About the Project

Engagement in sport benefits health and wellbeing, but joining a sports club can be daunting. On the flip side, coaching participants of mixed abilities can be challenging. This project aimed to create a coaching training course, online resource bank and community of practice for SU sports societies’ executive members that coach (referred to as ‘student coaches’ thereafter), to support and build their confidence, knowledge and skills in their coaching role (which includes delivering training sessions). This will ultimately lead to SU sports club members being able to learn a new sport in a safer, engaged and more inclusive environment.

Our Aims

This project aimed to create a coaching training course, online resource bank and community of practice for SU sports societies’ executive members that coach (referred to as ‘student coaches’ thereafter), to support and build their confidence, knowledge and skills in their coaching role (which includes delivering training sessions). This will ultimately lead to SU sports club members being able to learn a new sport in a safer, engaged and more inclusive environment.

Project Co-lead

Amy Stickels (WFS)

Project Co-Lead

Youn Affejee (Student, WMG)

Project Team

Sara Hattersley

Pierre Botcherby

Tim Voss

Emma Birch

Planned Outputs

• Provide a face-to-face training experience to equip student coaches with coaching best practices based on: pedagogical principles (e.g., how to and why create a ‘session’ plan, active learning strategies, conceptualising a macro plan for a semester synonymous with a constructively aligned curriculum); inclusive practice; leadership & safeguarding skills and differentiation (e.g., how to accommodate participants of different experiences and abilities). A strong values-based thread will include how to deal with inappropriate behaviours from participants, signposting the current Active Bystander Training. An opportunity for participants to meet other student coaches will build a community of practice.
• Build a Moodle site with supporting resources, readily accessible to student coaches, from sports specific resources to more general practices.
• Create a ‘Facilitator manual’ which will allow continuation and sustainability of the training programme beyond this initial year

Project Impact

Learning outcomes and student experience will be enhanced at two levels.

Firstly, the resource will equip student coaches with leadership, safeguarding, values-based and pedagogical skills that can be used within and beyond their coaching role. The training session will develop reflective practice skills in coaches, allowing them to reflect on their experiences, adjust their approach and potentially seek further coaching qualifications. The Moodle page development is now available for use across University sports clubs, and the team is in discussion with Warwick Sport as to how best embed it; there will likely be a semi-managed approach between the team and Warwick Sport, with the course designed to be easily delivered by external facilitators.

Secondly, creating an inclusive, safe and structured training environment will encourage students to take on new sports and experience a more active lifestyle. This can in turn improve their mental health and enhance their experience at Warwick.

Moodle

One project output, and legacy of the project is the Moodle page which has been designed to provide new student coaches with the knowledge and skills needed to excel in their roles.

It provides information on designing training sessions, communication, training techniques, inclusivity in sport, active bystander training as well as links to other resources.

These resources are now being used and shared and can be accessed through Moodle. Users can take part in a quiz and gain a certificate at the end.

Pilot workshop

The Building Values team ran a pilot workshop for student sports coaches at the Faculty of Arts (FAB) building, University of Warwick with representatives from over 10 university sports clubs. The workshop had two goals; to gather feedback on materials we created and give participants the opportunity to develop their reflective practice as a coach.

The workshop included "design a training session" and Active Bystander training for coaches.

VR Session

VR session enabled participants to have the opportunity to try their hands at some virtual sports, with the help of the Faculty of Arts’ Dr Robert O’Toole.

Positive feedback of all sessions demonstrated that what really came out of the workshop was how much our volunteer coaches care, and their contribution to university sports clubs in building a positive experience for their peers cannot be overstated.