31st March 2010

Women In Coaching

 

31 March 2010

Building on the success of the Women’s Coaching Conference in July 2009, delivered by UKA and England Athletics in conjunction with the Home Countries, a “Women in Coaching Advisory Committee” will be set up with immediate effect.

The Committee, which is likely to be made up of eight individuals in the first instance, will be tasked primarily with contributing to the development of a strategy for women in coaching initiatives; to make recommendations to the Home Countries with regards women specific programming; to provide a voice for female coaches and to contribute to the hosting of the annual “Women in Coaching” Conference, and will form another key strand of UKA-led Year of the Coach activity in 2010.

Women are under-represented amongst the ranks of level three and level four qualified coaches at present and are rarely working with UKA funded athletes, however, feedback following the 2009 Women’s Conference indicated a desire amongst female coaches to organise and develop strategies and programmes to improve these statistics.

The “Women in Coaching Advisory Committee” – which will provisionally meet four times per year – will work closely with all of the governing bodies to develop a strategy and make recommendations that can help to improve the coaching environment for women.

The key long term objective of the project is to create opportunities for female coaches serving to raise the standard, number and profile of female coaches working with athletes at every level, while more generally, the project must ensure the continued development of female coaches within the Coach Education system with a particular focus on raising the proportion of female coaches working with athletes in the top ten UK rankings across U17, U20 and Senior levels. 

Alison Potts, England Athletics Interim Project Manager for Women’s Coaching, said: “After a lot of hard work since the inaugural Women’s Coaching Conference last summer, I’m really excited that we’re now in a position to drive this programme forward and I’m looking forward to working with the Women’s Committee to ensure that happens.  Already we’re moving in the right direction and through England Athletics we’ve started a series of workshops for female coaches. More details can be found on the England Athletics website at www.englandathletics.org.”

Beth Harris, Level 3 Pole Vault Coach, Chair Stevenage & North Herts AC, and voluntary Women’s Coaching Advisor to England Athletics, added: “The time is definitely right for progressing this project. There are a lot of great female coaches out there – and even more potentially great coaches – and we need to promote that fact and use them as role models and mentors for girls and women who may be considering a future in the sport but don’t have the belief that it can happen for them.” 

Nomination forms can be downloaded below.

The closing date for receiving application forms is April 30th 2010.  A panel will then meet and successful applicants will be informed by the May 14th 2010. It is expected that the group will meet for the first time in the spring of 2010.

All applicants should be endorsed by their Home Country Federation, contact information below: 

If you have any questions please contact Hayley Ginn at women@uka.org.uk or Alison Potts at apotts@englandathletic.org; 07912 127586