Free Courses

This module is designed to help you better understand how to more effectively communicate, connect with, and coach today's young athletes. We tackle ways to effectively give feedback, build relationships, shape motivation, accept criticism, hold attention, and provide opportunities for leadership with Generation Z athletes.

When people feel like they belong, they are willing to put in the work, feel ok to make mistakes, and reach the best version of themselves. This is true in sport and in life. In this module we cover what we can do as coaches to help young people feel capable of maximizing their talent, bounce back from setbacks, and be the best version of themselves.

Sports can bring out the highest highs and the lowest lows so it is a fertile ground for young athletes to experience emotion, understand their feelings, manage relationships, and practice emotional regulation. How you show up as a coach during highly emotional moments in sport carries a lot of weight and can tip the balance for young athletes learning to navigate this space. In this module we explore ways you can most effectively communicate and connect with athletes to bring out the best in each of them.

This module is designed to help you better understand how to more effectively communicate and partner with parents and caregivers of your athletes. We tackle ways to engage parents and caregivers before, during, and after the season as well as help you to navigate tough conversations that will come your way.

This course is geared toward coaching at local events though the contents are also valuable at higher level competitions. It will also benefit athletes seeking a better understanding the competition setting. Like athletes, all coaches must get started somewhere. Many new coaches learn at a local weightlifting competition, sanctioned by USAW, and run by independent event organizers around the country. Ensuring a full understanding of the rules, format and strategies of competition is incredibly important to the success of athletes under a coach’s care. 

"Connection Based Coaching" is a free online course for coaches to enhance positive connection with their athletes. Through the story-telling lens of Team USA athletes, coaches and staff, three 30-minute interactive modules guide participants to greater awareness of social and emotional skills to support their coaching techniques. The three modules are Making the Connection, Connecting with Your Athletes, and the Power of Your Presence. 

A central part of your job as a coach is to teach athletes new motor skills and give them quality feedback to help them develop not just as athletes but as confident, healthy individuals who will be involved in sport for many years. In this module, created in partnership with US Ski and Snowboard, you will learn to create training plans that are based upon the best practices of teaching and learning. This goes way beyond Xs and Os of tactics and technique and will help athletes of all stages of sport and development.

Coaching ethics and coaching philosophy are two areas that are often undervalued for newer coaches and are only seriously developed when in the middle of challenging situations. We invite you to consider what traits are important for ethical coaches and how you would respond to difficult issues.  You will have the opportunity to create, reflect on, and refine your personal coaching philosophy. A coach philosophy is a reflection of your core values and is demonstrated by your words and actions. To be most effective, coaches must develop a coaching philosophy that builds trust, skills, knowledge, teamwork, and confidence within a positive, fun, and engaging atmosphere.

Coaching HER is an evidence-based, rigorously tested tool for sport coaches of girls that challenges the status quo and the taken-for-granted assumptions of what it means to coach girls. We are helping coaches minimize gender inequalities and to coach differently. The course was created by the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota.