If you want to pursue a career in sports coaching and development, either in the UK or abroad, then our Sports Coaching degree is for you.
Do you want to help athletes and teams perform to their absolute best? Or maybe you like the idea of helping to shape sports policy? Wherever your sporting ambitions lie, we’ll give you the practical skills and knowledge you’ll need to build a successful career in the sports industry.
Supported by our research active educators, you’ll take a multidisciplinary approach to sports coaching that encompasses sport pedagogy, psychology, sociology, policy and more.
You’ll develop your practical coaching skills across a variety of sports and can tailor your learning by choosing a specialised sports coaching focus, or a broader study experience that incorporates greater sports development and sports sociology themes, particularly in the final year of your study.
Through established partnerships with internationally recognised organisations, including UK Coaching, The FA, the RFU and Nippon Sports University, and regional sporting and educational organisations such as Sport Across Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire University Academies Trust, Sir Stanley Matthews Sports Centre, Stoke City FC Community Trust and Port Vale FC Community Trust, you’ll have the opportunity to assist with research projects, participate in additional coaching workshops and undertake coaching consultancy work to complement your studies.
You’ll also have the chance to work with local, regional - and in some cases national - stakeholders to assist in delivering innovative and best coaching practices, and co-produce work to promote physical activity to marginalised populations.
Industry leading technology
Throughout the course, you’ll use industry leading technology to enhance your skills and prepare you for a job in industry:
- NVivo and SPSS are used in research methods modules and can be employed within your independent research projects.
- Dartfish (a sports performance analysis software platform) and Global Positioning System Technology (wearable technology) are used to dissect individual and/or team performance and track the movement demands of individual and team sport performance.
- In the physiology module, you’ll work in our dedicated labs using equipment including Cortex Metalyzer (to measure resting metabolic rate), Biodex (for isokinetic testing), BodPod Body Composition System, Bio-Pac ECG (to measures electrical activity of the heart) and Bio-Pac EMG (to evaluate the response of muscle against nerve stimulation).