This weekend 200 of the country’s most
promising young coaches will be developing their skills at the
three-day National Youth Coaches Academy at Loughborough
University, helping them inspire the next generation of
athletes.
With £280,000 of investment from Sport England
through the Youth Sport Trust for the development of coaches, the
Academy gives these promising sports coaches the opportunity to
develop and improve their personal coaching styles and skills
through a range of workshops and sessions on instruction,
observation, analysis and feedback.
Featuring coaching across athletics,
badminton, basketball, boccia, football, hockey, rugby union,
swimming, table tennis and volleyball, the Academy will help the
young coaches identify what they want to achieve as a coach, the
steps they need to take and who can support them along their
coaching journey.
At the end of the three-day event, the
governing bodies of the 10 sports will be supported to identify,
recruit and train a team of mentors to work with the young coaches
on an on-going basis. They will also provide continued
development support around sport specific Young Coach
Academy’s.
Running alongside the Academy is the Youth
Sport Trust’s National Talent Camp, where 90 promising sport stars
of the future will be put through their paces and learn what it
takes to become elite sports performers. Double Paralympic
Gold Medallist, Hannah Cockroft and Olympic sprinter and Youth
Sport Trust ambassador, Darren Campbell will be supporting the camp
and sharing their stories of success and challenges they have faced
on the road to elite sport.
The young coaches will join the athletes on
the talent camp for a joint opening and closing address, which will
provide an opportunity for them to share the lessons they’ve learnt
with the young talented sports stars that they may well go on to
support and coach in the future.
All youngsters will hear from guest
speakers including coaches from the England RFU Coaching team, Andy
Farrell and Graham Rowntree; sports psychologist, Robbie Anderson;
and mountaineer Bonita Norris, the youngest British woman to reach
the summit of Mount Everest.