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Coaching role and responsibility > From the bench: Meeting the future challenges for coaching
From the bench: Meeting the future challenges for coaching
Issue: Volume 27 Number 3
Tony Wynd is the newly appointed Manager of the Coaching and Officiating unit and is keen to address a number of important issues facing coaches today, which he higlights in this editorial.
The recent record breaking successes of Australian athletes at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games highlights the strength of Australia’s high performance sporting system. Olympic competition is not only the ultimate stage for our Olympic athletes it is also the pinnacle for coaches in those Olympic sports. Success at this level is in part due to the strength of Australia’s coaching and officiating system.
But, just as coaching methods evolve to raise performance to meet the challenges set by new opponents and changing circumstances, we need to work to develop and improve our coaching system. This will allow us to produce the coaches who will be able to deliver these performance improvements as well as meeting the current and future challenges of an ever changing social and sporting environment.
Sport is facing a number of challenges. Many national sporting organisations are concerned about the development of the next generation of elite coaches and the coaching pathway in general. Recruitment and retention rates for officials are down in virtually all sports as the age-old practice of umpire and referee abuse continues. The need to support and develop our sports officials is as strong as ever. As key leaders in the sporting world, coaches must play a leading role in setting standards and influencing others.
At grass roots level, the option of volunteering to coach or referee the local junior team is a difficult and daunting task. These days society demands greater dedication to work, commitments in other areas of family life are increasing and the number of alternatives to participation in sport continues to grow. If we add to this a high pressure environment with unreasonable scrutiny by parents, spectators and players, it is not surprising that the recruitment and retention of club coaches and officials is a major challenge for sport. All parts of the sporting community need to continue to support those who do commit their time to assist our sporting pursuits.
The National Coaching Accreditation Scheme is now 25 years old. Since its introduction, the NCAS has been the backbone of coach education and development in Australia. Indeed, it is now hard to imagine the Australian sporting system without a formal education and training system such as the National Coaching Accreditation Scheme.
In 1980, the first coaching courses approved under the National Coaching Accreditation Scheme were in the sports of canoeing, parachuting, soccer, track and field/athletics, volleyball and weightlifting. Today the National Coaching Accreditation Scheme/National Officiating Accreditation Scheme database holds the names and details of more than 80,000 coaches and 8,000 officials who are accredited through the national schemes.
In the today’s environment, we need to keep the National Coaching Accreditation Scheme in tune with the current issues. To that end, the initial concept of three levels of accreditation – Level 1 (introductory), Level 2 (intermediate) and Level 3 (advanced) - has been expanded in recent years to allow national sporting organisations to establish the number of coach accreditation levels that are appropriate for their sport. This has been embraced by a number of sports and the Coaching and Officiating unit needs to support other national sporting organisations wanting to move in that direction.
The Australian Sports Commission has recognised that these challenges are significant. Additional resources have been allocated to the Coaching and Officiating unit to boost the work in three key areas, addressing the needs of grass roots coaches, supporting the recruitment and retention of officials and developing high performance coaches. In addition to refining existing programs, the challenge ahead for the Coaching and Officiating Unit will be to work with national sporting organisations to implement strategies to address these key areas.
We should all offer our congratulations to the Olympic and Paralympic coaches on a job well done. Coaching can be a hugely rewarding experience at all levels. We at the Coaching and Officiating unit will be working with the sporting community to ensure that appropriate structures are in place to help realise this.
