It is possible to be a successful sports coach without doing it as a full-time job or for financial reward. Up and down the country there are coaches for a whole variety of sports who give up their time voluntarily in the evenings and weekends to teach and train people of all ages in a wide variety of sports. These people are teaching everything from field hockey drills to rugby scrums to football tackles so here we look at how to get into coaching sports and how to be good at it.
Sports Coach UK there are over a million coaches in the UK working with adults and children to develop their sporting skills across a huge variety of sports. This doesn’t, however, mean that sports don’t need more coaches, and as a large proportion of coaches are volunteers there will always be room for more.
One of the best ways to get involved in coaching is to start off as a volunteer. The governing bodies of most sports such as the FA have lots of information and support about how to get involved, but the best way is to ask in your local community about sports groups and organizations. If you have children then you may want to volunteer at sporting groups that they attend as this can be a great way of getting coaching experience at the grassroots level.
One of the most important qualities of a sports coach is commitment. This is important, as the people you are training will be relying on you. Whatever the weather you will need to be prepared to give up your time to train or attend competitive tournaments.
Ideally, you should have a coaching certificate and your club or team should be able to help you sort this out. It is also important for coaches to be organized and some sort of sport plan for training sessions is essential.
Hopefully, this has inspired you to volunteer and have a go at coaching so the next time you are taking your son or daughter to a sports training session, have a think about whether you might have what it takes to be a coach. You may be surprised.