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Sports & Fitness vocabulary · Coaching & Teams

Coach

Meaning in sports & fitness, with examples

/koʊtʃ/nounCore term

In sports & fitness, coach means: A person who trains athletes or a team, plans their practice, teaches technique and tactics and often makes decisions during competition.

In Turkish: antrenör, koç, hoca

How it is used

Used across all sports. A team has a head coach and assistant coaches; there are also goalkeeping, fitness and swimming coaches. Coach is also a verb: "She coaches the under-16 team."

Example sentences

  1. Our coach wants everyone at the training ground by six.

  2. She has coached the national swimming team for eight years.

Common collocations

  • head coach
  • assistant coach
  • fitness coach
  • coaching staff
  • coach a team
  • personal trainerA fitness professional who designs exercise programmes for individual clients and supervises their sessions one to one.
  • athleteA person who trains for and takes part in sport, especially at a competitive level; in British English it can also mean a track and field competitor.
  • tacticsThe plans and methods a team or player uses during a game to beat an opponent, such as how to attack, defend or use space.
  • drillA short practice exercise, repeated many times, that trains one particular skill or movement, such as passing, footwork or a set play.
  • captainThe player chosen to lead a team on the field, who often speaks to the referee, takes part in the coin toss and motivates teammates.

More terms: Coaching & Teams

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