The following may be helpful -
‘The consistent guided development of participants to achieve their personal goals’. Sports Coach UK Dec 10
‘A sports coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of an individual’. Wikipedia Dec 10
‘A quality coach is an individual that has a recognised qualification in the sport that they are delivering; they adhere to the Minimum Standards of Deployment that are in force within the environment that they are coaching; and they have identified aims and outcomes that are achieved on a regular basis whether during a single session or over a prolonged period‘. Pete Taylor, North Yorkshire Sport, Oct 10
There are a few standard tools available to help coaches and mentors develop in a structured way:
Training Needs Analysis – Coaching Profile Table: helps a coach identify skills and knowledge that are important to their coaching role and identify areas they feel they need to develop
Training Needs Analysis – Coaching Profile Wheel: provides an alternative fromat for coaches identify areas for their development
Personal Development Plan Template: provides a structure for a coaches development plan
Mentoring refers to a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. In effect the mentor acts as a critical friend and sounding board to help the person being mentored to develop their skills and experience.
Many of the UKCC coaching awards suggest that new Level 1 and 2 coaches have a mentor to help assist the further development of their coaching practice. However, even beyond Level 2 there is still much to be gained by coaches being mentored. Much mentoring already takes place informally within coaching such as new coaches being paired with experienced coaches, coaches asking each for ideas and advice.
Coaches get friendly advice and support from a more experienced coach. This could be to help some-one new to coaching to get started, or to assist a Level 1 coach as they progress through to the completion of their Level 2 Award. It can include bouncing ideas for sessions of the mentor, helping the coach to review their coaching, identifying ways for the coach to gain additional experience or further develop their coaching skills.
Firstly being a mentor will add to your own skills and add another dimension to your own coaching. It will also open your own coaching up to new ideas for other coaches. Plus you can get great satisfaction from helping to develop other coaches, and if you are mentoring within your own club or organisation it means you are also building and strengthen your coaching team.
If you are interested in knowing more about becoming a mentor and developing the skills to support other coaches, there is a scUK workshop A Guide to Mentoring Sport coaches. This provdes experienced coaches all the tools you need to develop your skills and learn how to design a mentoring programme that will support your coaches’ learning and increase the effectiveness of your involvement. It’s also an excellent opportunity to share your opinions, learn from other coach mentors and gain a fresh perspective on different approaches to mentoring.
For details about either sport specific courses or generic CPD courses see our Coach Education section
How to become a coach
A parents guide to coaching
New Directions in Sports Coaching - post conference information
Emerging from the shadows - an article on developing talent
Its the final countdown - an article on preparing for a big game
20Twenty - an article on the England Cricket Team
word to the wise - an article on effective team talks
coaching from the sidelines
from outside the box to orthadox
developing straight line speed
Golf Coaching Tips
Culture Clubs - coaching article
Cricket Coaching
Rugby Union Coaching
If you are looking for books, DVDs, training tools, coaching aids and sports related software relating to on sports coaching, training and physical education, try Coachwise 1st4sport. Also as Coachwise 1st4sport is a trading company of sport coach UK all profits go back into supporting coaching.
Sports coach UK have developed a series of factsheet Top Tips for Coaches. Written by coaching experts, they are quick to read, useful and can be downloaded free of charge. If you visit the Sports Coach UK website you can sign up for FREE and then access their Resource Bank where you'll find a wealth of resources and tools to support your coaching. Their youttube channel also has some interesting and useful videos.
Coaching Edge Magazine - Coaching Edge is the UK’s leading magazine dedicated to sports coaching. For a taste of what you could be enjoying by subscribing to the magazine see these free artilces.
BBC Sport Academy is an online resource with information on varying sports in an easy to use format with many videos from top athletes in the sport.
Brian Mac Sports Coach provides information on the many topics related to developing physical and mental condition to help fitness enthusiasts, athletes and coaches achieve their goals and to assist students studying sport related qualifications.
TeachPE is a free online resource for sports coaching and physical education. With specific sections on A-level and GCSE syllabuses as well as Sport specific coaching, strength training, drugs in sport and stretching it is useful for students and sports coaches alike.
Special Olympics Coaching Guides provides free coaching guides, rules, quick start guides and more for the 30+ sports that are in the Special Olympics. Whilst giving a general view of these sports the site, also goes into more detail about training specifically focussed on those with persons with intellectual disabilities but also very useful to any coach.
Coaching Children Videos - sports coach UK has produced a series of videos about Coaching Children that are available on our YouTube channel sports coach UK TV. These clips look at the craft of coaching from a children’s coach perspective and include the themes of: Why coach children?, Planning and organising, Coaching methods, Observation, analysis and evaluation, Coaching the whole child, Creating the learning environment, and Communicating with children. The videos are designed with coaches, parents, clubs, governing body staff, and sport development professionals in mind. To access the videos please click this link
Video Analysis Software - many top coaches make use of video analysis to examine performance and game play, many different software packages are available to buy and download. However, two FREE 'open source' software packages that will be of interest to sports coaches are: Kinovea - for analysing individual performers and comparing performances, LongoMatch - for analysis match performances.
Learning Style Questionnaires - most coaches will be familiar with different learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic)but how do we find out which style we or our performers are? There is lots of information and different questionnaire available on the Internet, for simple guide and questionnaire to assess learning styles click here. Alternative simply put 'learning style questionnaire' into a search engine to find a questionnaire more suited to your needs.
Peak Performance is one of the world’s premier sources of practical, performance-boosting tips and new advances for athletes and sports people. Register for a free newsletter and access to articles at the Peak Performance website, or subscribe for more detailed information.
Coaching Edge Magazine provides the latest news and information on everything from coaching methods and development to leading practice and technical advice. See a sample of articles that have been in recent editions.
Coaching Female Participants - following research with women about there experiences of coaching, Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF) have produced a series of 5 factsheets have been produced aimed coaches who coach women or who are interested in coaching them in the future.
Nutritional advice for Sport - The purpose of the site is ultimately to provide a huge nutrition support network, enabling those in need to find a nutritionist close to them and appropriate for their needs. This is a free, confidential service that will provide those seeking support with all the information they need. Every nutritionist on the site who has submitted their profile has either sent a copy of their qualifications and insurance cover to us, or is registered with a professional body with recognised codes of ethics and practice, this way we can be assured of their professionalism. www.nutritionist-resource.org.uk
Coaching with Balls - is a NGB endorced online learning for coaches providing what to coach as well as the how to Coach. Every month we will provide coaches with TEN new Activities in their chosen sport as well as access to online learning in the level 1 & 2 accredited qualifications -Principles of Coaching with 1st4sport qualifications. The £10 a month subscription gives access the interactive activities in your chosen sport and How to coach units. Each activity has a video, animation and key coaching points. Additional sports are availble for £3 each.
CoachAnyWay - loads of coaching videos available free to coaches
Coaching Kids 4 Self Belief - online Child-centred Coaching Course for all sports coaches. The course has been designed to help coaches further their skill level for performer/child-centred coaching with particular emphasis on helping coaches to practice the skills of attentive and empathic listening and effective questioning. The course contains interactive video clips of children speaking and then a space for coaches to practice coming up with a suitable response as well as frameworks from which coaches can find an appropriate question.