The dream of managing your favourite team to glory on the field may seem remote, but every sports coaching journey starts with a step. With careful planning, diligent training and a body of relevant experience, it’s possible to achieve career success as a sports coach. In this article, we discuss the typical career progression of a sports coach, from entry-level roles all the way through to head coach and managerial positions. We offer tips on resume writing, qualifications and professional development that you can put into practice in your coaching career.
The First Steps to Becoming a Sports Coach
There are many paths to becoming a sports coach, and your career progression is likely to depend on your background. If you’ve enjoyed a career as a competitive sportsperson, your pathway into coaching may be more straightforward than average, but this isn’t the path most people take. For the purpose of this example, we’ll discuss how to forge a career in sports coaching without prior industry experience.
The first stage in becoming a successful sports coach is, of course, to choose a sport to specialise in. For most people, their choice of sport will be obvious. You’ll need to be passionate about, and committed to, your chosen sport. Once you’ve decided which sport to pursue a career in, the first step is usually getting involved in the sport at grassroots, community level. This typically means volunteering with local clubs, whether in a coaching capacity or helping in some other way.
Once you’ve gained some coaching experience, you might choose to study towards formal coaching qualifications. If you plan to work at a high level in your chosen sport, you’ll need certain registered qualifications. You can either pursue these yourself, or seek a sports club or organisation who’ll sponsor you to train.
Working towards your coaching qualifications is a step-by-step process with different levels, according to the level of the sport you’re coaching at. As you gain experience in coaching roles and study towards higher qualifications, you’ll become eligible to coach at a more advanced level.
Writing a Sports Coach Resume
Once you’ve gained some coaching experience and achieved the necessary qualifications to work in coaching, you can start applying for coaching jobs. At the entry-level, coaching jobs are likely to be part-time, so it’s probably not time to give up your day job just yet. When you’re applying for sports coach jobs, you’ll need to work on your resume. Use resume templates that include all the necessary sections, and follow the structure below when writing your resume for sports coach positions:
Header: add your name, email address, phone number and location. If you have a LinkedIn profile, website or career highlights reel, you can add the relevant links to this section.
Certifications: any other relevant certifications or training you’ve completed can go in this section. These could be courses such as first aid or certifications you’ve taken to enhance your coaching skills beyond the standard qualifications.
Voluntary work: your involvement in local community sport is likely to serve you well when you set out to get your first jobs in coaching. Outline any volunteer coaching roles you’ve held, as well as any other relevant voluntary work.
References: if the job advert requests them, add up to three relevant references from your career in sports coaching. If the advert doesn’t specifically ask for references, you can just add ‘references are available upon request’.
Career profile: write two or three sentences highlighting your skills, career achievements and ambitions, to show the clubs you’re applying to that you’re the right person for the job.
Education: list your professional coaching qualifications in this section, alongside any other relevant qualifications you’ve achieved.
Work experience: in this section, add any professional coaching positions you’ve held in the past, or any other relevant roles that show you’ve got the skills and experience necessary for the job. Focus on the impact you made in each position and your achievements, including personal awards and accolades, as well as team trophies.
Skills: in this section, showcase your coaching and management skills, with a focus on both the technical aspects of the role, and softer, transferable skills. You might choose to mention leadership, interpersonal skills, communication, mentoring or decision-making alongside technical skills such as training session design, injury management, tactical analysis and strategic development.
Tailoring your Sports Coach Resume for Different Career Stages
As your coaching career progresses and you begin to apply for more senior coaching roles, the tone and focus of your resume will shift. At the start of your coaching career, you might focus on volunteer roles you’ve had, which allowed you to hone your coaching skills while studying towards the necessary coaching qualifications. In the early stages of your career, you might also emphasise your technical know-how and hands-on coaching skills.
It will certainly be necessary to show these basic coaching fundamentals when you’re applying for lower level opportunities, or assistant coaching roles with larger organisations. However, as your career progresses and you become eligible to take on more senior coaching and management positions, you’ll want your resume to reflect the necessary skills and experience for these roles. If you move into a head coach or manager role, you might do less day-to-day coaching and focus more on high-level decision-making. As such, you’ll want your resume to highlight your leadership skills and ability to develop and deliver winning strategies for your club.
How to Advance Your Career as a Sports Coach
Getting to the top in sports coaching can be a long and arduous journey. Only the very most dedicated and talented can thrive in this highly competitive environment. Clearly, the performance of the teams you coach is the best indicator of your success and suitability for promotion. However, there are other things you can do to help you move up the ladder and into more senior coaching and management roles. Take a look at these tips for moving up in the world of sports coaching:
Continue your training: coaching is a discipline of continuous development, requiring constant learning to even maintain your current standing. If you want to move up in the sporting world as a coach, it’ll be essential to gain higher coaching qualifications and constantly seek opportunities to develop your skill and knowledge base.
Develop your leadership skills: alongside technical coaching skills, leadership skills become more and more important as your career progresses. As you deal with professional athletes of a higher standing and quality, you’ll need to show strong leadership to encourage buy-in and foster a heathy team culture.
Expand your network: success in the world of sports coaching is strongly influenced by who you know. Take the time to build relationships across your sport, as you never know when they’ll be useful. Sports coaching jobs can be highly transitional, with only long-term sustained success guaranteeing your job security. As such, it can be extremely valuable to have a strong network ready to go, to help you secure your next role. You can build your network by participating in industry conferences and joining professional coaching organisations.
Volunteer for extra responsibilities: volunteer for extra responsibilities when you’re starting out in your coaching career, to expand your knowledge and help you gain the necessary experience. Volunteering also shows a proactive attitude, which can be helpful when you’re seeking to advance in the industry.
Higher Skills for Success in Sports Coaching
Sports coaching careers can start with something as simple as volunteering to help out with coaching a local kids’ sports team. With the right attitude, dedication and skills, it can lead to success at the highest level of sport. As you progress through your coaching career, it’ll be necessary to add new strings to your bow, such as:
Budget management: for almost all sports teams, budgetary discipline is absolutely essential, and as a senior manager you’ll be expected to have a strong grasp of organisational finances.
Data analysis: at the highest levels, all modern sports clubs rely on data for help with key decisions. As you become more senior in your management responsibilities, you’ll need to develop a solid understanding of data analysis, to inform and support every decision you make.
Negotiation skills: whether negotiating your own contract, attempting to sign players for your team or working through the everyday tensions of both squad harmony and club management, strongly developed negotiation skills are essential.
Public speaking/media skills: the higher you progress in your career, the more you’ll be expected to face the public, or the media, and speak at length about your job and the decisions you make.
