Coach Education & CPD
Alongside my coaching work, I am actively involved in the education and development of other coaches through the delivery of CPD, mentoring, and formal assessment.
I deliver CPD sessions and workshops across a range of areas, including:
- Rider performance and skill development
- Coaching practice and session design
- Developing independence and decision-making in riders
- Structuring training for long-term progression
Approach to Coach Development
My approach to coach education focuses on bridging the gap between theory and practice, supporting coaches to develop not only what they do, but how and why they do it.
Recent CPD delivery includes:
- Workshops for riding clubs and training centres
- Support for coaches working towards BHS qualifications
- Mentoring and preparation for professional assessments
Alongside delivering CPD, I am committed to ongoing professional development and am currently completing an MSc in Professional Practice in Sports Coaching.
Upton House Coaching CPD Day Plan – Wednesday 10th July
Fred Hodges BHSI, BE Coach
Sarah Spencer Williams BHSI, BE Coach
10am Meet and greet – how to help your riders in a ODE situation
1015 Walk cross country courses, discuss lines, ground, fence types, speed at different levels. Study how the riders set up for fences, make adjustments to speed for different fence types.
Approx 1215 Meet the timing team, discuss common problems at the start box and rules
1245 Study Groups at the SJ. Walk course if timings permit. Study groups to discuss riders, lines, distances, fence types, influence of different combinations. Discussion with the course builder around the differences between building for eventing versus pure showjumping.
1345 Study Groups at the dressage. Look at types of horse for eventing. The horses on the day will be BE novice level so should be more ‘typical’ of the modern event horse. Study some tests, use of the scale of marks, compare discussion to scores on eventing scores app.
1445 Meet the organiser/TA/Steward, discussion on running a one day event. Challenges faced, cost implications of cancellations, brainstorm ideas for future
1530 General discussion on coaching, some thoughts on BHS/BEF/BE qualifications, and on ‘modern coaching’ how that may be relevant to the competition environment, summary of thoughts from the day, social license and discussion on how eventing has changed, can it go further? Opportunity for BHS stage 3 Coaching cross country observations sign off observation.
1600 HOME TIME
Fred is passionate about coach development linking to the environment where the athlete will need to perform. In 2022/23 he has started to run BHS and Pony Club Coach Development days at shows, The days are interactive and give coaches the opportunity to discuss athlete performance and exchange ideas on how to prepare clients to cope with the stresses of competition. Usually these days will cover the coach’s annual CPD requirement of 6 points.
Fred and Ernest will be delivering a fun and interactive coaching day aimed at helping coaches to connect the reality of competition with the coaching environment.
The day will draw on Ernest’s huge showjumping experience and Fred will help to integrate into the modern BHS syllabus. We will be walking the courses, discussing the implications of different styles of jump, lines and combinations and coaching ideas to prepare riders for the modern competitive environment.
The course designer Ben Townley who is a British Showjumping level 5 (advanced) course designer and FEI level 3 international course designer will also be on hand to give us his valuable insight from the designers point of view.