Overview

In collaboration with Setanta College 

Fees: EU €9,500; non-EU $USD 13,500 Scholarships available

Human performance is complex, and the development of the skills and competences to integrate all the components required to attain high performance from technical and movement coaching, conditioning, workload monitoring with its inputs from an exercise physiology, biomechanics and psychology perspectives as well as nutrition and injury risk reduction practices challenge both staff and performer in their skills and specialisms. One competence that is poorly served, however, is the advanced qualification and resultant skill-set in managing and overseeing a broad technology approach to conditioning, monitoring and managing the performer. This is evidenced by the interest in recent years in this type of programme at a post-graduate level. The demand and request for such a programme has come directly from undergraduates of sports science, strength and conditioning, coaching and exercise related undergraduate programs of study. Further, interest has come from a range of international sporting associations including player representative associations and teams, clubs and individual coaches and high-performance specialists who represent a growing cohort drawn to a performance focused post-graduate pathway of study. The programme has been designed following extensive discussions with employers, sport technology companies and with some of the foremost coaches in the world. It has been built around the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in the rapidly emerging field of performance coaching. It is based around the concept that the future specialist will have a breadth of practical skills but also a technologically based competence where monitoring the athlete and participant becomes integrated into all aspects and components of development and performance.

The programme is made up of six taught courses and a supervised major project.

  • Advanced conditioning and recovery methods (6 credits)
  • Coaching and monitoring technology (6 credits)
  • Human motion and movement analysis (6 credits)
  • Sport and exercise nutrition (6 credits)
  • Biomedical aspects and applied coaching (6 credits)
  • Data management and research methods (6 credits)
  • Applied professional project (9 credits)

Applicants are expected to have achieved a good honours (2:1) degree or above in a related discipline. Applicants who do not meet the above criteria but do have extensive industry experience may also apply. Applicants are expected to be active coaches or have an extensive coaching background. Whilst this can be a on a full time, paid basis, part time and voluntary coaching is equally applicable. International students will be required to converse confidently in English. The institution recognises the qualifications and levels below:

  • GCSE pass in English at Grade C or above
  • IELTS with an average overall score of 6.5 for postgraduate study with at least a 5.5 in each component
  • TOEFL IBT minimum score of 88 IBT for Postgraduate
  • Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE): exams taken from January 2015 – overall score of 176 for postgraduate study with at least 162 in each component; exams taken before January 2015 – Grade C and no less than borderline in each skill for undergraduate and postgraduate
  • Trinity College English Language qualifications: ISE III Pass for postgraduate taught courses and research applications
  • City and Guild’s IESOL/ISESOL tests at expert and mastery levels (C2 and C1) for the majority of postgraduate programmes.
  • Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE Academic) with a minimum of 67 points in each element for the majority of postgraduate programmes.

The programme aims to ensure enhanced professional practice through the development of a more critically reflective practitioner informed through the consistent application of evidence-based practice. The graduate is expected to develop in the course of study the skill sets required to understand and interpret the various factors associated with effective human performance and, as a result, develop the practical coaching skills to devise, implement, and oversee an increasingly complex range of performance-related programmes.