What are the Main Responsibilities of a Coach?

This article outlines the main responsibilities & standards for coaches & assistant track & field coaches. It also provides examples from real resumes.

What are the Main Responsibilities of a Coach?

The role of a coach is to facilitate learning, provide advice, and analyze the individual to identify strengths and weaknesses. Coaches plan, teach, evaluate, and adapt to create quality sports practices and prepare for competition. The primary responsibility of a coach is to motivate one person or an entire team. Coaches focus on improving the performance and skills of athletes by conducting training sessions, coordinating practice exercises, and counseling.

Their work is not limited to sporting events, but also takes place off the field. Coaches may be responsible for recruitment activities to complete a team's roster and help them succeed. Other duties of a coach include raising funds, supervising facilities, and promoting a safe environment. These fundamental responsibilities and associated standards were supported by the latest research and practical work in training science and in the various fields of exercise science that inform training.

Core Responsibilities of a Coach

The responsibilities of a coach include managing players and meeting their needs, participating in the facilitation of exercises and training, monitoring players' progress, and liaising with doctors and other staff.

In this third review of the standards, the working group identified the main responsibilities, underlying knowledge, and professional, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills that coaches need to create quality sports experiences for athletes. Assistant track and field coaches are sports professionals who are responsible for supervising and instructing athletes who participate in sprints, relays, or jumps. For example, coach responsibilities are more likely to require skills such as customer service, food handling, safety regulations, and customer satisfaction. The basic responsibilities of the coach and their associated standards can be used to improve the preparation, training, and evaluation of sports training. Within each of the core responsibilities, there is a set of standards that identify the knowledge and skills (or competencies) that would help coaches fulfill the core responsibilities. In addition, informing the public about the main responsibilities of sports coaches can generate expectations for quality training.

Examples of Coach Responsibilities

Below are examples of responsibilities extracted from real coach resumes that represent the typical tasks they are likely to perform in their roles.

So does it occur to you that I should become a coach? It's crossed your mind; maybe you should consider the growth rate. As for similarities between these two careers, this is where it ends because the responsibility of a coach requires skills such as customer service, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), food handling, and safety regulations. Some important key differences between these two careers are some of the skills needed to fulfill responsibilities. The seven main responsibilities of training and the associated standards also align closely with the International Sports Training Framework and the Quality Training Framework.

According to resumes of coaches and assistant baseball coaches, some of the skills needed to fulfill the responsibilities of each role are similar.

Kent Gardiner
Kent Gardiner

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