Rookie Academy
Behind every great sporting star is a coach who inspired them or honed their natural talent into jaw-dropping magic.
And every coach has to start somewhere – could this be the start of your path to the top?
As part of Strengthening Families – By Your Side, the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity (RNRMC) is partnering with Kings Active Foundation to run a sports leadership programme called Rookie Academy, helping young people get more out of their school holidays.
From the age of 15 you can opt to join this programme, where you will learn how to coach and be a young leader through practical, hands-on activities. It has three levels, with each level taking around two weeks to complete; you can only take one level per season.
As part of the Rookie Academy, you will receive a T-shirt, a wristband, a workbook, certificates of achievement and online resources to support and reiterate the learning principles.
What does a Rookie do on camp?
What does a Rookie do on camp?
Using your workbook as a guide, Rookies are supported by ‘Red Tops’ (Kings Camps staff) to complete tasks and learn about the role. When ready, you can get involved in supporting and leading your own sessions. All of this practical experience will be recorded in your log book.
When you have completed your training, Rookies are celebrated on their camp with a graduation, which is a fantastic way to inspire the younger children. This qualification can be added to your CV and included in any college or university applications, as Level 3 is accredited by 1stForSport.
Lots of Rookies return in subsequent seasons as Red Tops. Whether you return to work with Kings Camps or not, it’s an opportunity to kick start your coaching career and develop your leadership, communication and interpersonal skills.
As part of your learning, you will also complete some modules via Kings Camps’ Online Learning Platform.
To complete the final assessment for each level, you must log a minimum number of hours as a group leader; for Level One, for example, this is five hours.
The aim of Rookie Academy is to guide your understanding of what it takes to be a great coach, along with sports specific health and safety practice from a coach’s perspective and help you learn how to help others develop in sport activities through a variety of challenges and tasks.
Level 1
When completing level 1, you will learn:
- What qualities make a great coach
- How to identify risks and hazards
- How to reduce risks and hazards
- How to create an appropriate warm up and cooldown
- How to deliver a warm up and cool down to children
- Observation of coaching techniques
- How to assist the Red Tops
Level 2
When completing level 2, you will learn:
- What activities are best suited to certain sports and why
- How to progress through an activity and why we use progression as a coaching tool
- How to plan and deliver more detailed activities
- Different ways to manage health and safety on camp
- An understanding of what competition is and why we use it
Level 3
When completing level 3, you will learn:
- How to plan an effective sport session
- How to assess and analyse performance
- The importance of competition
- Session planning to meet the needs of your participants
- Reflecting on your own performance as a junior coach
- How to set targets
- What transferable skills in sport are
- How to adapt activities
Summer activity camps
The RNRMC have also announced the return of Activity Camps this summer. The RNRMC are once again working in partnership with The Kings Active Foundation and the Royal Navy to provide leading sports and activity camps to Naval families with children between 5 – 17 years old at a heavily subsidised cost.
Register your interest
- Costs are £75 per child per week, subsidised by the RNRMC.
- Register your interest for the Rookie programme and/or the activity camps here. Please complete the form by 30th April 2021.
- Kings Camps will be in touch with you from 14th May to confirm if you have been successful in securing a place.
- Please note, completing this online form does not guarantee you a place.
Posted on: 21st April, 2021
