The International Canoe Federation is excited to renew its long-standing partnership with the Hungarian University of Sports Science.
The collaboration between the ICF and HUSS has been running for more than a decade, playing an essential role in the development of Canoe Sprint coaches from around the world.
The university’s Sprint Canoeing Online Level 3 Coaching Course has been designed in cooperation with the ICF to train and educate coaches.
Run over a 10-week period, the online course provides coaches with a systematic way to improve their knowledge, skills and competencies in theoretical, technical and practical aspects of coaching.
The education programme has been created to meet the needs of coaches working with competitive athletes at national and international levels.
Training Theory and Methodology, Sport Psychology, Sport Nutrition, Sport Pedagogy and Sport Injuries are the five core subjects that form part of the course.
Participants also receive Canoe Sprint coaching specific classes run by ICF expert coach Csaba Szanto.
All classes are held online on the Microsoft Teams platform with each subject taught for two weeks.
This year’s course will run from mid-September to the first week of December.
Dr Habil Judit Kadar, Director of the International Relations Office at HUSS, visited the ICF headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland last week.
She was joined by her HUSS colleagues Andras Szabo, Head of Operations for International Coaching Programmes, and Gabriella Sztojalovszky, International Partnerships Executive.
The HUSS delegation met with ICF Secretary General Richard Pettit, Head of Sport Development and Games Operations Michel Alarcon and Global Lead for Flatwater Sebastian Cuattrin where they aligned future plans and looked at new ways to further strengthen their collaboration.
“We are working to redefine our partnership,” said Mr Szabo.
“We had a great meeting in Lausanne as we got to hear their remarks and received feedback from National Federations.
“As we have a wide range of international programmes, we want to introduce our sports diplomacy and sports coaching programmes to the ICF representatives in case they want to build on the coaching course and join our further post-graduate studies.
“We also plan to hold webinars on topics including sustainability and female leadership in sport.
“The meetings with the ICF were really reassuring for our director Dr Habil Judit Kadar.
“She was very happy to see how many programmes and initiatives the ICF are running.
“The ICF are also so open to new ideas and they are really focused on the educational part of the coaching programmes which is fantastic.”
ICF President Thomas Konietzko said: “We are delighted to renew our long-standing partnership with HUSS.
“This important institution has helped to develop numerous Canoe Sprint coaches over the years, giving them the essential skills to assist paddlers both on and off the water.
“We are committed to ensuring that coaches receive the best education possible and this collaboration with HUSS is key to the delivery of that pledge.”
Coaches can request their respective National Federation to apply to their National Olympic Committee to secure support through the International Olympic Committee’s coaching scholarship programme.
