Golf Coaching Praxis

UCLan is pleased to announce the launch of its Golf Coaching Praxis Level 1 Certificate in golf performance.  This innovative new course is an international partnership between UCLan’s School of Sport and Well-being, The International Institute for Golf Education (IIGE), BMR Golf Management in the US, and Golf Biodynamics from Australia.  The certificate is delivered by Dr David Grecic, Dr Rob Neal and Mr Brendan Ryan and offers golf coaches of all standards an insight into the world of performance golf and in particular how they can best develop young golfers.  It offers 3 distinct units of study – Supporting Young Golfers, Developing Young Golfers, and Managing Young Golfers – which are broken down into small modules of work which deal with thematic areas eg Technology, Biomechanics, Psychology, Instruction, Communication etc (for more information please see   (http://www.uclan.ac.uk/courses/golf-coaching-praxis-level1.php)

Each module is a bite size chunk of information for practising coaches to assimilate and reflect upon.  The course is entirely on line and provides video lectures, lecture slides and notes, reading materials, web links, discussion forums and associated tasks to complete. Final assessment is via a Capstone assignment which brings together various stands of knowledge which are applied to solve a golf performance problem of the coach’s choice.

Course Leader Dr David Grecic explained, “ we are all very excited about our new course.  We see this Level 1 Certificate will enhance coaches core knowledges and make a real difference to their professional practice.  The subsequent Level 2 and Level 3 Certificates will then build and apply this knowledge and help coaches create their own innovative solutions and coaching interventions to ensure the continued development of young golfers across the globe. If you are an aspiring coach or a coach who would just like to update your current golf performance knowledge then you should definitely look at enrolling on our course”. 

If you would like any more information please contact David Grecic directly on dgrecic1@uclan.ac.uk or go to our website:  http://www.uclan.ac.uk/courses/golf-coaching-praxis-level1.php

Higher Education Fairs 2016

It was a real pleasure to be part of the Higher Education Fairs at both Birmingham Met and Stourbridge College. Many students displayed significant interest in pursuing a career in sport and a degree at UCLan! Andy Sprake had the pleasure of meeting students from a wide variety of educational backgrounds and career aspirations, ranging from teaching physical education and coaching to outdoor leadership and setting up their own business in the sports market. Many of the stands were representing their respective universities as a whole, whereas the UCLan stand was representing the School of Sport and Wellbeing. This intrigued several other members of staff at the event and they were only too happy to welcome us as a division!

Here are some students showing an interest in a career in Sports at Stourbridge College.

Colleagues from within the School also attended the fair at Birmingham Met.

Here we see Andy Sprake with Chris Eastabrook from The Outdoors and Denis Pressler from Sports Management.

The team are always keen to come out to schools individually, attend careers advents or welcome schools to visit the university. If we can be of any help, then please do not hesitate to contact Dean Hardy on DHardy2@uclan.ac.uk or 01772 894428.

Induction Week

The Sports Studies induction week has started with a bang and the students have been fully engaged in a variety of activities. The second day saw students working with the Frontier Education Team at the UCLan Sports Arena saw the new first year students engaging in team-building, 
co-operative learning and problem solving activities, all in an outdoor context. 

This provoked some early, and very encouraging, discussions about learning styles, teamwork, the value of group dynamics and the importance of group cohesion for successful learning. A particularly interesting talking point was sparked by the idea that the quietest learners could in fact have the loudest minds. PE Associate Lecturer Andrew Sprake highlighted his pleasure at the engagement of the students stating “This was a fantastic experience for all and it was pleasing to see the professionalism that these students approach the day’s activities with. This clearly was a very promising start from our newest arrivals at UCLan!”