Professional Practice in Sports Coaching (Postgraduate Diploma)

The course is designed to help you build on your existing experience to refine your coaching. You will develop a deeper appreciation of theory and research related to sports coaching and will consider how best to apply this in practice.

You will study in a collaborative environment alongside fellow professional practitioners and aspirant UKCC level 4 coaches who in many cases are operating as full-time professional coaches. You will learn from teaching staff with excellent professional experience and research profiles in their respective fields. You will consider a range of contemporary issues and practices, using modern methods and approaches in areas such as developing expertise, pedagogy, reflective practice and mentoring, sport psychology and talent identification. An emphasis is placed on the relationship between practice and theory, with students supported to develop reflective, analytical and critical thinking skills in order to develop their professional practice.

The delivery of taught content takes place on site at the Oxstalls Campus and at a number of National Governing Body venues such as Bisham Abbey (GB Rowing) and Stoneleigh Park (British Equestrian), therefore students must be prepared to travel. This provides a valuable opportunity to further develop professional networks and to engage with real world environments.

Careers

There is a range of employment markets for graduates, including: professional sports clubs, coach education and policy, commercial and social enterprises, community sports programmes, and national governing bodies (NGBs). Roles include:

Academy coach
Specialist technical coach
Coach educator
Coach manager
Career in education or further research, eg PhD.