Coaching

Coaching Certification

Pickleball has been growing by leaps and bounds in Canada and as the sport continues to attract new players, the need for high quality instructors and coaches has never been greater.  That’s why Pickleball Canada and Tennis Canada’s Tennis Professionals Association have joined forces to develop and deliver Canada’s first ever National Coach Education Program for Pickleball which is fully recognized and endorsed by Canada‘s National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP).  The program is being lead by none other than Mark Renneson – Head of Pickleball Coaching Education with Tennis Canada.

With the new program rolling out, many have asked “Why did Pickleball Canada select the NCCP program? Why not the IPTPA coaching program that already had so many certified coaches and instructors in Canada?”.  We have also been asked if one coaching program was better than the other.

While both programs are highly respected in Canada and other countries, it was not necessary for us to research and compare the merits of one program over another.  In the end, national funding for pickleball will come through Sport Canada and a mandatory requirement for Sport Canada funding is to have a coaching program that they recognize.  As a result, the determining factor for choosing NCCP is that they are the only coaching program recognized by Sport Canada.

Once Pickleball Canada selected the NCCP coaching program, the best path forward was to seek an existing National Sports organization that we could work with as our mentor and one that was already recognized by Sport Canada. The best and most cordial fit was found with Tennis Canada. We worked for twelve months on developing a comprehensive, detailed agreement with Tennis Canada that laid out the terms, conditions and responsibilities that were reviewed and approved by the Pickleball Canada board of directors.

For more information on the upcoming education sessions, please click here and you’ll be taken to a page that lists all of the cities where NCCP coaching modules are presently posted for registration.  More sessions will follow as locations and dates are secured and we are being told that sessions in Atlantic Canada should be scheduled for early 2022. 

In the meantime, if you’d like to get more information about the various sessions that will be available, you can click on the link below to download the document from the NCCP