Athlete to coach: case study series

British Athletics’ Athlete to Coach programme aims to provide athletes transitioning into coaching with the competencies required to gain a UKA accredited coaching licence.

The programme – which is open to athletes who have represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland or their Home Country as a senior – is run over five consecutive days and is made up of classroom and practical activity, plus an assessment. The process is outlined in detail on the UK Athletics website.

Athlete to Coach is not a short cut into coaching, but a bespoke programme designed to challenge the learner to shift their thinking from that of an elite athlete to one of a coach.

This short series focuses on a recent cohort of participant athletes. It asks what motivated them to apply, what they’ve learned from the process, and what advice they would share with others considering this route into coaching.

Athlete name: Steph Twell

Qualification awarded: Athletics Coach

“I’m really excited to start developing the knowledge I’ve gained from my experience in the sport and to helping others, and I want to put into practice some of those competencies to help others develop in their events.

“I think it’s really important to get coaching pretty quickly. This course has been really accelerated and has made us apply what we’ve learned here. Now I just want to put it into practice. We’ve learned so much about goal planning and how to break down coaching for each individual athlete and different ways to do that, which is really interesting.

“I’ve also learned from this course to collaborate with others, so even shadowing other coaches, finding out what they do already, and how a coach works, that’s important to share.”