There are very limited opportunities for children in Ghana to develop in athletics. The schools receive little funding for sports activities and the local clubs that do exist tend to struggle for decent equipment and dedicated staff. This is why you can make a huge difference as a volunteer athletics coach. You do not need recognised qualifications, just some experience in your chosen event(s) and a willingness to organise athletics training for young, enthusiastic athletes.

 

Our athletics coaching placements are based in the KEEA District – a stunning coastal town situated in Ghana’s Central Region, about 3 hours from the capital city, Accra. As a volunteer athletics coach, you will be assigned to one of the athletics clubs or schools in the local community. The athletes are aged between 10 and 16 and vary in talent and experience. You will, however, be surprised by the levels of speed, strength and stamina many of the children possess. Your young athletes will train hard, dreaming of being the next athlete to represent Ghana at the Olympic Games or World Championships.

 

However, coaching athletics in Ghana is not all about rigorous training. Your main goal is to simply allow more youngsters to train in a fun and structured environment, giving them the chance to belong to a team, enjoy sport and develop in the athletics events they are so passionate about. The events you can choose to coach are listed below.

 

•  Long Jump

•  High Jump

•  Triple Jump

•  Shot Put

•  Javelin

•  Discus

•  100m

•  200m

•  400m

•  800m

•  1500m

•  3000m

•  4 x 100m Relay

•  Marathon

 

We welcome athletics volunteers with varied levels of coaching experience. We just ask that you have trained or competed on a regular basis and have a good understanding of the athletics events you wish to coach. So, whether you are a school, club or county athlete, or even a qualified athletics coach, you can make a big contribution to the development of athletics in Africa.

 

As a volunteer in Ghana, you will help local coaches run training sessions for young athletes in the community. This may sound daunting, but you will soon realise that you possess an understanding of athletics that the young players are eager to have. The rewards are great because the raw talent is often there but the experience of a structured training environment is lacking. Through strength and conditioning work, group fitness sessions, and of course, dedicated athletics training in particular disciplines, your athletes will develop rapidly. Furthermore, you will not be left alone. You will work alongside our in-country team and our other volunteer sports coaches. Collaborating with our other coaches is also a great way to organise sports days for the local community, bringing the schools and athletes together to perform in a fun and competitive environment. You will soon see that the competition between the volunteer coaches can also get quite heated!

 

In some cases, if you have sufficient athletics coaching qualifications and experience, you may be given sole responsibility of managing your own local athletics club. You may also be asked to train local coaches and help them improve their athletics coaching skills to pass on to the community.

 

Spending a sports gap year in Ghana is the perfect way to coach athletics in Ghana during your gap year. You will also meet other gap year athletics volunteers in Ghana and come home with some unforgettable gap year memories.