WRF has launched its Training Programme for Raft Guide & Coaches. The Programme is the result of the WRF Commission’s work started in Kosovo during the week of WRF World Cup in Zubin Potok (from 22nd to 24th June 2018). On that occasion members of the national federations had the first workshop about the competence's fields of a worldwide training programme for river guide and coach: safety, techniques, knowledges about environment and coaching.
The aim of the Training Programme is to implement a federal worldwide system based on the competences and knowledges of different levels of guides and coaches. It is a tool to facilitate young people's access to the labour market and to implement the dual career goal for paddle athletes. According to the WRF philosophy the target is to improve the international mobility: following the water flow on the other side of the planet, because of rafting's seasonality, guides can work and promote the paddle sport in different continents in the same year.
Christian Huenchuleo (President of the Chilean Federation), Xavier Postiaux (Belgian experienced rafting and canoe instructor) and Andrea Gatti (Vice-President of the Italian Federation), representing their own federations and according to the others, shared their river experiences in the agonistic and guide's world.
"Taking part to this project is extremely important for Chile: I am very happy about this collaboration with a selected group of professional technicians and honored to transmit my own knowledge about rafting, developed during years of river life. The Chilean Federation wants to help in this movement that will professionalize this amazing discipline day by day. Working in line with the World Rafting Federation is essential for us, in order to develop the agonistic sport in our country and to facilitate the formation of qualified coaches and guides who can work abroad." said Christian Huenchuleo.
"When the president Danilo Barmaz proposed to me to take part in this working group I was immediately excited. - Xavier Postiaux said - I had the opportunity to work with passionate and competent colleagues and I hope that this document will be a reference for the WRF members, not only because of its nature but also because of the ideals behind the project: an international development of this sport, a common professionalization and also new possible opportunities for an international mobility. Step by step growing and performing!"
Andrea Gatti, event manager of the WRC 2018 in Italy, introduces the Training Programme: "For this project I had the pleasure of sharing my experience of more than twenty years in the Italian Federation with my colleagues and friends of the other federations.
The WRF training programme is a document that sets the common skills required by the
guides and coaches's formation of the federations associated with the WRF. We shared our river experiences and knowledges in both the agonistic and commercial worlds and created this document in the clearst way we could. In the programme the skills required by guides and coaches are described with the progression of the different levels of formation. Agonism and commercial/touristic rafting are faced in parallel, with their different technical and pratical features. Every national federation is autonomous in the decision of timing and methods to led their athletes to reach the skills required, approved by WRF members. This common line (sharing levels, competences and knowledges) guarantees the international exchange and comparison of experiences and resources and also evens and improves the wolrdwide formation's quality. It is not a static and definitive document, but a platform that will be updated, completed and perfected as every training requires."
Read the full Programme (https://www.worldraftingfederation.com/documents/programmes/wrf-training- program-for-raft-guide-and-coach)
