Coaches and would-be coaches are being “strongly encouraged” to check the newly available guidelines for the ISSF Academy coaches’ licence procedures and fees.
The new online ISSF Coaches Academy, which will offer a range of courses starting from September 2 this year, was established in March following a landmark agreement jointly signed in March by the ISSF Secretary General Alessandro Nicotra di San Giacomo and Vesa Nissinen, President of the Comanleas Group, who will hold the role of Academy Director.
The guidelines, approved at the ISSF Academy board meeting at Lonato on June 12, detail the role and status of the Academy and routes to gain its coach licences at A, B, C and D level.
In a letter to all ISSF member federations, the ISSF Secretary General advises: “Your coaches are strongly encouraged to use the offers available from the continuously growing ISSF Academy.
“If you have any questions about the ISSF Academy, its courses and licence system, please directly get in contact with Mr Vesa Nissinen, ISSF Academy Director at info@issf-academy.com.
“The ISSF Academy will guarantee a high level of coaching experience and will constantly extend its programme.”
Three main areas of procedure have been approved with regard to the Coach Licence system:
“ISSF Academy is the supreme body of ISSF Coach Education. The ISSF Coach Licences will be granted after having successfully passed the respective level Coach Course provided by ISSF Academy.
“ISSF Academy may co-operate with high level shooting academies and grant (after evaluation process and written license agreement) an academy to execute shooting Coach Courses and deliver Course Diplomas under supervision of ISSF Academy. The database of the successful participants shall be delivered to ISSF Academy, which gives out the Coach Licences.
“National Federations may ask for tailored Coach Courses from ISSF Academy. Based on a written agreement in between the Federation and ISSF Academy, these courses may be executed by the Academy coaches.”
The annual fees of the Coach Licenses are, for 2025 - 2026: A License €400; B License €250; C License €100; D License €50.
Criteria for gaining Coach Licenses at four different levels have also been agreed.
A level Licenses are aimed at professional coaches who work mainly for their national or other international federations, who travel with their athletes to international competitions and who contribute to the sport by educating new coaches.
The basic route to the Coach A Licence is the educational path through the ISSF Academy combined with active role as a shooting coach.
There is also a merit-based route to the coach A Licence which demands proven achievements, support from the national federation and approval process of the ISSF Academy Board. These include holding a Coach B Licence or having had an athlete qualify for two editions of the Olympics, or for an Olympic final.
A coach seeking for the merit-based coach A Licence must provide an application with all the appropriate documents to the ISSF Academy via National Federation. The ISSF Academy will give the instructions of this process to the Federations. Deadline of these applications is the last day of October annually. ISSF Academy Board will handle the applications in the end of a year in their meeting.
Coach B Licences are for professionals or semi-professionals operating in the same way as Coach A Licence holders, with the same basic route and similar merit-based route.
Coach C Licences are typically aimed at part-time coaches with athletes in the national team, while Coach D Licences are established for those typically in the beginning of their coaching career who contribute to the local shooting club or are involved in regional level activities.
Both also have basic and merit-based routes for attainment, with full details available on the ISSF Academy website at https://www.issf-academy.com
Successful participants will have their diplomas delivered electronically by the ISSF Academy, which will add their details to the ISSF Coach database.
The Licence Cards will be posted to the Federations. There is a plan to transfer the identification and update process of the licenses to an ISSF Coach Application.
The ISSF Academy administrative cost of registering a Coach Licence, updating the datafiles and delivering the diplomas and licenses is €70 during 2024 - 2025.