May 24, 2022 / By: Alex Byczko / In: survey, instructor, data, compensation,  coach / 0 Comments 

In post 1, we showed you the methodology of our survey and how/why it’s changed in favour of more accurate data.

In this post, we hope to paint the picture of who this survey currently serves and build a bit of a profile for coaches at different levels. 

First, what does the data say about our survey population and how has that changed compared to last year? Let's get started...

Sailing dominated the results last year. In 2021, sailing lost a bit of Checklick market share, reducing 11% when compared to 2020. The other category saw powerboating coaches increasing their response rate by 7% this year. Judo and Snowboarding also saw an uptick in survey responses. However, the survey results are most representative of sailing coaches.

The other 17% were made up of;

• Powerboating (10%)
• Judo (2%)
• Snowboarding (2%)
• Gymnastics (1%) 
• Several others combined (2%) 

Over time, we are seeing other sports grow their presence on Checklick. This means we will see these results become more representative of the coaching climate of other sports, not just sailing. Although not directly representative, currently these results can be used as a comparison to one’s experience within their respective sport. 

Nonetheless, it is heartening to see that other sports are beginning to find that our survey is a useful tool for compensation comparison and budget planning. 

2021 has Canada and Ireland remaining highly represented in the results. Canadian coaches increased their response rate this year by (+7%), with Irish coaches slightly reducing their response rate by (-6%).

Overall, the response rate did not change significantly between 2020 (224) and 2021 (220). The timing of the survey response request might be a possibility for the increase/drop in responses. In our next iteration, we want to have the survey window open quite soon after summer sports programs wind down for the school year. This will allow us to capture data while it's still fresh in the coach's mind and should allow us to get our blog posts out in time for budget season. 

Coaching levels saw very little change when compared to last year. The bottom end of the coaching pathway is healthy and filled with life. We did see a reduction in Competition Development Coaches (-4%) and an increase in responses from Coach Evaluators (+8%). The question implies hierarchy with Competition Development Coaches vs Coach Evaluators when really both levels can be viewed as two independent streams. Nevertheless, the way the question is phrased assumes Coach Evaluators are at a higher level of coaching than Competition Development. Thus, the increase could be explained by level upgrading as the question asks for the highest coaching level achieved. 

Interestingly, the distribution of coaches along the coaching levels looks representative of how sports organizations operate. A wide entry and a small exit like a funnel. It would be good to capture more community-developed coaches. Their responsibility is more likely to differ from that of a higher-level coach or not have an evaluation as part of their portfolio. 

The survey data is most representative of Basic and Advanced skill coaches. However, the distribution of levels seems to mirror the coaching pathway hierarchy fairly accurately. 

We can immediately see that there is an increase in our youngest coaches (+32%) and our eldest coaches (+30%). This question changed to a dropbox question this year, which really sharpened the accuracy of the data.

The downfall here is that we did not ask past 65+ because, in the past, there weren’t very many respondents in that age group. To our surprise, 7% of respondents were in this age group so we will expand the age-related questions to better accommodate this age group.

Looking at the breakdown, we see the quintessential young coach who may be looking for a sport-centred outdoor job for the summer. We also see a a good sample of coaches above the age of 40.

The severe drop-off of young adult and adult coaches seems to have increased. This could be a larger pivot towards career-oriented work with COVID creating an uncertain sports work environment, lack of professional development opportunities, increased family needs, etc.

A 10% increase in new coaches responding in 2021. That’s fantastic! This could be a recovery from the lack of professional development courses run and trained coaches in 2020. Could also mean more new coaches are actively using Checklick. We could also be seeing the timing of our survey response request paying dividends.

Most of the responses are fairly in line with the 2020 results except for the 9% drop in 3rd-year coaches. Year three represents a large attrition point in many sports, especially in the sailing world (where this survey is most representative). This is where coaches will generally have to update their prerequisites and coach training. 

This survey generally represents the older coach population. This might be why we see an increase in pay almost across the board.

But more on that in the next post where we will talk about pay in 2020 vs 2021 and in Canada vs Ireland. In the meantime, download the full results of our survey below.

I hope you find the post helpful and feel free to leave comments in the chat. We love to hear your feedback!

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