Most martial arts coaches / instructors have a black belt demonstrating their competence in their chosen martial art, though very few have any formal training in sports coaching. As many shun formal methods of coach education in favour of informal methods such as sharing information and practice with peers and researching online, we want to use this section to help share current sports coaching research, theory and best practice.
To make our articles as accessible as possible to martial arts coaches of all ages and abilities, we will only use academic terminology where we feel it necessary. We are conscious that most academic research is only ever read by academics and we feel this is a waste. We want our articles to be used to inform practice in your club which is why most of our posts finish with action steps to help you take advantage of the research findings. If you feel like doing a little more research in a particular area we will sometimes include a few references or links to further reading materials on the subject.
This blog will provide information on a wide number of topics relating to sports coaching including programme design, teaching methods, planning, student motivation, ethics, analysing performance etc. You can either scroll through the various articles reading the summary or search for a specific topic or keyword. If you can not find an article on an area you would like to know a little more on, please click on the ‘Submit a request’ button and let us know.
We are always interested in hearing from writers in the sports / martial arts coaching field. If you feel that you would like to contribute towards this blog and you have written an article that you feel our members would like to read, please click on ‘ABOUT’ from the menu and send us an outline of your article along with any supporting references.