Course 5 of 6
Athlete Wellbeing and Child-Centred Coaching.
Coach the whole athlete: growing bodies, feedback that builds, mental health and trauma, inclusion, heat and injury, hygiene, medicines and food.
Every coach · 10 modules · About 3½ hours · Lessons in your language · 4 weeks to finish · ₹999 · certificate valid 12 months
Open to every coach. Courses can be taken in any order.
The 10 modules.
What you will be able to do after each one.
Coaching the whole child
- Explain what "children first, athletes second" means on your ground
- Describe the child-centred model and its rule of no rankings for young children
- Keep every child playing, whatever their current level
- Use simple, everyday ways to give children a voice in their sport
Growing bodies: age-appropriate training
- Adjust training for a child who is in a growth spurt
- Explain why early one-sport specialisation carries risks
- Recognise the warning signs of overuse injury and overtraining
- Plan rest, recovery and training loads that are never used as punishment
Feedback that builds, not breaks
- Give feedback that corrects the skill, not the person
- Praise effort and progress in a way that builds confidence
- Recognise sarcasm, public comparison and conditional warmth as harmful
- Tell the difference between demanding coaching and emotional harm
Mental health basics for coaches
- Recognise common signs of stress, anxiety and low mood in young athletes
- Name the pressure points when young athletes are most at risk
- Start and hold a caring conversation, without promising secrecy
- Refer an athlete for help, and act fast when a life may be at risk
Trauma and difficult times
- Explain what trauma is and the difficult times that can cause it
- Recognise how trauma can show up in a child's body and behaviour in sport
- Run calm, predictable sessions and teach the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding exercise
- Respond safely if the difficult time turns out to be abuse
Every athlete belongs
- Coach a child who may have ADHD with simple, calm changes, without diagnosing or labelling them
- Make reasonable adjustments for a para-athlete, and help them only with consent, in open view
- Stop slurs and quiet exclusion based on caste, religion, community, region, language or money
- Make room for faith and culture by asking, not assuming
Heat, water, injury and first aid
- Plan sessions for hot weather, with water and rest built in
- Recognise heat illness and head injury, and act quickly
- Keep an emergency plan, record every injury and tell parents the same day
- Decide return to play on recovery, never on competition pressure
Hygiene and illness
- Run sessions with clean hands, personal bottles and towels, and clean kit, mats and venues
- Keep a child with fever, vomiting or diarrhoea out of training, and bring them back safely
- Handle bleeding and wounds safely, with gloves and clean-up
- Talk about hygiene with dignity, and recognise when it may point to neglect
Medicines, supplements and food
- Give a child their own medicine only with a parent's written consent, and record every dose
- Explain why any medicine or supplement for a competing athlete must be checked with a doctor
- Refuse to supply alcohol, tobacco, banned substances or unregulated supplements, and act when others do
- Protect children's food, water and rest, and never use them as punishment
Putting it together
- Recall the key practices from all nine modules of this course
- Apply them together in real, messy situations on the ground
- Put the child's long-term wellbeing ahead of today's result
- Know who to call, and when
How a module works.
Every module has the same two steps. Finish all 10 and the certificate is yours.
Watch
Short narrated lessons in your language, about ten minutes. Pause anytime and pick it up later.
Test
A multiple-choice test. Score 80% to pass. Miss it? Review and try again.
The certificate
Earned, dated and checkable.
Complete every module and My Drona issues your Athlete Wellbeing and Child-Centred Coaching certificate. It carries a unique number and a QR code that opens a public page anyone can check, with no account.
It is valid for 12 months and appears on your Digital Coach Passport with the date you earned it.
The other courses
Every coach · About 3½ hours
Every coach · About 3½ hours
Every coach · About 4 hours
Anyone who coaches girls or women · About 4 hours
Head coaches, academy owners and Safeguarding Officers · About 3½ hours