Volunteering forms the stable foundation of sport. According to the DOSB, around eight million people invest their time and energy voluntarily – and the impressive 23 million hours they work per month make it clear how indispensable this commitment is to the functioning of the clubs. They ensure that club celebrations take place, training courses are offered regularly and that sports clubs remain able to operate. Volunteers take on the diverse tasks that make sports operations possible. Without this commitment, many offers for child and youth support, social integration and health prevention would not be possible.
New requirements
The demands on trainers, for example in sports clubs, have changed fundamentally: it is no longer enough to just teach the basics of the sport. In addition to technical knowledge of the sport, a qualified instructor also has methodological, organizational and social skills. He selects the training content appropriately, can convey it and implement it well in organizational terms. His social skills – i.e. the ability to deal with others constructively, respectfully and appropriately to the situation – is an important component of his success.
Pedagogy in sport
Nussbaum Medien is addressing this changed starting point together with Kickoff for Life. “For children between five and twelve, it is better to have no coach than a bad one,” Arsène Wenger once said. Since 2023, the “NUSSBAUM Coaching School – Pedagogy in Sport” has been providing voluntary educational training for team sports coaches.
Unique offer
One of the trainers in the latest round of the coaching school is Tobias Heising, who is the second chairman of the BC Raubritter Schriesheim and also works there as a trainer. The club, which was founded in 1990, now has almost 300 members, including around 100 children and young people, and regularly takes part in baseball leagues. Heising emphasizes that a course like the NUSSBAUM coaching school is unique to date. “The pedagogical part – i.e. communication with children and parents – is not included in the normal trainer’s license,” is his assessment, and he emphasizes that he would definitely take the course again. Although he carries out leadership tasks in his job, Heising knows: “Children are something completely different than adults.” Heising works in a medium-sized company and that is exactly why he recommended this new, different form of trainer training to his trainer colleagues.
Fringe sport
His own path to becoming a coach at the Robber Barons follows the typical pattern that is particularly observed in niche sports: first he played himself, then took on responsibility on the board and finally the coaching position. Because baseball is a fringe sport in Germany, finding qualified coaches is often difficult. “I have now coached almost every team and therefore also got the association’s coaching license,” reports Heising.
“Always let all children play”
He describes the course at NUSSBAUM Medien as very helpful for him: The nine-month training course with a mix of online and face-to-face phases provided him with lots of new ideas through cross-sport theoretical and practical examples as well as role-playing games. He summarizes a simple, but for him particularly important, insight from this: “Always let all children play” – even if this can occasionally cost them winning a championship, for the children the difference between first and second place is ultimately irrelevant; What is more important is the opportunity to play and learn for each individual child.
More articles on the topic
► A portrait of Ines Breuninger’s path in the coaching school
► How Peter Sinn lives his dream job at MERC Mannheim
► NUSSBAUM Trainer School 2025: Mastering critical situations
Keep reading
