The NFHS has announced a major update to its flagship coaching course on the online NFHS Learning Center, as “Fundamentals of Coaching” has been optimized with introductory information for coaches navigating the current high school landscape.

The NFHS Learning Center’s inaugural course offering, “Fundamentals of Coaching” has been delivered one million times since its debut in January 2007 and has become a primary component for new-coach training in most NFHS-member state associations. This newest refresh, which was produced in collaboration with the University of Washington’s Center for Leadership in Athletics, marks the third time the course has been modernized in its 17-year history (2012, 2018).

“This is a very important update, as this course is utilized across the country and many times required by states for interscholastic coaches,” said Dan Schuster, NFHS director of educational services. “We believe this course provides the foundation for an interscholastic coach and presents what a coach needs to know and be able to do. With this content, along with our accreditation through Cognia, we believe in the professional development ‘Fundamentals of Coaching’ provides.”

Most of the revisions to “Fundamentals of Coaching” were focused on making the course more efficient for users while maintaining its primary goals: helping coaches understand the role athletics should play in the educational mission of schools and providing them with a roadmap for individual student development and team success.

In addition to a new host and all-new videos and animations, the course now features a wide range of engaging content for coaches, including questions, drag-and-drop activities, image quizzes and more, designed to help learners reflect more deeply on how they can incorporate the ideals of a true interscholastic coach into their personal approach.

Important duties such as implementing a student-centered coaching philosophy, recognizing “teachable moments” and driving educational outcomes like sportsmanship, citizenship and a healthy lifestyle are covered in the opening unit, along with how coaches can balance those priorities with the strong desire to ‘win.’

The following unit examines an interscholastic coach’s responsibilities as a “manager” of the off-season, preseason and in-season periods and how those responsibilities evolve over the course of the year. Among the managerial topics covered in this section are scheduling, facility management, working with a school’s administrative chain of command, state association eligibility rules and safety elements necessary for minimizing risk of injury.

Proper communication strategies and utilizing effective feedback are the focus of the third unit, while the fourth chapter covers physical conditioning as it relates to season-long training plans, individual practice sessions, nutrition, hydration, injury prevention and other areas.

The fifth and final content unit dives further into the specifics of constructing individual practice sessions, with particular attention given to technical skill development, tactical awareness and tips for coaching during competition.

For more information on the updated “Fundamentals of Coaching” course, please visit: https://nfhslearn.com/courses/fundamentals-of-coaching.