Initiatives/Proposals/Sports Coaching Resources

This project is a wiki-based website where sports coaches can create, edit and rate resources.

Outline

There are currently over 1 million volunteer sports coaches in the UK (sports coach UK, 2011). One of the main problems faced by these coaches is the lack of easily accessible intellectual resources (i.e. ideas for games, activities and drills). Most sports governing bodies do not have online resources and those that do makes coaches pay registration fees to access them (usually £30+ per year). Due to this high level of regulation, the resources available for coaches online are extremely narrow in scope and limited in volume. This project aims to create a wiki-based site that will enable any coach with a good idea to create, use and rate resources in their chosen sport. It will initially be created between three UK universities who run degree courses in sports coaching. It is anticipated that the 1000 (approx.) students in these institutions could kick-start the wiki by creating resources and helping to refine the user interface in the development phase of the project. Thereafter, it is anticipated that the website could go 'live' once a useful database of resources had been created.

Benefits

The site would effectively create an open 'economy' of ideas and activities which would quickly become much larger and broader in scope than any existing resource. It is also possible that the range of different ideas available to coaches through the site would help to 'de-centre' the traditional and largely outdated resources available through individual sport governing body websites and coach education courses. The two-fold benefits would therefore be: 1) a large, freely available and constantly evolving store of resources for coaches in a range of sports; and 2) encouraging 'culture clash' which has the potential to open the minds of coaches to a wider range of methodologies and techniques than they have previously been exposed to.

Requirements

Initially the project would need a group with sufficient expertise to develop the website. Specifically, web development expertise and knowledge and understanding of coaches and coach education would be necessary, in addition to the usual costs associated with purchasing a web domain and storage space.

Volunteering

The success of the project would initially rest on the willingness and ability of volunteer students in the three degree programmes (mentioned above) to populate the site with exciting and useful resources. After going live, the site would require a small number of volunteer editors (potentially in each sport) to investigate and possibly remove resources that have been reported by users.

If you're interested in helping out with this proposal, please sign below with ?UNIQ455fc164aa41ea-nowiki-00000000-QINU?

Discussion

Is this project something you would like to use? Would people be willing to invest time in creating resources? How would sport governing bodies (i.e. those responsible for formal coach education and regulation) respond to such a resource?