We believe coaches are the backbone of the sport – fostering an environment where players can learn, develop, and continue to enjoy the game of volleyball. A coach’s impact on player experience contributes significantly to the growth of Volleyball for Life.
How to Become a Volleyball Coach
- Once you have connected with a club or sanctioned event and would like to begin volunteering as a coach, you’ll need to follow the instructions below BEFORE interacting with athletes in any manner (electronic or in-person).
Getting Started
To be a coach/manager/helper who interacts with athletes in any manner, you are considered a PIA (Person In Authority). To meet the requirements to be on-court and interacting with athletes in any manner (in person or electronically), you must have the following
“BIG 4” items completed BEFORE interacting with them:
THE BIG 4
- Criminal Records Check with Vulnerable Sector Screen on file with VNS (if you are 19 or older)
- Complete NCCP Safe Sport Training
- Complete NCCP Anti-Racism in Coaching Training
- Complete VNS Coach Membership (Competitive required for Club), including your Screening Disclosure Form, and have it APPROVED by VNS.
To be an Assistant Coach/Manager/Helper
No further courses are required beyond the Big 4 PIA requirements, but we strongly recommend starting down the NCCP Development Coach Pathway at your convenience to build your knowledge & skills.
*Note: If Managers are not interacting with athletes in any manner and not sitting on the bench, they can purchase a Manager – Not On Bench membership.
To be a Head Coach
In your 1st season as a Head Coach with a club, you will need the above PIA requirements plus:
- Complete Volleyball Canada (VC) Foundations of Volleyball e-Learning module
- Complete NCCP Making Head Way in Sport e-Learning module
- Complete NCCP Making Ethical Decisions Online Evaluation
Note: These can be completed at any time, in any order – all are asynchronous modules taken online.
By your 3rd season as a Head Coach, you must be NCCP Development Coach Certified, which means you have a full 3 years to complete the following:
- PIA Requirements (as above)
- 1st Year Head Coach requirements (as above)
- Plus these additional courses:
- Development Coach Workshop (~20 hours, $175, live online workshop with learning facilitators and other coaches, usually offered 1 x month by VNS)
- NCCP Emergency Action Plan e-module (~15 minutes, free)
- Development Coach Evaluation (~6-8 hours over 3-4 weeks, $150, working with a trained Evaluator/Mentor)
For full details on how/where to take all these courses, please download the following PDF with active links:
Upcoming NCCP Volleyball Workshops
NCCP Coach Education & Certification:
- 2025-2026 Pricing
- Dev Coach Workshop – $175 (includes 3% stripe credit card fee)
- Adv Dev Coach Workshop: $257 (includes 3% stripe credit card fee)
- 2025-26 Indoor Workshop Dates
- Click the Workshop you are interested in for Full Details & How to Register:
- Fall 2026 schedule to be released in mid-August
- Completed Winter 2026Workshops
- Completed Fall 2025 Workshops
- Development Coach Workshop – September 18th – October 5th
- Advanced Development Coach Workshop – October 19th – Nov 16th (registration available Oct 6)
- Development Coach Workshop – November 27th – December 14th (registration available Oct 6)
- Click the Workshop you are interested in for Full Details & How to Register:
- 2026 Beach Workshop Dates
- Click the Workshop you are interested in for Full Details & How to Register:
- None currently scheduled for 2026 – please contact TD Megan Conroy to express interest in taking the Beach Advanced Development Coach Workshop (Development Coach Workshop is a pre-requisite).
- Click the Workshop you are interested in for Full Details & How to Register:
* A Criminal Record Check, Safe Sport Training, Anti-Racism in Coaching and an approved Coach Membership are required for all Workshops.
Coaching workshops
Development Coach Workshop
- This course has been designed to introduce the game of volleyball and basic coaching skills (Teaching Skills, Practice Planning, Coaching Methodology, etc) to novice coaches. These activities represent the minimum standard for the training and certification of Volleyball coaches within the NCCP.
- Coaches in this context are primarily working with athletes 13U/14U/15U/16U, or, are building towards becoming an Advanced Development Coach to work with 17U+.
- This is a roughly 20 hour course which takes place over 3 weeks which includes:
- Synchronus – Live!
- 5 Live! Facilitated classes with a Learning Facilitator + 1 mandatory Office Hours (specifics listed below)
- There are additional Optional Office Hours where coaches can drop in online for extra support as needed.
- Asynchronus – On your own time
- Watching 4 Lectures (Total of ~ 5 hours) and completing 3 assignments (Total of 5-6 hours) to be completed outside of the Live! classes at your own pace, on your own time, before each associated Live session.
- Synchronus – Live!
Advanced Development Coach Workshop (Indoor)
- This course builds on the previous Development Coach Workshop, and supplements the concepts introduced at that level by providing advanced coaching methodology focused on intermediate skills typically used for coaching older or more advanced athletes.
- Coaches in this context are primarily working with athletes 17U and older, athletes15-18 in a high performance environment, or for coaches who would like to continue to build on the knowledge from the Development Coach level.
- *New* – This workshop now takes place in a hybrid online + 1 day in-person format over several weeks.
- This is a roughly 22 hour course which takes place over 3.5 weeks which includes:
- Synchronus – Live!
- 4 Live! Facilitated classes with a Learning Facilitator + 1 mandatory Office Hours(specifics listed below)
- There are additional Optional Office Hours where coaches can drop in online for extra support as needed.
- Asynchronus – On your own time
- Watching 3 Lectures (Total of ~ 3 hours) and completing 3 assignments (Total of 5-6 hours)) to be completed outside of the Live! classes at your own pace, on your own time
- Live In-Person – On Location on Court with Athletes
- 9am-6pm on court
- Synchronus – Live!
Advanced Development Coach Workshop (Beach)
- This course builds on the previous Development Coach Workshop, and supplements the concepts introduced at that level by providing advanced coaching methodology focused on intermediate skills used in Beach, typically used for coaching older or more advanced athletes.
- Coaches in this context are primarily working with athletes 17U and older, athletes15-18 in a high performance environment, or for coaches who would like to continue to build on the knowledge from the Development Coach Workshop and apply it to a Beach Volleyball setting.
- This is a roughly 19 hour course which takes place over 2.5 days which includes:
- Course Information, Dates and Times:
- Asynchronus – On your own time
- Watching 1 Lecture (Total of ~ 1 hour) a to be completed prior to course start, at your own pace, on your own time,
- Synchronus – Live!
- 1 Live! Facilitated class for 2 hours, with a Learning Facilitator via Zoom, a few days prior to the on-court sessions.
- Live In-Person – On Location at Pemamkiaq Beach Park, 261 Commodore Dr., Dartmouth
- 9am-5pm on a Saturday and Sunday
- Asynchronus – On your own time
Performance Coach Workshop (Indoor & Beach)
Mutisport Courses
These non-volleyball specific courses are part of the NCCP Certification process and are offered by our partners at Coaching Nova Scotia via a few delivery methods (Home Study & Live Online Class)!
- Advanced Development Coach Context:
- Basic Mental Skills
- Design a Basic Sport Program
- Performance Coach Context:
- Leading Drug Free Sport
- Coaching and Leading Effectively
- Advanced Practice Planning
- Managing Conflict
- Prevention and Recovery
- Performance Planning
- Psychology of Performance
- Developing Athletic Abilities
- Manage a Sport Program
Questions relating to registering for, or information about the following courses? Please contact Allison Saunders at allison@csiatlantic.ca
Please click here for further information.
Coaching Resources
Getting Started
You are ready to begin your journey in becoming a certified Volleyball Coach.
The first step will be registering for Volleyball Canada’s Foundations of Volleyball emodule. The cost for this step is a one time fee of $89 for all e-learning modules, which includes Development and Advanced Development material. These modules can be done at your own pace and take on average 2-3 hours to complete.
You will need the following to register:
- credit card
- NCCP number*
*You will have one only if you have previously taken a NCCP course. Please ensure to use the same number as to not create an additional profile in your name. If this is the first time you are registering for a coaching course or workshop an NCCP number will be assigned to you with this registration.
The following link will bring you to Volleyball Canada’s Coaching website where you will be creating a coaching profile with Coaching Association of Canada.
To register for your Volleyball Canada Foundations of Volleyball emodule please click here.
NCCP Pathway
The goal of Volleyball Canada’s National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) is to:
- plan and develop technical coaching manuals
- prepare education materials to support technical manuals
- design the system for delivery of coaching programs
- develop coaching resource material to assist the regular programs
- promote the NCCP
- develop programs and resources to improve the skill level of volleyball participants
The program includes 4 certification streams and each stream contains steps for completion.
Click here for a short video from the Coaching Association of Canada as well as a full overview of Volleyball Canada’s new delivery pathway.
Already started on your journey of becoming a certified coach and have taken a NCCP course or certified and would like to continue to the next stream?
Click here for some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for clarification on the new pathway.
Development Coach (DC)
For novice coaches (both indoor and beach volleyball) who need to be able to teach basic skills and tactics, and prepare athletes for low-level competitions. Athletes are generally trained on a seasonal basis. Fun is an important part of the athletes’ sport experience. Specialization is not a priority at this stage, and sport experiences generally provide an opportunities to teach values and develop social skills.
Advanced Development Coach-Indoor, Advanced Development Coach-Beach (ADC)
Upon completion of Development Coach certification, the coach will choose between two different coaching certification routes – beach volleyball or indoor volleyball. For both disciplines, the ADC builds upon the concepts presented in the DC Volleyball Certification Program. ADC help athletes refine basic skills and tactics, teach more advanced skills and tactics, and prepare them for provincial or national level competitions. Athletes are usually training several times a week on a seasonal or annual basis to improve performance. Although having a good time remains an important part of the athletes’ sport experience, the outcome of competitions is of greater importance, as athletes may have to meet pre-determined performance standards. Major concepts dealt with are skill variation, advanced team systems, position specialization, running cohesive practices, and seasonal planning and periodization concepts are introduced.
Performance Coach-Indoor, Performance Coach-Beach (PC)
The Performance Coach again builds upon the concepts presented in the DC and ADC volleyball coaching programs with separate education, training, and certification pathways for indoor and beach volleyball coaches. These are advanced volleyball coaching programs and are intended for coaches who aspire to develop athletes and teams which will be competitive at national level competitions (i.e. national championships) and who desire to pursue coaching as a profession. As a general rule, these coaches work with advanced athletes between the ages of 17 – 24. They help athletes refine advanced sport skills and tactics, and prepare them for national and, in a few instances, international competitions. Athletes perform a high volume of specialized training on an annual basis in order to improve or maintain performance. Although having a good time still remains an important part of the athletes’ sport experience, the outcome of competitions becomes very important. The athletes endeavour to reach their full potential and attain optimum performance levels. Major components of this program are advanced skill development concepts, volleyball program management, detailed seasonal planning, and the effective sequencing of training sessions.
Advanced Coaching Diploma
The Advanced Coaching Diploma of the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) represent the highest components of coach education available in Canada. The goal of the NCCP at this level is to provide coaches with advanced applied training opportunities that meet the highest education and evaluation standards.
As a result of their certification, coaches will demonstrate a thorough understanding of their sport and its demands – from developmental up to the elite or international level. They will also be able to plan, implement, and evaluate a variety of programs and activities aimed at providing an environment which is optimal for the overall development of the athlete, including those who aspire to and have the potential for international levels of performance.
The Advanced Coaching Diploma program will enhance the quality of the coach’s interventions in the areas of technical, tactical, physiological, and psychological athlete preparation, as well as his or her managerial competence. The coach’s pedagogical, analytical, critical, and conceptual skills will also be refined, and he or she will provide leadership at all levels of the sport system. This, in turn, will translate into a better sport experience for athletes, including more consistent and superior performances.
Contacts associated with coaching certification:
Volleyball Canada-Coaching Centre (Pre-workshop e-learning modules – click “Register Now”)
Coaching Association of Canada (NCCP, The Locker, Multi-sport courses)
Coaching Nova Scotia (Multi-sport courses: classroom, home based, on-line)
Canadian Sport Centre-Atlantic (National Coaching Institute-Atlantic)

