Football Coaching and Performance BSc (Hons)

Academic skills when studying away from your home country can differ due to cultural and language differences in teaching and assessment practices. This module is designed to support your transition in the use and practice of technical language and subject specific skills around assessments and teaching provision in your chosen subject. The overall aim of this module is to develop your abilities to read and study effectively for academic purposes; to develop your skills in analysing and using source material in seminars and academic writing and to develop your use and application of language and communications skills to a higher level.

The topics you will cover on the module include:

• Understanding assignment briefs and exam questions.
• Developing academic writing skills, including citation, paraphrasing, and summarising.
• Practising ‘critical reading’ and ‘critical writing’
• Planning and structuring academic assignments (e.g. essays, reports and presentations).
• Avoiding academic misconduct and gaining credit by using academic sources and referencing effectively.
• Listening skills for lectures.
• Speaking in seminar presentations.
• Presenting your ideas
• Giving discipline-related academic presentations, experiencing peer observation, and receiving formative feedback.
• Speed reading techniques.
• Developing self-reflection skills.

The aim of the Academic and Professional Skills module is to develop your knowledge, understanding and application of academic, personal and professional skills relevant to university graduates which will help you to successfully complete your degree programme. Both formal and informal techniques will be used to assess your development in key areas such as written communication, critical analysis and self-reflection. You will develop a range of general transferable skills useful for other modules throughout your programme, including knowing how to find appropriate literature to support your ideas and how to develop balanced arguments. The information you will learn will be linked to topics of interest to those working in the areas of sport, exercise and rehabilitation, giving you insight into these fields as potential career paths in addition to more general employability skills such as communication, digital fluency and time management.

This module will introduce you to research in relation to sport, exercise and rehabilitation. The module will guide you through the research process involved in generating new information via scientific methods. The module will provide both a theoretical and practical introduction to basic experimental approaches, data analysis techniques and report writing, and demonstrate the usefulness and limitations of research-generated information. You will gain an understanding of fundamental concepts and principles of conducting research and interpreting the findings.

You will learn about the research process (e.g., developing a research question and ethical considerations) and be introduced to the scientific method such as the basic concepts of planning, collecting, organising, and analysing data and report-writing in sport, exercise and rehabilitation. Learning materials will be delivered via interactive lectures, hands-on workshops, directed tasks and independent study. You will learn the basics about managing, analysing and interpreting data in practical-computer-lab workshops comprising the quantitative method of enquiry. You will also be introduced to basic methods of working with data from interviews and focus groups comprising the qualitative method of enquiry. For each of the methods, you will learn to identify when it is suitable to use; how to run the analysis; how to report its findings to experts and lay people; and how to use these findings to inform your critical judgement about your own research and that of others.

This module aims to help students develop an understanding of the fundamental knowledge and skills of effective coaching. The module will examine coaching practice in relation to current theories and models associated with effective coaching. You will be given an opportunity to gain practical coaching experience and observe coaches in action within this module.

This module is centred on two important and interrelated areas. First, we examine the modern make-up of sport across all levels and track key changes in sport organisations occurring due to changes in the way that we live and work in modern society. For example, we will investigate issues including (but not limited to) commercialisation and globalisation, modern consumption practices, celebrity and stardom, neoliberalism and corruption. Second, we will explore the benefits and drawbacks, winners and losers, accepters and resisters to these social movements manifest in sport. To do this, we look at myriad definitions of the sport consumer and sport stakeholders. We will examine who benefits from sport’s current organisation and what are some of the costs (e.g. social, human, economic) of such practices.

The nature of football coaching is changing, and current coaches are required to possess a holistic understanding of all elements which impact performance. You will study key sport science principles in order to appreciate the role that science has in current practices in football. It is imperative that you are developing evidence-based practices, and this module provides you with the knowledge to create a rationale for your football coaching methods by understanding how the body responds to, and fuels exercise, as well as its limitations. You will develop an understanding of the fundamental concepts of sport science, which are directly relevant to football. Furthermore, the application of these concepts will be outlined to illustrate the interdisciplinary nature of the football coaching process.

In this module you will consider key industry knowledge and practices aligned with community and professional football coaching. You will be widely introduced to The FA’s 4 corner module (i.e., Technical/Tactical, Physical, Sociological, Psychological) and encouraged to explore how this model supports player development, coach delivery and coach development. Crucially, this module will also seek to develop your ‘on the pitch’ coaching practice. Notionally, and broadly, you will consider:

• Understanding players and their game
• Helping players learn football through practice
• Helping players learn football through matchday

This module will enhance your preparation for future football coaching opportunities/qualifications and support your continued engagement with experiential learning opportunities throughout your programme of study.