United Kingdom Coaching’s Performance Foundation Coach Support Program has selected 5 English swimming coaches to join the program for its 2nd wave.
James Clarke, assistant swimming coach at Millfield School, Dave Painter, age group lead coach at Royal Wolverhampton School, Josh Atkins, lead performance coach at Wycombe District Swimming Club, Joe Stanford at Nova Centurion and Dan Cocking, age group coach at City of Sheffield Swim Squad have all been granted support for the next 18 months.
Per Swim England’s release, the blended learing approach within the program involves one-to-one coach developer support, cross-sport communities of practice and learning and online social learning environments to connect coaches and workshop delivery. A total of 45 coaches from 19 Summer and Winter Olympic sports have been chosen by UK Coaching’s Talent and Performance team
Atkins of Wycombe District stated, “I’m immensely honoured to have been invited and selected onto this programme.
“Having recently completed Swim England’s Pathway Coaches Programme, I believe this next opportunity is the ideal progression in my coaching development.
“I look forward to delving deeper and understanding more the coaching theory that underpins my coaching practice and how I can continue and adapt my coaching practice for the better of the athletes I work with day to day.
“To have a coaching developer from outside of the swimming world is a fantastic chance to solely focus on the art of coaching practice. And to also have the opportunity to network with coaches from a range of different sports will be a great sharing and learning platform.”
Nick Levett, UK Coaching’s head of talent and performance, said: “We are really pleased to have grown the breadth and depth of the programme to support coaches from such a wide variety of sports.
“This will add huge value to the cross-sport element of the coaches’ work and provide some rich learning opportunities. We are excited to see what opportunities this presents us with and support the coaches accordingly as they travel their different development journeys.”