Sports coach

Key information

Reference: ST0770
Date updated: 22/08/2024
Level: 4
Route: Health and science
Regulated occupation: No

This is not the latest approved version of this apprenticeship. View the latest version

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Details of the occupational standard

Higher Technical Qualification

Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) are designed to be delivered within a course of education. Some Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours may be more safely and reliably delivered in workplace settings, so may not be fully covered by the HTQ. Some qualifications will deliver additional content or added depth and breadth through, for example, use of specialist learning environments, work placements or innovative teaching methods. Check with the qualification provider if you require further information on coverage.

Occupation summary

This occupation is found in the sport and physical activity sector in high-performance, community and school environments.

HIGH PERFORMANCE SPORT COACHES: develop athletes and players in high-performance settings, including those on talent or development pathways, national or international programmes, professional or podium environments.

COMMUNITY SPORT COACHES: motivate and engage people of all ages and abilities in community sports and physical activity settings. Community sport includes local authority, charity and national governing body of sport community initiatives or clubs.

SCHOOL SPORT COACHES: collaborate with teachers to develop pupils’ mastery of psychomotor skills by applying a whole child approach in their coaching. They work in all categories of school and registered childcare environments.

The broad purpose of the Sport Coach occupation is to use extensive technical and tactical sports knowledge and skills to design and deliver coaching programmes that engage, motivate and evolve participants’ skills and performance.

Sport coaches aim to provide meaningful and high-quality learning, development and performance experiences. They support the achievement of medals in talent, national and international competition, enrich performance in local competitions, increase participation, raise educational standards, enhance wellbeing and drive social change. Sport coaches can influence national wellness to reduce burden on the National Health Service.

In their daily work, a sports coach interacts with and influences the coaching team including assistant coaches, coaches, managers, sponsors, boards and wider industry support networks. They do this through the design and delivery of their own coaching philosophy and professional practices in line with the organisational visions, strategies, policies and processes. They may also influence professional and governing bodies through their own practice. Sports Coaches measure the impact of their coaching strategies through analysis of participant, coach, coaching team and organisational perception and performance data. This is then benchmarked against local, national and international trends relevant to the environment in which they are coaching.

Sports coaches work both autonomously and collaboratively to deliver progressive programmes that align to wider curriculum plans. These are tailored to individuals and diverse groups of participants based on robust profiling techniques and whole person development needs.

HIGH PERFORMANCE SPORTS COACHES design and deliver coaching programmes that focus on the acceleration of sustainable development and high performance of athletes/players to enhance the national and international positioning of the sport.

High performance sport coaches profile athlete/player bio-psycho-social attributes, as well as their sport-specific technical and tactical skills to set development and performance goals. These are then used to inform the creation of a high-level curriculum plan that considers practice and competition schedules.

Stakeholders in this context include athletes, players, parents, peers, managers, sponsors, professional organisations, national governing bodies and performance support staff such as sport scientists, sports medics and performance analysts.

COMMUNITY SPORT COACHES design and deliver coaching programmes that focus on sustainable engagement and enrichment of participants. They use targeted approaches to the deliver sport and physical activity through community initiatives or clubs, considering Sport England participation and wider government agendas.

Community sport coaches profile participant’s cognitive, social, emotional and physical development needs. They measure participant motives, behavioural norms, psychomotor, technical and tactical skills in specific sport and physical activity contexts to enable goals to be agreed. These results are used to create a high-level curriculum plan that considers the annual and sporting seasons. They apply a ‘whole person/child’ development approach and create targeted interventions to promote the accessibility of sessions for diverse groups of participants. In setting the plans they will consider the community support systems and gaps in current provision.

Stakeholders in this environment include children, parents, assistant coaches, peers, managers and other community support safeguarding staff. Wider networks include facility managers, local authority staff, charitable workforces and national governing body regional teams.

SCHOOL SPORT COACHES design and deliver coaching programmes that focus on the acceleration of sustainable mastery of children’s psychomotor skills and wider physical education standards.

School sport coaches profile children’s cognitive, social, emotional and physical development needs. They measure psychomotor, technical and tactical skills in a range of physical activity contexts drawn from the Department for Education’s National Curriculum to enable physical education targets to be agreed. These results are used to create a high-level curriculum plan that considers school term schedules and a ‘whole child’ development approach.

Stakeholders in this environment include children, parents, carers, peers, support staff, such as SENCO and safeguarding officers, teaching assistants, teachers, head teachers and school boards. Wider networks include local authority teams and social services.

Typical job titles include:

Performance/Pathway/Podium Coach Talent Development Coach Community Coach Club Coach School Coach

Core occupation duties

Duty	KSBs
Duty 1 Develop and update own coaching philosophy and strategies through professional practice, continuous development and self-review.	K1 K2 S1 S2 B2
Duty 2 Develop and implement evidence-based, progressive coaching systems that comply with all relevant and current legislation, statutory guidance, sector standards and codes.	K3 K4 S3 S4 B3 B7 B8
Duty 3 Use up-to-date knowledge of wider issues affecting the coaching environment to proactively influence best practice across the coaching team.	K5 K6 S5 S6
Duty 4 Utilise and collaborate with industry-wide support networks and internal team members to ensure the most effective coaching services are delivered to participants.	K7 S7 B1 B4
Duty 5 Use appropriate enquiry and profiling techniques to create a learning and development curriculum that considers participants’ unique needs, targets and/or goals, whilst building trust.	K8 S8
Duty 6 Provide support to participants and the wider coaching team through progressive coaching programmes, at events or competitions.	K9 K10 K11 S9 S10 S11 B6
Duty 7 Promote holistic wellbeing within coaching practice to control/contain stressors experienced by participants in the coaching environment.	K12 S12
Duty 8 Facilitate learning and skill acquisition of participants by creating positive coaching environments that apply learning theories, behaviour management techniques, technological advancements and wider support mechanisms.	K13 K14 K15 S13 S14 S15 B5
Duty 9 Measure the impact of coaching strategies on participants’ sustainable engagement and development and evaluate effectiveness of own performance on the wider coaching team, organisation and sport.	K16 S16

Option duties

High Performance Coach duties

Duty	KSBs
Duty 10 Maintain up-to-date knowledge of global trends, standards, strategies and contemporary influences in high-performance sport contexts.	K17 K25 S17 S25
Duty 11 Deliver relevant coaching pedagogies and processes that consider the high-performance context, culture, politics and key stakeholder needs.	K18 S18
Duty 12 Profile development needs to set and monitor goals and plans based on measurement of athlete/players’ bio-psycho-social attributes and sport-specific skills.	K19 K20 S19 S20
Duty 13 Ensure the design and delivery high-quality, inclusive sessions to accelerate athlete/player development and promote sustainable high-performance gains that enhance the national and international positioning of the sport.	K21 K22 K23 K24 S21 S22 S23 S24

Community Coach duties

Duty	KSBs
Duty 14 Maintain up-to-date knowledge of national trends, strategies for social change, local participation and performance data and contemporary influences.	K26 K34 S26 S34
Duty 15 Deliver appropriate coaching pedagogies and processes that consider the community sport and physical activity context, culture, constraints, geographical infrastructure and demographics.	K27 S27
Duty 16 Profile engagement and development needs to set and monitor goals based on participant motives and measurement of psychological, physiological, social, emotional [whole child/person] attributes and sport specific skills.	K28 K29 S28 S29
Duty 17 Ensure the design and delivery of high-quality, inclusive coaching sessions that meet the objectives of community/government/club initiatives whilst aiming to engage and enrich participants.	K30 K31 K32 K33 S30 S31 S32 S33

School Coach duties

Duty	KSBs
Duty 18 Maintains up-to-date knowledge of education standards, trends, frameworks, paradigms and contemporary influences.	K35 K43 S35 S43
Duty 19 Deliver appropriate coaching pedagogies and processes that align to national physical education curriculum and considers the school context, category, culture, strategies and regulatory constraints.	K36 S36
Duty 20 Profile development needs to set and monitor physical education targets and plans based on measurement of participants’ cognitive, physical, social, emotional [whole child] attributes and psychomotor skills.	K37 K38 S37 S38
Duty 21 Ensure the design and delivery of high-quality, inclusive curricular and extracurricular lessons that meet school standards through whole child development and sustainable psychomotor skills using a mastery approach to learning.	K39 K40 K41 K42 S39 S40 S41 S42

KSBs

Knowledge

K1: Coaching philosophies and professional practice that consider key stakeholder needs, sporting contexts and codes. Back to Duty

K2: Professional development planning methods and self-awareness skills training techniques. Back to Duty

K3: Transformational coaching methods and strategic planning techniques. Back to Duty

K4: Organisational vision, strategies, policies and processes required to ensure legal, ethical, effective and efficient coaching systems. Including current health and safety, safeguarding, data protection and equality laws. Back to Duty

K5: Approaches to organisational workforce structures that underpin best practice and showcase the value of scope within the coaching team. Back to Duty

K6: Coaching team development and deployment techniques aligned to all relevant and current legislation, policy, process, operating standards and scopes of practice. Back to Duty

K7: Coaching service delivery approaches including industry support networks and collaborative, cohesive and competent coaching teams. Back to Duty

K8: Curriculum design methods and coaching pedagogies relevant to the participants unique development needs, the demands of the sport or physical activity and the occupational environment. Back to Duty

K9: Progressive programme design and delivery techniques that prioritises accessibility, duty of care and accelerate whole child/person development and sport specific skill acquisition. Back to Duty

K10: Progressive programme design and delivery techniques that ensure safe practice and support at events and competition and embed learning transfer across situations. Back to Duty

K11: Inclusive coaching techniques that embed human rights, equality laws and conventions to ensure ethical coaching practice. Back to Duty

K12: Chief Medical Officer guidelines, Public Health England agendas, organisational, sport specific and holistic approaches to wellbeing considering stressors relevant to the participants context. Back to Duty

K13: Learning theories and skill acquisition techniques relevant to participant’s unique development needs, the demands of the sport and occupational environment. Back to Duty

K14: Positive learning environment attributes and behaviour management strategies relevant to the participant’s unique development needs, demands of the sport and the occupational environment. Back to Duty

K15: Developments in learning resources including technological advancements and wider industry support mechanisms that maximise engagement, development and performance gains. Back to Duty

K16: Methods to measure the impact of the coaching strategies though analysis of key indicators from participant, coach, coaching team and organisational perception and performance data. Back to Duty

K17: UK sport and sport specific strategies, global data, trends and contemporary issues in high performance sport, including social, economic, educational and technological influences. Back to Duty

K18: UK sport guidelines, high-performance sport stakeholders, organisational context, culture, codes, direction and politics that influence coaching processes. Back to Duty

K19: Profiling and enquiry methods designed to measure bio-psycho-social attributes and inform whole person optimisation planning. Back to Duty

K20: Profiling and enquiry methods designed to measure sport specific technical and tactical attributes and inform sustainable development and high-performance goals. Back to Duty

K21: Session planning techniques that consider high performance athlete's/player's unique needs, goals and curriculum plans. Back to Duty

K22: Session preparation techniques including resource organisation, event risk assessment and safe operating procedures in line with high performance sport policy. Back to Duty

K23: Session delivery and adaptation techniques that motivate high performance players/athletes through tailored coaching and communication methods for maximum impact. Back to Duty

K24: Session evaluation methods that measure sustainable development and performance gains to shape future plans as part of the continuous enquiry cycle. Back to Duty

K25: Methods to measure the impact of the coaching practice on the national and international positioning of the sport by comparing athlete/player results against national and international benchmarks. Back to Duty

K26: Sport England Professional Workforce Strategies, social change agendas, national trends on national physical activity participation, local data and contemporary influences. Back to Duty

K27: Community initiative or club context, culture, stakeholders, Sport England Coaching Plan, sport specific codes, geographic infrastructure and networks that influence coaching pedagogy and process effectiveness. Back to Duty

K28: Profiling and enquiry methods designed to measure whole child/person development dimensions considering cognitive, social, emotional and physiological capabilities. Back to Duty

K29: Profiling and enquiry methods designed to measure participant motives, behavioural norms, psychomotor skills, technical and tactical awareness in specific sport and physical activity contexts to enable process goals to be agreed. Back to Duty

K30: Session planning techniques that consider each participant unique motives, access and development needs, goals and seasonal plans. Back to Duty

K31: Session preparation techniques including resource organisation, event risk assessment and safe operating procedures in line with community organisation health and safety policy. Back to Duty

K32: Session delivery and adaptation techniques including tailored coaching and targeted communication methods for maximum impact on long-term engagement and enrichment. Back to Duty

K33: Session evaluation methods that measure engagement, enrichment and whole child/person development dimensions to shape future plans as part of the continuous enquiry cycle. Back to Duty

K34: Methods to measure the impact of coaching practice on social change associated with access, participation, performance, equality and wellbeing by comparing results against local and national benchmarks. Back to Duty

K35: National trends in education, the Department for Education strategies, Statutory Guidelines, DfE National Curriculum the Ofsted Education Inspection Framework and the educational paradigm shift. Back to Duty

K36: School stakeholders, context, category, strategies, culture and codes that influence coaching pedagogy and process effectiveness. Back to Duty

K37: Profiling and enquiry methods designed to measure whole child development dimensions considering cognitive, social, emotional and physiological stages of development. Back to Duty

K38: Profiling and enquiry methods designed to measure psychomotor, technical and tactical skills in physical activity contexts drawn from the Department for Education National Curriculum and enable physical education targets to be agreed. Back to Duty

K39: Session planning techniques that consider each child's unique profile, development needs, educational targets, and curriculum plans. Back to Duty

K40: Session preparation techniques including resource organisation, event risk assessment and safe operating procedures in line with school health and safety policy. Back to Duty

K41: Session delivery and adaptation techniques that inspire children though tailored coaching and communication methods for maximum impact. Back to Duty

K42: Session evaluation methods that prioritise children’s mastery of physical education standards, psychomotor skills and whole child development and shape future plans as part of the continuous enquiry cycle. Back to Duty

K43: Methods to measure and evaluate the impact of coaching practice on school standards by comparing children's results against local and national benchmarks. Back to Duty

Skills

S1: Influence key stakeholders in the sporting context through own coaching philosophy and professional practice. Back to Duty

S2: Enhance coaching competencies and inter-intra-personal skills through continued professional development and self-awareness skills training. Back to Duty

S3: Develop transformational coaching strategies and tactics that consider sector, sport, organisation and participants unique needs. Back to Duty

S4: Comply with legal, ethical, effective and efficient coaching systems that align to the organisational vision, strategies, policies and processes. Back to Duty

S5: Promote the value of the coaching team considering workforce structures and scopes including support staff, coaches, coaching assistants, and volunteers. Back to Duty

S6: Facilitate the development of the coaching team through due diligence, inductions, development and performance monitoring. Back to Duty

S7: Deliver effective coaching services through industry support networks and a collaborative, cohesive and competent coaching team. Back to Duty

S8: Design high quality curriculum that considers participants’ unique profiles, promotes ownership and informs micro, meso and macro plans as relevant to the sporting context. Back to Duty

S9: Designs and delivers progressive programmes and selects coaching pedagogies that maximise engagement, whole child/person development and accelerates sustainable skill acquisition. Back to Duty

S10: Delivers safe and effective coaching support to participants in practice, at events or competitions and influences learning and skill transfer across situations. Back to Duty

S11: Embrace each participants uniqueness, their rights and advocates fairness, equality and diversity within the coaching environment. Back to Duty

S12: Promote holistic wellbeing to control/contain stressors experienced by participants in their own context and environment. Back to Duty

S13: Facilitate participant development by applying learning theory and skill acquisition techniques relevant to participants needs, sport specific demands and context. Back to Duty

S14: Facilitate participant development and skill acquisition through positive learning environments and behaviour management strategies. Back to Duty

S15: Facilitate participant development and skill acquisition through technological advancements and wider industry support mechanisms. Back to Duty

S16: Measure the impact of the coaching strategies though analysis of participant, coach, coaching team and organisational perception and performance data. Back to Duty

S17: Proactively responds to global trends, strategies, and contemporary issues in high performance sport to ensure best practice in coaching. Back to Duty

S18: Embrace the high-performance context, culture, organisational direction, and codes to deliver effective coaching processes. Back to Duty

S19: Profile athletes or players to measure bio-psycho-social attributes and inform whole person optimisation. Back to Duty

S20: Profile athlete/players to measure sport specific technical and tactical attributes and inform sustainable development and high-performance goals. Back to Duty

S21: Plan sessions that consider high performance athlete's/player's unique needs, goals, curriculum, progressive programmes, practice, and competition schedules. Back to Duty

S22: Prepare for sessions by organising resources, conducting event risk assessment and ensures safe operating procedures in line with high performance sport policy. Back to Duty

S23: Deliver safe, inclusive sessions and makes adaptations in the moment to accelerate development and maximise performance gains through relevant coaching and communication methods. Back to Duty

S24: Evaluate sessions to monitor sustainability of athlete/player development and performance gains to shape future plans as part of the continuous enquiry cycle. Back to Duty

S25: Measure the impact of the coaching practice on the national and international positioning of the sport by comparing athlete or player results against national and international benchmarks. Back to Duty

S26: Proactively responds to sector strategies, social change agendas, national and local trends in physical activity participation and contemporary influences. Back to Duty

S27: Embrace the community category, context, culture, codes, stakeholders and public sector duty to deliver effective coaching pedagogies and processes. Back to Duty

S28: Profile participants to measure whole child/person development dimensions considering cognitive, social, emotional and physiological capabilities. Back to Duty

S29: Profile participants motives, behavioural norms, psychomotor skills, technical and tactical awareness in community sport and physical activity contexts to enable goals to be agreed. Back to Duty

S30: Plan targeted and accessible sessions that consider each participant's unique motives, development needs, goals and seasonal plans. Back to Duty

S31: Prepare for sessions by organising resources, conducting event risk assessment and ensures safe operating procedures in line with community organisation health and safety policy. Back to Duty

S32: Deliver safe and inclusive and effective sessions and makes adaptations in the moment to engage and enrich participants though tailored coaching and targeted communication methods for maximum impact. Back to Duty

S33: Evaluate sessions to monitor engagement, enrichment and whole child/person development dimensions to shape future plans as part of the continuous enquiry cycle. Back to Duty

S34: Measure the impact of coaching practice on social change associated with access, participation, performance, equality and wellbeing by comparing results against local and national benchmarks. Back to Duty

S35: Proactively responds to national trends in education standards, paradigm shifts, strategies and contemporary influences in school and physical education. Back to Duty

S36: Embrace the school category, context, culture, codes, stakeholders, and statutory guidelines to deliver effective coaching pedagogies and processes. Back to Duty

S37: Profile whole child development dimensions considering cognitive, social, emotional and physiological stages of development. Back to Duty

S38: Profile children's psychomotor, technical and tactical skills in physical activity contexts drawn from the DfE National Curriculum to enable physical education targets to be agreed. Back to Duty

S39: Plan safe, inclusive and effective sessions that consider each child's unique development needs, educational targets and curriculum plans. Back to Duty

S40: Prepare for sessions by organising resources, conducting event risk assessment and ensures safe operating procedures in line with school health and safety policy. Back to Duty

S41: Delivers safe, inclusive and effective sessions and makes necessary adaptations to develop children’s psychomotor skill mastery though tailored coaching and communication methods for maximum impact. Back to Duty

Qualification type: HTQ

Qualification level: 4

Applicant: University of Greenwich

Awarding body: University of Greenwich

Approval date: 04/05/2023

Occupational pathway: Not applicable

Placement: Yes

Aligned occupational standards

ST0770 Sports coach

Options: Community Coach , School Coach

ST0770 Sports coach

End-point assessment (EPA plan)

Rigorous robust and independent assessment undertaken by an apprentice at the end of training to test that the apprentice can perform in the occupation they have been trained in and can demonstrate the duties, and knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs) set out in the occupational standard

End-point assessment organisation (EPAO)

An organisation approved to deliver end-point assessment for a particular apprenticeship standard. EPAOs must be on the register of end-point assessment organisations

Holistic or synoptic

Assessment of an apprentice’s knowledge, skills and behaviours in an integrated way i.e. assessing several KSBs at the same time

Knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSB)

What is needed to competently undertake the duties required for an occupational standard

Valid

Referred to in relation to assessment methods; fit for purpose

Change request policy

Most changes to an apprenticeship are made as a result of a holistic review of it. We prioritise the need for such reviews based on a range of factors. These include:

the time since the apprenticeship was developed or last reviewed (taking account of its typical duration)
the existence of any known problems with it (e.g. lower than expected starts, low achievement rate, high withdrawal rate, any issues with the availability of training or end-point assessment provision)
whether the apprenticeship is currently subject to a dispensation
the relative significance of the apprenticeship based on how many users it has

The availability of an employer group to support a review and its potential impact on any related technical education product also inform the timing of a review.

Details of apprenticeships that are currently being revised or adjusted are available in our revisions and adjustments status report.

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Sports coach

Key information

Details of the occupational standard

Occupation summary

Typical job titles include:

Core occupation duties

Option duties

High Performance Coach duties

Community Coach duties

School Coach duties

KSBs

Knowledge

Skills

Behaviours

BTEC Higher National Certificate in Community Coaching for England (Level 4)

CertHE Sports Coach - Community and Sport (Level 4)

CertHE Sports Coaching (Level 4)

Certificate of Higher Education Sports Coaching (Level 4)

FD in Physical Education and Sports Coaching (Level 5)

FdSc Basketball/Golf/Cricket/Football/Rugby Coaching and Performance (Level 5)

FdSc Coaching and Fitness (Level 5)

FdSc Physical Education and Sports Coaching

FDSc Sports Coaching / Sports Coaching with Football Development and Performance

FdSc Strength Conditioning and Sports Coaching (Level 5)

Foundation Degree in Coaching in the Community [Football]

Foundation Degree in Football Coaching and Development

Higher Certificate in Sports Coaching

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