Competent coaches are crucial for the healthy recruitment and development of athletes and ultimately the success of any athletic program. Consistent with its mandate and commitment to Para-Nordic skiing Cross Country Canada (CCC) is working to develop Para-Nordic coaching programs and materials to help educate and certify coaches who want to work with athletes with a disability (AWAD).  

Para-Nordic coaching development follows the same path and structure as able-bodied coaching development relying on the new competency based National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) which is directly aligned with the Cross Country Skiing Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) guide. Coaches who wish to work with AWAD are required to follow the same certification process as those who are working with able-bodied athletes and must become NCCP certified as able-bodied coaches first.

There are some significant differences and considerations for coaching AWAD therefore additional information and materials are included in the NCCP progression to support certification of AWAD specific coaches. However, development of these AWAD materials is at an early stage and will take some time to complete.

The first important step in coaching development has been taken by producing "Cross Country Skiing - A Sport For Life: Long Term Athlete Development Guide for Athletes with a Disability" (LTAD-AWAD). This guidebook is a supplement to the able-bodied LTAD guide and focuses on factors that need to be considered when working with AWAD. It provides the foundation for developing NCCP coaching materials and should be used as a coaching reference. It is not available in an electronic format at this time. Copies are available free from your Division Office on request.

In addition there are AWAD specific NCCP coaching materials currently developed up to the Community Coaching (CC) level with a 31 page AWAD module included in the CC course content (updated 2011). An additional four hour AWAD course module for giving CC level coaches practical experience at competitions and training camps under the guidance of experienced AWAD coaches is currently being developed and was piloted in the 2011-2012 season. Once this practical curriculum is finalized AWAD coaches can be fully certified to the CC level. 

It is planned to develop AWAD modules and practical curriculum to the next NCCP levels - Competition Coaching Introduction (CCI) and Competition Coaching Development (CCD) -  in the coming years with the ultimate goal of a comprehensive NCCP AWAD certification program to the highest Competition Coaching High performance (CCHP) level.

For more detailed information on the overall CCC coaching development system please go to our CCC Coaching Development page.