South Africa Hosts Performance Coaching Course

A level 3 ISAF Technical Course for Coaches was successfully delivered at the Mossel Bay Yachting and Boating Club, South Africa, between 11-15 February.

A total of 12 participants, including one coach from Tanzania, took part in the six day long Performance-related course, delivered by ISAF Regional Development Co-ordinator for Africa, Rob Holden (RSA) and ISAF Nominated Expert Mike Hart (OMA).

Rob Holden, who is also the National High Performance and Participation Manager for South African Sailing said of this course, “With 12 coaches from South Africa and one from Tanzania, we were able to concentrate on what is needed from a performance coach point of view. The candidates came from very mixed backgrounds, with a mixture of Olympic sailors and people who have only sailed at national level. No matter what the background was, the enthusiasm was high and everyone very open to learning. The course was very intensive and a large amount of detail was covered. A lot of the younger coaches have shown that they want to be developed further as performance coaches as a result.

“Hosting a level 3 technical course for coaches in South Africa marks the beginning of the formal development of a performance coaching pathway in South Africa. With 12 South African coaches attending the course we now have the basis for delivery of a performance pathway which will change the way South African sailors get to the top not only nationally but internationally. Our learn to sail (participation) related coaching pathway is well developed and has been running for four years already, allowing us now to look in more detail at the performance pathway. Having ISAF Nominated Expert Mike Hart come to South Africa to help deliver this course has had a huge impact on the knowledge base for our performance coaches.”

Full details of the ISAF courses available through the IOC Olympic Solidarity funding programmes visit the ISAF Website here www.sailing.org/training/iocfunding.

ISAF Technical Course syllabus outlines are available to download here – www.sailing.org/training/coursesforcoaches/technicalcourse

For a PDF copy of the ISAF Coaching Framework document used to develop National Coaching Education Pathways please visit our dedicated website page here – www.sailing.org/training/nlstp/sport_coaching_framework

Regular updates on all our programs (including pictures from all courses) are available on our dedicated Training and Development Facebook page here www.facebook.com/ISAFDevelopment and updates via Twitter at www.twitter.com/ISAFDevelopment

For information on all of the programmes and initiatives that have been developed by ISAF in order to help increase global participation in the sport, please visit our dedicated training pages here www.sailing.org/training or contact the ISAF Training and Development Department here.