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This section of the Graduate Student Handbook includes a description of graduate program requirements.

Coaching Education Program (Online)

The MS (Master of Science) in Coaching Education provides students the opportunity to pursue a variety of sport-science-oriented courses that focus on a career path in coaching. Candidates for the e-campus MSRSS will complete 30 credit hours of coursework and complete a (non-thesis) Professional Project as their Capstone Experience.

The Capstone Experience

Candidates for the online MS in Coaching Education will fulfill the requirements of the degree by successfully completing a professional project. The following is an outline of this:

Professional Project

The candidate will have a faculty member from his or her program area to serve as their professional project chair. The faculty member may stipulate certain directions before agreeing to participate and will provide guidance to the candidate throughout the professional project.

For students in the Master’s in Soccer Coaching Education, this will be performed in COED 6100 – Coaching Workshop I (which will occur after the Residency component in your final Spring semester).

For students in the Master’s in Coaching Education, this will be performed in your final Spring semester and you will not officially enroll into a course for this, but you will complete this through a Canvas course (that you will be automatically added to – COED 6400 – Coaching Performance Evaluation).

The professional project will consist of a Coaching Performance Evaluation from the faculty member serving as the professional project chair, and must include the following:

Coaching Resume – Students will provide an up-to-date coaching resume that highlights a personal statement, coaching experiences, education, and qualifications. The resume must also have the appropriate appearance and is consistent in font style, and the information is clear and concise with appropriate spelling and grammar.

Coaching Philosophy Statement – Students will write a write a (500-word minimum - 1,000-word maximum) coaching philosophy that allows them to (re)consider their coaching philosophy based on past experiences, current coaching environment, how the Masters in Coaching Education may have impacted them to think about this. The philosophy statement must be constructed in a typed paragraph form, be well written and understandable, and include reasons for coaching, coaching values, approach to coaching athletes in training and competition, coaching style(s) and strengths/areas to improve as a coach.

Coaching Session Plan – Students will create coaching session plan that implements the 4-corner model (technical/tactical, physical, psychological, and social aspects) to improve athletes holistically. The session plan will focus on athlete development within a given session technically and tactically, physically, psychologically, and socially, with specific focus given to developing a technical and/or tactical component, based on the sport of their choice. The session plan must be planned for a full 60–90-minute coaching session and must include an aim and 3 learning objectives, explanations of how the session aligns with the National Coaching Standards, and health & safety aspects and procedures relative to a contingency plan. Also, the plan must include 5 activities (a warm-up, 3 activities and a cool-down) that are explained in relation to activity organization (including task descriptions, arrangement - with appropriate diagrams), progressions for each activity in the session plan, and a communication plan (that includes coaching points and coach questions) that would relate to appropriate verbal explanation and demonstration of tasks to maximize athlete learning needs. Additionally, once the session plan is complete, the students will need to write a minimum 500-word session rationale that focuses on how the session would impact athlete development relative to the session’s planned activities analyzing the 4-corner model; technical/tactical, physical, psychological, and social components to evaluate how athlete development effectively would occur, through giving explanations of examples related back to the activities and instructional methods.

Coaching Session (Video) – Students will deliver a 10-15-minute micro-coaching session, which will be a segment of the previously created Coaching Session Plan. The coaching session must show the student coaching at least 1 participant and will be performed to allow for faculty to observe coaching methods, in particular thinking about setting up a positive coaching environment through the chosen coaching methods. During the delivery of the session, the student will need to organize the set-up of the activities appropriately, communicate/instruct the organization of the activity effectively, make sure health and safety is adhered to at all times, communicate coaching points, progress the activity appropriately (at least one transition between activities). Also, the student will need to demonstrate key components of skills/tactics appropriately, give appropriate feedback to the participant(s), implement 2 'coaching moments' during the activity, use a 'freeze-frame' to coach the participants, implement different coaching methods where appropriate, use at least 1 athlete-centered coaching method (questioning, tactical time-outs, player-led team discussion) to allow participants to "solve a problem", and ensure the activity is time managed correctly. The student will submit this coaching session in video format, making sure it is wide enough to see them working with an individual, and/or the whole team or group of athletes. The video should not be edited and should focus on the student coaching the athletes making sure the faculty member evaluating the session can understand (verbally and physically) when coaching points occur.

Once the candidate’s submission of the Professional Project – Coaching Portfolio is completed (before Week 13 – see timeline before), then the faculty member chair will schedule an oral viva presentation (defense). The Oral Viva Presentation allows the faculty chair to evaluate the student’s analysis of their advanced coaching practice. The oral viva (defense) will be a (minimum 10-minute, maximum 15-minute) Presentation that explores 3 key messages the student feels that has impacted them the most the Coaching Education program. Within the 3 key messages, the students will need to examine current coaching issues that may impact future development, principles of effective coaching, and specific coaching models and methods in coaching practice. The students will need to explain how each key message informs their own current/future coaching practice (related to the concepts for each message - use supportive research in this section), related the messages to specific course(s) in which the concept(s) was learned, and give specific coaching examples of how they are/would implement them in current/future coaching practice. The presentation must also include current academic research to support their analysis. Also, in this oral defense, there will be the opportunity for faculty to ask questions about the 3 key messages. If the defense is successful, the faculty chair will approve it, but the faculty chair can reject the oral defense, and can ask the student to make final revisions to this, as well as the Coaching Portfolio. The chair is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the professional project is successfully completed and should provide further guidance to assist the student to successfully complete the Professional Project, through the Coaching Portfolio and Oral Viva Presentation (at the achievement level of 83% - a B grade).