{"id":2553,"date":"2021-08-19T15:02:15","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T14:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/prism\/?p=2553"},"modified":"2021-08-19T15:02:19","modified_gmt":"2021-08-19T14:02:19","slug":"creating-an-online-coaching-company-to-overcome-the-absence-of-placements-due-to-covid-19-in-sport-exercise-and-rehabilitation-sciences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/prism\/creating-an-online-coaching-company-to-overcome-the-absence-of-placements-due-to-covid-19-in-sport-exercise-and-rehabilitation-sciences\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating an online \u2018coaching company\u2019 to overcome the absence of placements due to Covid-19 in Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Placements are a fundamental and popular element of the BSc Sport Coaching Science. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Level 5, students take the 20 credit \u2018The sport coach in action\u2019 module, which requires them to attend a sports placement for at least 40 hours.\u00a0 At Level 6, students taken the 40 credit \u2018The expert sport coach\u2019, which requires them to spend 60 hours on placement.\u00a0 Both run long and thin, across two semesters.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 restrictions, few placements have been available this academic year.\u00a0 Organised sports, leisure centres and coaching companies have been hard hit by the pandemic.\u00a0 Many have been unable to open, or have been operating at vastly reduced capacity, due to social distancing. \u00a0\u2018This is a fast-moving environment\u2019, Dr Katie Dray explained. \u00a0\u2018Changing government guidelines have impacted companies\u2019 ability to operate and accept student placements; changing university guidelines have affect students\u2019 ability to attend; and, of course, operators, clients and students are personally affected by the pandemic, too.\u00a0 As a result, around half of students have been without a placement provider this year\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To overcome this, the Sport Coaching programme team has established an \u2018online sports coaching company\u2019, to provide students with a placement experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this \u2018company\u2019, staff acted as the placement provider.  Students acted as consultants, taking the company\u2019s requirements to conduct a needs analysis for the individual or group, setting up a project, negotiating the agreement of the project brief and implementing the coaching plan.  Instead of building their coaching hours during face to face sessions, students are guided by their mentor to work on remote coaching practices, like developing training videos, doing match analysis or providing session plans for other coaches to use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been many unanticipated benefits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n