British Rowing supports UK Coaching Week’s campaign ‘Support Your Coach’

Share your #GreatCoaching experiences during Coaching Week from 14-20 September to recognise and celebrate your rowing coach

As UK Coaching Week gets underway from 14-20 September, the focus is on celebrating the amazing work that coaches do within the community.

Sport and physical activity has been, and will continue to be, integral to the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic by having a positive impact on people’s mental and physical well-being, and the coaching workforce has been instrumental in supporting communities across the UK to stay active over the last four months of lockdown restrictions.

UK Coaching has found that both before and during the outbreak of the virus, coaches could have been better supported.

“Coaches have been absolute heroes keeping us active, connected and motivated”

In the organisation’s ‘Coaching in the UK 2019’ research – carried out by YouGov – nearly a quarter of all coaches said a major barrier to them coaching was a lack of support from employers, clubs or national governing bodies of sport, and over 40% said they do not have access to someone who can support them in their coaching role, ie a mentor or coach developer. Additionally, a Twitter poll, conducted by UK Coaching at the height of the lockdown, showed that over 30% of coaches felt they received ‘no support’ during the coronavirus outbreak.

UK Coaching’s Director of Coaching, Emma Atkins, said: “Coaches have been absolute heroes keeping us active, connected and motivated both before the pandemic and during the period of isolation and disruption caused by the lockdown.

“As restrictions are eased and more of us return to play, we will turn to coaches and expect them to integrate new controls to keep us all safe, so let’s ensure that we recognise and support our coaches across the UK for the vital work that they do.”

Mark Gannon, CEO at UK Coaching, said: “It’s fantastic to see our national campaign come back just as the new school year starts – a pivotal time for coaches. But with news of job losses and real concerns around a reduction of volunteers for the sector, this uncertain world is financially and professionally affecting our coaching family. We are all understandably concerned about the impact this will have on community sport and physical activity provision at the local level.

“We’re calling on the entire sports sector and the nation to collaborate with us and help us celebrate and support coaches”

“We are committed to doing everything we can to support the nation’s coaches so they can provide person-centred, great coaching experiences, which is why last month we released our Duty to Care Toolkit and Digital Badge that helps coaches stay current with their learning and development and confident as they return to coaching.

“Great coaching was here before the coronavirus crisis, has been here through it and will be here as we recover. We’re calling on the entire sports sector and the nation to collaborate with us and help us celebrate and support coaches.”

Vicky Parry, Chair of the British Rowing National Coaching Committee said: “Coaches are often our unsung heroes, so this week we acknowledge and celebrate what they do.

“Coaching is the lifeblood of our sport so please take the opportunity in coaching week to say thank you to your coach just for being there in these tough times.”

Enjoy our British Rowing Plus coaching articles 

To celebrate UK Coaching Week, we’ll be running a series of articles with coaches throughout the week on British Rowing Plus – and making these available to everyone for this week only, whether or not you are a British Rowing member.

Look out for more details on our Facebook and Twitter feeds!

For more information about coaching, check out our webinar series here!