Coaching Week: Inclusive Activity Programme key to great coaching
This week is UK Coaching Week 2021. UK Coaching’s campaign to celebrate coaching at all levels in sport and activity. This year's theme is 'The Great Coaching Comeback: Coaching for all'. Activity Alliance are proud supporters of Coaching Week and work closely with UK Coaching to deliver the Inclusive Activity Programme.
UK Coaching Week has never been more important. With restrictions on sport and activity easing, it is vital that every one of the UK's three million coaches feels ready and supported to return because great coaching is instrumental to the health and happiness of our nation. Today, as part of UK Coaching Week 2021 (7-13 June), UK Coaching launches 'The Great Coaching Comeback' - a year-long campaign aimed at directly supporting coaches as the return to coaching post-lockdown.
Coaches are at the centre of our communities. They bring people together in welcoming environments and provide physical, personal and social development opportunities. We believe coaches play an essential role in ensuring many disabled people's experiences of sport and activity are meaningful. Inclusive and accessible coaching is simply great coaching!
At Activity Alliance we support coaches to deliver great coaching. Our Inclusive Activity Programme provides training to coaches, healthcare professionals, volunteers, and community leaders. It equips people with the skills and confidence to engage disabled people and people with long-term health conditions in physical activity.
Last year, we launched two new online learning opportunities to support coaches during the COVID-19 pandemic. Developed in partnership with UK Coaching, the Inclusive Activity Programme online classrooms and eLearning module enabled people to continue to develop their coaching skills, whilst face-to-face delivery was not possible. Since the launch more than 1,500 people have completed one of our online learning opportunities.
Here's what a couple of participants said after taking part in the Inclusive Activity programme online training opportunities:
"The service I received was very personal and very informative. I found it very interesting and the stories from personal experiences were very interesting and broke the course up. It was good to have some examples and be challenged on occasion to participate in quizzes."
Online classroom participant
"I have been able to develop and implement inclusive PE programmes and inclusive sports training sessions, including inclusive sitting volleyball and inclusive wheelchair racing training sessions."
eLearning module participant
UK Coaching Ambassador and Loughborough National Centre Lead Coach, Mel Marshall, said:
"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."
Now, as coaches up and down the country return to coaching, the Inclusive Activity Programme plays an important role. Disabled people are the least active group in society, and inequalities have widened further during the pandemic. This specialist training will continue to support coaches and other professionals to learn about the key principles of inclusion, so that disabled people do not miss out as sporting activities resume and people return to play.
Find out more about our Inclusive Activity Programme online training opportunities here.
For more information about UK Coaching 2021, visit UK Coaching's website.
