L1 — Foundation
Foundation Coach.
The entry-level certification. The coach who can plan and deliver a safe, age-appropriate beginner session for an individual or a group of eight.
The pathway
Four levels. One standard.
From the first sessions a coach delivers to the educators who teach the next generation. The same method, deeper at every step.
The shape of it
Built like a profession, not a weekend course.
Rallova certifies coaches at four levels — Foundation, Instructor, Coach and Master Coach — across padel and pickleball. Each level builds on the last. Each level adds external moderation. Active status requires annual membership and twelve CPD points a year, because a real standard is something you keep, not something you collect.
Cross-sport credit means a Rallova-certified coach in one sport reaches the second on accelerated terms. Master Coach is sport-agnostic by design — at that level the discipline is coach education, not stroke production.
The four levels
Every level, at a glance.
L2 — Instructor
Instructor.
The working coach's qualification. Designs and runs multi-week programmes, coaches juniors within a long-term development frame, runs intermediate groups of up to twelve.
L3 — Coach
Coach.
Performance coaching: advanced players, periodised season plans, biomechanics, video analysis, psychology. The credential a serious venue or academy will require of a head coach.
L4 — Master
Master Coach.
Application-only, six- to twelve-month mentored programme. Sport-agnostic with declared specialism. For coach educators, academy directors and federation partners.
What you can take into the next level
Cross-sport credit.
Padel and pickleball share more pedagogy than technique. Rallova recognises that with a structured credit system between sports.
L1
30% credit on shared pedagogy.
A 20-hour technical-only track to add the second sport at Foundation level once you hold L1 in either.
L2 & L3
Smaller credits, deeper specialism.
20% on session design and assessment at L2; 10% on coaching science at L3 — recognising what transfers and what is genuinely sport-specific.
L4
Sport-agnostic by design.
Master Coaches are credentialled without a sport suffix; they declare a specialism but the discipline is coach education itself.
“We certify the ability to teach the shot — not only the ability to play it.”From the L1 Foundation Curriculum Outline
Assessment, externally moderated
A badge that means the same thing, however it was earned.
Every level uses the same four assessment axes — written, practical, observed delivery, portfolio — with a separate pass/fail safeguarding gate. Pass marks are criterion-referenced; nobody is graded on a curve.
External moderation rises with level: a 10% cohort sample at L1 and L2; 100% external moderation at L3; full external panel at L4. The integrity of the badge is structural, not promised.
Start at L1 — or convert from tennis in 20 hours.
The L1 Foundation cohorts are open for application. Tennis-accredited coaches enter via the Tennis Convert bridge.