The CPCA Coaching Code of Ethics provides ethical guidelines for CPCA members and is a source document in various NCCP modules, including the Level 4 leadership course. A number of sport organizations have adopted the code as the standard of behaviour for their coaches.

The highlights for the Code of Ethics are outlined below.

Respect for Participants
The principle of respect for participants challenges coaches to act in a manner respectful of the dignity of all participants in sport. Fundamental to this principle is the basic assumption that each person has value and is worthy of respect.

Responsible Coaching
The principle of responsible coaching carries the basic ethical expectation that the activities of coaches will benefit society in general and participants in particular and will do no harm. Fundamental to the implementation of this principle is the notion of competence - responsible coaching (maximizing benefits and minimizing risks to participants) is performed by coaches who are "well prepared and current" in their discipline.

Integrity in Relationships
Integrity means that coaches are expected to be honest, sincere, and honourable in their relationships with others. Acting on these values is most possible when coaches possess a high degree of self-awareness and the ability to reflect critically on how their perspectives influence their interactions with others.

Honouring Sport
The principle of honouring sport challenges coaches to recognize, act on, and promote the value of sport for individuals and teams and for society in general.

Putting the Code of Ethics into Perspective
The world of sport is our workplace and our passion. The sport each of us coaches has a rule book that establishes not only the activities that constitute the specific game but also the boundaries and limitations that ensure equitable participation; the rule book defines how to "play the game." The CPCA Coaching Code of Ethics, on the other hand, defines how we "play sport."

We are confronted with ethical choices every day and the decisions we make influence athletes, colleagues, and the environment we coach in. The primary purpose of this code is to guide and gauge our decisions as we make them, especially when the decisions are difficult ones. But the code also sends out a message to everyone in the sport community and to the public that we have high expectations of ourselves as coaches, not just in the results of our work but also in the manner in which those results are achieved.

To view the complete Coaching Code of Ethics click here