Summary
In working with the coaching manager of Basketball England we supported the development of the qualification from its initial base level of approach as a qualification with an aim to make it relevant to the needs of performance coaching.
Approach
As a recognised centre we delivered the learning programme as agreed by the sport’s source group. Through internal verification and discussion with the national league we established what the qualification needed to achieve. We identified that the qualification needed to be restructured to consider how a coach can plan through the season for the players and the team in technical, tactical, mental, physical and game management.
Furthermore, the qualification’s final assessment was through a coaching session. We decided to change this to a game situation, not something previously done by any other qualifications. We supported the case to 1st4sport to change the final assessment to a game assessment. The game assessment was to understand if they demonstrated the key competences for a level 3 coach, as well as making a positive contribution to the game through time-outs, substitutions and quarter-time interventions. Basketball was approved as the first sport to have its final assessment approached to be a game-based assessment.
As Basketball England along with the other home counties had developed “areas of emphasis”, we modified the learning programme to bring in the areas of emphasis and how the learners would interpret this into delivery. From this we orientated the tutors and re-designed the programme prior to delivery of the tutored element and subsequently with the assessments.
Outcome
The course has been delivered in intensive blocks with follow up sessions for the coaches. Furthermore, the tasks are now incorporated online making the programme more accessible for learners of all different styles. The assessments are now being carried out on game days with coaches making the assessment far more relevant to the needs of the sport than previously.