Club Training Officer
Training in the Club environment is sometimes viewed through the narrow lens of the summer junior training programme when in reality it has the potential to play a far wider role in the ongoing growth and development of the club. Activities such as powerboat training to support club racing, adult training and coaching, class specific coaching for club fleets and schools or Transition Year programmes have the potential to increase a clubs offering to its members, improving member engagement and retention.
One of the challenges for clubs is beyond the well defined role of the Junior Organiser in leading the junior summer programme, when it comes to training and coaching initiatives such as those listed above they are generally organised on an ad hoc basis. They are often organised by different volunteers within the club with no central co-ordination . This lack of a single lead person with a clear training strategy in the club can lead to a lot of duplication of effort and wasted time for those involved when it comes to getting these initiatives up and running making them harder to sustain.
Irish Sailing are proposing that Clubs implement a Training Officer role as part the main club committee to bring a greater awareness to the role that training can play in the ongoing development of the club and act as a co-ordinator and information point for the volunteers leading the different training activities taking place in the club.
Who is the Club Training Officer?
The Club Training Officer is a volunteer who sits on the main club committee to lead the overall development of a training and coaching strategy for the club, look at the range of offerings which might be provided to meet the needs of the clubs members and co-ordinate those leading the activities. They should have an interest in training and coaching and ideally would have some level experience in the area although this is not essential.
What is the role of the Club Training Officer?
They will act as the main point of contact between Irish Sailing Training and the club and ideally take the role of Centre Principal where the club is also a Training Centre. They should support existing training roles within the club and identify new roles which might be needed to support the clubs training strategy such as:
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- Junior Organiser
- Class Captain(s)
- Powerboat Captain
- Adult Training Lead
- Schools / TY Lead
For further information on the proposed Club Training Officer or to discuss what might be appropriate for your club please contact Dave Garvey, Training Manager, dave.garvey@sailing.ie