Coaches

Coaches are for a big part responsible of the dual career progression of their athletes. It is therefore of great value that they have insight in their athletes’ schedules and are able to see their players in a holistic view. Coaches are the one who could ring the bell when they have the idea that someone is not handling their dual career well. To give an overview of possible activities we created a list you can discuss with the coaches involved.

Coaches are the persons within the club who are most directly involved with the dual career of their athletes. As the programme gets incorporated, their responsibility increases, and they have to be more aware of the personal life of their players besides the sports activities.

What do coaches need to know?

  • The club’s dual career vision / philosophy.

  • That they have to be more aware of the dual career situation of the players.

  • That athletic development and performances will never be at the expense of a healthy development and personal well-being.

How do you involve coaches?

  • Plan a meeting/workshop with coaches to see where they struggle and let them learn from each other (see implementation).

  • Let them actively talk about these matters in team settings or one-on-one with you or the experts surrounding you.

  • Be visible and let them know when and how they can reach you.


Guidelines for coaches to participate. As a coach..

  • You are aware of the dual career vision of the club and are willing to support it and participate in the activities.

  • You have knowledge about the holistic dual career situations of you athlete and you actively ask you players how they are managing the combination of sports and education.

  • You are aware that the athletic development and performance of the players is not more important than the health, well-being, or overall development of the player.

  • You stimulate the autonomy of the athletes by giving them a certain amount of responsibility.

  • You create rules and norms together with the athletes.

  • You are flexible about how you treat your athletes as long as they stick to the rules and norms that they, partly, created themselves.

  • You work together with other affiliated coaches to learn from each other’s knowledge and experience.

  • You effectively communicate with other people who are involved with the dual career programme within the club.

  • You effectively communicate with the parents and entourage of athletes about the dual career situations.


findings and best practices (as described in erasmus+ project ICDC)

From KADA - sport with prospects

Verein KADA tries at an early stage to convince sports talents of the advantages of a Dual Career and a good balance between sport and education (or work). That is why the career counsellors of this organization pay a lot of attention to increasing Dual Career awareness among talents and the important stakeholders around the Austrian sports talents. For example, the career counsellors visit the graduation classes of the Elite Sport Schools in Austria and ‘awareness workshops’ are offered to the students of these schools. This is to convince them of the benefits of Dual Career and to explain that combining elite level sport and study is possible. KADA also tries to achieve exactly that with the ‘Train-the-Trainer workshops’ it offers to coaches of top sports organisations. In the career counseling, KADA notes that coaches have a lot of influence on the dual careers of sports talents and are often their direct road counsellors. KADA also notes that coaches are often not well informed about the advantages and possibilities in Dual Career. In the ‘Train-the-Trainer workshops’, the coaches are taken into account in the principles of responsible talent development and how they can contribute as coaches to a responsible sporting and personal development. It is also important for coaches to realize that they are not alone in this and that there is also support for them in Dual Career programmes in guiding their dual careers. “I often tell them my own experience. I spent a year fully dedicated to ski jumping, but my sports performance just went down. It is good when you, as a sports talent, can also focus on other interests and developments,” says career counsellor Bastian Kaltenböck, who can ultimately look back on a very successful dual career of his own.


From CTO the Netherlands

The Dutch CTO structure has a coach-driven approach. The coach is seen as the manager of the Dual Career programs of the talents. Working within a CTO means that coaches have to pay more attention to development aspects than before and the training and coaching have a more holistic nature. In addition, an important task of the coaches within this structure is to ensure that the various areas of expertise fit in well with each other so that the talents can benefit optimally from them. This coach-driven method of working, therefore, requires a lot of the background and training of coaches. For this reason, in recent years there has been a reselection of coaches within the programmes of the CTOs.  This cross-selection makes it clear that the sports organization, and therefore also the sports clubs, must pay attention to the competencies of coaches who determine whether or not a coach is suitable as manager of Dual Career programmes.

Within the CTO structure, the other experts, such as the lifestyle coach, sports psychologist or study coach, have an essential role to play in monitoring the balance in responsible talent development and take a more objective role in this. When putting together a professional Dual Career Team, an important point of attention is who can monitor this objectivity and balance in order to achieve responsible talent development.


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