Community Sports Coach

Job Description
A community sports coach is a qualified professional coach who provides high quality sports coaching and physical activity for young people.

These coaches work with local authorities, sports governing bodies, schools, sports clubs and leisure centres.

Aims of a community sports coach are to increase participation, support talent and provide an opportunity for young people to enjoy playing sport.

A day in a life of a community sports coach
I look at my planner to see where I am coaching, what sessions I’m delivering and then revise my session plans so I know exactly what I am coaching. You have to be flexible and amend what you had originally planned to deliver depending on what the teacher wants you to deliver or circumstances beyond your control such as the weather.

I then travel off to my sessions, register at the schools reception and get taken to the PE department where I meet and greet with the class teacher who gives me some information about the class. 

I usually deliver a session for about an hour but often it depends on lesson time available. The sessions are fun, active and high paced with the overall aim of the children enjoying it and learning something about rugby.

I have to use a whole variety of skills during the session which include explaining and demonstrating games and practices, observing and analysing skills to provide feedback for improving the player’s abilities and a constant overview of safety and enjoyment levels of the class.

The sessions are wrapped up with a re-cap of what has been taught and then collecting in the equipment. I then have to log my data reports and record how many children have been coached and break that data down into various groupings for reporting procedures.

The number and types of sessions you deliver are very varied and because Rugby is a seasonal sport there are times that you are very busy and times when your days are filled with other activities such as camps during school holidays.

You can spend quite a lot of time planning and doing admin duties such as phoning and booking schools as part of an overall strategic plan. Festivals are a major part of our work programme because you want the participants to actually play the game as well as be coached so you may end up running a whole festival for a group of schools in your area. 

As with any job you constantly need to make sure you have the most up to date and suitable skills to perform your role and we are often sent on Continuous Professional Development courses. Not only do we deliver actual coaching sessions but we often deliver coach education sessions to coaches in the evening and weekends so they can improve and develop their schools and clubs. One day is very rarely the same as the next. 

My advice on qualifications would be to gain experience in coaching before qualifying. Try your hand at volunteering at school or your local club to help assist the current coaches. Try to learn and understand some of the roles of what being a coach involves and whether you enjoy it or not. 

Once you have some experience this will either enthuse you to find out more or help you understand whether it is the right path for you. If it is right for you then I would recommend doing a beginner coaching course that gives you a gentle insight into what you need to do to become a qualified coach. Courses in rugby include Community Leaders Awards, TAG Rugby or Rugby Ready. I would then go back to broadening your experiences and volunteering as a coach but taking on a little more responsibility and using the skills you have learnt. 

You can study a BSc or BA (Hons) in Sports Coaching at;