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UK Centre for Coaching Excellence to open at Leeds Metropolitan University

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sports coach UK 26 June 2008

The United Kingdom’s aim to be the leading coaching nation in the world by 2016 came a step closer today as Minister for Sport, Gerry Sutcliffe, announced that the UK Centre for Coaching Excellence in sport and disability sport will be based at Leeds Metropolitan University.

The Centre will be the first of its kind in the United Kingdom and will benefit up-and-coming coaches in a wide range of sports to help them reach the top and help drive a legacy of sporting success for British athletes.

sports coach UK and Leeds Met - known in sporting circles as Carnegie - will work in partnership to establish the Centre that has received start-up funding of £600,000 from UK Sport and Sport England. It is also being backed by sportscotland, the Sports Council for Wales and Sport Northern Ireland.

sports coach UK is to recruit a world-class Coaching Faculty that will pass on their expertise to coaches and ensure that the UK Centre for Coaching Excellence is on a par with international best practice.  A UK-wide network of coaching experts, sports science and medical experts will also be established to support training and coach education throughout the country.

As well as benefiting elite-sport coaches the Centre will also offer training to community coaches to improve the quality of the sport experience for all, and help identify potential British sport stars of the future.  The Centre will focus on four areas of development:

• High Performance: for coaches of athletes capable of achieving success at international level
• Performer Development: for coaches that will focus on talent identification and development of young athletes
• Participation: for coaches working in community sport, helping to increase sport participation
• Children’s coaches: for coaches that will work specifically with young people at each stage of their early development in sport.

Minister for Sport Gerry Sutcliffe said: “Behind every great athlete is a great coach and we want to ensure that we have the best sports coaches and coaching system in the world both at the elite end and grass roots.  The UK Centre for Coaching Excellence will be vital in helping us realise that ambition.  We want to develop a more professional approach to coaching in the UK with it becoming a real career option for people like it is in the United States.”

sports coach UK CEO Pat Duffy said: “sports coach UK is looking forward to working with Leeds Met Carnegie, the Governing Bodies, and each of the Home Countries, to commence the start-up of the UK Centre for Coaching Excellence. The work of the Centre will play a key role in developing a world-leading coaching system in the UK by 2016.”

UK Sport Chief Executive John Steele said: “The announcement of this Centre is further welcome evidence of how coaching is moving up the priority list in British sport.  Its focus, in particular around the provision of Level-4 Coaching Certificate Programmes, will bring further clarity to the coaching landscape in the UK, and help to ensure that we continue to improve the interface between coaching at a world-class level and those supporting it throughout the pathway.”

Leeds Met Chancellor Brendan Foster said: “We are delighted that Leeds Met has been selected to host the UK Centre for Coaching Excellence and that, finally, an organisation is being set up that proudly and firmly places coaching in its rightful place at the centre of British sport.  We've had great sportsmen and sportswomen in Britain over the years who have achieved success with the guidance of great coaches. It is a demonstration of real foresight to now formalise the organisation whose mission is to produce great coaches and, in turn, increase the chances of Britain’s success in the increasingly competitive arena of world sport.”

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