The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) has launched a national taskforce aimed at making Australia the world leader in modern high performance coaching development within the next 10 years.
Chief Executive at AIS, Peter Conde said the National High Performance Coach Development Taskforce combined the expertise of the AIS, National Institute Network (NIN) and National Sporting Organisations (NSOs).
Mr Conde said the rapid evolution of modern coaching and the global rivalry for coaching talent meant Australia needed to act now to elevate its coaching ranks across all levels, including community coaching in coordination with Sport Australia.
“The role of a modern high performance coach is rapidly evolving and expanding,” Mr Conde said.
“The world’s best coaches are no longer just masters of technique and tactics, they need to be experts in managing people and professional networks,” he said.
“They need to set a performance culture, while balancing athlete wellbeing.”
Mr Conde said the future success of Australian athletes and sport would depend on having a sophisticated, advanced and united coaching development system.
“Australia has had, and still has, incredible coaches, but we need to build on that with a cohesive national approach so we can expand our coaching pipeline at all levels,” he said.
“The sporting world is staring at many of the same problems when it comes to coaching, like how to address the vast under-representation of women or how to successfully transition athletes to coaching.”
Mr Conde said the taskforce was exploring ideas like applied coaching apprenticeships to turbo-charge the workforce and cross-sport opportunities to accelerate the development of coaches.
“We’re setting high aspirations and by the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 Australia aims to be amongst the world leaders in the professionalisation and modernisation of elite coaching,” he said.
