Community coach education in Australia: A desktop review

Abstract

Given the importance of quality sport opportunities for youth, it is necessary to better understand the education offered to coaches who deliver these experiences. This paper identifies and describes formal coach education offerings from the 10 most popular youth sports in Australia. We conducted a desktop review of National Sport Organisation (NSO) websites of these 10 sports, to explore the scope, content, and requirements of community coach education programs offered across Australia. The results from these searches highlighted considerable variation across sports with respect to the course costs, time commitments required, delivery mode, and content. Most sports offered one or two community-level courses and cost between zero to $383.69. Time commitments varied from 90 min to six months, and delivery modes included online learning, blended formats, and in some cases on-the-job training. Content offerings ranged from three to 11 modules, with some emphasising sport-specific technical skills while others focused on broader coaching principles. Understanding the diverse approaches currently adopted in Australia may serve to inform future community coach education programs in various national and international sporting contexts.

Keywords

Accreditation certification learning strategies national sport organisation technical skills

Community coach education in Australia: A desktop review

Coaches play a pivotal role in enhancing sport participation and improving the performance of athletes. They also contribute to broader societal goals by promoting the development of athletes as people, fostering civic unity through shared values and experiences, and encouraging positive health choices.¹ To deliver these ideals, coaches often undertake various forms of education to attain the necessary knowledge, skills, and competencies in their chosen sport.^1–3 Conversely, coaches without sufficient education may undermine athletes’ participation, limit their performance outcomes, or expose them to potential harm. Coach education, therefore, plays a pivotal role in shaping coaching practice and has been subject to increasing academic scrutiny in recent years.^4–6

Various national and international coaching frameworks have been established to guide coherent national coach education and development (see Table 1).^1,7–10 They also serve to define and standardise effective coaching practice—and ensure safe and ethical sport environments—while attempting to professionalise coaching through shared competencies, standards, and pathways in diverse national contexts. More specifically, they describe the knowledge, skills, and behaviours expected of coaches at different levels, which NSOs then use to create courses and benchmark competency expectations for accreditation in sport specific settings.^1,7–10 Ultimately, the frameworks are designed to help connect coaching behaviours with holistic athlete development and long-term participation in sport.¹¹

Table 1.

National and international sport coaching frameworks.

Authority	International sport coaching framework (ISCF)	UK coach learning framework	National coach certification program (Canada)	Sport new zealand coach development framework	Society of health and physical educators national standards for sport coaches (America)
Principles	Set the vision and strategy; Shape the environment; Build relationships; Conduct practice and structure competitions; Read and react to the field; Learn and reflect	Understanding self; Understanding the individual; Understanding your environment; Understanding your coaching practice; Athletic development and physical preparation; Lifestyle, health, and wellbeing; Relationships; Skill acquisition; Sports psychology.	Competencies Problem-solving; Valuing; Critical Thinking; Leading; and Interacting Outcomes Make ethical decisions; Analyze performance; Provide support to athletes in training; Design a sport program; Plan a practice; Manage a sport program; Support the competitive experience.	Athlete Development; Sport-specific; Leadership; Coaching Process; Self Development; Programme Management.	Set vision, goals, and standards for sport program; Engage in and support ethical practices; Build relationships; Develop a safe sport environment; Create a positive and inclusive sport environment; Conduct practices and prepare for competition; Strive for continuous improvement
Source	https://icce.ws/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ISCF_1_aug_2012.pdf	https://www.ukcoaching.org/ukc-club/coach-learning-framework/	https://www.coach.ca/new-coaching/about-nccp	https://sportnz.org.nz/media/1801/coach-development-framework.pdf	https://www.shapeamerica.org/standards/coaching/default.aspx

While frameworks like the ISCF accommodate for global cultural diversity and have been used to guide the content of coach education in certain countries (e.g., Aotearoa New Zealand),^9,11 to date, there has been limited overt connection to the Australian context. In addition, these frameworks intentionally do not specify (a) how courses should be delivered, (b) the length, and (c) at what cost. There remains an opportunity for researchers to review these dimensions to support academics and practitioners in conceptualising how national sport authorities implement coach education.

Coach education encompasses widely cited definitions of formal (e.g., accreditation programs), non-formal (e.g., workshops about coaching), and informal learning experiences (e.g., observation and mentoring of coaching).¹² Formal coach education—the focus for this study—often includes learning about the sport, its rules, how to play, and what to coach via an accredited sport specific course.¹² These coach education programmes are typically large scale, involve mandatory engagement with uniform curriculum, learning objectives and assessment, and culminate in formal certification.^12,13 Such programmes are broadly accessible to generate high participant volume while simultaneously often acting as a prerequisite for coaching practice.^13,14

National Sport Organisations (NSOs; sometimes known as National Governing Bodies or National Sport Federations) are primarily responsible for the design and delivery of formal coach education to assure coach competency and acquisition of accreditation.¹⁵ When delivering coach education, NSOs often differentiate between participation (community) and performance (elite) coaching contexts within education offerings, depending on the athletes being served.^1,15–17 In countries like Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand, and Australia, community coaching focuses on participation, aiming to provide athletes with initial and positive experiences in sport. The performance context focuses on more intensive athlete engagement where the focus is on purposeful skill development and achieving competition outcomes in local, regional, or national competitions, such as in elite/representative pathways.^1,9,16–18 In recent years, various academic groups have reviewed coach education practices, but they have tended to focus on performance contexts,¹⁹ non-institutionalised coach programs,²⁰ or generic coach education across the community-performance spectrum.⁶ As a result, there is an opportunity to more closely examine how formal community coach education is delivered for those coaching children and adolescents in the participation coaching domain.¹

Community coach education initiatives are nationally accredited and centrally structured but are often delivered locally by affiliated coach developers.^2,13 Although historically these have been delivered face-to-face, more recently, course delivery has turned to online formats given the expansion of internet accessibility and breadth of information now available.²¹ Online learning can provide scalable and cost-efficient courses while also delivering individualised opportunities for tailoring coach education through various platforms, resources, and tools.⁴ For instance, Driska and Nalepa²² showed how a self-paced online coaching course more than quadrupled users from 3000 to 14,000 during a two-year period. Similarly, the Australian Sport Commission (ASC)²³ proposed that up to 500,000 coaches would complete their recent online Community Coaching Essential Skills course. Regardless of how it is delivered, community coach education is influenced by the largely voluntary nature of the coaching workforce and as a result, tends to be ‘low touch’, short in duration (e.g., a few hours face-to-face or online), and involve no requirement to demonstrate practical competence.^13,24 In addition, individuals from diverse backgrounds often face structural barriers within coach education systems.^25,26 For example, time constraints—often magnified by caregiving responsibilities—may disproportionally limit women's ability to undertake formal coach education.²⁵ For Indigenous and LGBTQ + coaches, a lack of culturally safe learning spaces or targeted development opportunities that acknowledge their identities often present as barriers to accessing coach education.²⁶ Given that Australian community coach education is the focus for this study, we now consider key moments in Australia's coach development landscape over time.

Coach education in Australia

In a recent review of the history of coach education in Australia, O’Connor et al.²⁷ described how the early structures for a standardised national coach accreditation framework were established between the 1970s to 1980. This was largely driven by NSOs and Government interest in improving sport performance. In 1978, the Australian Coaching Council was established and soon after it introduced the National Coaching Accreditation Scheme, which aimed to provide a unified framework across sports.²⁷ Coach education was primarily delivered through face-to-face workshops in alignment with three levels of coach accreditation: Level 1 (introductory course, 14 hours), Level 2 (intermediate course, 60 hours), and Level 3 (advanced, 100 hours). During the 1990s, coach education became more closely aligned with vocational education frameworks and sport-specific accreditations. This approach emphasised competency-based training aligned with multiple levels of accreditation; however, tensions emerged between the needs of community coaches and those in elite pathways, with the latter often receiving more structured support.²⁷

During the early 2000s and 2010s, coach education fragmented as NSOs developed their own systems, which led to inconsistencies across sports.²⁷ To address this disparity, the ASC and Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) began to influence coach development more directly by offering an online Beginning Coaching General Principles course as an option to complete before undertaking sport-specific accreditation. By the late 2010s, the ASC and AIS also began to construct key strategies to shape high-performance coach development, a move in alignment with the growing professionalisation of Australian sport. At the same time, the disestablishment of the ACC and NCAS meant that community coaching remained in a period of transition.²⁷

More recently, the ASC has provided a suite of seven self-paced, free, online “Community Coaching Essentials Skills” modules to support the “education and development of coaches” and replace the General Principles coaching course.²⁸ The modules serve as a precursor to sport-specific coach education and cover topics including (a) who you coach; (b) where you coach; (c) what you coach; (d) how you connect; (e) how you engage; (f) how you deliver; and (g) how you improve.²⁸ This is a significant and positive shift from the generic “what” you coach (i.e., techniques and tactics) to how you coach and can be applied across a range of sporting contexts. Whilst promising, it is not clear how (or whether) NSOs are translating these changing approaches to coach education at the community level. With little consensus on how novice sports coaches should best be educated,²⁹ further research is needed to shine a light on coach development practices at this level.

There have been a series of publications outlining national approaches to coach education over the past 10 years^5,30–33; however, to our knowledge, no studies have reviewed NSOs formal coach education for community coaching contexts in Australia. Sharing local, contextual information about coach education provides an opportunity to exchange good practices and facilitate international collaboration,^11,27 so a review of community coach education in Australia is timely. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to conduct a desktop review of formal community coach education offerings from the 10 most popular sports in Australia for young people aged 0–14 (ages typically associated with community sport participation). Our aim is to better understand how NSOs in Australia design and deliver community coach education in various sports.

Methods

We conducted a desktop review of community coach education programs across sport organisation websites in Australia.³⁴ This methodology was suitable to deliver a timely synthesis of publicly available online information related to Australian coach education at the community level. Recent studies have employed similar review methodologies to analyse publicly available information on sport governing body websites, exploring topics such as international anti-bribery and corruption policies³⁵; inclusion-related language and resources across multiple US sports³⁶; and youth resistance training resources from Australian sports.³⁷ As such, our approach drew upon various methodological strategies from these researchers to design, source, and analyse data related to the study purpose. More specifically, we followed Moore's³⁴ six steps to guide our data collation and analysis (synthesis) as follows:

Check the authority and reliability

Be clear about what you are looking for

Be organized and systematic

Document things as you go

Comparison is critical

Use both analysis and synthesis.

Step 1: Check the authority and reliability of sources (i.e., inclusion / exclusion criteria)

Following Moore's first step to ensure we relied on accurate and authoritative sources for our data collection and analysis,³⁴ we reviewed AusPlay data—a national survey tracking Australians’ sporting activities—from January to December 2024, to identify the ten sports with the highest participation among children aged up to 14 years.³⁸ This age group was chosen as community coaching in Australia is primarily delivered with children aged between under 6–14 years old. The top 10 sports by participation for children aged 0–14 were: (1) Swimming, (2) Football (soccer), (3) Gymnastics, (4) Basketball, (5) Australian Football, (6) Netball, (7) Tennis, (8) Cricket, (9) Athletics, and (10) Cycling.ⁱ We excluded data from courses targeting the coaching of athletes aged over 15 years old because higher levels of accreditation (beyond initial community/grassroots coach education) are often required for coaching adolescents and adults^27,37 and data from 15–17-year-olds are combined with that of adults within AusPlay reports. Finally, as the focus was on initial community coach education, we excluded any accreditation that connected with representative level (i.e., elite and/or high-performance sport) coaching, as that was not relevant to the study aims.

Steps 2–4: Be clear about what you are looking for, be organized and systematic, and document things as you go

At several timepoints throughout 2025 (January, June, and December), JG conducted searches on NSO websites for publicly available information regarding community-level coach education within the top 10 sports. Information was typically accessed via “Coaching” or “Get involved” tabs on the NSO website home page. While most NSO websites were organised in this way, Cricket and Australian Football websites required navigation to secondary websites to locate community-coaching information (see Table 1, column three). Following Moore's advice,³⁴ ^{(pp. 109–110)} we supplemented our search using Google to look for what “may not appear on the first two or three pages of the search results, particularly if you are looking for something obscure.” For example, when data was not present on NSO websites, searches for missing course fees involved JG using Google to identify “cost of [course name] + [sport] + Australia” (e.g., cost of “community coach course + Basketball + Australia”). These searches frequently led to State Sporting Organisation (SSO) websites with more specific content descriptors and localised details, including pricing and course dates. We drew upon additional data to ensure we had some form of data for comparison (and have acknowledged the sources in column three, Table 2). This was important because at times, NSO's provided the framework for coach education federally but lacked any detail about courses. As such, additional searches to State affiliates were required to determine the delivery style, cost, and time-length.

Table 2.

Community coach education courses offered by the top 10 sports for Australian children aged 0–14.

Sport + Rank	Community coaching details	Source of information
1. Swimming	1. Community coach certification: Development Coach Cost: $383.69 Delivery mode: Online, Face-to-Face (FTF), and Practical experience Length: 3–6 months Content: Child protection and integrity; Understanding your swimmers; Coach and swimmer self-awareness; Swimmer engagement; Effective stroke development; Skills and fitness for competition; Program design and management; Practical coaching assessment Intended audience: Squad swimmers (skill based) from 7 years onwards Additional requirements: Have held AUSTSWIM Teacher of Towards Competitive Strokes or Swim Australia Teacher of Competitive Swimming or Swim Squad Fundamentals Course for minimum 6 months; current First Aid qualification (HLTAID003/HLTAID011); current CPR qualification (HLTAID001/HLTAID009); completion of the Sport Integrity Australia Safeguarding Children and Young People in Sport Induction; completion of the Sport Integrity Australia Anti-Doping Fundamentals Course; State/Territory relevant Working With Children Check (WWCC). Minimum age to gain coach accreditation: 17	NSO
2. Football	2. Community coach certification: MiniRoos Cost: Free Delivery mode: Online and FTF Length: 3 hours Content: Learn practical and fun games to engage kids inFootball; Get to know basic rules of the game; Organise a safe playing experience. Intended audience: Novice players or aged approximately up to 10 Additional requirements: State/Territory relevant WWCC Minimum age to gain coach accreditation: 14 3. Community coach certification: Foundations of Football Cost: $101.60 Delivery mode: Online and FTF Length: 12 hours Content: Conduct engaging training sessions; Basics of techniques; Basic playing principles of the game; Role of a coach; game day environments. Intended audience: Beginner to competent players or aged approximately up to 15 Additional requirements: State/Territory relevant WWCC Minimum age to gain coach accreditation: 14	NSO
3. Gymnastics	4. Community coach certification: Fundamental Gymnastics Coach Cost: $250 Delivery mode: Online and FTF Length: 4–8 Weeks (no set length of time, determined by coach educator) Content: Exploring philosophies, roles, and responsibilities; Who you coach; Where you coach; What you coach; How you coach; How you improve. Intended audience: Age not specified Additional requirements: No information available Minimum age to gain coach accreditation: 15	NSO
4. Basketball	5. Community coach certification: Aussie Hoops Coach Cost: Free Delivery mode: Online Length: 2 hours Content: Philosophy of FUN; Transition to competition; Benefits for kids; Sporting schools; Tips for school sessions. Intended audience: Children aged 5–10 Additional requirements: State/Territory relevant WWCC Minimum age to gain coach accreditation: 14 6. Community coach certification: Community Coach Cost: Free Delivery mode: Online (and FTF in VIC) Length: 3 hours Content: The role of a coach; Introducing basic skills; Introducing team concepts; Game day coaching. Intended audience: Grassroots level Additional requirements: State/Territory relevant WWCC Minimum age to gain coach accreditation: 14 (NSW/VIC), 13 (WA). Not mentioned on other State websites.	NSO SSO (SA) Used to source content Secondary website from NSO (Ford Aussie Hoops) to source minimum age NSO SSO (NSW, VIC, WA) Used to source minimum age requirements and cost
5. Australian Football	7. Community coach certification: Registered Accredited Cost: Free Delivery mode: Online Length: 2 hours Content: The three phases that coaches need to complete to become registered include: Coach profile; Welcome module; and Essentials module – here you can choose to complete the Junior Coaching (age 7–12) or Youth Coaching (age 13–18). Intended audience: All ages (community level) Additional requirements: State/Territory relevant WWCC Minimum age to gain coach accreditation: 16	NSO Coach dedicated website
6. Netball	8. Community coach certification: Foundation Cost: $88 (incl. $13 for Rules of Netball Exam) Delivery mode: Online (7 modules) Length: 3–4 hours Content: Identifying the roles and responsibilities of the coach; Understanding the social development considerations for why children play sport; Understanding the benefits of using a game sense approach to teach game concepts and develop long term learning; Understanding the importance of effective group management skills to maximise opportunities for successful participation; Understanding the planning and review process; Utilising effective communication techniques to develop player understanding of the basic skills of netball; Identifying skill faults and correct technique for the basic skills of netball Intended audience: NETSETGO (5–10 years), Club, School Additional requirements: Current Rules of Netball Theory Exam pass (70% or above); State/Territory relevant WWCC Minimum age to gain coach accreditation: None 9. Community coach certification: Development Cost: $148 (incl. $13 for Rules of Netball Exam) Delivery mode: Online (10 modules) and FTF Length: 7–8 hours Content: Demonstrate effective coaching communication strategies; Demonstrate effective group management strategies; Review the first five steps of the seven steps of skill progression; Apply the steps of skill progression within a practical environment/activity; Understand, safely teach, and apply the principles of the Netball Australia KNEE Program; Safely teach, identify, and correct technique faults in netball for ball handling skills movement and footwork skills, attacking skills, defending skills, goal shooting / circle defence skills; Create and progress appropriate skills sessions into dynamic situations; Create and evaluate simple game day team goals and strategies; Apply the techniques of basic netball skills into relevant court situations; Apply the principles of positional and team play into basic court strategy; Employ four of the self-reflection methods to evaluate and improve the quality of coach management, teaching, and communication Intended audience: 11–13 years, Club, School, Representative Additional requirements: Current Rules of Netball Theory Exam pass (70% or above); State/Territory relevant WWCC; Foundation Accreditation Minimum age to gain coach accreditation: 15	NSO; Netball Australia Framework, 2018^a
7.Tennis	10. Community coach certification: Participation coach Cost: Free Delivery mode: Online Length: 1.5 hours Content: Assist in conducting safe Blue and Red stage; Hot Shots Tennis activities under the guidance of a qualified Tennis coach; Understanding of contemporary coaching methodology; Safeguarding training. Intended audience: Blue (3–5+) and Red stage (5–8+); Hot Shots Tennis (assist only) Additional requirements: State/Territory relevant WWCC, National Police Check Minimum age to gain coach accreditation: None 11. Community coach certification: Trainee coach Cost: $295 Delivery mode: Online and FTF Length: 2 days Content: Update your knowledge of the Tennis Australia coaching pathway; Update your knowledge of the Hot Shots Tennis program; Conduct Blue, Red and Orange stage activities; Use the Tennis Australia Coach premium app; Conduct safe Tennis activities for junior players; Safeguarding training. Intended audience: Blue and Red stage Hot Shots Tennis (with supervision) Additional requirements: State/Territory relevant WWCC, National Police Check Minimum age to gain coach accreditation: 16	NSO^b
8. Cricket	12. Community coach certification: Community Coach Cost: Free Delivery mode: Online and FTF Length: 2.5–4 hours Content: Online: Register Coach ID; Introduction to Coaching Online Modules (Creating a safe and inclusive environment; Philosophy and pathway; Creating a quality experience; Junior Cricket; Scoring runs and taking wickets; Preparing to perform; Match management); Cricket Australia App modules and self-assessment (Introduction, The Australian Way, Coach Approach, Scoring Runs, Pace and Spin, Fielding, Wicketkeeping, Lead the Game, Preparing to Perform, Accreditation), Face-to-face: Practical Workshop (Fundamentals of batting/bowling, Group activities and Presentations, Debrief) Intended audience: Junior Cricket U10–U19; School Cricket Additional requirements: Introduction to Coaching course, State/Territory relevant WWCC. Minimum age to gain coach accreditation: 13	NSO – no information available NSO Coach dedicated website to source course name SSO (NSW) used to source cost
9. Athletics	13. Community coach certification: Level 1 – Youth coach Cost: $270 Delivery mode: Online and FTF or Live webinar (blended) Length: 13 hours Content: How you coach; Why you coach; Who you coach; What you coach; How you plan. Intended audience: Children 3–12 years old Additional requirements: State/Territory relevant WWCC Minimum age to gain coach accreditation: 16 14. Community coach certification: Level 2 - Development coach Cost: $360 Delivery mode: Online and Option between FTF or live webinar (blended) Length: 30 hours Content: Further development of the pillars of good coaching; Effective communication; Further warm ups and cool downs; Introduction to the principles of training; Introduction to physiology; Development and maturation (including development models); Dynamic stretching; Introduction to plyometrics; Functional movement training; Planning and periodisation for track and field; Coaching a technical model (covers different track/field events, coaches pick). Intended audience: Athletes aged 12 years and above Additional Requirements: State/Territory relevant WWCC Minimum age to gain coach accreditation: 16	NSO
10. Cycling, BMX, Mountain biking	15. Community coach certification: Community Instructor Cost: $50 Delivery mode: Online Length: 1 hour Content: Basic learn to ride a bike; Understanding AusCycling; Essential traffic skills; Balance bike skills; BMX school teachers. Intended audience: School; Community; Clubs (assistant coaching only) Additional requirements: Complete Sport Integrity Australia's Safeguarding Children and Young People in Sport Induction; Current AusCycling membership; Current First Aid qualification (HLTAID003/HLTAID011) or above; State/Territory relevant WWCC. Minimum age to gain coach accreditation: 14 16. Community Coach certification: Foundation Instructor Cost: BMX, $200; Road/Track, $240; Mountain Bike, $290 Delivery Mode: Online and FTF (blended) Length: 7–12 hours Content: Risk Assessment; Group management; Skill analysis; Core riding skills; Basic mechanical skills; Basic bike setup. Intended audience: Beginners and intermediate riders Additional Requirements: Complete Sport Integrity Australia's Safeguarding Children and Young People in Sport Induction; Complete Sport Integrity Australia's Clean Sport 101; Current AusCycling membership; Current First Aid qualification (HLTAID003/HLTAID011) or above; State/Territory relevant WWCC Minimum age to gain coach accreditation: 16	NSO

^aNetball Australia. Netball Skills Development Framework2018. Accessed Dec 19, 2025. https://netball.com.au/sites/default/files/2019-06/NetballSkillsDevelopmentFramework_UpdatedFINAL_Sept2018.pdf.

^bInformation sourced on 11/06/2025. However, Tennis Australia updated their website, so this information is no longer publicly available as of December 2025.

Steps 5–6: Comparison of data for analysis and synthesis

According to Moore,³⁴ the material collected should be broken down into its component parts (as per Table 2) before synthesising the results. In this study, JG extracted data to map the following information for reporting and analysis: sport name, certification name and level, cost, delivery mode, course length, curriculum/topics, target audience, prerequisites, and minimum age requirements. The categories were chosen to support standardised comparison across the top ten sports with respect to community coach education programs in Australia. The next step involves bringing data together to produce something that increases our understanding of the investigation, “where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”³⁴ ^(p.114). Following collation of all information in an Excel spreadsheet, AB and SGK checked the accuracy of content for mapping (Table 2) in a collaborative meeting with JG where any disagreements were also discussed and resolved. The final step involved before collectively determining how best to represent the synthesis of data in the results section and connected tables.

Results

In Australia, the top 10 sports for children aged 0–14 included a diverse range of individual (i.e., Swimming, Gymnastics, Athletics, and Cycling) and team sports (i.e., Football, Basketball, Australian Football, Netball, Tennis, and Cricket, see Table 2, 38). Swimming was the most popular sport (n = 1,121,569, participation rate [PR] = 23.2%) followed by Football (n = 670,451, PR = 13.9%), Gymnastics n = 328,573, PR = 6.8%), Basketball (n = 315,731, PR = 6.5%), Australian Football (n = 280,286, PR = 5.8%), Netball (n = 244,645, PR = 4.7%), Tennis (n = 183,652, PR = 3.8%), Cricket (n = 158,314, PR = 3.3%), Athletics (track and field, n = 152,958, PR = 3.2%), and Cycling (including BMX and Mountain Biking, n = 135,641, PR = 2.8%).³⁸

Names and levels of accreditation

Across the 10 sports, we found 16 potential community coach accreditation courses. Most sports had one or two levels of community coach accreditation for coaching players aged up to 14 years old. For example, the Netball Foundation course (Level 1) targeted children aged 5–10 years old while the Development course (Level 2) focused on coaching 11–13-year-olds. Eleven of the 16 coaching courses specified a 0–14 target audience while the remaining five did not specify a targeted age group to coach upon achieving certification. Those which included a specific audience were Football (MiniRoos; Foundations of Football), Basketball (Aussie Hoops), Australian Football (Junior, Youth), Netball (Foundation; Development), Tennis (Participation; Trainee), Cricket (Community), and Athletics (Level 1; Level 2). Five courses did not provide information for what age range to coach upon certification but noted being ‘beginner-focused’ (Gymnastics [Fundamental], Basketball [Community], Cycling [Community; Foundation], and Swimming [Development]). Australian Football provided age-specific modules (e.g., Junior, Youth), enabling coaches to complete the module most relevant to the age of their cohort of children and/or adolescents.

Costs

The cost of coach education varied considerably, ranging from no cost (e.g., Cricket) to $383.69 (Swimming), with a mean cost of $148.67 per courseⁱⁱ (median = $124.80). The top ranked participation sport (Swimming) had the most expensive course but there did not appear to be any strong connection between sport participation numbers and cost of course for the remaining sports. Five sports provided free entry-level courses including Football (MiniRoos), Basketball (Aussie Hoops and Community), Cricket (Community Coach), Australian Football (Registered Accredited), and Tennis (Participation). Cycling (Community, $50), Netball (Foundation, $88), and Football (Foundations of Football, $101.60) offered lower cost courses, whilst Gymnastics (Fundamental, $250), Cycling (Foundation, $200–$290), Tennis (Trainee, $285), Athletics (Youth Coach, $270; Development Coach, $360) and Swimming (Development coach, $383.69) were higher cost. In some cases, costs were not stipulated at the national level so secondary sources (such as State Sport Organisation websites) were used to guide the cost. Course costs varied between some Australian States and Territories within the same sport. For example, the Basketball Community Coach course was offered free in most States and Territories but incurred a $20 fee in Victoria.ⁱⁱⁱ Similarly, Athletics courses had local cost variations, with fees differing within States and Territories (e.g., the Level 1 Athletics – Youth Coach course was priced at $270 in New South Wales, $262.50 in Victoria, and $244.49 in the Australian Capital Territory).^iv

Delivery mode

Delivery mode refers to how NSOs provide community coach education. No courses were delivered solely face-to-face; however, all 16 community coaching courses included an online delivery mode. Five courses were delivered exclusively online (Basketball [Aussie Hoops], Australian Football [Registered Accredited], Netball [Foundation], Tennis [Participation], and Cycling [Community Instructor]) while the 11 remaining courses employed a blended model combining online theoretical content with in-person practical components. For example, Cricket required participants to complete various elements online before attending a face-to-face practical coaching workshop. Other blended courses, such as Athletics, required participants to complete an initial online module before attending a second ‘live’ session, which could be undertaken through an online webinar or in-person. Similarly, the Netball Development accreditation mandated approximately three hours of online training before completing four-to-five hours of face-to-face coursework and assessment. Gymnastics and Swimming were the only sports that incorporated supervised on-the-job training as part of the accreditation process. In Gymnastics, ‘on-the-job training’ meant trainee coaches completed approximately one training module per week, while gaining practical coaching experience under the supervision of a qualified coach. The Swimming Development course involved online learning, face-to-face workshops, practical assessment tasks, and supervised coaching.

Course duration

The duration for completing community coach education varied from 90 minutes (Tennis) to six months (Swimming). Tennis offered the shortest coaching course (Participation, 90 minutes) followed by Australian Football (two hours) and Basketball (Aussie Hoops, two hours). Swimming and Gymnastics required the greatest time commitments, with the Gymnastics Fundamentals course taking four-to-eight weeks of supervised practical experience along with completion of an activity pack. The Swimming Development course proposed up to six months to complete all learning and practical elements. Excluding the Gymnastics and Swimming courses (as outliers), most learning experiences averaged one to two hours to complete.

Content

The content of community coach education courses varied greatly. Most sports covered foundational elements of coaching practice including sport-specific techniques, safeguarding, game principles and rules, and strategies for delivering training sessions. Some courses extended beyond these to incorporate topics such as competition preparation, communication, and principles of sport performance. Topics were often broken down into individual learning modules (i.e., structured learning components designed to develop the knowledge, skills, and behaviours required for coaching) and across the top 10 sports, the number of modules ranged from three to 11, with an average of 5.5 modules per course. The development courses from Athletics (11 modules) and Netball (10 modules) included the greatest number of modules while Australian Football and Football (MiniRoos) offered the fewest modules (three) in their coach accreditation.

Aside from the course content (i.e., topics in modules), some courses involved completion of additional requirements prior to registering for the coach training (e.g., Tennis, Cycling, and Swimming courses) or prior to finalising the coach accreditation (e.g., Netball Rules Exam). Other sports like Basketball, Athletics, Cricket, Gymnastics and Australian Football had no specific requirements prior to enrolling or as part of achieving certification meaning that online coach education modules could be undertaken immediately. All sports required a Working with Children Check but this was often upon commencing coaching, rather than when undertaking the coach education.

Age requirements

The minimum age requirement to undertake community coach accreditation varied across sports, ranging from no specified minimum age (Tennis, Participation) to 17 years (Swimming, Development coach). Thirteen out of 16 courses required participants to be at least 14 years old to enrol, making it the most common minimum age. Cricket had the lowest age (13 years old), while Swimming had the highest (17 years old). Athletics and Cycling (Foundation) noted a minimum age of 16 years, while Netball did not report a minimum age for the Foundation course, yet stated 15 years old was the minimum age to undertake the Netball Development course. The NSO website for Basketball did not state a minimum age to enrol in the Aussie Hoops and Community coach courses, so information was sourced from State websites. These websites displayed discrepancies in minimum age requirements (e.g., 14 years in New South Wales and Victoria; 13 years in Western Australia).

Discussion

Given the evolving nature of coach education over the past three decades,⁵ we conducted a desktop review of community sport coach education with the top 10 sports for people aged 0–14 in Australia. The goal was to identify and describe how current community coach education courses were designed and delivered across a range of sports. Accreditation levels were generally determined by the age range to be coached, where entry level coach education was connected to children and beginners. Many of the courses enabled young people to start coaching from 14 years old, which appears to be younger than other international coaching contexts where they required participants to have completed secondary education.³¹ While no Australian sports organisations stipulated why certain ages were required before commencing coaching, it could be considered favourable to encourage young people to gain coaching certification. For instance, Bateman et al.³⁹ showed that coach education courses develop psychological, social, and life skills which led to benefits in academic contexts, character development, and wellbeing. Therefore, early access to coach education may broaden young peoples’ life skills while also encouraging consideration of careers in coaching.

Research has shown that time constraints and financial limitations often restrict coaches from diverse backgrounds engaging with educational opportunities.^25,26,40 General coaching courses that are more expensive and take longer to gain accreditation—like Botswana's two week Level 1 coaching course and a Level 1 course in the UK consisting of seven workshops delivered over three and a half days (in addition to three online modules)^32,41 —can limit accessibility, especially given that community coaches are generally parents or caregivers.^20–22 Notably, the free courses offered by some of Australia's top ten sports are also the shortest in duration which reduces time and financial barriers, thereby enhancing accessibility to coach education for young people and those from diverse community contexts.^25,26

While there was a range in the number of content modules for completion across sports, most sports covered a variety of foundational coaching topics including sport-specific techniques, safety, inclusivity, and rules. Therefore, they also included modules incorporating how to teach sport-specific skills and activities rather than just the rules and techniques of the game (i.e., what to coach). Traditionally, the dominant approach in global coach certification emphasised technical and tactical aspects of coaching (the ‘what’) rather than the pedagogical aspects of practice (i.e., the ‘how’).⁴² Focusing more on how to coach in recent times demonstrates a response to calls for more interpersonal knowledge to feature in formal coach education.^11,43–44 This is something that many contemporary global coach education frameworks have pushed for during the past 15 years.^1,7–10^,23 Community-level certification programs in Australia have attended to this by specifically decreasing the emphasis on high-level technical detail and using the limited time available to focus on areas that will make the sporting experience more enjoyable for novice coaches and players (e.g., game design, simple skill cues, promoting engagement, and connection). For instance, the MiniRoos course encourages coaches to “learn practical and fun games to engage kids in Football” while Basketball draws upon a “philosophy of FUN model,” signifying an intent to move beyond the traditional (and historical) skill-drill coaching approach. These features demonstrate how the sporting landscape—and coach education—continues to evolve by integrating approaches that equip coaches with the knowledge and skills necessary to foster positive sporting experiences for young people.

Our findings affirm the recent shift in coach education delivery towards online formats and self-directed learning to empower intentional and self-paced learning.^21,40 However, it is important to note that current literature is conflicting. While self-paced online courses have been championed for their capacity to reach a broad audience at a minimal cost and address issues of course location,^3,4 Wang et al.⁶ lamented online courses which included minimal instructor interaction and a reliance on automated assessments. A further criticism of the ongoing movement to online learning in coach education is that it perpetuates an ‘top-down’ model containing standardised learning episodes often disparate from the complex reality of coaching.^19,45,46 For instance, Piggott⁴⁷ noted that through online learning, coaches miss out on valuable social learning elements to deepen their knowledge like the opportunity to share, cooperate, and openly disagree with other coaches. In the UK, some Level 1 coaching coursework requires coach developers to create space for social interaction, dialogue, and reflection between learners via online modules, workshops with group discussions, and scenario-based tasks.^19,48 Indeed, recent systematic reviews of coach education showed that coaches enjoyed courses where learning activities were interactive and where time was set aside for educator support.^6,40 Most of the courses included within this study indicate Australian NSOs have taken heed of this message, maintaining blended learning opportunities with online and face-to-face interaction. Regardless, NSOs find themselves in a somewhat impossible situation when designing introductory courses because coaches want accessibility and flexibility at the same time as human interaction, making it incredibly difficult to assure the most appropriate learning modes for a volunteer workforce.⁶

According to Wiersma and Sherman,⁴⁹ the challenge to many sport organisations has been offering community-level coach education in a manner that maximises attendance. At the same time, coach education has been accused of compromising a focus on learning and development⁵⁰ where “the notion of ‘something is better than nothing’ applies.”¹³ ^(p.412) As Walsh and Carson²⁹ noted, performance-related content knowledge, reflective practice, and experiential and situational learning continue to be pivotal for coach development so although online learning allows coaches to remain in their own contexts, content delivery should shift from lectures and discussions to creating rich media that supports interactive learning activities.²² This is because coursework that can be easily translated into coaching practice promotes deeper understanding and personal growth in specific coaching topics.⁵¹ Therefore, blended courses combining online sport-specific content with face-to-face practical sessions appear to be the most effective, as they deliver technical knowledge while fostering peer-mediated, socially constructed learning. Courses that disregard this social and practical component may neglect opportunities for beginner coaches to learn and apply key learning intentions in their coaching contexts.

Limitations and future research

This desktop review provides a snapshot of coach education from a limited number of Australian sports in the community context. In addition, the review captures the public-facing, documented curriculum rather than the enacted curriculum as experienced by coach learners while completing coursework. Future research might investigate how the Australian community coach education context compares with other geographic (e.g., Aotearoa New Zealand) or historically aligned (e.g., UK and Canada) countries. This would helpconsolidate current policy driven practice across a range of global settings. In addition, future research could evaluate the quality of coach education content at community levels to assess how closely NSOs align their policy and practice with contemporary national and international coach education frameworks. Considering how NSOs design and develop courses to best support coach learning is critical given the complexities of coaching children in community contexts.^6,41 Therefore, it would be valuable to conduct further qualitative work with multiple stakeholders involved in coach education, given few studies have examined what content knowledge is constructed by policy makers and how that knowledge is structured as a curriculum to meet the needs of community coaches.¹⁹ Finally, future research could incorporate the voices and lived experiences of coaches themselves. This would intentionally connect with those who take part in coach education and help determine ‘what works’ and ‘what could be improved’ regarding the way coach education is designed and delivered in a variety of Australian sport contexts. We encourage NSO coach education managers to collaborate with coaching scholars to review how learners respond to courses delivered³ and what knowledge has been used as the basis for curricula and assessment in these community coach education courses.^6,19

Conclusion

One of the main aims of coach education is to improve coaching capabilities. Over the past 30 years, coach education has had to regularly adapt to the evolving sport landscape and emerging learning strategies.⁵ Despite substantial scholarly attention being given to high performance coaching pathways,^46,52,53 there remains limited research into how community-level coach education is structured and delivered. This study directly addresses that gap by mapping community coach education offerings from Australia's highest participation youth sports. Understanding the Australian setting helped affirm what current practices are, while also potentially serving to inform future community coach education programs in diverse sporting contexts. While we did not evaluate their effectiveness, this review provides a baseline from which researchers, policymakers, and sport organisations can conceptualise how introductory coach learning opportunities are currently configured and delivered. Coach education remains an important factor for developing confidence of coaches in these contexts while also playing a critical role in their overarching growth and development.⁵⁴ Like Wang et al.,⁶ we acknowledge that each NSO has their own unique constraints and in the absence of a nationally driven coach education framework, these findings could be used to ‘think with’, rather than as a guide for, what best practice community coach education looks like in Australia.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the research support provided by Antonia Gentle and Natalie O’Brien throughout various phases of this project.

ORCID iDs

Andrew Bennie

Andrew Grainger

Sarah G. Kennedy

Ethical considerations

Not applicable.

Consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Authorship statement

All individual authors contributed to the paper. AB conceived the study, assisted in acquisition of the data, conducted elements of the analysis, and final interpretation of the data. He contributed to drafting of the manuscript, reviewed versions, and approved the final manuscript. JG acquired the study data, conducted elements of the analysis, drafted parts of the manuscript and approved the final version. AG contributed to the conception of the study, analysed and interpretated data, reviewed the manuscript, and approved the final version. SGK contributed to the conception of the study, directed initial data collection and interpretation of data, reviewed the manuscript and approved the final manuscript version. All authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Funding

Internal University research funding supported this research. Sarah G. Kennedy is funded by a NHMRC Investigator Grant (GNT2042481).

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Data availability

Not applicable.

Notes

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