Instructing and coaching is a huge role that requires a diverse and complex range of skills which are built upon over years of practice. 

Often instructors and coaches are the first people at your club which new participants connect with, and as such, they are the ambassadors for your club, your class association, and the sport itself. 

Developing a great team of instructors and coaches at your club is important to enable participants on your Discover Sailing Centre courses, and club coaching programs, to have a successful and enjoyable experience, and want to come back time and time again. 

Undertaking an accredited course for anyone instructing or coaching sailing at clubs or through class association programs is vital to learn the fundamental skills, however, once qualified, the initial course should only be considered as the start of an instructor or coaches’ journey. 

To truly develop exceptional instructors and coaches, it is recommended that ongoing opportunities for growing knowledge and skills, including informal learning takes place. 

Many opportunities for informal leaning are easy to implement, of minimal cost to the club, and are simple to plan and deliver to your Instructing and coaching teams. These can include workshops, Australian Sailing instructor conferences and coaching forums, online webinars, newsletters, and induction training delivered by your club. 

Instructors and coaches should also be encouraged to seek out self-guided online learning opportunities, knowledge sharing amongst each other, and local mentoring options from more experienced instructors and coaches. You may consider creating a ‘’buddy system’’ for newer instructors or coaches at your club and pairing them up with more experienced members of your team. 

To assist your club with developing its instructors and coaches, we have created a simple interactive checklist to support your club with some quick wins that can be implemented this season and beyond. The checklist is designed to help your club implement simple actions to up-skill your training team.

It's recommended that the checklist be completed by the training centre principle, club training or development committee or sail training coordinator. The actions you derive from completing the checklist can then be carried out by many at your club throughout the season. 

The interactive ‘quick wins’ checklist for developing instructors and coaches is available now on the Australian Sailing resource hub and can be found here.

With the vast range of skills and knowledge required to become exceptional instructors and coaches, it’s important that continued development and personal reflection is carried out by the instructors and coaches themselves, however, as club committees or persons responsible for the training operations at your club, you can assist with the growth of your instructing and coaching team by implementing a few simple actions and strategies, all of which will ensure that your members and participants are getting the very best tuition and development whilst at your club.

There are many resources available from the Australian Sailing resources hub to assist you with preparing and developing your instructors and coaches, should you require any assistance with any of the resources available, or would like to discuss any ideas to grow your clubs training team and programs, please contact your local Club Support Officer.