ISSF Academy for all “truly on the way” after landmark Munich HQ signing

A new online ISSF Coaches Academy open to the whole of the shooting sport community will offer beginners’ courses (Open Online D courses) for Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun from September 2 this year, with registration set to open on the ISSF website on June 3.

The details have been released following a landmark agreement for the project jointly signed in Munich by the ISSF Secretary General Alessandro Nicotra di San Giacomo and Vesa Nissinen, President of the Comanleas Group, who will hold the role of Academy Director.

The ISSF Executive Committee approved development of the Academy at its recent  meeting in Rome.

The ISSF will have the responsibility of maintaining the official register of the individual coaches and delivering the respective Licenses.

The Academy will be an educational system bringing together the athletes, coaches, leaders and sport supporters, including the shooting industry.

This open window to the core values and professionalism of the ISSF will be initially accessible online.

"We know that federations must have sustainability, and there must be equal gender,” said ISSF President Luciano Rossi.

"To help in this I have established the Academy which is working for new managers, coaches, new expertise for the future. During 20 years when I was ISSF Vice-President it was one of my proposals.

“I am excited that the project has now taken this significant new step towards actuality and I look forward to working in partnership with our Finnish friends and colleagues.”

Nissinen told ISSF: “We have been working on this project for a year, collecting good people for it. Now that the Executive Committee have voted for it, we are truly on the way.

“We are working now to create something much more than ever has been, because of course it’s online. It’s not a traditional ways, but using modern technology and courses that demand participation also, the Academy will be open for everybody.

“So first of all we will make this now truly available to all Federations, to many people not only a few.

“We will have D courses, and the next step up, C level, in a very short time.

“In one or two years we can train maybe hundreds of people.”

The D courses offered will be 12 weeks long, demanding approximately 60 hours of workload from participants.

In order to estimate numbers, all federations will be consulted over initial levels of interest.

Course fees can be paid with a credit card during the registering for selected course.

The ISSF Academy web page is opening on 1st April 2024 (www.issf-academy.com) with the detailed information about the Academy, the D Courses and the overall structure of the Coach Education Programe.

The contact email will be: [email protected]

Pilot Online D Courses will be organised from May 2024 with selected participants, and Online C Courses will start to be offered early in 2025.

During  2025 existing ISSF Coach Licenses must be renewed through the ISSF Academy review process.

The instructions about this process will be available in Oct 2024.

The ISSF Academy start-up personnel is as follows:

 Academy Director - Vesa Nissinen

 Academy Head of Training - John Leighton-Dyson

 Academy Head of Administration - Karoliina Nissinen

 Academy Shotgun Head Instructor - Susan Nattrass

 Academy Rifle Head Instructor - Anton Belak

 Academy Pistol Head Instructor - Agathi Kasoumi

In each shooting discipline the head instructors will recruit a multi-national team.