15 September 2010

The 2010 UKA Women’s Coaching Conference, hosted by UKA and England Athletics, will take place on Saturday 23 October at Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre, Milton Keynes.

The event, which builds on the enormous success of the inaugural women’s conference in 2009, is the first in a series of activities to be led by the recently formed ‘Women in Coaching Advisory Committee’.

The group – tasked primarily with contributing to the development of a strategy for women in coaching initiatives, in addition to providing recommendations on women specific programming and to provide a voice for female coaches – forms another key strand of UKA-led Year of the Coach activity in 2010.

Already confirmed for the event are keynote speakers Margo Jennings and Louise Deeley. Jennings was coach to Kelly Holmes, 2004 Olympic Games double gold medallist, and Maria Mutola, 800m gold medallist in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, while Deeley has worked as a Sports Psychologist for over 16 years and is Managing Director of Inside Performance Consulting Ltd.

The pair will be joined by nine workshop leads delivering across a variety of topics: leading hurdles coach Judy Vernon; Toni Minichiello, UKA’s National Event Coach (NEC) for Combined Events and coach to World and European heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis; Mhairi Keil, Performance Nutritionist at the English Institute of Sport (EIS); Emily Parker, UKA’s Apprentice Coach for Horizontal Jumps; high jump specialists Carol Jackson and Norma Harris; England Athletics’ National Coach Mentor for Youth Development, Scott Grace; Liz Davidson from the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation, and Peggy Wiseman, co-founder of the Women’s Running Network.

Following the daytime conference, coaches are invited to attend an evening meal which is included within the £25 cost for the day.

UKA’s Strategic Head of Coaching and Development Kevin Tyler, said: “The inaugural women’s coaching conference at Crystal Palace last summer was hugely motivational and inspirational to the packed audience of over 150 women. It was always our intention to evolve our coaching community to bring together a network of women to take forward a women’s specific agenda, and this event – which takes place, fittingly, within our Year of the Coach – celebrates the beginning of that process.”

For further information on the UKA Women’s Coaching Conference including confirmed speakers and workshops, in addition to booking details, go to www.uka.org.uk/coaching. The closing date is midnight on 12 October 2010 and late bookings will not be accepted.

For event queries please email women@uka.org.uk

Other conferences confirmed for this autumn include the European Walks conference, staged by the UKA National Race Walking Centre at Carnegie Leeds Metropolitan University in Leeds on 6 – 7 November, and the European Sprints and Hurdles Conference, hosted by UKA, England Athletics and the Ron Pickering Memorial Fund, on 13/14 November in London (UB3 5AW).