Coach Education
Personal Development and Leadership through Physical Activity Clare Rule 2,000 word assignment ‘Much good work has been done on coach education in the United Kingdom, but there is a need for a concentrated effort to improve the quality and quantity of coaches in all sports. ... (Cullinane, 2004) ‘Sport is a valuable tool for promoting a whole range of government objectives including health, education and social inclusion. The issue of coaching and coach education is key to achieving these aims. ... 2002) The term ‘Coach Education’, means training and educating individuals in different areas of a particular sport to ensure that coaches and participants are fully and properly prepared to take part in a particular sport and to ensure coaches are qualified to instruct participants in all aspects of technique, safety and understanding. ... (The Coaching Task Force- Final Report 2002) Traditionally the focus of coach education programmes was on the giving and assessing of coaching knowledge. The educational emphasis was placed on what a coach knew rather than what they could actually do. The provision and assessment of knowledge as the main function of coach education has been recently challenged. Abraham and Collins (1998) identified that this may be a flawed approach as coach educators were omitting to determine what knowledge should be actually taught to coaches and what the best way to teach this knowledge is. Due to this debate the emphasis of coach education has recently moved from what a coach should know to what a coach should actually be able to do. ... Following this publication a Coaching Task Force was established to make recommendations regarding the future of coach education and coach deployment in the UK. The Coaching Task Force Final Report (July 2002) concluded that in the UK coach education and qualification schemes varied enormously in terms of quality of content, delivery and assessment both within and across sports. ... These recommendations included the establishment of a National Coaching Certificate which would create consistency in coach education systems across sport. ... ’ They also felt that the Certificate should build on good practice that already exists within the National Governing Bodies coach education systems. The Coaching Task Force also raised the issue that the development and implementation of the NCC should be facilitated by a single organisation (sports coach UK) to support the National Governing Bodies in order to develop their existing systems in line with the national standards and to quality assure the process. ... A development coach will be competent to coach young athletes across all groups of events, and build links between club and either school or community. A performance coach will be competent to plan, conduct and evaluate an annual coaching programme for committed club athletes competing at sub-regional, regional and national levels. The five levels of coaching aim to widen and develop a coach’s knowledge horizontally as well as vertically. Vertical development refers to a coach’s progression from one level to the next e. ... org) ‘Much good work has been done on coach education in the United Kingdom, but there is a need for a concentrated effort to improve the quality and quantity of coaches in all sports. ... The Athletics Association set up a UK Athletics Model for coach development. ... The Level three and four badges offer optional modules so a coach can specialise in certain areas for example a coach may choose the module Coaching Disabled Performers as they may want to specialise disabled sports or may feel that completing this module may make help them to become a versatile coach. ... (Cullinane, 2004) Rugby League has also launched Coach Education Programme in 1999.