Coach in Running Fitness

Coach leading a club session

The Coach in Running Fitness (CiRF) Award is the cornerstone of the off-track pathway and is designed for those who want to get involved in coaching runners, over the age of 12, who take part in non-track based activities e.g. road, fell, cross country or multi terrain events, and who wish to improve their fitness.

  • Book your place on the Coach in Running Fitness course via Athletics Hub

CiRF is about the broad application to non-track based endurance running rather than specific track events or distances and is not designed for coaches who want to work with runners taking part in track based events such as 800m to 10k track races or steeplechase. When qualified you will be insured to coach without supervision.

Candidates must engage in tasks and activities throughout this running coaching course and demonstrate improvement following any discussions with course staff. Candidates not engaging within all aspects of the course are at risk of not gaining the qualification at the end of the process.

If you’re interested in attending a CiRF course and would like more information and a taster of the coaching skills you will learn, find out more about our 2 hour online LiRF-CiRF workshops.

Our coaching journey is supported by British Athletics’ coaching qualifications.

Format: 4 Day course

This certified running coach programme consists of four face-to-face contact days, which includes assessment of technical knowledge, planning and coaching practice. For more information on how to become a running coach with our CiRF running coach course, please find a list of course content below.

What to Coach:

Warm up and Skill Development

  • Reinforcement of Coordination/Balance/Agility
  • Teaching methods

Fundamental Running skills

  • Maximum velocity running
  • Running for endurance
  • Running uphill
  • Running downhill
  • Principles of warm up, cool down and flexibility

The importance of Physical Preparation

  • Different types of strength
  • Muscle fibre recruitment
  • Postural control and correct movement
  • Observing ‘Athletic Shape’
  • Multi jumps and multi throws
  • Integrated training programmes

Testing and Monitoring (and their purpose)

  • Technical competency
  • Movement skills

How to Coach:

  • Reinforcement of the coaching HOW-2 skills (Safety / Organisation / Instruction & Explanation / Demonstration)
  • Introduction and development of HOW-2 skills (Observation & Analysis / Feedback & Questioning)

General Content:

  • Role and responsibilities of a Coach in Running Fitness
  • Athlete centred coaching
  • Athlete Development Pathway
  • Athlete profiling and short – medium term planning
  • How skill is learnt –the stages of learning and the implications on coaching
  • Inclusive coaching
  • Common causes of injury and using coaching observation and planning to prevent injury
  • Risk assessments
  • Factors affecting performance, principles of training and fitness components

Practical Application:

  • Warm ups / Cool down / Flexibility
  • Physical preparation
  • Fundamental running skills, including technical considerations for:
    • Endurance running
    • Running at speed
    • Running uphill / downhill
    • Running over obstacles

Book now

Book your place on the Coach in Running Fitness course

No courses in your area? Fill in our Course Request form below.