Coaching Qualifications...

Coaching Qualifications are a great thing to have when you're interested in a career in Sport! They can help advance your own knowledge of a sport, help you develop as a performer and as a coach. I originally got mine because I needed them to work as a sports coach but since coming to Uni they have found me countless jobs and opportunities!

Lots of people at Uni say to me that they are interested in doing them but they cost a lot of money and/or they can't find a course... Well, yes they will cost some money but see it as an investment, and there are plenty of schemes about to help with the cost. For example a few years ago the FA ran women only coaching courses for FREE to train more women to become football coaches as part of their 'getting women/girls playing football' campaign. The 'This Girl Can' Campaign by Sport England may also have funding to help some into coaching. Consider less traditional sports too - archery, canoeing, fencing, goalball are just the beginning!

Finding a course, on the other hand is something I can help with!

Sports Coach UK and 1st 4 Sport are a great place to start, as well as your governing body for your own sport. There are plenty of courses running for a wide variety of sports so have a look, even at sports you've never tried, and see what you think. Each sport will have their own ranking system of qualifications for coaches but a general rule is that a Level 1 course is for those who are looking to be an assistant coach, are just getting into a sport or are still Juniors; Level 2 courses are for coaches who want to run their own sessions. Most sports require that you complete a Level 1 before a Level 2 so consider that when you are thinking about booking courses - don't book on to a Level 2 before completing your Level 1! National Governing Bodies of sports are also a good place to look - for example the FA, British Gymnastics, England Athletics, Badminton England etc...

Once you are qualified, advertise that you are! Contact your local council, they might have some work for you, and if not they can point you in the direction of places to advertise your services. With a coaching qualification usually comes a DBS Check (CRB), a first aid qualification and a safeguarding certificate (you have to get these in order to pass the coaching qualification - you will be advised as to how to obtain these) which are all useful in helping you to get placements or work in a variety of settings. They also look great on Uni applications!

Please leave a comment if you have any specific questions about coaching or specific sports and I will do my best to answer them!

An insight into 1st year life

This week I interviewed a small group of students in my PAL (Peer Assisted Learning) group. PAL is a peer mentoring scheme run by the Uni, but deserves its own blog - so watch this space!

I asked a few questions to gain an insight into what life is like as a first year Sport and PE student. I hope you find it useful but if there are any other questions you would like answering then please let me know!

Next week I will be talking about Open Days as I know Beds have a few coming up and so do other Universities. 

Varsity!

Varsity is an annual sporting competition traditionally held between two 'rival' Universities in the same local area; for example between Leeds and Leeds Met, Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam, and Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. It is a day to look forward to in the calendar, great atmosphere, great social and some great sport! 

Beds and Herts compete in a wide variety of sports from traditional games like football, rugby and netball to ultimate frisbee, dodgeball and futsal. I managed to go around and get some photos of the day to give you an idea of the atmosphere and what goes on, but as I was playing myself most of my time was taken up playing Badminton. The two Universities take turns to host the event and this year it was UoBs turn! Check out some news articles here: http://www.bedssu.co.uk/articles and here is a BullsTV video on Varsity 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fSfegP4LAw 

#BedsvsHerts #varsity

(Music - David Guetta - Toy Story)

Next week I will be interviewing a few first year Sport and PE students in my PAL session to see how their first year has been!

BUCS Wednesdays!

Warming up and checking out
 the competition

Wednesday afternoons are traditionally kept free for University sport. BUCS (British Universities & Colleges Sports) is the national governing body for Higher Education sport and have a league in which Universities enter teams for numerous sports. Universities can enter more than one team for each sport and you can find more information about BUCS on there website here: http://www.bucs.org.uk/.

Team Talk Tactics

Most Wednesdays I have a badminton match for the University. We play in the Midlands 2B league and compete against other Universities, playing each twice in the season, once at home and once away. You can search for teams at all institutions and can narrow the search down by gender and sport here: http://m.bucs.org.uk/mSearch.aspx.  

Action Shot!

University is a good time to try new things and joining a sports team could be one of those things! Try some new sports, Ultimate Frisbee, Canoeing and Korfball are among a few I can think of that most people will not have have the opportunity to experience at school. One of my best friends at Uni is a Basketball player who tried Korfball for the first time at Uni and was scouted at an event to go and train with the GB Korfball team! So you may just find the sport for you by trying new things!

Another Action Shot!

Our team has a tradition that we all meet for ‘Brunch’ in town before a home game on a Wednesday. It’s a great opportunity to get to know people, socialise and eat some good food! ‘Away Days’ are notorious for being full of banter, bus games and generally a good laugh. We often have to leave in the morning for afternoon games and will share a coach with another Uni team going to the same venue/nearby venue. Last week we travelled to De Montfort in Leicester with the Men’s Football 3^rd and 4^th teams. There was music, silly games and competitions all the way there and all the way back! It was awesome, the journey went really quickly and we got to meet some new people who I otherwise would probably have never met.

Next Wednesday is VARSITY so I shall be blogging about that! I’ll do my best to get lots of photos from different sports to show you and possibly some video footage!