Course overview
The Certificate in Elite Player Care and Wellbeing has been designed to support sports industry professionals and enhance their practice through a multidisciplinary understanding of player welfare.
The programme has been developed to allow delegates to establish a theoretical and practical understanding of player welfare by engaging with elements of behavioural science, psychology, psychiatry, and social sciences, with the long-term goal of applying this knowledge across a variety of roles and contexts, at both youth and senior levels.
During their studies, delegates will be exposed to the latest research in the area. They’ll also have the opportunity to engage in a series of real-world activities, drawing on their own experiences and those of their peers.
Course outcomes
Designed to support a range of roles across elite sport including player care/liaison/welfare officers, academy managers, team operations managers, education and welfare officers, and coaches, by the end of the course, delegates should be able to:
- Define mental health and be able to describe some of the general and sports-specific influences upon it.
- Appreciate the mental and emotional challenges that can exist in elite sports environments.
- Identify the issues present at critical moments in sports careers, specifically when players are injured, transferred, and when they retire.
- Recognise the specific needs of youth players, foreign players, and female players.
I'm so pleased to see the creation of this course. It will be crucial for any sports professional who is committed to player care and wants to learn how to support the wellbeing of athletes. I strongly believe it will be a game-changer.
Tutors
Modules
- What is mental health?
- What influences mental health? General and sport-specific influences.
- The challenges presented by athletic identity.
- The common mental disorders from which players can suffer.
- The mental and emotional challenges present in elite sports environments.
- Stigma and the presentation of self.
- The effects of emotional conformity.
- Practical tools to create healthy elite sports environments.
- Challenges evident in the transfer process.
- The effects of injury.
- Retirement and aftercare.
- Practical tools to support players during critical moments.
- Youth mental health and the specific challenges evident.
- The challenges of physical and cognitive maturation in youth sports settings.
- External influences: education, peers, relationships, parents.
- Practical tools to support the mental health of youth players.
- Foreign player motivations.
- Language and culture.
- Loneliness and isolation.
- Practical tools to support the mental health of foreign players.
- The rapid growth and development of women’s professional sport.
- The specific challenges that exist in women’s professional sport.
- The specific mental health challenges that women can be exposed to.
- Practical recommendations to support the mental health of female players.
Course delivery
The course is delivered in person over two days at Wembley Stadium. During the course, delegates will be continuously assessed via a range of individual and group activities, and, by the end of the course, delegates will possess a series of practical tools that they’ll be able to apply in their own particular context.
Fees
For business customers, we also offer the option to pay by invoice. Simply choose this as your payment option when you check out in our online store. You will receive an order acknowledgement/invoice email for the quantity of course places you wish to purchase.
Existing GIS students, alumni, and partners can claim a 15% discount on the course fee if paid in full. Contact profed@ucfb.ac.uk for further details.
