Learn to be a Coach 

Coaches come in many shapes and forms - from life coaches and business coaches to sports coaches. This course provides broad based knowledge that can make you a better coach in any coaching situation.

COURSE CONTENT

Core Modules

These six compulsory modules provide foundation knowledge for the in Coaching.

• Introduction To Psychology BPS101
• Life Coaching BPS305
• Business Coaching
• Sports Coaching VRE109
• Food Coaching VRE110
• Research Project I BGN102 

 
Elective Modules

In addition to the core modules, students study any 9 of the following modules.

• Counselling Skills I BPS109
•  Stress Management VPS100
• Fitness Leaders Certificate VRE004
• Anger Management BPS111
• Business Studies BBS101
• Fitness Risk Management VRE104
• Human Nutrition I BRE102
• Health and Wellbeing BRE101
• Human Biology 1A (Anatomy and Physiology) BSC101
• Human Nutrition and Food 1 BRE102
• Industrial Psychology BPS103
• Marketing Foundations VBS109
• Marketing Psychology BPS107
• Motivation VBS111
• Sports Psychology BPS106
• Careers Counselling BPS202
• Conflict Management BPS201
• Human Nutrition and Food II BRE202
• Therapeutic Nutrition BRE211
• Weight Management Nutrition BRE210
• Business Planning BBS302
• Human Nutrition and Food III BRE302
• Marketing Systems BBS303
• Nutrition for Sports BRE303
  Sports Nutrition BRE303

What Do Coaches Do?

Coaches help people to become better. Different types of coaches help people to become better at different types of things; for example:

• Sports Coaches help people to be better at sport
• Business Coaches help people to be better at business
• Life Coaches help people to be better at life
• Skills Coaches help people develop their skills
• Careers Coaches help people develop their careers
• Performance Coaches help people perform better, in any context, and to any end.

Coaches may help their clients to learn new things; but they are far more than just teachers. They should motivate and help improve their client's attitude and capacity to develop.

What can we do to improve our Psychological State?

We have already covered some of this throughout the book, but let’s look here at different ideas that we can use to improve our mental health.

We should start off with small goals  
If a person does not have much energy, then large goals can seem too much, so small goals can be a good starting point. This may be something simple like – sending an email to a friend, phoning a relative, popping to the shops. It is about taking things one thing at a time.

Stay focused 

If you set a small goal, such as walking round the block every morning, try and stick to it.  

Try to develop and maintain relationships 

Depression and other mental health conditions can sometimes make it hard to want to maintain relationships with friends and family, but isolation can make mental health problems worse, so make the effort to stay in contact and see friends and family. Try to develop new relationships if you can.

Try to keep social activities

Even if there are times you do not feel like it. How many times have you dreaded meeting up with friends for coffee or a drink only to find you had a really nice time?

Join support groups

These may be face to face or even online. You can see that you are not alone in how you are feeling and may get tips and support on how to deal with how you feel.

Try to challenge your negative thinking 

It is not so easy to just think “happy thoughts”, but try to replace the negative thoughts with more rational and balanced thoughts.

• Try not to be so hard on yourself.
• Try to think of others and how they may feel
• Try not to be perfect
• Socialise with others 
• Try to look on the bright side.

Keep a log of negative thoughts.

Whenever you experience negative thoughts, write it down, think about what happened just before the negative thoughts. Were they justified?  For example, you are taking your children to school and see Lorraine on the playground. You know her as an acquaintance and say hello. She barely glances your way. You start to think she is ignoring you or you have done something wrong.  You see her later and it turns out that she had lost her glasses and couldn’t see people properly that morning and had a terrible headache. It is too easy to assume everything if your fault when you are feeling down. 

Take care of yourself

• Get enough exercise
• Get some sunshine or fresh air every day
• Aim for eight hours sleep a day
• Use relaxation techniques 
• Care for someone else or a pet.
• Do things you enjoy
• Take a bath.
  

Get regular exercise

It doesn't have to be rigorous exercise. If you work in a sedentary job get up every now and then and walk around. Park your car in the farthest car park at the shopping centre, so you have further to walk. Take the stairs, not the lift. 

Eat properly

For decades we have been warned of the dangers of fatty foods. In recent years sugar was added to the list of things to avoid. Now added salt is regarded as a major problem, particularly in processed food. The key is to limit the amount of processed food in your diet and eat moderate amounts of food high in sugar including fruits. If you do eat fruit, whole fruits are better than juice. If in doubt, seek the advice of a nutritionist.   

Get help when needed

Finally, know when you need to get help. Sometimes we find that things are just not improving and we may need to seek additional help. There's no shame in seeking help and there are plenty of people out there whose job is to help you.