Level 3 Coach Education
Prerequisites: USA Softball’s background check clearance and must have successfully completed ACE Level 1 and Level 2.

To maintain a current ACE education in subsequent years you must:

  1. Purchase the ACE Level 3 option (includes background check and education exam).

  2. Submit your background check information.

  3. Wait for background check to clear.

  4. Watch the ACE Level 3 Video and complete the ACE Level 3 education exam as you watch the video.

  5. That's It! Your ACE card will be shipping within a few business days.

Benefits: Insurance coverage, background check clearance, and ID Card

ACE Continuing Education
Prerequisites: USA Softball’s background check clearance and must have successfully completed ACE Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3.

To maintain a current ACE education in subsequent years you must:

  1. Purchase the ACE Continuing Education option (includes background check and education exam).

  2. Submit your background check information.

  3. Wait for background check to clear.

  4. Complete the ACE Continuing Education Exam.

  5. That's It! Your ACE card will be shipping within a few business days.

Benefits: Insurance coverage, background check clearance and ID Card


If you have any questions or comments regarding the ACE Online Coaching Education Program please contact the ACE Administrator.