What this course is about?

To play any game well, you have to have a clear grasp of what the game is about, what the objective of the game is, what counts as winning, and also plenty of practice. But it is also helpful to listen to advice, for there are quite a few useful principles and precepts. They will not be useful, however, unless taken in the spirit they are given.

For instance, it is a useful bit of advice in tennis to say “Keep your arm fully extended and do not bend your elbow too much”.  But there are plenty of occasions, when you are up at the net, for example, when this advice should be disregarded, and it is impossible, for the coach to make a complete list of these exceptions, because so much depends on the individual player, on his opponent, on the conditions of the court and so on. The person being coached must certainly not disregard this advice, but neither must he take it too seriously, or think that if he always follows this advice he will necessarily play good tennis.

He must learn to take the advice in conjunction with practice in playing the game itself, and consistently move back and forth from the advice to the actual situations he meets on the court. Only by doing so, will the player get the most out of the practice or advice.

An extract from: Reader for PHL 100 B, Approaching Philosophical Issues, UNISA.

The course is intended to assist with the development of football coaches and coaching, as each coach affects the lives of thousands of players during their lifetime. The best way to improve football is through the development of coaches. In order to be effective, coaches must have knowledge of:

For successful development and performance to take place, coaches firstly, need to be subject matter experts that is they must have expert knowledge of the game of football.

“The game is the teacher” and coaches, coach or train what the game demands.

To be an effective coach, linked to this knowledge of the game is the knowledge of how to coach, how players learn, how to plan as well as the laws of the game. The immediate treatment of injuries and basic first aid are necessary life skills needed by the coach.

Who should be doing this course?

Those coaching football, or those planning to coach football, at any level / age group.

HOW YOUR COURSE MARK IS CALCULATED?

Your course is mark is calculated using the average mark obtained in each of the Chapter tests. In order to pass this course, you must obtain a final course mark of at least 50%. This means that even if you fail a few of the chapter tests, if your test marks in the other chapter tests are high enough you will still be able to pass the course. Good Luck! 

Study at your own pace!

We’ve created our courses to suit your busy life! The duration of this course is based on a student guide where one 300 – 500 word article is read per day, and the assessment is done on a separate day after the relevant articles have been reviewed. But you can do the course in your own time and at your own pace. If you choose to do two readings per day, it will take you half of the estimated time, four readings per day means doing the course in a quarter of the time etc. We leave that decision up to you!