June 07, 2021

UK Coaching Week begins 7-13 June

UK Coaching Week empowers athletes, coaches, organisations, and the public to celebrate great coaching and encourages coaches to adapt and recover their space within the sport and physical activity sector.

Great coaches are key to the nation's recovery post lockdown, by transforming lives and inspiring communities through sport and physical activity.

UK Coaching kicks off UK Coaching Week 2021 with the launch of The Great Coaching Comeback' - a year-long campaign aimed at directly supporting coaches as they return to coaching after pandemic restrictions have been lifted in the UK.

Loughborough National Centre Lead Coach and UK Coaching Ambassador, Mel Marshall, said: �"As an ambassador of UK Coaching, I'm excited to get behind The Great Coaching Comeback. For the last 12 months, we've been side-lined by the restrictions. Our energy has been stifled, our development limited and our sense of identity almost lost.

�"Now's the time to recover and rediscover who we are and what we're best at: facilitating laughter, enjoyment, improvement and human interactions through sport and physical activity.

�"As we step back into the arena, let's put inclusivity front and centre of our coaching ethos. There's going to be a lot of people needing our support to recapture their exercise goals. Get to know the people you are coaching and want the best for them, whoever they are. We got this.

From nearly 500 public nominations, 75 coaches across the UK have been shortlisted as finalists for the awards initiative, which recognises and celebrates the innovations and achievements of coaches who inspired the nation to keep moving during the coronavirus lockdowns.

During UK Coaching Week, the British public can vote for their favourite coach to give them the best chance of being awarded for the considerable differences they made to people's mental and physical well-being.

UK Coaching Director of Coaching Emma Atkins, said: �"Many congratulations to all our finalists and to the hundreds of other coaches who were nominated. Each of your stories were incredibly inspiring and showed how invaluable you are to your communities.

�"The work of great coaches changes lives. And that is what you've done over the past 12 difficult months. You have brought people together through sport and physical activity sessions, whether online or one-to-one, and provided connections and support.

�"These awards, hopefully, go a little way in recognising our finalists' achievements and sacrifices and gives the public an opportunity to read their stories - that is, the stories of coaches from 65 different places around the UK and representing nearly 40 sports and activities, who answered a call to keep people and communities healthy and happy during a pandemic. We're indebted to your commitment to person-centred coaching.

UK Coaching opened nominations to its awards initiative in 2020 after the first major UK-wide Covid-19 lockdown. The charitable organisation wanted to acknowledge the efforts of coaches, who in difficult circumstances persevered and re-thought coaching techniques to deliver legal digital and one-to-one training, utilising sport and physical activity to keep people connected.