Coaching
A coach is one of the most influential people in a young person's life. Coaches don't just teach how to hit a ball or block a spike, but how to win and lose graciously. The athletic skills young people learn from coaches may only apply for a few years, but the attitudes they develop toward themselves and others will last a lifetime.
As a role model, the coach is a teacher, leader, organizer and counselor.
The Coaching Association of Canada has been reviewing the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) over the past 5 years. The NCCP has been regarded as one of the top coaching education programs in the world but after an extensive review, several modifications have been suggested. Most prominent of these is to ensure that the program is not strictly knowledge based but has a substantial practical component. The main objective for the program is to produce competent coaches rather than simply knowledgeable coaches. As a result, the CAC adopted a coaching assesment and evaluation process approach for the redevelopment of the certification program. Coaches will be assesed and evaluated on their knowledge at each level.
The primary goal of the NCCP program is to focus on the holistic development of coaches that reflect the needs of the participants and demands of the sport’s context. More specifically, the philosophy of the NCCP program is to offer quality training to develop competent coaches that can be defined as being able to answer to the needs of the participants within a specific context and intervene effectively within the boundaries of an ethical framework of practice. The emphasis is not on what you “the coach” know but what you can do with what you know. The content of the course focuses on 4 essential generic coaching competencies such as problem solving, intervention, values and critical thinking. In developing these competencies, coaches are trained in all aspects of coaching (i.e. human, technical, practical and strategic) that are relevant to all types of coaches and coaching contexts. This will also provide on-going self-development
Levels of Certification
The four (4) levels of certification are the following:
- Level 1 - athletes at the junior high/13U, 14U, 15U & 16U level
- Level 2 - athletes at the high school/17U, 18U & 21U level
- Level 3 - athletes in provincial team programs/university/college
- Level 4 - national team coaches
How Do I Get Certified?
Alberta Volleyball conducts Technical courses several times a year and oversees the Practical component of the NCCP program. The Theory component is run by the Alberta Sport, Recreation, Parks and Wildlife Foundation and offer courses in all regions of the province throughout the year.
Technical courses apply coaching principles for volleyball. Skills, drills, training methods, strategy and tactics, detection and correction of errors plus psychological preparation are some of the topics covered in this component.
Please select a category on the left navigation bar for more information and course dates.
