Your Coaches Deserve Better Professional Learning

Think about what it takes to be a teacher in your school.

Before they ever step in front of a student, teachers complete a four-year degree, pass certification exams, and fulfill student teaching requirements. Once hired, most states require a minimum of 20 hours of professional development every single year just to maintain their license. In states like Michigan, that number climbs to 150 hours per renewal cycle. In New Jersey, the 20-hour annual minimum is a legal floor — not a suggestion.

Now think about what it takes to be a coach in your building.

In most states, the baseline requirements amount to a CPR certification, a background check, and a one-time fundamentals course, which is often available entirely online. Once that box is checked, there is no systematic, ongoing requirement for coaches to keep learning. No annual PD hours. No renewal curriculum grounded in current research. In many programs, a coach hired a decade ago is operating on the same knowledge base they had on day one.

Of course, most coaches are going out on their own and learning, growing, and developing. But, from who, where, and when is entirely the wild west of professional learning.

Teachers are required by law to keep growing. Coaches are largely left on their own.

That gap is costing your athletes more than you think.

Here's what makes this especially problematic to me (and for you). The science of how humans learn, develop, and perform has advanced dramatically in the last two decades. Research on motor learning, cognitive load, motivation, psychological safety, and performance under pressure has fundamentally changed what we know about athlete development.

The coaches who know this research are building programs that develop athletes faster, retain them longer, and produce better outcomes under pressure. The coaches who don't are doing what they've always done…because nobody told them there was a better way.

A landmark international study published in The Sport Journal (2024) found a high prevalence of neuromyth beliefs among sports coaches - false or outdated ideas about how the brain and learning actually work - directly comparable to what researchers have found among classroom teachers who lack ongoing education. The study's conclusion was very specific: sports coaching needs to be grounded in accurate, evidence-based principles, and the current system of coach education isn't getting us there.

Research from the Journal of Sport on the U.S. National Coach Survey found that coaches in the US are frequently not professionally prepared to integrate current research on athlete development into their practice. The study pointed specifically to the lack of emphasis on science-based content within training requirements for school-based coaches, and noted that this contributes to coaches feeling underprepared to deliver the kind of holistic athlete development their programs demand.

The same study found that trained coaches who built their skills over time were significantly more satisfied in their roles, more effective with their athletes, and more likely to stay in coaching. Coach development is also very much a retention issue.

The most instructive parallel here isn't flattering. We know exactly what happens when educators operate without ongoing, sustained professional learning, because we have decades of data on it from classroom teachers.

Joyce and Showers' foundational research established that without ongoing embedded support, less than 20% of new learning ever transfers into actual practice. Separate research has shown that one-shot workshops, show no statistically significant effect on outcomes whatsoever. For coaches, the situation is often worse than one-shot workshops. It's frequently no ongoing training at all.

What works, the research is clear, is sustained development over time — content that is grounded in current evidence, delivered consistently, and supported by a community of peers doing the same work. When teachers received well-designed professional development averaging 49 hours spread over six to twelve months, student achievement improved by as much as 21 percentile points. That's a program-defining outcome, and it came from investing in the adults, not just the athletes.

The coaches in your building are working just as hard as your teachers. They're putting in longer days, building relationships with kids, carrying programs on their backs. The question isn't whether they're committed. The question is whether you're giving them the same foundation to grow from that every other educator in your building receives as a baseline.

As a Coach working with High School, Middle School, and now Youth athletes over the last 20 years, I saw this lack of professional learning firsthand. My family is filled with coaches at all levels. My brother-in-law coaching at an Ivy League University or coaching a professional sports team received all kinds of learning opportunities.

That was expected, required, and needed.

There is one person I’ve been learning the MOST from as a coach over the years. I’ve been reading every article, listening to every podcast, and watching every video he has put out for a decade.

That is Trevor Ragan, founder of Learner Lab.

I’ve had Trevor on my podcast, and we’ve chatted over the years many times about learning, sports, coaching, and development.

Six months ago we were discussing this very problem. We come from families of coaches. We are both coaches ourselves and lead all kinds of professional learning around the country. Why don’t coaches receive this type of learning experience on a regular basis we asked?

This is the problem The Science of Learning & Performance was built to solve. Instead of complaining, we decided to do something about it.

It's a complete professional development system designed specifically for coaches. It is built on current research, updated annually, and structured to deliver the kind of sustained, science-backed learning that the evidence says actually changes practice.

Every module is grounded in peer-reviewed research covering what actually moves the needle on athlete development: motor learning, cognitive load and decision-making, motivation and athlete psychology, periodization and recovery science, psychological safety, growth mindset in practice, and performing under pressure. Not motivational content. Not recycled playbook theory. The actual science of how humans learn and develop.

Monthly live webinars bring in leading researchers and practitioners. The archive already includes recordings, and upcoming sessions cover player development from youth through college, team mindset and performance, and the science of growth.

For athletic directors who want to close this gap program-wide, the school or club license gives your entire coaching staff unlimited access for $997/year — less than the cost of most one-day clinics, with twelve months of ongoing, research-backed development instead of a single session that fades by Monday.

Every plan includes yearly training modules, monthly live expert webinars, access to the full webinar archive, community discussion forums, certificates of completion, and an admin dashboard so you can track participation and document your program's investment in coach development. Individual coach access is available at $297/year for coaches investing in their own growth.

But, the program was developed to have the biggest ROI on entire school’s coaching staff. All your coaches get access to the best professional learning available…and it keeps getting better all year.

You hold your coaches to high standards on the field. You expect them to develop athletes, build culture, manage parents, and perform under pressure. Every other educator in your building has a mandated, ongoing system designed to help them keep growing. Your coaches deserve the same.

The science is there. The program is built. The gap is closeable.

Visit SLPcoaches.com to learn more and get your coaching staff enrolled.

Have a question about this just reply to this email or reach out at [email protected] to talk to me personally!

A.J. Juliani

PS - Interested in bringing me in to work with your staff on A.I. in education with a purpose, Meaningful and Relevant Learning, and Engagement in the Classroom? Learn more on my speaking page or email me at any time!