When coaching athletes, it is likely you will evaluate their strengths and weakness, be mindful of their goals and objectives and be looking for ways you can help them develop their own performance. So why as coaches would we not do the same to ourselves?

As coaches we need to ensure we are constantly looking at how we can develop ourselves to ensure we are doing the very best for those we coach. 

What is Continual Professional Development?

In its broadest sense, continual professional development or CPD for short is the process of developing your skills, knowledge and ability as a coach after your initial coach training.

Outside of attending formal coach courses or education programmess many of us will engage in CPD without even realising it. Have you ever read an article in a magazine or perhaps had a coaches’ meeting within your club. These are both examples of CPD. Even reading this article can be classed as a form of CPD.

One of the strengths of CPD is that it is directed and controlled by you. This means you engage with content that is of interest and relevance to you, and delivered in a way that you find engaging and meaningful.

Whilst the self-directed nature of CPD is a strength there are certain things you may want to think about when engaging with different types of CPD.

Will it deepen your knowledge of a specific area as well as your ability to apply that knowledge in the real world?

There is a wealth of information available to us at the click of a mouse or the swipe of a finger.  However make sure you are also able to translate that knowledge into your coaching. Just knowing about the latest drill for swimming won’t make you a better coach if you aren’t able to understand the underpinning reasons for why it works and for whom it will work for, as well as being able to integrate it effectively into your coaching.

One of the best ways to do this is through experience. Don’t be afraid to try new things in your coaching, or better yet go and coach in completely new environment.

Does the CPD provide you with opportunities for practice and reflection?

Would you expect an athlete to pick up a new skill and be able to use it effectively straight away? It is the same for us as coaches. Every coaching environment is unique so you need to be able to practice and reflect upon knowledge and content you pick up from your CPD in order to make it work in your coaching environment.  Reflection is one of the most powerful ways we can learn from our coaching experience and one of the best types of CPD to help you do this is mentoring .

Schemes such as British triathlons Coach Mentor programme can provide a valuable CPD opportunity. Additionally creating a community of practice with other coaches can be a great way to develop you as a coach as they allow for sharing of experience and learning from other coaches.

Can you fit it in with your day-to-day life & can it be sustained?

The best CPD is part of what you do, not bolted onto what you do, and therefore continued over time.

If you added up the amount of time you spent working, spending time with your family, coaching and maybe even having a bit of a social life, it soon becomes clear that it can be hard to find time to purposefully pursue CPD activities.

CPD doesn’t have to be a weekend course; it can be as simple as reading an article and spending 10 minutes reflecting on how you would use that information in your coaching. Or perhaps you can spend 30minutes talking to another coach.

Equally spending an hour doing some reading needs to be followed up with something else down the line. How are you going to integrate it into your coaching, what are the next steps for progressing your knowledge further?

The key is doing CPD activities that are of value to you, and therefore become engrained in your coaching practice.

Does it address your needs and areas of development?

If an athlete you coach can swim 400m in 3:40.07 (Paul Biedermann’s world record) then you probably wouldn’t focus on trying to develop their swimming.

Sometimes it can be hard as coaches to challenge ourselves to look into areas where we really need to develop.  A successful learning coach is able to understand themselves and what makes them tick. In the same way you want to understand those you coach, you need to know yourself in order to maximise your development.

By really understanding what you want to get from your CPD you can ensure the time you invest into it provides you with the maximum benefit. Some coaches find personal development plans  a good way to build their CPD, or perhaps a performance review. There is no one best method or tool, find what works for you and go with it.

What are the BTF doing to help?

As the sport’s national governing body (NGB) we want to ensure we are supporting our coaches as much as possible.

We are also in the process of developing our CPD offering, which will be shaped by coaches just like you. Whilst still in its early stages there is already some new content on the coaches’ hub, which you can access here.

If you have any questions around CPD, please contact the Coach Development team at coaching@britishtriathlon.org