Our Awards

Ady Gray (Karate)

Ady personally coaches over 200 children on a weekly basis, primarily between the ages of four and 16. A key focus of his coaching is supporting the emotional and mental well-being of his students. He uses the core traditions of karate to help grow children’s confidence and self-belief, encourages them to embrace their own capabilities and supports them in the choices they make.

With no recognised governing body for karate in England, he has worked closely with North Yorkshire Sport over the last 12 months to create his own set of safeguarding policies for his club – the Karate Dojo in Ripon – and featured in a video promoting UK Coaching’s Principles of Great Coaching, launched during Coaching Week, where he discussed the importance of creating a safe training environment for children.

Ady is President of World Shotokan Federation (WSF) England and is also national team coach, and was instrumental in helping several members of the squad medal at this year’s WSF World Championships in Turkey. His coaching highlight of 2018 was being asked to be involved with the Dunnington Inclusive Multi-Sports Festival in York, in recognition of his accomplishments coaching children with physical and/or social/emotional challenges, which brought together more than 200 pupils from schools, pupil referral services and specialist settings.

Danielle Lewis-Collins (Netball)

During the past 12 months, Danielle has supported her club – 5Ways Netball Club based in Brighton – in the development of its junior section, where participation has risen by 27%, from 182 junior members to 232.

A principal objective of Danielle’s is to develop thinking players with a strong understanding of game sense, and she achieves this in her sessions through fun and creative games that are age and stage appropriate. As a result of her hard work and support, five members of her U12 team attained sports scholarships this year. Such is Danielle’s coaching children expertise that England Netball used her in a series of videos to demonstrate what effective children’s coaching looks like.

Danielle has regular conversations with both players and parents to understand each child’s motivations for taking part to ensure the experience she provides them is individualised, positive and person-centred, with the health and well-being of the girls always at the forefront of her mind. In August 2018, Danielle – who is currently undertaking her UKCC Level 3 qualification – travelled to Zambia as part of England Netball’s NET2019 Legacy Project to provide coaching advice and facilitate sessions to empower women and girls through the power of netball. 

Fionnuala Duhaney-Keown (Basketball)

Fionnuala, or ‘Coach Fe’ as she is more widely known, is so much more than a great basketball coach. She works at Clapton Girls Academy in Hackney – as London-based charity Greenhouse Sports’ senior head basketball coach – and is an inspiration to hundreds of disadvantaged and vulnerable girls, both on-and-off the court.

During curriculum time she mentors young people with health and fitness issues, mental health concerns and confidence issues. Fe’s countless hours of nurturing has improved their social skills and had a terrific impact on their well-being and behaviour.

Fe is a basketball ambassador and a mentor within the wider community too, running sessions for local primary and secondary pupils from other schools, while arranging trips and fun events outside of Hackney to allow the girls she works with to experience new things. Her U16s won the National Schools Finals in 2018, while the community national league team she runs from the school had three girls selected for England U15 and U16 training camps this year. Many of her girls have qualified as referees, table officials and coaches and have gone on to use their skills to volunteer or acquire paid work in the community.

Adrian Klemens (Multi-sport)

As head coach and founder of the Dynamic Sports Academy (DSA), Adrian has helped shape the lives of thousands of young people from Haringey, Hackney and Islington – some of the poorest communities in the UK – steering them away from crime and setting them on a path to opportunity and fulfilment.

His inclusive programme brings together people from a variety of sports, across a range of ability levels, with a focus on teaching life skills such as respect and accountability. Designed to help the next generation of sports coaches, many have stayed on as volunteer coaches and links have been forged with local universities who run intern programmes for their students.

Meanwhile, as assistant head coach and head of performance at London Blitz U19s American Football Club, Adrian coaches players new to the sport through to internationals, and has guided the team to victory in six of the last eight national championships. Further to their success on the pitch, Adrian has helped more than 25 young players secure scholarships and placements to the United States in high schools and universities, with three going on to play in the NFL.

Lee Coulson BEM (Multi-sport)

Lee was awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2018 New Year’s Honours list for his outstanding contribution to disability sport. As head coach of Aberystwyth Basketball Club, he has helped establish it as one the most inclusive sports clubs in Wales – culminating in the ultimate accolade of insport Gold Club Accreditation last year, becoming only the third club in Wales to achieve this highest standard in inclusive sport delivery.

Since introducing a young ambassador programme into the club, it has gone from strength to strength, and the club now has 15 young ambassadors all regularly volunteering in club sessions.

Lee is also the Wales Wheelchair Basketball Association national U15s coach and a Disability Sport Wales performance pathway coach and has used his influence, expertise, proactive approach and pioneering instincts to introduce Inclusive Zone Basketball to schools in Ceredigion. He has also introduced walking basketball to the county. This newest form of the game is aimed at the over 50s who may have injuries preventing them from playing the running game; as well as people who are overweight and disabled people. The sport is now thriving in the county, with a third club being formed this year.

Sarah Toone (Cycling)

Sarah is an integral part of the BMX coaching team at Access Sport, a charity that believes every young person should be able to access sport and experience the power it can have to enhance their life prospects. As a delivery development manager, Sarah has brought this vision to life by putting her heart and soul into providing cycling opportunities to those who need it most.

One of Sarah’s key attributes is her ability to identify gaps in the current cycling offer and then create ideas to meet that need. To remedy the under-representation of females in BMX, Sarah has introduced initiatives across London such as BMXercise (where the emphasis is on fun and friendly rather than competition, with sessions having now been rolled out across seven BMX clubs in the capital), Women on Wheels (for mums and older women who are inactive and have very little cycling ability) and BMX Clever (working with challenging behavioural groups from pupil referral units or alternative learning provisions).

Sarah has massively increased female participation and created real community hubs, having shown a natural talent for bringing people from different walks of life together.

Cameron Osburn (Multi-sport)

At 17, Cameron may be a relative newcomer to coaching but to say he has made an immediate impact would be a huge understatement. Cameron, who has cerebral palsy, recently founded U12 disability football team ‘Adversity United’ in his home town of Harrogate. This enabled him to combine his interest in coaching with his passion for football and his commitment to disability inclusion.

He was rarely picked for matches growing up, despite never missing a club training session. Over time this affected his confidence and self-esteem and he gave up football to focus on martial arts, before rediscovering the sport as a 15-year-old when he began playing for the North East and Yorkshire CP squads. Cameron has worked tirelessly this year to connect with local businesses and national newspapers to secure support and sponsorship to promote his new club and attract new players. 

Such has been the glowing feedback from parents, highlighting their children’s growth in self-confidence at home and school, that Cameron has been inspired to talk in local primary schools, helping to raise awareness of disability sport and reduce the stigma attached to it. 

Joanne Sykes (Multi-sport)

Joanne is passionate about making a positive difference to the children she coaches, who are among the most marginalised in society. ‘Indefatigable’ is an adjective regularly used to describe the Greenhouse Sports multi-sport head coach, who works at Highshore special education needs school in Camberwell. 

She delivers a mix of swimming (including hydrotherapy), sports and more therapeutic one-to-one sessions (including rebound therapy) to more than 130 students aged 11 to 19 who have a range of challenges that include autism and severe learning and physical disabilities. The aim is to stretch individuals to improve their social, emotional and physical skills along a journey towards better life experiences and life chances, and to help them transition through school into the community and independence.

Developing a more formal ‘leadership to employability pathway’ is one of her main motivations and she has provided close support and mentoring to nine students, who have all recently achieved the Sport Leaders UK Level 1 Qualification in Sports Leadership. Joanne has formed close working relationships with Middlesex County Cricket Club and London Rowing and has recently signed up to ‘Marathon Kids’ and ‘Beat the Streets’ programmes – further proof of her significant contribution and willingness to go the extra-mile to support her students.

Melanie Timberlake (Multi-sport)

Melanie has used the adversity she has encountered in life to help and inspire other people to overcome challenges and is tireless in her efforts to transform lives for the better.

She coaches regular weekly sessions of Ikkaido Inclusive Martial Arts at Stoke Mandeville National Centre for Disability Sport, with a special focus on young children with autism and learning disabilities. Melanie also coaches Ikkaido sessions at two special schools, as well as sessions for women with mental health issues. The introduction of peer coaching at these sessions has seen the group swell to such a size that there is currently a waiting list. To meet the demand, Melanie has increased the number of sessions and begun training three of the young disabled participants as assistant coaches.

When she is not coaching martial arts she is on the football pitch at Risborough Rangers JFC, where she coaches the U8, U12 and U18 pan-disability teams. She guided her U12s to the BOBi League title last season, for young people with physical and/or learning disabilities. Coaching and sport has helped turn Melanie’s life around and she is now committed to showing others exactly what those life-affirming and life-changing benefits are.

Callum Barney (Powerlifting) 

Callum has rapidly expanded his brand and business in the last 12 months and has become an ambassador for the sport of powerlifting. The impact he has had on his clients in such a short space of time has been phenomenal.

A world champion himself in the World Drug Free Powerlifting Federation’s 75kg category, Callum has taken seven clients from beginner level right through to qualification for the
British Drug-Free Powerlifting Association’s national championships. All went on to qualify for the World Championships. It is his passionate, knowledgeable and bespoke approach to every client that has allowed them to grow both physically and emotionally – having raised their confidence and self-belief just as much as he has helped them raise the bar in terms of progress and achievement.

Callum is an advocate for mental health awareness and was invited to Geneva in December to deliver a TEDxYouth talk, addressing the issue of male eating disorders. He understands how devastating mental illness can be, having experienced bulimia and anorexia himself when he was younger, and is dedicated to spreading the message that sport and physical activity can have a hugely positive impact on mental health.

Gemma Lumsdaine (Wheelchair Basketball) 

It has been a truly exceptional year for Gemma, whose dedication to coaching and desire to keep learning has earned her selection onto the sportscotland Young People’s Sports Panel – where she plays an influential role in being the voice of young people in sport – the 2017/18 Scottish Disability Sport Basketball Scotland mentoring programme and being awarded the sportscotland Coaching, Officiating and Volunteering Awards Young Coach of the Year. Not to mention being shortlisted for the UK Coaching Awards.

Gemma presented at the 2018 UK Coaching Conference, the 2018 Scottish Women’s Convention and was also this year asked to address the House of Lords at the launch of ‘Supporting Tomorrow’s Superstars’ wheelchair rugby campaign.

While this has enabled her to add public speaking to her skill-set, she feels most at home on the court at Dundee Wheelchair Sports Club, where she coaches the Junior Dragons wheelchair basketball team and the Senior Dragons, who play in the Scottish Wheelchair Basketball League – guiding them to the league title in 2017. She also coaches the Tayside Regional Squad, is assistant coach for Scotland U19s and plays for the Scotland U23 team.

Izzy Cottrell (Multi-sport)

Izzy – now at University studying physical education and school sport – is sorely missed by the PE teachers at Lady Manners School in Bakewell, Derbyshire, who considered her an honorary member of the department. She devoted more than 750 hours to volunteering during her time in the sixth form, assisting lessons and giving up her lunch times and after school hours to coach the netball, athletics and rounders’ teams to county success.

One of her main projects was coaching special educational needs and disability pupils, where her patient and caring nature provided the perfect environment for the children to flourish. The year 10 team that she co-coached won their county tournament each of the three years she worked with them.

Izzy has also proved herself a valuable member of the coaching team at Dronfield Netball Club. As assistant coach she has worked with girls competing in local, county and regional leagues. Her efforts have been recognised in the form of multiple accolades in the last 12 months, including the 2018 Derbyshire Netball Association Janice Ruddle Young Coach of the Year Award and the 2018 Goalden Globes Young Netball Volunteer/Coach of the Year Award, East Midlands winner.

Craig Morris (Canoeing)

Craig is a personal technical coach to three canoe slalom athletes in three Olympic disciplines and understands every aspect of the development pathway, being a graduate of UK Sport’s Elite Coach Apprenticeship Programme.

Kimberley Woods and Mallory Franklin are both world-class competitors in two different events, the Canoe Single Women (single blade paddle) and Kayak Single Women (two bladed paddles). They share a talent for canoeing but have completely different personalities and this has required separate technical processes to be followed and the development of robust and specific individual athlete training philosophies.

Craig approach has worked wonders, with his athletes winning a significant number of medals on the international circuit. In the 2017 World Championships, Mallory won two golds, while Kimberley Woods won silver and bronze at the 2018 U23 World Championships. Adam Burgess also took silver at the 2018 European Championships.

Craig and his tightly-knit team have just returned from the 2018 World Championships laden with more silverware. GB topped the table with seven medals, which included a gold, two silvers and a bronze for Mallory. That Kimberley also won a gold and a bronze and Adam a bronze is evidence of the latter pairs’ continued progress on the world stage under Craig’s tutelage.

Matthew Lawrence (Paracanoe)

Matt is a graduate of UK Sport’s Athlete to Coach Programme after competing for Great Britain as a canoeist in the C1 and C2 events. His impact since he hung up his paddles has been immense, developing swiftly to become one of the leading paracanoe coaches in the world. He coaches 50% of the GB Paracanoe team’s medal hopes for Tokyo 2020.

Paralympic Programme Technical Coach Matt looks after a squad of six athletes, including Emma Wiggs, who he coached to World Championship gold – making her one of just three paddlers to ever hold a coveted Grand Slam of canoe titles, which also includes European and Paralympic golds. In the last 12 months his squad has won eight international medals – including six gold.

Matt also leads the Athlete Development team and has created individual programmes for each athlete this year. This includes novice paracanoe athlete Chelsey Dixon, who Matt has guided through transition from student to full-time programme athlete. This culminated in her qualifying for her first international final at her debut international, the World Paracanoe Championships in August.

Tracey Neville MBE (Netball)

England Head Coach Tracey Neville MBE has become a household name – not a phrase previously associated with netball coaches – which is testimony to the instrumental role she has played in putting netball and the Roses on the national and international map. In recognition of her significant contribution to the sport she was recently inducted into the England Netball Hall of Fame.

She has overseen the Roses’ climb to second in the world rankings after an extraordinary year packed with magic moments. Who can forget Helen Housby’s heroics in the 2018 Commonwealth Games, including scoring in the final second of the final to beat Australia 52-51 and claim gold? England had last reached a major final in 1975 and had never beaten New Zealand or Australia in a milestone event.

Tracey’s unwavering passion and drive for success – that was just as noticeable as a player during her 81 appearances for England – has been a crucial part of the Roses’ rise during her three years at the helm. The transformation began post 2015 World Cup with the launch of the international camp-based programme, which comprised robust underpinning sports science/sports medicine; individualised player programmes; innovative coaching sessions, and greater communication channels. Add all this together and it has equalled a winning culture.

Dave Rossetter (Canoeing)

With a mantra of ‘getting more people boating, more often’, Dave continues to build a valuable and vast paddlesports legacy. His efforts go far beyond his role as head of paddlesports at Scotland’s National Outdoor Training Centre. He has been integral in supporting the Scottish Canoe Association and British Canoeing in then development of qualifications and awards, devoting his time to designing programmes, training tutors and mentoring others.

Dave has been sharing his expertise and knowledge for more than 20 years and is also a pioneer who is passionate about widening opportunities to enjoy the sport. He set up one of the first specialist paddlesport schools in the country and has opened up new canoe routes for paddlers to explore by making first descents in white water kayaking around the world. He has taken young teens sea kayaking to the Arctic Circle, guided multiple paddlers to success on the white water kayaking racing circuit and inspired thousands more to achieve their ambitions and potential.

His volunteering work has been extensive too, from working with governments to help maintain access to our waterways, to working with equipment manufactures to improve safety and creating resources around skills and coaching.

Fred Furniss (Swimming)

British Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee Fred sadly passed away on the 9 July 2018 after 45 years coaching swimming. In the last 12 months Fred – Swim England’s National Talent Officer – led the team in the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas, which returned home proudly bearing 21 medals. In addition, he was technical lead for Swim England’s Performance Programme, ensuring the outstanding talent in England (both coaches and swimmers) were receiving the best advice, experience and competition possible.

Fred began his 25-year coaching career at Rotherham, before moving to Kirklees in the late 70s and early 80s. His coaching credentials even in these early stages of his career were plain to see, nurturing multiple junior international swimmers as well as five senior internationals.

Through his work he touched the lives of a huge number of swimmers, coaches, parents and volunteers. This was evident during arguably his most successful period in coaching in Sheffield during the 90s, when Fred built the foundations for City of Sheffield Swimming. He continually demonstrated his raw ability to identify and nurture swimmers and coaches alike and was instrumental in setting in place a production line of international swimmers, including Olympians Alan Rapley, Karen Mellor and Janko Gojković.

Peter Stanley (Athletics) 

Peter has played a key role in the successes of some of Britain’s greatest track and field athletes, from Jonathan Edwards two decades ago through to Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who in the last 12 months won Commonwealth Games heptathlon gold, European Championships silver and World Indoor Championships pentathlon gold.

A qualified civil engineer, Peter gained an assistant club coach award at Elswick Harriers in 1990 and delivered instant regional success. He became Edwards’ technical coach in 1994 and together they went on to make history. With Peter by his side, Edwards ruled the world in triple jump, and his world record leap of 18.29m still stands today.

A national coach mentor for England Athletics from 2009, Peter became the strategic head of coaching and development in a joint appointment by UK Athletics and England Athletics in 2013 and was England’s team leader at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. He then linked up with British Athletics Performance Director Neil Black as head of field and combined events. With the remit to support, facilitate and influence athlete-coach pairs, he has continued to deliver success ever since, notably Greg Rutherford completing a grand slam of long jump titles and Jessica Ennis-Hill returning from having a child to win World Championship heptathlon gold.

Francesca Lewis (Tennis)

Francesca’s level of dedication as a talent development coach in Wales has resulted in a high number of players coming through the ranks from entry level tennis programmes to regional and national camps. As a result, she was selected by the Lawn Tennis Association’s (LTA) 12&U National Coach Andy Barnes to work on all inter-regional camps in 2017.

Francesca has a player-centred ethos, covering every aspect of game development - working with both player (and their parents/guardians) on-and-off court. This includes tournament support, consistent goal setting and player meetings.

Over the last 12 months, Francesca was selected by the LTA to coach at the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup Finals in Hungary and worked at a 12&U national camp, and all 10&U interregional camps. She’s also had two coaching resources published: ‘Helping junior players to cope with emotions’ by the International Tennis Federation and ‘Emotional experience in youth tennis’ by the European Federation of Sports Psychology.

Francesca started her own sponsorship fund, which is in the process of becoming a foundation, to support performance players and families overcome the financial barriers associated with reaching elite levels of tennis. Fran currently raises in excess of £10,000 annually to provide players of a regional level or above with more opportunities to train and compete.

Monica Eden (Cycling)

Monica’s riders’ achievements speak for themselves. Over the last 12 months they have racked-up multiple wins at the UCI Junior Nations Cup and took team pursuit bronze, and a national record, at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Switzerland.

As a revolutionary, Monica invites youth riders to train with her junior girls’ squad. By combining the groups in team pursuits and head-to-head races, the youth riders push the performance levels of her junior girls. Monica was also instrumental in getting the first British Cycling Junior Women’s Road Series off the ground, helping the Screentek International North West Junior Women’s Tour come to fruition as part of the series.

Her coaching is constantly evolving and makes genuine and noticeable changes to her riders as people, making them better equipped for any challenges on-and-off the bike.

 

Zane Duquemin (Athletics)

Described by one of his athletes as ‘patient, honest and empathetic’, Zane Duquemin – at just 26 years-old – has made a tremendous impact through his coaching.

Zane coaches a diverse range of athletes, from grassroots right through to highperformance, and at this year’s senior England championships, he helped George Armstrong and Jade Lally win their respective discus competitions, as well as coaching his own sister Shadine to discus bronze. Additionally, he coached Jade, Brett Morse (discus) and Amelia Strickler (shot put) during their championship winning performances at the 2018 British Athletics Championships. And those are just some of the highlights!

Through his person-centred approach to coaching, he’s helped to nurture his athletes back to their optimum both on-and-off the field. Despite Ameila picking up a shock injury this year, Zane made sure she had the best possible plan to recover and get her back doing what she loves most, competing. Amelia not only went on to compete in the final of the women’s shot put at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games but she also threw a personal best in the final of the 2018 European Athletics Championships.

Chris Brain (Canoeing)

Chris has been at the leading edge of coach development, mentoring coaches in canoeing and paddle sports across the coaching pathway for over eight years.

In the past twelve months, Chris has taken on a national trainer role, developing coaches from both the voluntary and paid sectors, supporting hundreds, if not thousands of coaches to gain formal British Canoeing qualifications, as well as developing a vast amount of non-qualified coaches delivering paddle sports in club settings. He has also been widely involved in re-engaging coaches who have left the sport.

To support his coaching delivery, Chris runs his own website where he publicises a range of coaching articles and has his own YouTube channel with coaching tips on a range of topics for canoeing and kayaking. Chris has a natural ability to put people at ease and oozes enthusiasm not only for paddle sports but for the development of others. One of his learners called him ‘an embodiment of equality, a good role model and an amazing coach’.

Patricia Quirke (Cycling)

The last 12 months has seen Patricia continue her invaluable work with British Cycling, supporting those starting their coaching journey and those who are well on their way.

Recently, she led British Cycling’s review of its Level 2 Certificate in Coaching Cycling, working with past coaches and tutors, and current coaches and industry experts, in order to develop a new, innovative programme for future coaches.

As an active tutor, Patricia has delivered five courses this year, helping to develop 50 coaches. Additionally, with her focus squarely on foundation and developing coaches, she has developed a programme of learning to meet the needs of the cycle speedway community, as well as Breeze Ride Leaders. Recognising that the existing Level 2 Cycle Speedway Coaching Award didn’t meet the specific needs of the discipline, Patricia – along with the Cycle Speedway Commission – worked to ensure that there was a better pathway in place for coaches. This enabled 32 coaches to complete their qualification.

Richard Cheetham MBE (Multi-sport)

Richard is a patriot of holistic coaching and one of the UK’s leading experts on the development of the ‘C’ system – a model for the holistic coaching of children.

He has contributed to the development of thousands of coaches across many sports, changing the mind-set of how coaches think and feel about coaching.

As a senior fellow in sports coaching at Winchester University, Richard creates positive coach development experiences for all his students and is an active coach developer for many of South East England’s County Sports Partnerships.

Recently, Richard became a key deliverer for the Rugby Football Union, helping coaches to create effective learning environments that encourage fun, long term participation and player development. Even ex-England Rugby international Lewis Moody MBE took his team of coaches to Winchester to work with Richard.

In addition to his regional and national influence, he has worked internationally with the Union Cycliste Internationale and Rugby Canada. He also contributes regularly to the development of other coaches with articles published in academic journals and coaching communities such as Connected Coaches.

British Canoeing

As part of their organisational strategy, British Canoeing reviewed all their coaching qualifications and, over the past 12 months, embedded a new educational philosophy to make coach learning accessible and flexible, meeting the needs of a more diverse audience.

Generations of paddle sports coaches and coach developers have only known a linear, one size fits all approach to coach learning: attending face-to-face training courses; completing written workbook tasks, and a written portfolio of evidence, etc. By diversifying into a blended learning approach, and embracing eLearning, British Canoeing has allowed their coaches to design their own specific learning package with traditional face-to-face courses and a suite of eLearning, containing Optional Bridging, Mandatory and Developmental eLearning.

Since the overhaul, British Canoeing has seen a 27% increase in registrations for their coach learning packages and 22,000 page hits on their eLearning suite.

Shin Gi Tai Martial Arts Academy

Over the last 12 months, Shin Gi Tai Martial Arts Academy has made a tremendous step in its development of coaches and its philosophy of coaching.

Not only has the club committed to sending one of their lead coaches to Sheffield Hallam University to study a master’s in advanced sports coaching, but they’ve also invested in one of their adaptive judo participants to undertake a UKCC Level 2 Award in Coaching Judo. The Academy’s U18s youth development programme has also been highly successful, with three of its participants passing their assistant coaching qualifications.

Monthly coach learning sessions for all junior coaches and volunteers has helped them understand the fundamentals of coaching and gain the necessary theoretical and practical knowledge to deliver great coaching.

In September this year, two of Shin Gin Tai’s coaches passed their British Council for Chinese Martial Arts Level 2 Coaching qualification, enabling them to deliver Tai Chi and Kung Fu to their local community. One of their lead coaches has also become a trainer for the Council and has helped in excess of 30 coaches become either Level 1 or Level 2 coaches.

Youth Sport Trust

Statistics suggest that by the age of seven, girls are already less active than boys and this disparity widens as they move from childhood to adolescence. The Youth Sport Trust’s Girls Active programme currently reaches over 25,000 school-aged girls across the UK, helping to increase participation in sport and physical activity.

In the last 12 months, the Trust has applied its insight from Girls Active to support over 100 girls aged 16-18 to become Girls Active Coaches. The initiative nurtured the girls in an environment and culture which built their confidence, esteem and sense of fellowship – raising their expectations and aspirations. The girls were then paired with schools engaged in the Girls Active programme, giving them a chance to use and hone their coaching skills.

Early reports suggest the initiative was highly effective. It increased the amount of time the girls participated in sport and physical activity – whether coaching or participating – gave the girls a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, as well as more confidence; and developed their leadership skills.

Access Sport

Making Trax is Access Sport’s BMX school and community outreach programme, operating in disadvantaged areas of London and Bristol.

The initiative is an innovative and alternative introduction to cycling, using BMX to build up a young person’s skills, confidence and enjoyment of cycling – from one-off taster sessions to 12 week courses that incorporate Bikeability competencies, bike maintenance lessons and BMX track skills.

The aim of Making Trax is to drive youth inclusion and diversity in cycling by working directly with schools, pupil referral units, special educational needs centres and youth clubs to reach young people from all backgrounds, who don’t currently cycle or participate in physical activity.

Over the last 12 months, the Making Trax team of six coaches worked with over 200 groups, delivering over 1200 coached sessions to nearly 4500 young people. Before joining the programme many of the young people reported feeling unconfident, inactive and disinterested in cycling, but since, over 70% have said they were riding more and nearly 80% said they were doing more physical activity. Participants also reported higher levels of confidence, self-respect, communication and social skills, as well as feeling a greater satisfaction for life.

Coach Core

The Royal Foundation’s Coach Core programme helps young people (16-24 years-old) who are not in education, employment or training to build a career.

The programme specifically works with young people from disadvantaged and underrepresented backgrounds, opening up more opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity through coaching, whilst raising aspirations, improving employability and building long term career goals. Coach Core focusses on fun, holistic coaching and supports apprentices in a positive learning environment.

Over the last 12 months, nearly 40,000 coaching sessions have been delivered by Coach Core’s apprentices. Operating at 10 sites across the UK, the organisation works with 100s of diverse employers – across 20 sports – and a host of other charitable and youth focussed organisations. Since 2012, over 300 apprentices have progressed through the programme, with 99% of graduates going into full time education or employment.

All training is provided by a dedicated full time tutor and each apprentice is supported at their workplace by an experienced mentor.

Move More Northern Ireland

It is estimated that over 65,000 people are living with cancer in Northern Ireland today.

Armed with a growing body of evidence demonstrating the benefits of an active lifestyle for people with cancer – including decreasing the likelihood of cancer spreading or returning – Macmillan Cancer Support developed Move More Northern Ireland to encourage more people with cancer to take part in sport and physical activity.

Voted Project of the Year at the 2018 Sport Northern Ireland SportMaker Awards and labelled a gold standard intervention by the American College of Sports Medicine, the project, over the last 12 months, has helped 700 people living with cancer to do just that.

As well as increases in participation levels, the project saw its participants experience significant improvements in mobility, and reductions in fatigue, pain, discomfort, anxiety and depression.

Move More Northern Ireland also provided training for healthcare professionals to raise awareness about the importance of cancer patients remaining active during treatment.

Institute of Swimming

The Institute of Swimming has worked closely with Swim England’s technical experts to develop eight blended learning programmes across their aquatics disciplines for three different levels of coach learning: assistant coach, coach and senior coach.

Their Programmes have had a fundamental impact on the accessibility of learning for aquatics coaches, helping a predominantly volunteer coaching workforce fit in flexible learning opportunities with their busy lifestyles.

The Institute of Swimming’s blended learning programmes use a combination of interactive online learning modules and workbooks, and their popularity is evidenced by the number of learners choosing it over purely face-to-face formats. In the last 12 months, 46% of the 1,990 learners who undertook a coaching certificate chose a blended learning programme.

A major endorsement for the Programmes has been the development of a partnership with the international swimming federation, FINA, who have signed a four year licensing deal to adopt the Swim England Coach Certification programme using the Institute of Swimming’s blended learning resources. They will then deliver the programme in 140 countries providing the opportunity to raise the standard of aquatics coaching across the globe.

Project 500

In the last 12 months, Project 500 has turned its attention to giving online support to women in coaching across the South East of England via its Facebook and Twitter accounts.

With a Twitter reach of 40,000 per week and following of 4500 (up by 65%), plus an increase of almost 300 followers on Facebook, Project 500 uses its social media presence effectively to share inspiring case studies, informative articles, top tips and coach learning opportunities in the South East – and further afield. This is making a huge difference to the experience of women who are coaching, reaching out to those who may feel isolated in their communities and developing coaches in a way that fits around their work and family life.

The venture has been managed by seven County Sports Partnerships and through the expertise of a social media manager. Their online support has also complemented offline events too, including live streaming a fully booked women’s coaching conference and hosting ‘Tweet Chats’ in order to create conversation around important awareness days like International Women’s Day.

Scottish Rugby Union

In 2015, the coach learning landscape at the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) was entirely delivered through face-to-face courses and workshops. To provide coaches from all pockets of the rugby community with training opportunities, the SRU engaged with Hive Learning to develop an online training hub to deliver eLearning courses and resources.

Now in its third season, the SRU’s hub has over 8000 registered coaches – of which 2500 are regular active users – and receives 90,000 views per month. The hub has also allowed the SRU to share a range of online materials and eLearning courses to a new coaching audience, including RugbyRight, an eLearning course which includes an accredited

NSPCC child protection module. In the last 12 months alone, over 5000 coaches, referees and volunteers have completed the course. Additionally, the hub allows coaches to create their own groups and communities, sharing good practice and creating a mutual support network.