BA (Hons) Sports Business and Coaching

This module will enable you to develop awareness and understanding of the key fundamentals sports coaching, integrating theory with practice and sharing knowledge and understanding through discussion and debate. The practical element of coaching will allow you to gain experience in and an understanding of the cognitive process of coaching. You will learn what a coach needs in order to function effectively and safely in a variety of situations, developing reflective skills and identifying which theories are most applicable when working in a specific coaching context. You will learn how to reflect on and evaluate your own strengths and weaknesses and develop a plan to improve both your technical and behavioural skills relevant to a career in the sports coaching industry.

The contemporary sport industry has embraced a number of dynamic innovations used in other sectors, helping to transform both its management and administration, steering it in a more professional manner in some aspects of sport, yet not others. Growing revenue has taken on increasing importance yet some sports still have issues with the media monopoly of others. Resistance to change, amateur practices and poor treatment of some players remain within the industry. You will explore these and other key issues through examining how the core parts of the business (marketing, finance, the media, sponsorship, event management, leadership and HR) operate. You will analyse the development of sport and governance of both elite and grassroots organisations.

In order for you to achieve your university and future workplace goals, you need to be aware of a number of personal qualities and behaviours that can impact your ability to succeed. It is also important that you understand the industry and societal context in which you plan to work. This module aims to introduce you to personal and professional factors relevant to employment in the sport industry, and to enhance your awareness of the industrial landscape. Additionally, it will support you in developing some essential academic skills for higher education (such as academic writing and referencing). The module will introduce you to a wide range of perspectives, philosophies, and principles of critical and ethical thinking which will equip you with the competencies and confidence to achieve your academic and employability goals.

This module will develop your core understanding of sport in community projects and education settings. You will explore the role of community-based youth sport initiatives. Coaching theory will be applied to age and ability-related practical sessions, and you will learn how to support and engage community groups via sport. You will develop a clear understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses, through reflection, specifically in relation to working with diverse demographic groups.

You will develop an understanding of sports fans, their motivations, experiences and interactions with sports clubs. It will ask you to consider how sport fan behaviour is regulated by different psycho-social factors such as involvement, identification, motivation, loyalty, as well as forms of social exclusion. You will examine how the unique relationship between fans and sports clubs has developed over time and explore some of the key issues underpinning this dynamic. This module will allow you to study sport through the intersection of sociological, psychological and marketing perspectives underpinning sports fan experience and behaviour. You will also develop your understanding of some of the methodologies underpinning market research and scholarly studies of sports fan behaviour, examining processes, variables and outcomes associated with sports fan behaviour research.

The module aims to provide you with a deeper understanding of the purpose and delivery of sport and physical activity across the UK’s national and local landscape and the challenges faced by those agencies tasked with delivering sport at all levels.

Entrepreneurship is more a state of mind than an actual discipline. It involves the full gamut of business knowledge and skills, commonly taught on business related courses. You will develop a business idea within a group. To realise this idea, you will produce a pitch deck which will be presented to an investment panel. Based on feedback and comments from the panel you will then produce a business plan. There is also an increasing need for innovative and entrepreneurial thinking in a wide range of industries. This practical focused module will therefore also provide you with the skills and knowledge from the world of business underpinned by relevant theories and models to help you succeed in a variety of careers. The ultimate aim of this module is to give you a realistic and viable alternative career opportunity establishing and running your own business.

You will cover the theoretical and practical elements required to plan, organise and stage an event. Special events in the modern sports, hospitality and entertainment industries take place in a wide variety of arenas and contexts. There are considerable logistical elements and potential challenges which must be considered in the planning and implementation process. This module provides you with a theoretical knowledge of event planning and management theory which you will then apply to the practical task of managing and funding/resourcing an industry related event.

Following on from your previous training regarding personal qualities and behaviours that can impact your ability to succeed, this module focuses on developing your practical skills relevant to a workplace environment. This module will ask you to apply your knowledge and personal skillset to problem-based learning scenarios, and live projects. You will learn project management skills, develop your personal pragmatism, and enhance your industry-based interests and understanding. You will work both as part of a team and independently, developing essential aspects of your emotional, social, and professional self.

As a practitioner in your discipline you will be required to engage in evidence-based practice. This module supports your ability to become an evidence-based practitioner by providing you with an introduction to the processes involved in conducting research within your discipline and equipping you with the skills and knowledge to be able to critically analyse the work of others. This module will build on skills and knowledge which you will have acquired throughout your course so far, and has been designed to prepare you for conducting your own independent project as part of the Professional Project module at Level 6. Specifically, this module will enable you to gain an applied understanding of the research process. This will involve identifying a contemporary industry-relevant issue; developing project aims and objectives; understanding reflexivity and the role you play in the design and execution of a project; understanding methodologies and different methods of data collection, analysis, and interpretation; and appreciating the importance of ethical practice. The delivery of this module will be facilitated by your engagement in a research project to investigate contemporary industry-relevant issues.

You will critique the literature and evidence behind the scouting process and the predictors of talent used across a range of sports. You will evaluate talent identification processes that exist across a variety of different sports and within other countries. Through application of key theories and critical analysis of processes in place within industry, you will review the role of the coach in talent development processes in a chosen sporting field. Furthermore, you will examine the support mechanisms which aid the development of sporting ability and skills needed to help support towards the fulfilment of a young athlete`s potential.

This module will give you critical insight into how coaching, psychology, physiology, and strength and conditioning impact on performance at the highest level. The module will follow an interdisciplinary approach to high performance coaching across a range of sports, allowing for the application of theory to practice. You will synthesise theory and evidence-based practice to evaluate appropriate training programmes and critically analyse existing approaches to high performance coaching. You will critically analyse (through observation and delivery) current practices in order to develop the skills and knowledge to aid the development of high performance athletes. Furthermore, you will explore the key issues that surround the high performance sports coaching environment.

Using leadership and management as central themes you will learn how to critically appraise relevant theory and research in order to develop your own actions, behaviours and characteristics pertinent to a career in sport, business or education. The module provides an opportunity to reflect on your own leadership and management skills and behaviours and to critically analyse the impact of this in an applied setting, benchmarking such approaches against tested relevant academic frameworks. You will learn how to evaluate and apply managerial and leadership theory to practice, and will have the opportunity to produce an evidenced-based personal development plan to improve your own management and leadership behaviours.

This module provides you with the opportunity to synthesise the knowledge and skills you will have developed during the course of your studies and independently design, develop and execute an individual professional project. This project aims to investigate an original contemporary industry-relevant issue and will be a platform through which you will demonstrate the knowledge, skills, understanding and expertise you have developed in your discipline thus far. It is expected that your project output will contribute to industry practice and/or academic and practitioner knowledge. To achieve this, you will investigate an original contemporary industry-relevant issue and make judgments on the basis of sound evidence and therefore, the project will be research- and inquiry-based. The project will be directly relevant to your course and will be produced and disseminated in the format best suited to the project aims and to developing a career of your choice. The project will build on the L5 Research Methods assessment and you will be working closely with a project supervisor who will provide guidance and support throughout your project.

Following on from your previous training regarding personal qualities and behaviours that can impact your ability to succeed, this module focuses on practical application of that knowledge during a workplace visit. Until now, your modules have provided learning opportunities about the industry and societal context in which you plan to work. This module aims to introduce you to a workplace environment. Doing so will allow you to enhance your awareness of the industrial landscape through experience. This module creates a space for you to apply competencies developed in your modules to date to a real-life setting, leading to experiential and reflective learning.

This module will provide you with the opportunity to identify the skills, competencies and experience required for successful development to embarking on their university degree and successfully completing it and progressing on to a range of potential future career areas. Central to the developmental process is for you to cultivate the reflective skills, openness and self- awareness to enable you to assess what you are doing, identify areas for improvement, and confidently receive and give constructive feedback.

This module will provide you with the opportunity to identify the skills, competencies and experience required for employment. This will support you in your ‘transition’ from school, college or the work place towards degree level study. You will begin to recognise the areas for your own personal professional development (including emotional, social, physical, cultural and cognitive intelligences) through taught and workshop activities. This will allow you identify attributes that are important to develop that are important for your career in the sports professional related to your programme.

The module will introduce you to the research processes when undertaking a project within your field of study. You will explore the important ethical considerations when planning and conducting a research project safely to analyse a problem or question specific to your subject area. This will require you to utilise and apply key research skills alongside selecting appropriate methods to collect data and report significant findings regarding your research question.

This module introduces you to many of the challenging and complex contemporary issues faced in the rapidlychanging and demanding, world of sport. It will allow you to build and consolidate knowledge, through understanding of key issues within the broad arena of sport in a discursive manner that will underpin your future work. You will be encouraged to research events, themes and issues that have affected the world of sport and, in some cases, changed the structure and behaviour of the sports industry.

To be an effective sports coach requires you to exercise a wide range of holistic roles and responsibilities within the field of coaching. This module will introduce a foundation of knowledge to explore how coaches utilise significant roles and responsibilities within different contexts. The module will provide you with an opportunity to engage using sports coaching models and theories towards developing your leadership/coaching styles, philosophies and coaching methods to establish an understanding of the coaching principles for your journey within the coaching sector.

This module will introduce the student to the fundamental principles of sports coaching and enables development of skills necessary to plan, deliver and review, to ensure the successful delivery of a sports coaching session. The module will provide knowledge and understanding of the development and evaluation of sports performance through the use of coaching and underpinning sports coaching principles.