National Coaching Certification Program Outcomes and Criteria Review

Original report written by: Gurgis, J & Callary, B. (2022).

Summary

A research project was conducted to evaluate the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) stakeholders’ perceptions of the program’s outcomes and criteria. 85 NCCP stakeholders completed an online survey, with a majority responding in English and identifying as women, white, and between the ages of 40 to 49. Additionally, focus groups were conducted with 24 participants.

Overall, participants complimented the comprehensiveness of the program, feeling that the NCCP meets the needs of coaches at different levels of sport. Most participants reported they understand the NCCP outcomes and perceive they are relevant to their sport. The NCCP seems to be comprehensive, clear and easy to understand, and helpful to standardize coaching. Interestingly, 30 percent of the perceived weaknesses of the NCCP outcomes are related to their implementation.

Outcome-specific perspectives included comments on how Make Ethical Decisions feels narrow, given the evolution of Safe Sport within Canada. Furthermore, Design a Basic Sport Program, Plan a Practice and Manage a Program received comments about overlap and repetition. In the Instruction stream, fewer than 80 percent of participants perceived all the outcomes to be essential, suggesting that the participants believed the outcomes were less relevant in the Instruction stream or did not understand the purpose and the responsibilities of Instruction coaches. In the High-Performance stream, some participants stated that the outcomes needed to be different, and others suggested they should be universal for coaches.

Perspectives on the NCCP criteria were: they are comprehensive and progressive across streams, but there are too many and are too focused on technical skills rather than on designing a holistic program that supports athlete development. It is important to note that perspectives on the coaching contexts are concerning as they seem to reveal that some participants lacked an understanding of the overall structure of the NCCP.

Overall, researchers provided recommendations to: clarify some NCCP contexts and outcomes, integrate new outcomes, and modify some criteria. They also recommended conducting a further evaluation.

To request the full report, please send an email to research@coach.ca.