Top three jobs in professional sport
High Performance Sports Coach – work with elite and professional athletes to help them excel in their sports performance.
Strength and Conditioning Trainer – devise strength and conditioning programmes to support athletes to achieve their goals.
Sport Scientist – apply scientific principles to advance performance.
What can I do?
There are a broad range of jobs in professional sport. You can work directly with elite or professional athletes as a Sports Coach, Strength and Conditioning Coach, Sport Scientist or Performance Analyst.
Other roles include supporting the delivery, management and administration of sporting competitions in elite sport as a Performance Manager or Performance Director and helping to organise and deliver sports events as an Event Organiser or Team Director.
Below are a few of the different types of jobs in performance sport.
High Performance Sports Coach
As a front-line coach, a High Performance Sports Coach will coach performance and/or elite athletes/players.
They work across all professional and elite sport, and they will often be employed by professional sports clubs or organisations that support athletes in performing at major games such as the Olympics or world championships.
Strength and Conditioning Coach
A Strength and Conditioning Coach will improve a participant’s experience of sport and physical activity by providing specialised physical preparation support and guidance aligned to their individual needs.
Responsibilities often include:
- Supporting individuals and groups to achieve their performance orientated goals by leading or assisting on the planning, preparation, delivery, continuous evaluation, review and adaption of strength and conditioning programmes. These programmes should be underpinned by scientific principles, evidence-based research and the athlete’s needs.
- Working with a broad range of healthy and injured individuals (e.g. elite and recreational athletes, youth, adults, disabled, etc.), all of whom have different needs.
- Ensuring the culture and environment is designed to meet an individual’s and/or group’s welfare needs and allows them the opportunity to achieve their goals and meet their aspirations.
- Working independently or as part of a multidisciplinary team, which may include technical coaches, sport scientists, physiotherapists, nutritionists, psychologists and medical specialists. They are aware of when to seek specialist advice, work collaboratively and when to refer individuals to the appropriate professionals.
Sport Scientist
A Sport Scientist can specialise in physiology, psychology or biomechanics. Sport Scientists normally work alongside coaches and other medical staff to apply scientific principles to sports performance.
The science of sport attempts to answer questions such as:
- What happens to the body during physical activity?
- How and why do injuries occur?
- How does the body and mind react in extreme environments?
- How can athletes improve their performance?
Sports Performance Analyst
As part of analysing sports performance, Sports Performance Analysts may record training sessions and competitions, produce reports on the opposition in team sports, code and edit match footage to provide reports on individuals performances, and use statistics to create trend analysis. This will help to inform athletes and coaches on the quality of their performance and areas for improvement.
There are lots of other roles in performance sport, including Sports Therapist or Rehabilitator and Sports Official.
