Grow competencies at the association and club levels

• Provides opportunities for your association and member clubs to grow.
• Offers exciting new approaches to increase the health of your members and your nation.
• Ensures continuous development and quality assurance.
• Secures recognition within the industry and beyond.
• Improves your public image.

• Enhance leadership and management skills at the association and club levels.
• Increase general knowledge about health benefits and SCforH approach at the association and club levels.
• Support personal development among all staff and volunteers.
• Inspire new ‘champions’ to get involved.
• Ensure the quality and efficacy of SCforH activities to achieve desired outcomes.
• Respond to interest and demand by using your club network.
• Broaden the scope and quantity of activities provided by association/clubs.

Be sure to grow the competencies of all stakeholders involved in the implementation of SCforH initiatives.

The competencies required for leaders and managers in SCforH are both broad and varied. The expertise required depends on the current level of the club’s knowledge, needs, resources, and aims.

Thereby, the education system for sport club leaders and managers should be adaptive and increase their levels of understanding in several topical areas.

Crucial sectors include planning and executing strategy, action plans, budgeting, human resources, and information/education. Special expertise is also needed when guiding and inspiring voluntary workers.

SCforH competencies include the ability to:

• recognize the potential of SCforH and align its aims with the vision of the association and club
• collaborate with all necessary stakeholders
• deliver SCforH opportunities using existing structures or develop appropriate new initiatives
• provide appropriate training for coaches/instructors. This can be accessed through continuous development programmes, conferences, seminars, and by developing new networks

If your association is taking a SCforH approach, you should ensure that all necessary training is provided to guarantee the participants’ adherence to the SCforH principles.

SCforH is a broad philosophy that is guided by seven core principles. One of these is to ensure that SCforH interventions are based on proven principles of sports and exercise science. The delivery of health-enhancing sports activity is of particular relevance to coaches.

Coaches/instructors are often educated traditionally to coach athletes in the respective sport activities or disciplines only. Now, experts in the fieldof sport and health recognise that coaches should also receive adequate education about health-enhancing sports activities.

Such education involves communicating specific knowledge about the health benefits of sports participation, but also increasing motivation, influencing the behaviour, and assessing the physical preconditions of the participants. Such education can also require coaches/instructors to demonstrate the ability to modify standard activities and exercises in their sport to make the sport more suitable for people in different age groups and with varied levels of motor abilities. For example, this may include modifying the equipment or the rules of the game.

Competence areas include:

• Gaining an appreciation of the SCforH principles and the ability to support these.
• Developing an understanding for the health-enhancing qualities of their sport.
• Acquiring the capacity to adapt their primary sport to target different population groups.
• Refining the delivery and means of evaluating the agreed-upon SCforH initiatives.

Sports associations take different approaches to bring SCforH competences into practise in their training curricula. Some use an integrated model, while others offer special health-enhancing profile training. For example:

• The coaching and instructor education system of the Finnish Olympic Committee integrates SCforH competences into the entire education process for instructors and trainers
• The German Olympic Sport Confederation creates separate and special education profiles for health-enhancing sports activity instructors

One important aspect to consider is that the majority of learning and coach education takes place in more informal settings and in the day-to-day experiences of coaching.

Examples:
Different ways to develop health competences – example from Finland
DTB: Health Sport Education System
GAA Super Games Center Coordinator workshop
Education System of the Finnish Olympic Committee