The demand for quality, well-rounded coaches and strength coaches grows each year. Sport leaders need to understand how to motivate and lead athletes, teach technical, tactical, physical and mental skills, and navigate complex environments with varying stakeholders. Our pioneering 16-credit specialized graduate certificate in the psychology of coaching prepares students for these responsibilities.
We specialize in the psychological and sociological aspects of sport and athletic performance, delivering novel practical tools and a unique experience to our student-coaches. The specialized graduate certificate complements students who have a strong background in exercise science or kinesiology, and extends the education of those looking to understand the relational and cultural aspects of people in sport.
Program Highlights
As part of the Practicum in Coaching course, students work with a Mental Skills Consultant (MSC) or sport psychologist. Consultants are all graduates of the our MA Sport and Performance Psychology program, with relevant coaching and athletic experience. Students "meet" virtually with their consultant for one hour per week.
Course assignments use lifelike coaching issues and problems to help students integrate theoretical and practical knowledge to improve the coach’s decision-making and effectiveness with athlete’s performance.
Featured Courses
CPSY 4705
Sociocultural Aspects of Sport Coaching
About this Course
Graduate level course to educate students on the sociocultural and social-psychological aspects of sport coaching and athletic performance. Students will understand how to analyze and apply social, sociological and social-psychological theory to sport coaching and athletic performance. Consideration will be given to developing a critical understanding of sport coaches’ knowledge development, and how to implement multiple, effective and ethical strategies to enhance coach and athletic performance.
CPSY 4710
Motor Learning and Sport Pedagogy
About this Course
Graduate level course to educate students on the science and practice of how athletes learn motor skills and how coaches can facilitate skill acquisition. Course content includes the scientific and theoretical frameworks of motor learning, with a secondary examination of motor control and development. Applied course content will focus on how coaches can use learning strategies such as demonstration, instruction, feedback, and practice planning to improve athletic performance.
CPSY 4722
Social-Psychology of the Body, Health, and Performance
About this Course
The purpose of this course is to understand the ways in which people in society understand the body in sport, physical activity and health and wellness. Or in more simple terms, answer the question: why society thinks about the sporting, healthy and physically active body in the ways that it does? In order to acquire this understanding we will explore the complex and powerful historical, social and cultural forces that have shaped the assumptions underpinning the sporting, physically active and healthy body. No prerequisites exist for this course.
Featured Faculty
Brian Gearity
Professor & Dir MA Coach Sports Education; Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, GSPP
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