Yorkshire-Based Charity Launches Born2Coach Initiative for More Coaches

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UK Coaching is the UK’s leading charitable organisation for physical activity and sports coaches. And it’s issued a rallying call for more people to become coaches to counteract a current health crisis.

Latest Sport England data suggests an alarming drop in the number of people giving up their time to support others to be active. And this may only exacerbate already declining activity levels.

A total of 6.6 million people gave up their time to lead activity sessions from November 2020-21. And that’s a fall of more than 3.1 million people compared to the year before*. It follows a drop in numbers in the years prior to the pandemic. In response to this new data, UK Coaching is leading a nationwide drive to expand the coaching workforce.

The Born2coach campaign sees the organisation engage with seven of the nation’s leading sports over the next ten years. There’ll be a nationwide drive to recruit more coaches. And this will ensure the nation is fully supported to become more active, more often.

The partnership will see UK Coaching joining forces with a number of bodies. They include England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), UK Athletics and the Home Country Athletics Federations, and more. Their involvement will support them to overcome their specific challenges around coaching recruitment and retention. There’s also a view to significantly increasing the coaching workforce over the next ten years.

The announcement came at the start of UK Coaching Week.  The week empowers athletes, coaches and the public to celebrate great coaching. The collaboration will ensure coaching becomes more accessible, inclusive and innovative than ever before.

“Inspiring people to become coaches”

To support the recruitment drive, UK Coaching have launched #Born2Coach. It’s an initiative that aims to significantly boost the coaching workforce by inspiring people to become coaches. It also looks to empower current coaches to enhance their abilities too.

Mark Gannon is CEO of UK Coaching. He told us:  “As we learn to live with COVID and seek to recover from the challenges of the last couple of years, we want to play our part in supporting more people taking part in physical activity and sport. Coaches will be an important conduit for engaging a broader range of people from more communities in physical activity and sport, which will improve the nation’s health and happiness.

“We are proud to be spearheading this industry-wide partnership to provide deeper insight into the life of a coach, and what great coaching looks and feels like. With the help of our network of physical activity and sports organisations we will empower existing coaches and recruit the next generation of coaches.”

Mel Marshall is Adam Peaty’s coach, and former Olympian & Lead Coach at the British Swimming Performance Centre. She added:  “I feel incredibly passionate about the recruitment drive, having progressed from athlete to coach myself. The coaching workforce at all levels needs to be inclusive, diverse and accessible to all. And people need to be aware of the incredible opportunities coaching can bring to our lives both as participants and as coaches. Great coaching can help bring communities together, breathe increased activity into our nation, and provide a lifelong love of sport and physical activity and all the health and well-being benefits for our children.”

To find out more about Born2Coach, and how you can get into coaching, visit www.ukcoaching.org/born2coach.

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