Job Description
Athlete Development Practitioner
RESPONSIBLE TO
Health and Well Being Lead
JOB PURPOSE
This is an exciting opportunity to influence athlete development experiences across the Welsh sport system. We want to support our partners to ensure that athletes’ health and well-being is paramount in their athlete development programmes as part of our drive to make Wales a world leading nation in how we go about developing athletes.
Working with our partners, other members of the sport system services team, and wider Sport Wales colleagues, you will be responsible for developing and delivering projects that are aligned to our athlete development principles which can be found HERE.
You will contribute to our understanding and learning about how we can best develop athletes (with a particular focus on athlete health and wellbeing) not only within individual sports but across the Welsh system. You will do this by working across multiple project teams and developing strong relationships both internally and externally.
You will use your knowledge, learning, curiosity, and passion to continually evolve how we work on projects related to athlete development.
MAIN DUTIES
- Build and maintain effective relationships both internally and externally to enable effective delivery of projects.
- Use your knowledge, experience, and expertise to influence partners to engage in athlete development activity aligned to the Sport Wales Inclusive Athlete Development principles.
- Identify and articulate projects that could impact upon athlete development across the sport system in Wales.
- Co-create, implement, and evaluate athlete development projects in collaboration with partners using insight and current evidence-based practice.
- Ensure that the delivery of projects effectively meets Sport Wales objectives and contribute to innovative ways of delivering project support.
- Work with relevant colleagues and partners to continually learn, evolve and develop delivery practice.
- Promote an environment and culture within Sport Wales that supports psychological safety where questions are welcomed, and curiosity is embraced.
- In conjunction with the relevant National Governing Body partner, contribute to our support of Olympic and Paralympic World Class Pathway athletes that are based in Wales.
- Maintain comprehensive documentation of work conducted with athletes, coaches, and sports using Sport Wales’s performance project portal.
- Work within the rules of UK and NGB Professional Codes of Conduct, standards and guidelines.
- Attend, contribute and provide regular updates to meetings with partners, sport system services team colleagues, and other key stakeholders.
- Take ownership of showcasing examples of good practice across the system to as wide an audience as possible, collaborating internally and externally as needed.
- Fulfil responsibilities which contribute to delivering an exemplary service for Sport Wales in respect of our statutory duties, including the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales).
- Work flexibly, performing any other duties as required, where relevant to the post and appropriate to the grade.
OUR VALUES
Our approach to enabling sport in Wales to thrive is evolving. We are committed to continually challenging ourselves to:
Learn Together - Constantly exploring, testing and reviewing
Deliver Together - Sharing outcomes, nurturing open and honest relationships, providing robust feedback, constantly improving performance
Celebrate Together - Recognising our shared successes through effective partners
By:
Acting with Integrity - Understanding and Respecting each other’s culture and values. Promoting equality and diversity
Adding Value - Ensuring the optimum mix of support, challenge, investment, skills, and expertise to achieve our shared outcomes.
Encouraging Innovation - Welcoming new ideas and approaches and supporting ambition and fresh thinking. Not being afraid to feel uncomfortable.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
| Area of focus | Essential Requirements | Desirable Requirements |
Education:
| Degree in sport and exercise science or a relevant subject Higher level degree within the field of physiology, or a related subject Registered with a relevant governing body Evidence of relevant continued professional development | Post-graduate qualification to PhD Level (or equivalent) in a topic related to human health and performance
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Experience:
| Several years of experience as a practitioner delivering support to athletes and coaches in a sport environment Experience of working as part of a multi-disciplinary team in the delivery of performance support to improve athlete health and wellbeing An understanding of the challenges faced by developing athletes and the experience and credibility to facilitate impactful solutions Experience in contributing to the design, content, delivery and evaluation of training and development interventions Experience of developing and implementing innovative ideas and putting them into practice in an applied and integrated manner Experience in the development of educational resources and programmes to facilitate behaviour change among athletes and coaches | Experience of working in a professional team or Sports Institute setting Experience of supporting young athletes and their parents Experience of supporting personal development of individuals through coaching and mentoring
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Skills, Aptitudes & Abilities:
| Understanding of the needs of developing athletes and their coaches in training, competition and recovery Understanding of the coaching and training process, athletic performance and how athlete health and well-being can influence these An understanding of the various sports science and sports medicine disciplines and how these may impact on performance problems Ability to build and maintain productive relationships with support staff, athletes and coaches, build trust quickly and act in a way which gives others confidence in you Excellent communication and presentation skills; effectively and confidently communicates in a style most relevant to the target audience Ability to set goals, plan and monitor project progress, review, adapt and ensure activities are evaluated for impact Ability to work autonomously, hold self and others accountable for standards of performance and proactively seek support and guidance from others High level of self-awareness and emotional intelligence | Has confidence and credibility to operate at different levels including strong influencing, negotiation and facilitation skills Strives to identify and develop innovative approaches to working at each level within the development and performance pathway Understanding of the dynamics of working with other practitioners and the specific interface between the demands of different projects being potentially delivered simultaneously Ability to cope effectively with pace, adjust quickly when priorities change and adapt to pressured situations Coaching and mentoring skills, which demonstrate both curiosity and high-level questioning skills Ability to communicate in additional languages.
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