Sports Coaching and Performance Science

Sports coaching and performance science is a degree that brings together the coaching practice of developing athletes and teams with the sports science understanding of how performance is produced and optimised. Coaching is concerned with the design and delivery of training, the management of athlete wellbeing and motivation, and the tactical and technical decisions that shape competitive outcomes. Performance science applies the methods of physiology, biomechanics, psychology and nutrition to measure, analyse and improve what athletes can do.

The combination prepares you for a career at the front line of working with performers.

At Hull, this three-year full-time programme is built around access to facilities that have benefited from a significant recent investment in sports infrastructure. You will combine scientific knowledge with real-world coaching experience through multiple placements, developing the practical skills to work with players and teams of all abilities and across a range of sports. The programme develops your understanding of how performance is produced at the physiological and biomechanical level, how training programmes are designed and periodised, how athletes are psychologically supported, and how data and analysis are used in modern sport performance environments.

You will develop both the theoretical knowledge of a sports scientist and the practical competence of a coach, graduating with a profile that is relevant to roles that require both understanding and doing.

Graduates work as sports coaches, performance analysts, strength and conditioning coaches, sport science officers and sports development professionals across professional sports organisations, national governing bodies, universities, schools and community sport. Some graduates pursue further professional qualifications in coaching or strength and conditioning, and postgraduate study in sports science or coaching science is a natural option.