sea kayak coach training

Sea Kayak Coach Training is the discipline-specific training for the Paddle UK Sea Kayak Coach (Moderate Water) award. It takes what you learned on Core Coach Training and applies it on the sea, and it’s the last piece of training before you go to Coach Award assessment.

Once qualified, you can plan, deliver and review progressive coaching sessions on your own with sea kayakers in moderate water. That means winds up to force 4, swell up to 1m and tidal flow up to 2 knots.

We’re based around Arisaig, with sheltered alternatives such as Kinlochleven when the forecast doesn’t play ball. We’re always within an hour of Fort William. The coastline gives us real conditions to coach in, which is the whole point.

What the course covers

Over two days we look hard at the how of coaching on the sea: coaching styles, feedback, positioning, and using the environment so the venue does some of the coaching for you. We look just as hard at the what, breaking sea kayaking down into its technical, tactical, physical and psychological parts. Profiling runs through all of it. That means getting to know the paddler in front of you well enough that what you coach, and how you progress it, genuinely fits them.

Day 2 is about coaching for real. You’ll plan and deliver sessions, ideally to genuine paddlers rather than your peers, and get honest feedback after each one. It’s a place to try things and get them wrong. You’ll leave with an individual debrief and an agreed action plan for the run-in to assessment.

Before you book

These prerequisites are set by the British Canoeing Awarding Body:

1. Leader award. BCAB Sea Kayak Leader (or the older 4 Star Sea Leader).

2. Core Coach Training. Either the two-day practical course or the online version. UKCC Level 2 training or above is accepted as equivalent.

3. Membership. Current Paddle Scotland membership, or membership of another home nation association.

4. Age. You must be 16 or over by the time of assessment.

5. Personal paddling. You should be paddling comfortably at moderate water standard, with enough headroom to coach in those conditions rather than just cope with them.

You don’t need to register on the Coach Award before training, but we recommend doing it early. Registering unlocks the Coach Award eLearning, which is the best preparation you can do for these two days.

Course details

• Two days, 09:30–17:00

• Venue confirmed a few days before, once we have a forecast. 1 hours drive from Fort William.

• £300

to book or enquire

E-mail me on corfecoaching@gmail.com