We are super excited to be running the Men's Artistic Gymnastics, Women's Artistic Gymnastics and Trampoline Discipline-Specific Intermediate Coaching Courses this coming November. These Intermediate courses are a level progression from the Fundamental Coaching Course and a bridge to attending any disicpline-specific FIG academy courses. Taking a page out of the Rhythmic Gymnastics Intermediate Coaching Course just passed, here's what potential participants can expect in November. 

That said, the format of the Intermediate courses are relatively new and we look forward to feedback so that we can continously improve on the delivery and content to better support coach development. 

1. Registration

All course registration and payment can be done online via your SG member account. We recommend interested participants to sign up as early as possible so as to have sufficient time to complete all pre-course requirements. Also remember, interested participants must have all relevant pre-requisites before they are able to sign up for the course. Besides being a registered technical member with a valid Standard First Aid certification, interested participants apply with either SG Fundamentals (1A) accreditation or General Gymnastics from previous years i.e.

2. Pre-Course readings & MCQ

Upon successful registration and receipt of payment, participants will receive a copy of Workbook 1, Workbook 2 as well as the link the a MCQ quiz. Workbook 1 provides the underpinning knowledge of our sport and the MCQ is a summarive assessment of that knowledge. Participants will have to achieve a 100% success rate in their MCQ before attending the online webinar.

3. Online Webinar

With COVID happening, it has changed the way our course has been structured. From a supposed 3 day Face-To-Face (F2F) course, it has been rewritten to be a blended programme where we deliver the theory online. During the online webinar, it aims to put the content covered in Workbook 1 to application through disucssions and through selected activities highlighted in Workbook 2. The online webinar is designed to be cross-disciplinary so we can have friends from all disciplines learning from each other and sharing pointers and ideas.

4. Face-To-Face

It was important for us to create authentic learning experiences through active learning. In addition to traditional direct teaching approach by modelling coaching with coaches observing, the course has been designed to include multiple opportunities for participants to try things out for themselves, including video analysis, spotting and shaping practice, micro-coaching, design challenges and peer evaluation. 

With the Rhythmic Gymnastics Coaching Courses participants, they came with lots of enthuasiasm and even more questions, which we really love and appreciate. They ranged from coaching theory, skills technicalities, judging specifications, down to some of the challenges they face in their gyms. Coaching courses not just provide coaches with a variety of training ideas and the specificity of skills techniques, it creates a physical environment to recap on the theories covered in the online discussions of Workbook 1 & 2 such as physical preparations, safety aspects, basic biomechanical concepts etc. More importantly, participants can explore and discuss with their peers, which is a fantastic mean of social learning. 

5. Assessment

Assessment can help coaches learn better and support the development of coaches. For the RG candidate coaches, they have to create and showcase a routine as well as explain how they would go about coaching specific elements. Every discipline will have a slightly different assessmentcriteria but the underlying principle is that assessment is for learning, by presenting their understanding it helps both the learning facilitators and candidate coaches themselves pinpoint areas for improvement. That said, assessment grade does not define a coach. This is only the beginning of a fulfilling coaching career, experience still have to be gained and along the way, coaches can work on self-assessment to better understand their own practice.

6. Attachment

At the completion of the course, all candidate coaches are required to complete a 20-hr attachment with a SG recognised mentor. Our RG candidate coaches are currently working with Coach Anastacia from the RG National Training Centre for the next 3 months.

In the meantime, check out our other post on WHAT THE INTERMEDIATE COACHING COURSES ARE ALL ABOUT and keep your eye out for further updates on the upcoming Intermediate Courses.