strength & conditioning practitioner

You will need to develop strong relationships with coaches and other staff in sports, members of the sport system services team, and wider Sport Wales colleagues to support our partners to better understand and to improve the athlete development environments they create. You will work with people who share a passion for improving athlete development environments in Wales (and beyond) and you'll help to influence and persuade others to engage in athlete development activity that is aligned to the Sport Wales athlete development principles. You will interact with coaches, athletes and other support staff in identifying, co-creating and delivering athlete development projects across Wales., This is an exciting opportunity to influence athlete development experiences across the Welsh sport system. We want to support our partners to create positive athlete environments which are paramount in pathway and performance 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, leading and delivering projects that are aligned to our athlete development principles.

You will contribute to our understanding and learning about how we can best develop athletes 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.

As a strength & conditioning practitioner you will play a critical role in planning, implementing and evaluating physical preparation programs and strategies that support athletes and enhance our understanding of athlete development programs and the principles that underpin them.

You will work across multiple athlete development project streams with a strong focus on creating and sustaining meaningful relationships with partners, coaches, sports scientists, and other key stakeholders to ensure we continually evolve and improve how we approach athlete development in Wales., Build and maintain effective relationships both internally and externally to enable effective delivery of athlete, sports and system wide projects.

Use your knowledge, experience, and expertise to influence partners to engage in athlete development activity within our National Governing Bodies pathway and performance programmes. Current examples include:

Improving physical testing practice across the sporting system

Physical preparation coaching course redesign

Female athlete health & performance

Develop, implement and evaluate innovative and evidence-based strength and conditioning services to identified athletes, coaches and sport system partners to maximise performance impact and optimise athlete experience.

Co-create, implement, and evaluate athlete development projects in collaboration with partners using insight and current evidence-based practice. Occasionally, you will be responsible for leading a project team, guiding the group to achieve specific goals, and ensuring all tasks are completed efficiently and effectively.

Ensure that the delivery of projects meets Sport Wales objectives and contributes 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 enhances 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 Home Countries Sports Institutes (HCSI) and National Governing Body (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 partnerships.

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.

We are looking for individuals with a strong background in strength & conditioning. You will need the ability to plan, implement and evaluate physical preparation programmes of athletes aligned to the specific sports performance outcomes. You will also need an understanding of the principles that underpin athlete development and the coaching, training and environmental factors that support them.

You'll be required to work across multiple athlete development project streams with a strong focus on creating and sustaining meaningful relationships with partners to ensure we continually evolve and improve how we approach holistic athlete development in Wales., Degree level (or equivalent) in sports science, specialising in the physical preparation of elite athletes

UK Strength and Conditioning Association (UKSCA) Accreditation

(or the ability to attain it in 6 months)

Higher degree level (or equivalent) specialising in the physical preparation of elite athletes

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

An understanding of the challenges faced by developing athletes and the experience and credibility to facilitate impactful solutions

Experience of analysing the demands of a sport in relation to the performance outcomes and identifying their strength and conditioning requirements

Experience in the provision of strength and conditioning support to athletes and coaches to improve performance

Experience of developing, implementing, evaluating and modifying strength and conditioning programmes within performance sport

Experience of a range of diagnostic techniques

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

Skills, Aptitudes & Abilities

An understanding of the needs of development and elite athletes and coaches within performance environments

An understanding of coaching science and practice, and sports science and sports medicine disciplines

Skilled in building and maintaining productive relationships with development & performance staff

Knowledge of the equipment and resources required in the fields of sport science to deliver on the needs of athletes, coaches and sports

An understanding of a range of strength and conditioning diagnostics procedures used in sport

Anatomical knowledge and the ability to apply this within a strength and conditioning environment

Knowledge and ability to teach barbell lifts, supplementary exercises and ground-based drills including how to correct common faults with appropriate diagnostics and monitoring

Knowledge and ability to construct strength, speed/change of direction and fitness-based training schedules both gym and field based, with appropriate diagnostics and monitoring including an indexed database of work conducted with athletes

Ability to scientifically validate and interpret the methodology of test protocols and data

An ability to modify strength and conditioning programmes according to the results of assessment data, in conjunction with coaches and other support staff

An ability to communicate complex data in terms that are easily understood by a wide range of audiences

An ability to analyse, interpret and make sense of data including the use of statistical techniques.

Good problem-solving skills and the ability to develop and implement innovative ideas, putting them into practice across departments and environments in an integrated manner.

Good coaching skills including the ability to adapt to the environment to motivate positive behavioral change, augment effective athlete development practices and improve performance.

Able to handle confidential data and information sensitively

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.

Special Circumstances

Able to work flexibly, including out of normal office hours

Able to travel as required

Handles confidential data and information sensitively

May be required to work with young athletes and vulnerable adults (DBS check required).

Ability to communicate in Welsh, both written and spoken.

Sport Wales is the national organisation responsible for developing and promoting sport and physical activity in Wales. We are the main adviser on sporting matters to the Welsh Government and are responsible for distributing National Lottery funds. We aim to not only improve the level of sports participation at grassroots level but also provide our aspiring athletes with the support required to compete successfully on the world stage.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion is at the heart of everything we do at Sport Wales. Further information on this can be found in our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Statement here.

We are a progressive employer that offers excellent employee benefits and promotes a healthy work life balance, offering a range of flexible approaches to support you.

Language skills (bilingualism & multilingualism) are desirable characteristics across all roles within Sport Wales. We are passionate about promoting the use of Welsh language and, as part of our development programme, give everyone the opportunity to learn Welsh if they wish to do so, offering learning programmes from beginner right through to fluent.

Sport Wales embraces a blended approach to work, where you will be able to split your time between the office and home to best suit your personal circumstances.

To find out what it's like to work with us at Sport Wales please watch the video on our careers page., Wales is a proud part of the UK high performance system and has achieved unprecedented recent success on the world stage. We believe in a holistic approach to developing athletes and we want to become the world leaders in athlete development. We believe that there are untold opportunities to improve how we go about developing athletes in Wales, both as people and as performers. We're determined to make athlete development opportunities more inclusive.

We're clear on the crucial role that the environment can play in improving the experiences of athletes and we want to ensure that athlete development environments in Wales are better than anywhere else. If you've got a passion for sport and for helping people to be the best version of themselves then this could be the role for you, and we'd love to hear from you.

You will contribute to our understanding and learning about the role the environment can play in better developing athletes by working with coaches and athletes in individual sports and across the Welsh system as a whole. You will develop strong relationships internally and externally, working across multiple athlete development projects. You will help to identify, develop, and deliver on projects that are aligned to our athlete development principles. You will support our learning around athlete development environments and our sharing of this with everyone that needs to know.

Salary - Grade 7 £38,163.17 - £40,881.34 (Pay award pending) (Pro Rata on 15 hours per week - £15,471.56 - £16,573.52)

Working Hours - 15 hours per week