Sport Coaching BSc (Hons)

Academic skills when studying away from your home country can differ due to cultural and language differences in teaching and assessment practices. This module is designed to support your transition in the use and practice of technical language and subject specific skills around assessments and teaching provision in your chosen subject. The overall aim of this module is to develop your abilities to read and study effectively for academic purposes; to develop your skills in analysing and using source material in seminars and academic writing and to develop your use and application of language and communications skills to a higher level.

The topics you will cover on the module include:

• Understanding assignment briefs and exam questions.
• Developing academic writing skills, including citation, paraphrasing, and summarising.
• Practising ‘critical reading’ and ‘critical writing’
• Planning and structuring academic assignments (e.g. essays, reports and presentations).
• Avoiding academic misconduct and gaining credit by using academic sources and referencing effectively.
• Listening skills for lectures.
• Speaking in seminar presentations.
• Presenting your ideas
• Giving discipline-related academic presentations, experiencing peer observation, and receiving formative feedback.
• Speed reading techniques.
• Developing self-reflection skills.

The 20-credit yearlong Unilang modules (stages 1 – 5 depending on language) aim to encourage a positive attitude to language learning and to develop and practise the four language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing introducing the basic/increasingly complex grammatical structures and vocabulary of the spoken and written language (depending on stage) and developing your ability to respond appropriately in spoken and written form in simple and increasingly complex everyday situations.

These modules also introduce you to the country and the culture of the country. In doing this, Unilang modules are intended to encourage and support international mobility; to enhance employability at home and abroad; to improve communication skills in the foreign language and in English as well as cultural awareness.

The module aims to develop your skills of independent working by engaging with a topic of your own choosing. You will develop a critical and in-depth knowledge of a specific area (within the remit of your degree programme) in relation to a research or clinical problem of contemporary relevance to the industry/profession. You will learn aspects of research such as literature searching, filtering and quality assessment, project design considerations, ethical implications and data analysis methods. You will develop skills such as time management, contingency planning and critical thinking to produce a well-planned, coherent and ethical project.

The module will incorporate an interdisciplinary approach to optimise performance. The module is designed to allow students to critically apply the principles of sport science to aid in the improvement of athletic performance. You will study the adaptations and limitations to physical performance, psychological techniques and biomechanical principles of movement. The module will investigate a variety of ‘skills’ as a platform to apply interventions based around the three disciplines of Physiology, Biomechanics and Psychology. The students will work holistically in interdisciplinary groups to analyse performance/technique/behaviour and devise appropriate, evidence-based interventions to optimise performance.

The aim of the module is to enable you to further develop the practical and theoretical skills you learned in previous modules. You will be introduced to advanced kinematic and kinetic data collection and analysis techniques, and to potential applications relevant to current research initiatives in sport and clinical biomechanics. In the second part of the module, you will explore advanced techniques used in clinical biomechanics. You will develop your practical skills and learn to use clinical normative profiling techniques. You will design your own projects and learn to independently collect, and critically appraise your data, and report your findings. In addition, this module aims to develop your appreciation of scientific rigor in experimental design and testing, and to give you an understanding of how to control and measure potential sources of error, reliability and validity.

You will learn how to apply knowledge of human physiology, psychology and sport/physical activity-related assessment processes to the field of paediatric sport and exercise science. You will learn about the psychological and physiological issues associated with maturation in the exercising child and adolescent. The psychological determinants of child and adolescent sport and physical activity participation will also be examined. Furthermore, you will explore multi-disciplinary approaches to develop an intervention strategy that addresses a contemporary issue within a paediatric population.

This module covers the prescription of exercise to improve sport specific fitness and sporting performance. The focus of this module is on evidence-based practice. Throughout the module you will investigate the most appropriate method(s) of training to enhance a range of components of fitness. To do this, you will be required to gather and evaluate the scientific literature that exists for different components of fitness. Furthermore, you will be required to explain the physiological adaptations that arise from different training methods and the resulting causal mechanism(s) for improving performance. In addition to the critical understanding of physiological adaptations, you will examine the principles of training programme design, factors that influence training programmes. Throughout the module, you will be encouraged to critically review the body of literature on each topic, not just in terms general conclusion(s) but also the applicability of the findings to athletes from all sectors of society.  

On this module you will learn about and get to experience what a sport psychologist does when working with athletes and coaches. You will explore the different ways in which a sport psychologist can work with athletes and coaches and will begin to create your own personal approach to sport psychology practice.  You will be exposed to the range of different issues that a sport psychologist might encounter from performance enhancement through performance dysfunction, performance impairment and performance termination, and will learn about how a sport psychologist deals with these issues.  You will find out what athletes from different cultures think of sport psychology, and how sport psychologists can use this information to make their work with athletes more effective.  You will get to try out and critique a range of psychological techniques derived from both western and eastern philosophies including goal-setting, imagery, self-talk progressive muscular relaxation and mindfulness.  You will learn how to design individualised mental training programmes, and how to work as part of a multidisciplinary team. 

This module aims to develop a critical in-depth understanding of the nature, and key professional responsibilities of the sport and exercise scientist working as part of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation team, whilst also working with diverse clinical groups and clients from multi-cultural and ethnically diverse backgrounds. You will be introduced to the specific needs of athletes and will be given the background knowledge to be able to advise them on prevention and rehabilitation strategies, based on critical evaluation of current evidence, in order to facilitate their continued participation in their chosen sport, exercise or activity.

You will be given the opportunity to develop a critical understanding of acute and chronic musculo-skeletal, and inflammatory conditions in specific groups of athletes and to devise evidence-based rehabilitation strategies. You will also learn to critically evaluate and apply knowledge of the psychological, physiological, and nutritional aspects of injury, recovery and general wellbeing, when developing assessment and rehabilitation. You will be taught from a variety of practitioners in the fields of sports medicine including physiology, nutrition, psychology, physiotherapy and sports rehabilitation management.

This module is designed for students to critically analyse the skills required to coach and nurture athletic talent at a high-performance level. The module will critique contemporary long term athlete development models, pathways and their impact on performance, long term participation and well-being. Students will also critically examine what is meant by the term talent, identify the skills and competencies needed to coach and develop in a high-performance setting, investigate the difficulties a high-performance coach may encounter and provide potential solutions to maximise effective coaching practice.

You will learn how to plan, implement, and evaluate a sport event. This module is designed to provide you with a vocationally-relevant sport management experience, founded upon theoretical principles. You are required to work in a group to plan and deliver a sports event, and then individually evaluate one aspect of the event. The module is intended to promote entrepreneurship and creativity as well as personal and collective responsibility by means of a real-life challenge.

On this module you will conduct a critical analysis of sport event literature, evaluate planning models, conduct market research, and reflect on the acquisition of graduate attributes, such as;
· Creativity
· Resilience;
· Teamwork and leadership;
· Advanced communication skills;
· Entrepreneurship and Employability;
· Cultural awareness and ethical behaviour within the sport environment.

Planning, implementing, and evaluating a sports event is challenging. It will test your knowledge and skills across a number of academic disciplines. Similarly, the live project assessments will add a new dimension to your learning experience. They are designed to be authentic, as such you will have a significant degree of autonomy in how you develop your team, conceptualise your event plan, and begin the implementation process. Due to the autonomous, yet supportive, teaching philosophy adopted on this module, you will find it a highly rewarding experience.

Generally through your active engagement with this module, you will develop a portfolio of evidence to demonstrate your professional competencies in a range of skills and attributes, which are transferable and desirable in a number of industry sectors.

The module aims to provide students with the opportunity to build upon and apply the knowledge, skills and experience gained to the teaching of net wall games and individual activities, such as badminton, gymnastics and athletics. Throughout the module you will have the opportunity to further develop your coaching skills and practice but with specific emphasis on utilising these in order to teach the skills and techniques involved in individual activities and net wall games in a school environment. A major part of this module will be the opportunity to develop your practical skills and gain a critical understanding of how to develop these with students in an educational context.

This module aims to enable you to develop an understanding of key elements of the global sport industry. You will be introduced to the contemporary principles of management in international sport business and will learn about economic and social benefits that sport brings across the globe. Topics that will be covered in this module include international sport governance; globalisation of sport; international sport events, bidding for them and their impacts and legacies; managing international sport brands and rights; the impact of technology on global sport; international athlete management and role of intermediaries; sport as an instrument of “soft power”; international sport tourism; and the sustainability of international sport industry.

This module is focused on you gaining experience with the sport, exercise and rehabilitation industry using a variety of professional and career development opportunities to suit your own needs; including, but not limited to work-based experience, shadowing professionals, attending workshops/courses/conferences, and careers events. Therefore, much of the learning on this module takes place away from the classroom and out in the sport, exercise and the rehabilitation industry. This module is designed to provide you with the opportunity to undertake an individually tailored programme of professional and career development activities, which you design, relevant to your own sport/exercise/rehabilitation-related career interests and needs. In addition, you will develop your knowledge and understanding of the value of professional and career development activities in enhancing employability within the sport, exercise and rehabilitation industry. It is an opportunity to take the learning you have gained in other modules and put it in to practice within the real-world settings.

This module provides you with an understanding of the role of physical activity and exercise in relation to health, the theories of behaviour change and how the theories are applied in practice. In the first half of the module, you will gain an understanding of the physiology of physical activity and exercise, and how this can prevent and manage a number of health conditions in a range of populations. The latter half of the module focuses on providing you with an insight of behaviour change including factors that influence behaviour change and an understanding of how such models can be applied in practice. The module will review current health promotion strategies and initiatives to enable you to develop your skills and competencies in evaluating empirical evidence and in designing health-based intervention strategies.

This module will explore the pedagogical principles and practices underpinning sports coaching. Specifically, the module will focus upon the application of theoretical and evidence-based approaches to develop coaching practice. The module aims to provide students with the opportunity to build upon and apply the knowledge, skills and experiences gained at Level 4 and Level 5 to develop a critical, nuanced and theoretically informed understanding of key pedagogical principles applicable across a variety of sport coaching contexts. Weekly content will be concentrated on the interactive effects of specific coach behaviours, practice design and coach-player interactions to create coaching environments that are conducive to optimal learning, engagement and performance across different sport coaching contexts (e.g., high performance, recreation, development, special populations). The module will place particular emphasis on developing students practical coaching skills that are informed by current research.