Coach Communiqué

The NCCP Community Sport Coach development program for orienteering is now 15 years old and has encompassed (pun intended) both minor and major updates over that time. The latest major change was the development of the online version of the workshop in 2021 that carried us through the pandemic when we could not meet in person – particularly not in an indoor setting.

We have just completed the latest updates to the in-person workshop presentations and supporting documentation for our Community Coaches. There are more than 200 trained Community Coaches and Learning Facilitators in Canada. From Nova Scotia to the Yukon. More workshops are scheduled for this spring and summer.

Last year, the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) tasked all sports to review and upgrade their training program with particular focus on the issues of athlete safety and inclusion. Moreover, for smaller sport associations like orienteering, they recommended that we “de-integrate” the topics of Making Ethical Decisions (MED), Safe Sport, and Emergency Action Planning (EAP) from our workshop presentations and ask the new coaches to take the respective online workshops provided by the CAC. The Safe Sport and EAP modules are self-directed and free for registered coaches.

 The MED is an online classroom module that is usually scheduled by the provincial sport/coaching associations. It costs $85 and includes an Evaluation (testing) step that is required for coaches in the Competitive Stream. The evaluation step is not mandatory for Community Coaches but is recommended. Many clubs or provincial associations will gladly cover the cost of the online training and the in-person workshop to support the development of new coaches.

The personal time commitment for the three online modules is almost 4 hours in total. But by removing these topics from the one-day workshop (but leaving in a general review) we will save almost 90 minutes of class time. That will make for a more reasonable one-day schedule and provide more time for the practical (on the map) practice sessions.

We are very appreciative of the support (a little financial, a lot of personal) that we receive from the CAC. We remain one of the few non-Olympic sports that are included in their programs.

More information about the coach training programs can be found on our For Coaches page.

Cheers, Bill Anderson