the sports coaching market | Italy

1.1 Definition and presentation

Coaching consists of personalized support aimed at helping customers achieving a specific goal. It is possible to find coaches in different fields, including personal and professional development, and sport. In the latter case, coaches usually work in two different areas: either fitness room or home-based, depending on whether they are employees or self-employed.

The global market for sports coaching is expected to grow by $9.07 billion during the period 2021-2025, progressing at a CAGR of 4.83%. 

In 2018, almost the 35.3% of the Italian population was considered to be a regular or occasional sports practitioner. Even if this proportion counted for 20.7 million of Italian citizens, a significant part of the population did not carry out the minimum recommended level of physical activity. On average, adults should exercise at least thirty minutes each day, five days per week, while youngers one hour per day. However, due to other impediments including work, as people get older, they find it objectively difficult to perform physical activities on a daily basis. These negative facts are also reflected in the average amount of money spent by Italian families to do sport annually, which counts only for the 2.3% of total Italian consumptions.

Surprisingly, the pandemic played a positive impact on the proportion of people practicing physical activities. Most declared they wanted to exercise while being home because of the beneficial effects on both physical and mental health. Consequently, having experienced positive results for the well-being, a vast majority of the population continued to train even after lock-down was released. In addition, as the situation was still critical, only a part of the population decided to go back to gyms and fitness centers, while a relevant part opted for personal trainers who delivered home service.

Therefore, following the increasing demand for home services to practice physical activity, the profession of sports coach is evolving towards more personalized offers.