4.4 Coaching athletes and training coaches
Page 9 of 14
STUDY
- Athletes cited the quality of the coaching program as the most critical factor in the development of their sport.
- They stated that their relationships with their coaches were often complicated by language-related issues.
- NSOs are essentially responsible for the development of coaching programs and the hiring of coaches for national teams.
- Few Francophone coaches at the national-team level.
- Lack of instructional and technical material in French.
| Recommendation 12 |
FOLLOW-UP
As a result of the survey on official languages, Sport Canada has modified its requirements for NSOs with respect to applications for annual funding (for applications received for winter and spring 2003). The NSOs must submit a complete list of national team coaches, including information on coaches’ official language of choice and official languages spoken. by coaches. This will give Sport Canada an overview of the bilingual capacity of national team coaches in all sports and enable them to take the remedial action required in some sports.
To follow up on the second part of recommendation 12, Sport Canada plans to ask the NSOs in its next triennial survey (2004-2005) whether they advertise their competitions for coaching positions in French and English-language media. At the same time, it intends to ask the NSOs to include goals that could correct the situation observed during the survey in their plans of action. The deadline that has been set by Sport Canada for meeting the deadline seems remote (2004-2005), in view of the fact that we issued our recommendation nearly three years ago.
We received an interesting comment from the National Coaching Institute (NCI), which falls under the responsibility of the National Multi-Sport Centre - Montreal. The French-language training offered by the NCI makes it easier for Francophone coaches to obtain jobs at the national level. In Montreal, French-language NCI candidates have taken advantage of the language training program of the Canadian Professional Coaches Association to perfect their knowledge of English. The NCI finances the travel expenses of certain Francophone candidates who serve as trainee coaches on the national teams to help them become better known and increase their chances of joining the network.
Status of recommendation 12: partly implemented.
New deadline: December 31, 2003
| Recommendation 13 |
FOLLOW-UP
Sport Canada confirms affirms that NSO survey results with respect to Recommendation 13 were fairly positive, as technical documents that were important in the athlete’s career “were available nine times out of ten in 2001 and were simultaneously available seven times out of ten, with an average wait of three months for those documents that were not immediately available.” We have reservations about the accuracy of these findings, as they are based on an overall average.
Worthy efforts were made in implementing Recommendation 13, particularly in terms of the gradual revision of the National Coaching Certification Program (3M NCCP). The CAC has provided us with excellent information in this area. Levels I to III of the Program involve work with sports and athletic teams at the municipal, school or provincial level. Levels IV and V focus on high performance athletes.
Changes were made in the 3M NCCP to give coaches access to a vast range of programs based on actual conditions and the special challenges posed by different sporting environments. The transition involves a transition from a course- and knowledge-based system (the structure in place prior to 3M NCCP) to a Competency Based Education and Training (CBET) system. The new focus structure will be gradually implemented by the NSOs over the next few years.
The new 3M NCCP structure provides for three types of coaches, pertaining primarily to: (1) community sport, (2) competition and (3) the instruction of sports techniques. The transition to CBET involves the production of a large number of written texts. The CAC provides financial support to the NSOs for translating materials and the guidelines on this topic clearly state that organizations are responsible for making technical literature simultaneously available in both official languages. The NSOs must oversee translation quality by working with Quebec provincial sport associations. Before moving on to a further phase in producing written texts, the NSOs must ensure that documents published during the preceding phase are available in both official languages.
For the transition to CBET, Sport Canada and the Official Languages Support Branch of Canadian Heritage are granting the CAC supplementary assistance of $100,000 for 2002-2003. As mentioned previously, the CAC awarded these funds to 12 NSOs to translate technical documents. The CAC believes that this additional funding reserved strictly for translation is an effective means of sustaining the overall transition process and ensuring that both language communities can be appropriately served. In view of the large volume of material produced for the CBET, the CAC hopes to receive similar amounts over the next three years. The CAC estimates the translation costs involved in completing the initial transition phase for 60 sports at some $70,000. We encourage Sport Canada to grant additional funding over the next few years to speed up the translation of these documents.
Status of recommendation 13: partly implemented
Continued implementation
4.4.1 Intercultural education
STUDY
- Some coaches were relatively insensitive to cultural differences.
- In some cases, coaches did not always make the necessary effort to understand athletes who speak a different language from their own and failed to express patience or tolerance as coaches.
- Some athletes had to serve as interpreters for their coach.
| Recommendation 14 |
FOLLOW-UP
In response to Recommendation 14, Sport Canada noted that the NSO accountability framework (2001-2005) seeks to ensure that coaches can meet the needs of athletes in their official language. A review of action plans will provide for follow up in this regard. In June 2002, Sport Canada issued Official language standards for high performance training centres to NSOs operating high performance training centres (HPTC) for athletes. The Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages was consulted during the formulation of these standards which provide, among other things, for the presence of at least one bilingual coach to each high performance team or sports program in HPTC’s. The standards should be implemented by April 2005. We shall return to this subject below.
At the time of the follow-up, Sport Canada did not have precise information on the first official language of national team coaches but our observations confirm that certain national teams, including those with athletes from both language groups, have no bilingual coaches. The bilingual abilities of coaches are not an issue in certain sports, such as speed skating, but in many sports it is difficult to recruit skilled bilingual coaches at the national level. NSOs place their greatest emphasis on coach qualifications, skills and experience. Athletes also believe that these factors are of paramount importance, but many are of the opinion that the lack of bilingual coaches makes the learning process much more difficult.
Often, despite the presence of a bilingual coach in a team whose members are of both languages, training sessions are conducted in English if some of the athletes speak only that language. In the absence of bilingual coaches, some associations try to include a bilingual member during international competitions to respond to requests. While useful as support measure, this process is no substitute for having bilingual coaches on national teams.
The Canadian Professional Coaching Association (the professional division of the CAC) devotes funding to language training for high performance coaches. Ten coaches have made use of such funds since 2000 to improve their proficiency in the other official language, with five studying English and five French. The NSOs should make coaches more aware of such programs since they work closely with the CAC throughout the education process. Some coaches believe the NSOs should cover the cost of language training where bilingualism is an established standard.
Status of recommendation 14: partly implemented.
New deadline: immediately
| Recommendation 15 |
FOLLOW-UP
In the case of Recommendation 15, Sport Canada has posted on its intranet and Web sites a bilingual lexicon of 34 summer sports. It will remind NSOs that this terminological resource is now available. Sport Canada says it is also seeking other sports lexicons that can be beneficial to NSO clients and coaches. Except for this measure, we were unable to observe that any teaching materials or coaching aids had been produced that would enable coaches to work with teams consisting of members of both language groups.
Status of recommendation 15: not implemented.
New deadline: June 30, 2004
