Hessen already promotes sports talents in primary school

The trend in top German sport is clear: German athletes have been gaining fewer and fewer medals at the Olympic Games for years. In Paris 2024 it was very few since reunification. There are too few talents upwards, often the balancing act between competitive sports and school is too difficult. Hessen tries to make this easier – with teachers who are already training children at school, so -called teacher coaches.

“Teacher trainer is a special feature, especially in Hesse. These are people who have usually studied teaching usually also have two subjects. But at the same time at least the B license in the respective specialist sport, always also the A-license. Dominic Ullrich describes the requirement for his role as a teacher coach.

Ullrich, for example, is a teacher of geography and sport and has a trainer certificate in athletics. Others, for example, have the subjects of physics and math and are trained trainers in swimming.

In your respective sport, you will then provide targeted training – as a regular lesson, integrated in the timetable. You can see which children have talent and then convey them to clubs and associations.

Teacher coach: The interface between school and top sport

“In principle, it is exactly the person at the interface, they are practically responsible for sports funding at school and the coordination with the associations”explains Ullrich: “At the same time, however, they are also those who also have this school area in view. And who always support the balancing act between school and competitive sports. To accompany and moderate this.”

The teacher coaches in Hesse are used in schools that have a special focus on competitive sports. These can be high schools, comprehensive schools, but also primary schools.

“I think there are 60 personnel positions that we have in Hesse for teacher coaches who are spread over 70 people. If they are civil servants, the at least grade A13. That means we are talking about millions of times that the state of Hesse is investing. We want to promote and support talent and talent here accordinglyso Ullrich.

Ullrich, who himself works at the Carl-von-Weinberg school in Frankfurt, speaks of the first successes of the program: “There are numerous career examples, from athletes who have gone through the state program and appear at the end of the Olympic Games.”

The model in other federal states: Who relies on teacher coach?

There are already teacher coaches in other federal states: in North Rhine-Westphalia, where around one million euros are also spent on this annually. In Baden-Württemberg, Brandenburg, Thuringia, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony-Anhalt and Berlin.

In contrast, there is no notice in Saxony, Saarland, Lower Saxony and Bavaria. The explanation from Bavaria: the schools are responsible for general sports lessons, the associations and clubs for competitive sports – there is a clear separation.