Sport Ireland have approved the newest part of Squash Ireland’s coaching pathway, an L0 Introductory Coach award that will sit beneath the current L1 and L2 qualifications.
In its programme approval report, the Sport Ireland education and training council said: “The council commends Squash Ireland on the high standard of the programme documentation.
“The council have approved the programme as presented for inclusion on the Coaching Development Programme for Ireland (CDPI) at introduction level.”
Delighted with the approval, Eddie Murphy, the Cork-based Squash Ireland education officer, explained: “Up to now, a Leaders course would have been somebody who wouldn’t become a coach but who could help a coach – but they wouldn’t get a qualification when they finished it.
“What we have done now is changed that Leaders course into a foundation level coaching course, the Introductory Coach award.
“As an introductory squash coach, the qualification would let them bring beginners into squash and it would stop where we introduce the squash racket into the curriculum.
“We are trying to get people interested in a bit of coaching, the basics like hopping, skipping, jumping, hand/eye coordination – we need to develop that bit, put in the foundation before they get the racket.
“We need to do one pilot course first before we start advertising. We will be encouraging people who would like to get involved in coaching to do this one-day course and get a bit of experience from the tutors, showing them that this introductory course badge is the way to start.
“If we can do that, then going forward we are putting in a good foundation from a coaching perspective for our certification.”
