Career as a Sports Coach and Instructor

What: Sports coaches help people participating in sports to work towards achieving their full potential. They may support professional sportspeople, sports teams, community teams or school groups, working with them closely to improve performance. They may also have a role in encouraging underrepresented groups or young people to participate in sporting activities.

Sports coaches bring out ability by identifying needs and planning and implementing suitable training programmes. Whatever the context, coaching involves developing the participants’ physical and psychological fitness and providing the best possible practical conditions in order to maximise their performance.

Coaches must be aware of their ethical and legal obligations to their clients. Many coaches combine coaching with other, often full-time, jobs. Many sports coaches work part time and unpaid, offering their coaching services on a purely voluntary basis. Governing bodies of various sports, professional sports clubs and educational institutions supported by public and private sector undertakings and local sports authorities hire national coaches. Opportunities vary from sport to sport.

As far as package is concerned a sports coach can get 15-20,000 in good schools / colleges or institution to start with.

How: Coaching roles vary hugely according to context, but typical work activities are likely to include: Performance management; Planning and administration. Assessing strengths and weaknesses in a participant’s performance and identifying areas for further development.

Performance management: Adapting to the needs and interests of the group or individual participant. Communicating instructions and commands using clear, simple language. Demonstrating an activity by breaking the task down into a sequence. Encouraging participants to gain and develop skills, knowledge and techniques. Ensuring that participants train and perform to a high standard of health and safety at all times. Inspiring confidence. Developing knowledge and understanding of fitness, injury, sports psychology, nutrition and sports science. Working with IT-based resources to monitor and measure performance.

Planning and administration: Producing personalised training programmes. Maintaining records of participant performance. Coordinating participants’ attendance at meetings and other sports events. Planning and running programmes of activities for groups and/or individuals. Transporting participants to and from training sessions and sports events. Seeking and applying for sponsorship agreements. Finding appropriate competitions for participants. Marketing and promoting your services, if you are self-employed. Planning your own work schedule.

Where: There is no formal qualification required for those aspirants who themselves have played the same or related sport up to a considerable level. Former and senior player of the sports can get the job straight way as assistant coaches owing to their knowledge and experience of the sport as a player. With some experience in the coaching as assistant coach, they can alleviate to the upper position as main coach or chief coach in due course of time.

Candidates who wish to apply for Bachelor degree in sports coaching should have passed 10+2 or equivalent examination securing a minimum of 50% marks (for some reputed institutions) in an aggregate preferably with physical education as one of the main subject at +2 level.

The Sports Authority of India (SAI) offers courses in sports coaching at its branches located at Patiala, Kolkata & Bangalore