Sessional Coach & Athletics Coach
Become a qualified Coach
Gain the knowledge and practical skills to plan, lead and evaluate athletics sessions, supporting athletes to develop skills across running, jumping and throwing.
Best for you if…
- You are new to coaching, or hold the Assistant qualification
- You want to lead training sessions in your club or community
- You’re ready to take on more responsibility as a coach
- You enjoy working with developing athletes across different events.
Format
- 3 in-person training days
- Online learning and knowledge test
- 1 in-person assessment day.
Time commitment
Flexible learning with a mix of in-person and online study.
Specialist modules
Speed, Jumps, Throws, Endurance, Combined Events*, Wheelchair Racing* (chosen during the course).
*Modules in development, coming soon.
Course details
What you’ll learn
You’ll build a strong foundation in how to coach, not just what to coach.
Across the course, you’ll cover:
- Roles and responsibilities
- Engagement and relationship building
- The coaching process
- The fundamentals of movement and technique
- Behaviour management
- Performance factors and energy systems
- Risk Awareness.
- Planning and delivering effective sessions
- Developing athletes across multiple events
- Understanding physical preparation and progression
- Building technical knowledge in your chosen event group.
Choosing specialist modules within the course will give you the opportunity to specialise, while still developing a broad coaching skillset.
How it works
The course is designed to be simple to book and easy to follow.
You’ll book your core training days and assessment together, so you can plan your dates in advance. You can choose a specialist module during the course – there’s no need to decide everything upfront.
Specialist module options
Choose from:
- Speed
- Jumps
- Throws
- Endurance
- Combined Events*
- Wheelchair Racing*
If you want to expand your knowledge further, you can take additional modules after completing the coaching qualification.
What to coach
Physical preparation
Introduction to foundation athletic techniques:
- Lunge, brace, hinge, squat, push, pull, and rotate.
Running
Focusing on running fast, over obstacles and running for endurance, applicable to modules Speed, and Endurance:
- Technical components for starts, drive & acceleration, maximum velocity running
- Technical components for hurdles, including take off, clearance, landing and recovery
- Technical components for running for endurance and comparisons to running for speed.
Jumping
Focusing on jumping for height and distance:
- Phases, including approach, take off, flight and landing
- Force application and control.
Throwing
Focusing on the principles of push and pull techniques:
- Base of support and power position
- Speed, height and angle of release.