Raising Aspirations Assembly (Sports coach)

Date: 10th Oct 2019 @ 3:55pm

This week we were very privileged to welcome Matt McFahn to our Raising Aspirations assembly. Once the children guessed his career following some excellent questioning we learnt that Matt was a squash coach. Matt explained the game of Squash, as it wasn't a sport that we were all familiar with. We then asked our 3 questions:

1. What are your day to day roles and responsibilites?

Squash (and other sports) coaches are responsible for planning, organising and delivering an appropriate range of sports activities and programmes for individuals and teams.This includes:

  • teaching relevant skills, tactics and techniques
  • monitoring and enhancing performance by providing tuition, encouragement and constructive feedback
  • identifying strengths and weaknesses
  • advising about health and lifestyle issues
  • developing training programmes
  • undertaking administrative tasks
  • assisting with sports promotion/development
  • Matt also shared how his job includes lots of travelling around the world.

2. What qualifications are required?

There are routes in for both university graduates and school leavers, with a range of apprenticeships available. However, in order to coach independently, clubs and governing bodies of sport typically require you to have a minimum standard of training. Most will help you to obtain this. Coaching qualifications begin at Level 1 and go up to Level 4. 

3. What transferable skills (that the children can be developing now) are required?

Matt identified the following skills as essential in his role:

  • Physical fitness
  • Numeracy
  • Literacy
  • Organisation
  • Time keeping
  • Excellent interpersonal skills
  • Communication skills
  • Teamworking skills.

The children were most engaged and inspired and many are now considering a career in the Sports industry while some are interested to learn more about squash. Those with a keen interest in learning more about the sport should be aware that there are junior squash sessions that take place weekly on a Saturday at the Winsford Brio centre.