How to Get BASES Accreditation for Football Fitness Coaches
Accreditations play a key role in ensuring that industry standards are sustained.
Within football, there are many different options available for fitness coaches to become accredited (e.g. UKSCA, NSCA).
One accreditation that is becoming more important for practitioners (particularly in the UK) is gaining accreditation with the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES).
With the revamp in youth coaching structures across the UK as part of the implementation of the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP), BASES has become a requirement for those working in higher category academies in senior positions.
Whilst at 1st team level there is no such requirement currently, the nature of BASES accreditation ensures that those who attain the accreditation are highly employable because they meet a high level of competencies/standards.
Speaking with fitness coaches about BASES, there appears to be confusion around the pathways involved with gaining accreditation.
This week’s newsletter will hopefully help clarify the processes in order to gain BASES accreditation.
Let’s dive in.
BASES Accreditation Pathways
There are currently 3 pathways in which applicants can become BASES accredited:
1. BASES Supervised Experience
2. Direct Application
3. BASES Accreditation Partnership Scheme (Streamlined route)
All three pathways will result in the same outcome (i.e. BASES accreditation) and you need to be a BASES professional member to apply.
However, they differ in terms of who can apply and length of time to complete.
There is also a further accreditation called the BASES High Performance Sport Accreditation (HPSA) which is aimed at experienced practitioners looking to gain a higher level of accreditation – this is separate from the ‘standard’ BASES accreditation.
Let’s take a look at these various pathways in more detail.
BASES Supervised Experience
For sport scientists coming through a ‘normal’ pathway, the BASES supervised experience (SE) programme will likely be the best route to gain accreditation.
To join the programme, the applicants must be at least enrolled onto a recognised masters programme and have already completed an undergraduate degree mapped against the BASES criteria.
There are two joining points in the year (March and September) and takes a minimum of 2 years to complete.
Applicants have to seek a suitable BASES registered SE supervisor to oversee the process. This person can be a senior practitioner working with your club, or can also be an external person who supervises remotely.
During your time on BASES SE, you will develop your skills to achieve full competency in 10 different areas.
You submit a portfolio of evidence at 3 time points – your entry profile, mid-point profile and final portfolio submission. These submissions are reviewed by a registered BASES reviewer, who will need to ‘sign off’ your 10 competencies and other aspects of the accreditation submission.
Alongside this, you will also need to complete a case study from applied practice, which is typically an intervention-type approach (e.g. 6-week training intervention).
Candidates also need to rack up 500 hours of practice (with reflections), of which 150 hours can be backdated at the point of joining the programme.
There are four core BASES SE workshops that candidates need to complete, plus further elective BASES events (e.g. attendance at BASES annual conference).
It’s important to choose a suitable supervisor who has experience working in football and also good knowledge of the BASES SE processes.
In terms of costing, you (or funded by your club) will need to pay for registration (£210), plus 4 core workshops (total: £315) plus elective events (e.g. BASES conference attendance - £550 early bird rate).
There is no set fee involved when paying a supervisor, as BASES states this has to be agreed between the candidate and the supervisee.
Some supervisors will do it for free, but it’s likely they won’t dedicate adequate time to properly supervise the process.
Applicants can seek supervisors who provide a more comprehensive supervision service, but this comes at a cost (typically between £1000-£2000 per year).
Therefore, the total cost of the SE pathway would be around £3075 if completed in the minimum timeframe of 2 years. Obviously, this can increase if the candidate takes longer and has to pay more supervisory fees.
Direct Application
If you have already gained experience of working as a fitness coach in football (typically around > 5 years, but no set rule on this) then you may be able to submit a direct application.
The direct application involves the majority of the content as with BASES supervised experience (case study, competency portfolio, etc).
However, the submission can be completed as a whole piece, rather than spread across a number of years like BASES SE.
There are two submission time points each year – December and June.
The submission is then reviewed by an expert panel as part of the accreditation committee, who will determine whether you meet the required accreditation requirements.
Applying via a direct application can be quite time consuming in order to create the required documentation and portfolio of evidence (around 80 pages worth of work).
Therefore, practitioners are encouraged to have a 6-month lead in before the submission deadlines in order to get all their documents in good shape for submission.
The only fee involved with the direct application if the submission fee (£105), as there is no requirement to attend the core workshops, electives or pay a supervisor.
Some BASES supervisors (like myself) offer paid guidance to help support completing a direct application. If you are interested, drop me an email (maloneperform@gmail.com) or DM on LinkedIn to find out more.
BASES Accreditation Partnership Scheme (Streamlined route)
This is a relatively new pathway to gaining BASES accreditation.
The idea behind this initiative is for BASES to partner with clubs who already have BASES accredited staff or BASES fellows to essentially ‘vouch’ for the candidates.
Clubs would need to submit an accreditation partner application to BASES and meet certain criteria (e.g. must have staff member who is BASES accredited for 3 years, or hold the HPSA accreditation, or be a BASES fellow).
If successful, the process for candidates to submit for accreditation is streamlined. You still need to complete most aspects of the direct application (such as a case study) but involves less paperwork.
Overall this may be the most time and financially efficient way for fitness coaches to gain accreditation, if they meet the required criteria.
BASES High Performance Sport Accreditation (HPSA)
This accreditation is the highest one that BASES offer – it’s essentially the next level up from a standard BASES accreditation.
It’s aimed at those typically in senior/leadership positions, and requires a minimum of 5 years working in high performance sport with professional players.
The application form itself is a lot easier to complete compared to the standard BASES accreditation in terms of paperwork.
Key to the HPSA accreditation is being assessed practically through an interview with an HPSA assessor.
Cost for the application is currently £525.
Some practitioners have gone straight to HPSA without firstly getting the standard BASES accreditation.
However, the more common approach is to gain BASES accreditation, then from this work towards HPSA accreditation as you go into a leadership position.
Take Home Messages
There are many ways in which football fitness practitioners can become accredited through BASES.
Hopefully this article has helped to clarify the pathways and requirements for accreditation.
My advice is choosing the pathway that is suited to your current career situation:
Early career (< 3 years) = BASES supervised experience
Mid-career (around 5-7 years) = Direct application (depending on level of experience)
Experienced practitioner (>5 years, usually ~10 years experience) = HPSA accreditation (or direct application if not already got this)
If you want further help with understanding and attaining accreditations as a football fitness practitioner, check out my football fitness mentorship community here.
That’s all for this week. See you next time!