There are five assessments for the S&C Trainer professional registration/Diploma for UKSCA S&C Trainers. They have been developed by a team of experienced tutors, assessors, educators and employers, to ensure they are:
In addition, the concept of reflective practice is an important element of the assessments and is interwoven throughout.
Overview: The candidate is required to plan and coach a 20-minute foundation movement session to a small group of a minimum of three participants. The session must aim to improve each participant’s foundation movement techniques in the time allocated. This assessment is required to reflect the common real-life scenario of a time-limited warm-up and foundation movement session.
There are eight categories of foundation movements that have prescribed exercises, as follows:
The ninth category here – foundation pulls – is not formally assessed due to common limitations across facilities; it is hoped, however, that this will change over time.
Rationale: This assessment demonstrates the emphasis on coaching skills from the outset and also the benefits of the coaching of foundation movements in the absence of special facilities or equipment. The focus is on the important S&C skills associated with movement quality, understanding of basic biomechanics, range of movement, speed of movement etc.
Overview and rationale: The candidate is required to coach six prescribed tasks to an individual, replicating the common real-life scenario of introducing new exercises and equipment safely and effectively. The session(s) aims to ensure that the candidate is safe to move into the strength-based environment and can also set up an effective energy systems assessment screen or training session. In order to do this, the candidate must coach:
Overview: The candidate is required to plan and coach a 40-minute strength-based training session in which they must provide a progressive challenge in the time allocated. In order to do this, the candidate must coach a prescribed, time-limited RAMP warm-up relevant to the strength-based session, as well as coaching five prescribed strength-based exercises with the application of appropriate sets, reps and recovery times. The strength-based exercises are prescribed from each of the following categories:
Rationale: Running a session with someone familiar means the candidate can confidently provide a progressive challenge in the session according to their technical skill, and also demonstrate that they can coach confidently with a ‘working load’. The progressive challenge may be a progression of load or may only be a progression of technical competency in the session. The assessment not only looks at the sets and reps, but also how the candidate monitors recovery times in a real training session.
Assessments A-C would typically be run on courses given by ‘UKSCA Licensed Assessors – S&C Trainer’ and after successfully completing assessments A–C, the budding S&C Trainer can now begin to work with a real athlete/client.
Overview: The candidate is required to conduct an initial consultation, participant and sport/activity needs analysis and a series of physical assessment screens/tests. This must be with a real athlete/client in the live training environment and without direct supervision. The candidate must then agree SMART goals, establish the training context and design a 12-week programme and associated sessions in line with the athlete’s/client’s unique needs and goals.
Rationale: At this level, S&C Trainers should be able to demonstrate they can ‘recipe follow’ versus requiring the underpinning knowledge to create and develop their own programme design process; to support this, standard templates for each stage of the assessment have been created. For example, the ‘SCRIPT’ is a template with a set questions for the initial consultation covering aspects such as pre-participation health screens; short- and long-term personal goals; lifestyle factors; training and injury history; and physical status measurements. The programme templates require the candidate to outline a 12-week programme in a set format, with mesocycle objectives for the following: foundation movement skill development; acceleration; deceleration and change of direction if appropriate; energy systems; and strength-based training. The programme should link all the way back through the SMART goals, assessment screens, needs analyses and initial consultation data that the candidate has collected.
Overview: The candidate is required to deliver a minimum of eight weeks from their 12-week programme. This time period should be sufficient to demonstrate adaptations towards the athlete/client goals and the candidate should record and reflect on programme and coaching practice changes throughout. He/she must engage in reflective practice throughout the programme and their portfolio will also enable them to demonstrate full coverage of the required underpinning knowledge. The candidate must then deliver a presentation on the impact of the programme, taking into account attendance, adherence, impact and action planning – for their own personal development as well as for the athlete/client.
Rationale: It is a requirement for S&C Trainers to demonstrate that they have worked with someone and, more importantly, have reflected on areas of their work such as session attendance, programme adherence, the skills that they have used to keep their athlete/client motivated, their communication skills and how they plan to improve their coaching practice in the future. Through delivering the programme in the real world, they can also gain experience in applying key strength and conditioning training principles such as individualisation, accommodation, overload, general adaptation syndrome and variation.
