PSAS Coach Toolkit

The Para-Coaches Guide

This toolkit is aimed at supporting coaches who work with disability athletes within their national and international sporting systems. This includes coaches who are starting out within the parasport system, and also those who currently have athletes on national training programmes supported by the National Paralympic Committee (NPC) and competing under their international federation (IF) rules for a particular sport.

The toolkit is designed to provide useful information and step by step guides on important aspects of Para sport such as classification systems and processes, competition requirements, coaching checklists and communication methods.

The information provided has been put together in response to research carried out to identify the challenges, gaps and opportunities that are faced by para-athletes and their coaches in Ghana, Malawi and Zambia, but it is not country or continent specific and can be used by any coach wanting to support para-athletes in an International Paralympic Committee (IPC) sanctioned sport. It is estimated that 15% of the world’s population has some type of disability and taking part in sport can be an excellent way of becoming healthier, fitter and more confident.

Para Coaches are a small and unique group of individuals, often starting their coaching career in able bodied sport, and finding a passion for working with disabled athletes part way through their career. Being so niche, you can easily become a role model and inspire other people to get involved in para sport and have a ‘voice’ so that you can influence positive societal change towards disability and equality. Whatever your reason for wanting to succeed in sport, this guide will help you to navigate your way through some of the important parts of the system so that you can be more confident when you turn up at a major event in being fully prepared.

You will enjoy some real-life examples from top international coaches, be able to use ‘check lists’ to support your planning, identify who needs to help you make decisions, and give you some links to additional information if you want to look more thoroughly into a topic.